Stargate Atlantis SFX crappy?

[hamatau'ri]

Now, Stargate doesn't have BSG infinte amounts of money with the creme de la creme working with them but the special effects have always been OK, and somethimes brilliant for the time! (e.g 2010) I especially like the CGI in the Ori arc.It has also been good on SGA, until recently.

It all started in 4x20 The Last Man, when everyone was complaining about how game-like the sequence where the house collapsed was. I was dissentient to this, until Season 5 came along.

firstly, they've extremely illuminated the space shots (maybe im exaggerating but you get the point), and the textures they use are extremely UNREAL and GAME-LIKE, especially on the Puddlejumpers. Basically, what I'm getting at is that the CGI is not BAD, just not real. Game sequences can get away with because the aim isn't realism. But film and TV, not so easily.

So what's going on, really?

[Shinto-Male]

Huh?

[DigiFluid]

You know for the most part, I've always thought Atlantis' CGI was pretty sub-par. There are a few notable and obvious exceptions, such as the city night shots--those are always simply stunning--and a few others, but for the most part it looks like CGI. And that's a very bad thing.

[Lewisco]

by the way SFX is the technical term for sound effects. if you're going to complain about something may aswell do it right. and for me VFX isnt a big deal in television. you cant deem a show as not as good as another simply because of bad CGI. the quality should be based on the storyline etc..
atlantis has more than adequate visual effects in my opinion.

[Bobby]

It seems ok to me...you get the picture and its not like your playign a a nintendo.

But mayby im just not that picky.

Ive never seen battlestar gallatica either so i cant compare them to that.

[jenks]

The effects in Stargate have always been more stylised than photo realistic, I don't think it's anything new.

[unluckynumber11]

Now, Stargate doesn't have BSG infinte amounts of money with the creme de la creme working with them but the special effects have always been OK, and somethimes brilliant for the time! (e.g 2010) I especially like the SFX in the Ori arc.It has also been good on SGA, until recently.

It all started in 4x20 The Last Man, when everyone was complaining about how game-like the sequence where the house collapsed was. I was dissentient to this, until Season 5 came along.

firstly, they've extremely illuminated the space shots (maybe im exaggerating but you get the point), and the textures they use are extremely UNREAL and GAME-LIKE, especially on the Puddlejumpers. Basically, what I'm getting at is that the SFX is not BAD, just not real. Game sequences can get away with because the aim isn't realism. But film and TV, not so easily.

So what's going on, really?

I think you mean visual effects instead of special effects. special effects is like explosions and stunt work stuff while visual effects are the space scenes and cgi.

[DigiFluid]

byou cant deem a show as not as good as another simply because of bad CGI. the quality should be based on the storyline etc..

Which of course becomes a major issue when said show seems to be relying on CGI to make up for its largely lackluster storytelling.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

The visual effects have never really seemed unbelievable (I won't say unrealistic because how realistic is a show about a millions of years old giant flying city in another galaxy? ) How well the effects work is all about suspension of disbelief.. how believable are the effects in a film from 10 years ago? As long as the audience is willing to believe in the reality of the show then the quality of the effects shouldn't detract from that reality.... and there is only so much they can do with a limited budget

Also CG is visual effects... Special effects are props, prosthetics (Wraith make-up for example) sets... Since I work in special effects (mostly making miniature models, props and animatronics ) I just wanted to point out the difference

[Goose]

I have to agree. The scene with the building collapsing in The Last Man was just... bad, from a visual effects point of view. Probably the worst VFX I can remember in quite a while.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

I have to agree. The scene with the building collapsing in The Last Man was just... bad, from a visual effects point of view. Probably the worst VFX I can remember in quite a while.

The animation didn't look quite right.. It fell too fast.. But I wouldn't call it the worst VFX I've seen. The timing was just a little off.

[Goose]

The animation didn't look quite right.. It fell too fast.. But I wouldn't call it the worst VFX I've seen. The timing was just a little off.

Not the worst, just the worst I've seen in a while.

[nx01a]

Some effects are great, some are mediocre, some are just bad. A science fiction show has to stand on the merits of the story itself as well as how that story's portrayed. I have a few nits and a few compliments for the effects team:

I'm in the minority, but I hated the BAMSR space battle. It was too shiny and the relative motion of the ships in some cases seemed off... I loved the The Last Man space battle but hated the building collapse. I hated seeing the kawoosh in recent episodes reduced to half an effect, the kawoosh simply being reversed once it reaches its beak, not the whole 'wave breaking and falling' effect as before. And the CGI gates on every planet're getting annoying. Hive ships always look cool, though I've never really gotten a feeling of how big and imposing they're supposed to be. A Star Wars-esque flyover might do the trick.

[Goose]

My general complain about both SG-1 and Atlantis is that it seems that as the shows progressed, the storytelling in general seemed to go down in quality, and they were more reliant on big battles and shiny effects. That's why my favourite seasons of both SG-1 and Atlantis are the early ones, the ones where telling a damn good story went ahead of showing good VFX (and, indeed, VFX which weren't always good...)

[Infinatus]

I usually don't care about the quality of CGI as long as it doesn't detract from the story, however there are a few times that I have actually paused and taken myself out of the story to think about how unrealistic the CGI was.

I have to agree. The scene with the building collapsing in The Last Man was just... bad, from a visual effects point of view. Probably the worst VFX I can remember in quite a while.

IMO the explosion at the end of Broken Ties was the worst to date.