B5: Lost Tales CGI saved by fans

Fans supplied some of the models and textures for effects since the originals were all lost by Warner Bros.

When Babylon 5 finished production in 1998, all of the show's assets—wardrobe, props, computer-generated models, texture mattes, etc.—were turned over to Warner Brothers, and the disks containing the computer-graphic information were lost. That forced the new F/X team to start from scratch. And they turned to fans for help.

"The guys in the effects department said, 'My God, how can we get this thing done in time when we have to build everything from the scratch?'" Straczynski said. "I pointed out that a lot of fans out there over the years built their own models of our ships and the station and everything else. So they went out to all these different sites to find high-resolution models and wireframes and texture mattes and so on that they could then take and start building from. So it kind of closed the loop in the sense that Babylon 5 created these images and gave them to the fans, and now the fans have given them back to us. It's a nice bit of symmetry."

Technologically, we're at a point where amateurs can produce quality CGI with off the shelf software. Go here and see: Scifi-Meshes.com Some of the stuff there is amazing.