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Ravendeviant In reply to lynx318 [2019-07-01 17:34:47 +0000 UTC]

True, but nobody every said that they couldn't separate.  Wouldn't you just love to see that on-screen?  Baltar commands, "Separate the saucers."  A centurion replies, "SEPARATING SAUCER SECTIONS, BY YOUR COMMAND. . ."  

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JeanLucCaptain In reply to Ravendeviant [2020-03-09 00:15:48 +0000 UTC]

or instead the Cylon says: THAT IS FROM STAR TREK, THIS VESSEL HAS NO SUCH CAPABILITIES.

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Ravendeviant In reply to Jonathan-Bluestone [2019-07-01 17:32:19 +0000 UTC]

What a wonderful comment!  Thanks for opening up on this subject.  Your insights on the "primitive-futurist" style are pretty thought-provoking.  I really appreciate your perspective. 

As I interact with various user interfaces in the modern world, I'm usually disappointed by them.  Many, as you point out, are confusing or cluttered, and hardly any are ever actually delightful or entertaining.  With a little effort and creativity, I really think that they could be.  I understand that UX/UI designers are probably more focused on clarity than on entertainment value, but often they don't even succeed at achieving that. 

Even the sound effects that accompany various apps usually strike me as boring and unimaginative.  Whereas the sound FX that accompanied all of those wonderful Galactica read-outs were always wonderfully engaging and exciting.

It's funny that you mention, "those old style computer graphics, (if drawn in a computer at all!)"  I have a good story about that: 

A few years ago, I had the privilege to speak with the legendary director and special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull (the special effects wizard behind 2001: A Space Odyssey and many other noteworthy films.)  He explained that back in 1967, when they were making 2001: A Space Odyssey, they didn't have easy access to computer monitors.  (I know, that's hard to imagine now, right?)  Anyway, so in order to create the illusion of functional computer terminals, they used tiny rear-projection movie screens.  They wanted to create scenes in which text appearing on the "computer screen" one letter at a time.  So if the text was going to read: "BEGIN TRANSMISSION."  They wanted it to start with "B," then "BE," then "BEG," then "BEGI," then "BEGIN," etc. 

So to create this illusion, they got an old IBM typewriter that had a cool "techy-looking" font.  Then they had some poor guy get out a white sheet of paper and type "B" on it.  Then he'd get a new sheet of paper, and type "BE" on it.  Then he'd take a third sheet of paper and type "BEG" on it, and so on.  For each sheet of paper he typed, someone would then photograph that sheet of paper, and then turn that photo into a few frames of rear-projection film.  So it this incredibly tedious way, they created text appearing on screen.  But that wasn't the worst of it.  For the famous scene in which one of the astronaut characters is jogging around the huge circular ring of the space ship, they created a HUGE circular set, that rotated, so that essentially the actor was the "hampster" at the bottom of the wheel as it rotated under him.  But as he jogged along past various "computer screens" the audience could see computer read-outs scrolling by on those "computer screens."  But those computers weren't computer at all.  They were these "rear-projection movie screens."  The only problem was that the projectors weren't designed to operate upside down.  So as each projector rotated up into a weird inverted angle, each and every one of them would explode!  (POP!  BANG!)  Apparently, they had to go in later and dub out the sound of all the projectors exploding.  (All of that tedious work and exploding craziness just to create the illusion of a few computer monitors!)  Of course the audience had no idea.  To them (us) it just looked like a very convincing glimpse of the future.                 
           

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Ravendeviant In reply to Chiletrek [2019-07-01 16:47:14 +0000 UTC]

That's a happy thought!  I'd love to see that!  Thanks so much for the nice comment!  

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Chiletrek In reply to Ravendeviant [2019-07-01 22:25:29 +0000 UTC]

Yeah . You are most welcome

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Ravendeviant In reply to Adrasil [2019-07-01 16:46:33 +0000 UTC]

Thanks so much!  It's interesting to me how many people prefer this (computerized) style of image over the more realistic (photographic) version.   

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