Chimera Space Ship - Interior Design
Design process from first production sketch to final film image, of the "Chimera" interior control bridge set for my short film, "Bill & Maggie's Intergalactic Taxi Service." All artwork, including 3D set extension models, were created by me. Objects visible outside left window in final image were purchased from DAZ3D.
First interior bridge design, to help guide production design crew in set construction.
Interior bridge design, forward direction. Featuring arcade-like control boards, and a duel-monitor set-up.
Fully rendered control console design. Each monitor serves as read-out screens for both maps and star-charts at left, and system status, rear-view camera, and proximity detectors at right. This is consistent with the final film as well.
Interior sketch, reverse view. This allows us to see what the interior would look like when looking through the wind-shield, which the film does on occasion. Here we see Maggie Sprocket taking controls.
Raw camera footage in Cinelike-D low-contrast setting. Green-screens have been positioned behind actor and controls to allow for full separation so that set extensions can be integrated.
Final interior sketch, blocking out all ship components and internal infrastructure, against which the final 3D models will be molded.
First pass at 3D extension. Here the initial covers designed for the monitors looked clunky and out of place, while my attempts at front window and the wall connectors weren't lining up.
In this second pass, the 3D extension more clearly matches up because of the riveted metal strips and how the light from outside the window matches the physical light on the real wall. Simulated wallpaper texture has also been introduced.
Now the other components and installations are present from the overlay sketch, including a DaVinci thermometer, a giant battery fuse box, and a light-up intercom panel.
A major change with the drive gears on the floor occurs here, as the previous gears were not having a big enough presence in the image, as was intended. So three gear variants have been added on both sides of the console.
Final composite and design of 3D integrated elements. All interior elements were modeled exclusively in Blender, but rendered in Element3D using After Effects.
Final color-grade for Chimera space-ship interior, using a sepia-tone approach that mimics the appearance of cola soda.