Some case studies showing examples of how we develop concepts.
Star Trek: Discovery - Book’s Ship
With season 3 jumping 900 years into the future, all new design language and technology was needed. At first we explored the idea of more organic, growing elements - technology that predicted what was needed and grew into that. Later, the concept of floating elements became the iconic tech for the season. We started with rough sketches of which some were chosen to develop further. We developed one of these concepts in quite a lot of detail with many revision cycles, it was reset at one point and the cycle began again. The bridge window remains the same through the design process because the interior set was already underway. The final 3d concept model we built was handed over to the VFX artists which helped ensure it looked very similar on screen.
Legends Of Runeterra: Darkin Rising & Petricite Sculptor’s Studio
For the Darkin concepts we wanted to to create fantastical sculptures that would allude to an ancient culture. We began by exploring these designs in 3D Coat and sketching on top of our render. Once we had approval on the direction of the B&W rough sketches we moved into the full colour final using a mix of 3D for textures and lighting and paint work in Photoshop. Similarly for the Sculptor’s Studio images a 3D set was built so that the different compositional options could be explored with the same 3D assets before moving into the colour finals.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Ready Room
As with most of our work, this one started out as sketch. One of the designs was chosen to develop further, at which point we built a 3d model and painted over the renders. Multiple views were done to work out the design of the whole room, but this view gives a good sense of the some of the changes it went through. Different materials, lighting, windows, seating etc. The final design was somewhat dictated by not having too much window exposure for VFX. It also grew in size quite a bit through the process. Our model was then exported and shared with the art department who were able to build a beautiful set that looks remarkably close to the concept.