July 12, 2015: The Mikkei Ships!

A little something I was holding onto.  The breakdown on the Ferrous Corp and Galactic Authority ships were featured on another site.  Today, I feature the ships of The Mikkei Combine with helpful overviews from design artist James Robbins and VFX supervisor Lawren Bancroft-Wilson.

James Robbins: [Dark Matter Production Designer] Ian Brock forwarded me the notion of a Japanese design based on the Samurai and suggested the exterior plating be reminiscent of plated Japanese armor.

Below is the earliest pencil version with a side ortho and a ½ top view which will be mirrored to provide the full view:

James Robbins: The general consensus was that the lower portion (the chin strap) of the side view wasn’t scaling properly – It gave the impression of a smaller ship. I refined those elements and did a little toning and mirrored the top view in Photoshop. (below)

James Robbins: This still felt too filigreed and it was decided to remove the “chin-strap”

James Robbins: I cleaned up the lines and added some strong contrasts. This (above) became the final version for VFX.

And then, we handed things off to VFX Supervisor Lawren Bancroft-Wilson…

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson: We first started approaching the build of a cruiser using the concept designs, but when the need turned to making a destroyer we were able to integrate the cruiser design along with reference of many of the more modern destroyers we’re seeing built today.

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson: There’s no doubt that this ship, more than any other, has a heavy nautical inspiration and we really used that to help differentiate it from the Ferrous Corp ships. Where the Ferrous Corp ships were bulky and straight edged, we followed the concept design in having the Mikkei lean more to flowing curves and a rounded exterior.

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson: Like the other destroyer we needed battlements that lined every side of the ship with the ability to launch an attack in any direction. We also helped to differentiate the Mikkei ships by giving them a light kit that is blue with a soft glow oppose to the painted red sections of the Ferrous Corp ships.

The design of the Mikkei shuttle, their surface to orbit transport vessel, went relatively quicker…

James Robbins: “The Mikkei shuttle was the only remaining ship and it went through with few notes.”

Today’s entry is dedicated to Gary and Paloosa.

Tagged: #DarkMatter, Dark Matter, Dark Matter t.v., science fiction spaceships, scifi spaceships, SF spaceships, spaceships