AIRLOCKS: "Outer airlocks. We'll be seeing a variation on a couple of EVAs. For the shuttle, we opted for bomb bay doors." - Dark Matter Executive Producer Joe Mallozzi

RESEARCH STATION: "An early design of the Traugott Corp. research facility for our big heist episode." - Dark Matter Executive Producer Joe Mallozzi

3 Ships: The multi-planetaries are the power players of colonized space, massive, far-reaching intergalactic corporations with the wealth and resources to lay claim to and exploit new worlds. Some of the heavyweights include Traugott, Volkov-Rusi, The Mikkei Combine, and Ferrous Corp. It's a competitive, dangerous field and they have the ships and private armies to protect their assets. Pictured here, James Robbins' designs for the three Ferrous Corp ships: Cruiser Class, Destroyer Class, and Shuttle (the latter pictured alongside our Phantom Class Marauder shuttle for scale).

Galactic Authority Cruiser: Policing colonized space is the responsibility of the GA (Galactic Authority). James Robbins had a lot of fun with this one, dubbing it "Floating Catamaran City." It has a nice, bulky carrier look with housed weapons (in contrast to the surface mounted weapons of most of our other ships). It felt a little boxy-ish so we ended up elongated it by about 20%. We also lost the side vents that I felt gave it a cruise ship feel, covering them with exterior doors.

Ship dorsal + trench002: One of our episodes calls for an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) to effect some ship repairs. We envisioned an enclosed trench that would run along the top of the ship and Bartol Rendulic responded with the following designs. The long walk from the airlock eventually lead to the ramp that takes us down to the trench proper which offers a nice, production-friendly design for our build but opportunities for visuals (maybe a glimpse of that nebula) looking up through the open roof.

Airlocks 4-6: Early designs of the hero ship's airlocks by Bartol Rendulic. We abandoned the circular concept and narrower entrance in favor of a wider, bulkier version more in keeping with the ship's corridor designs. In the end, we deemed these versions a little too clean.

Airlock View: Set Designer Doug Slater provides us with a version closer to the final look, more Nostromo than Enterprise.

Bridge: Set Designer Doug Slater had a lot of fun with the layout and interior build. The place is alive with monitors, illuminated gak, and BLU's (blinky light units). Greens, blues, and reds are the predominant screen colors, offering a nice counterpart to our more subdued, atmospherically moody corridors.

Bridge

Space Station #1 (far right): James Robbins' initial space station design incorporated a modular concept for the station's "stem."

Space Station #2 (middle): A second pass on the space station brings us closer.  We eschew the modular concept in favor of a simpler, more production-friendly structure that doesn't require us to visually convey different up/down orientations in our artificial gravity environments.

Space Station #3 (far left): Our final version loses the "spare tire" at the bottom and lights up the lower levels to give it a more inhabited look.

Research Station Revised: The scale is adjusted and the particle accelerator ring is moved from the bottom to the center of the structure.

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson, Visual Effects Supervisor:

"When it comes to building a space station (of which our team has done a great deal over the years) we know it always comes down to how much detail can we add to sell just how immense the scale needs to be. We were lucky to have a good deal of lead-time to really hammer out the needs of a civilian inhabited space station model. Communication relays, habitable sections, docking bays, etc. Being able to look down the road we also knew that we would be required to create variations on these deep space outposts that were build from generally the same principles and resources. The design we took from the concept had to be modular in a way that a space station on one side of a galaxy would be reminiscent of another, but different enough to reflect the economics of what that particular pocket of space could support."

"Through the various iterations of the grey scale models, you can see detail being built up and scale being accessed (as seen with our ship in one of the docking bays)."

"Developing the light kit helped to give life on the inside of the space station, deciding what areas were habitable and which were not. One of the really nice details of this particular build was how much of the interior of the docking bays we were able to create so that once our ship is inside we can actually see out the windows to the realistic 3D interior of the bay."

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson, Visual Effects Supervisor:

"When it comes to building a space station (of which our team has done a great deal over the years) we know it always comes down to how much detail can we add to sell just how immense the scale needs to be. We were lucky to have a good deal of lead-time to really hammer out the needs of a civilian inhabited space station model. Communication relays, habitable sections, docking bays, etc. Being able to look down the road we also knew that we would be required to create variations on these deep space outposts that were build from generally the same principles and resources. The design we took from the concept had to be modular in a way that a space station on one side of a galaxy would be reminiscent of another, but different enough to reflect the economics of what that particular pocket of space could support."

"Through the various iterations of the grey scale models, you can see detail being built up and scale being accessed (as seen with our ship in one of the docking bays)."

"Developing the light kit helped to give life on the inside of the space station, deciding what areas were habitable and which were not. One of the really nice details of this particular build was how much of the interior of the docking bays we were able to create so that once our ship is inside we can actually see out the windows to the realistic 3D interior of the bay."

James C.D. Robbins, Stargate Production Designer:

"The first concept drawings that [Executive Producer] Joe [Mallozzi] wanted me to work on was for a space station. I was forwarded a handful of images as direction. The Production Designer was looking to make the whole structure compact, still incorporating modular elements but more like a series of steel geodesic mushrooms radiating from a central column."

"My first pass at the space station was well received, but the idea of modular pods attached in an organic cluster was nixed as the physicality of shooting the 'ins and outs' of sets that all have a different direction for 'up' was deemed impractical."

"So I developed a single axis column design topped with a 'pod' that was the size of a small city. After a few notes, the final version went to VFX."

James C.D. Robbins, Stargate Production Designer:

"The first concept drawings that [Executive Producer] Joe [Mallozzi] wanted me to work on was for a space station. I was forwarded a handful of images as direction. The Production Designer was looking to make the whole structure compact, still incorporating modular elements but more like a series of steel geodesic mushrooms radiating from a central column."

"My first pass at the space station was well received, but the idea of modular pods attached in an organic cluster was nixed as the physicality of shooting the 'ins and outs' of sets that all have a different direction for 'up' was deemed impractical."

"So I developed a single axis column design topped with a 'pod' that was the size of a small city. After a few notes, the final version went to VFX."

Executive Producer Joseph Mallozzi: "When it came time to designing our hero ship, we were looking for something compact but burly, suggestive of muscle and maneuverability. We wanted this ship to have character marked by retro-fitted armaments and battle scars. Artist Bartol Rendulic did the honors. And once we'd signed off on the design, we handed things off to our VFX Supervisor Lawren Bancroft-Wilson who oversaw its development ... "

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson, Visual Effects Supervisor: "It's hard to understate just how impressed we were with the first concept sketches of the hero ship. For our team of modelers, animators and lighters, a world of possibilities became clear. The way the ships engine pods were mounted meant we could have it fly and maneuver in ways that traditional fixed engine ships couldn't. The detailed surface planes and trenches could house weapons, access points and, as we see in the first few episodes, a daring space walk. The ship's design gave it both a slick maneuverability while still making it look like a hulking brute you wouldn't want to mess with."

"Finding the right balance of weathered metal and patched paneling, we wanted to give the ship just as detailed a history as its crew members. There's scaring and blast marks from previous battles. Patched panels from repairs and upgrades the ship has had along its storied life."

"Building the ship at the same time the sets were coming together meant that communication between the art department and the VFX team was integral to creating one unified ship. Textures and colors from the exterior digital model needed to be reflected in the exterior extensions being built. The beautiful elaborate bridge had to be measured and photographed so that it could be perfectly incorporated into the front of the digital model. When we see inside windows we wanted to make sure you were actually seeing our bridge and corridors that the crew and actors filmed on every day."

"The goal was to create not just another ship but one of the heroes of our show. Just as nuanced and realistic as the crew is carries."

Executive Producer Joseph Mallozzi: "When it came time to designing our hero ship, we were looking for something compact but burly, suggestive of muscle and maneuverability. We wanted this ship to have character marked by retro-fitted armaments and battle scars. Artist Bartol Rendulic did the honors. And once we'd signed off on the design, we handed things off to our VFX Supervisor Lawren Bancroft-Wilson who oversaw its development ... "

Lawren Bancroft-Wilson, Visual Effects Supervisor: "It's hard to understate just how impressed we were with the first concept sketches of the hero ship. For our team of modelers, animators and lighters, a world of possibilities became clear. The way the ships engine pods were mounted meant we could have it fly and maneuver in ways that traditional fixed engine ships couldn't. The detailed surface planes and trenches could house weapons, access points and, as we see in the first few episodes, a daring space walk. The ship's design gave it both a slick maneuverability while still making it look like a hulking brute you wouldn't want to mess with."

"Finding the right balance of weathered metal and patched paneling, we wanted to give the ship just as detailed a history as its crew members. There's scaring and blast marks from previous battles. Patched panels from repairs and upgrades the ship has had along its storied life."

"Building the ship at the same time the sets were coming together meant that communication between the art department and the VFX team was integral to creating one unified ship. Textures and colors from the exterior digital model needed to be reflected in the exterior extensions being built. The beautiful elaborate bridge had to be measured and photographed so that it could be perfectly incorporated into the front of the digital model. When we see inside windows we wanted to make sure you were actually seeing our bridge and corridors that the crew and actors filmed on every day."

"The goal was to create not just another ship but one of the heroes of our show. Just as nuanced and realistic as the crew is carries."