Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1241865
physics to hold the attention of today's tech-savvy audience. When starting off on Avenue 5, I decided to use as much up-to-date 3D design technology to physically affect the way I work, and hence to create something futuristic. Key concept artist Jort van Welbergen and I utilised 3D software that would behave in an organic way such as Fusion, which unlike SketchUp or Rhino can push and pull geometry and continue to further morph it until I'm happy. Without considering real-world forces like gravity and the weight of materials, I could design the sets by sculpting huge organic forms in this virtual world. Only once I'd settled on these structures, my team and I then began working out how they could be physically constructed on the stages at Warner Bros. Leavesden in the UK. The 3D files of the set designs were loaded into a gaming PC and via an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset I could walkaround as if I were on the finished sets. In virtual reality, I could consider the ow of the script through the spaces, try out the built-in architectural lighting and discuss camera angles months before construction was started. It sounds odd but the emotional response of a set is far more apparent in virtual reality than looking at an illustration or model. A looming piece of architecture is far more present in virtual reality, a tight space more claustrophobic when standing inside it. As wellas creating traditional printed rendered illustrations of these sets to show the episode directors I could now also walk them around in virtual reality, exploring the spaces and inspiring the scriptwriting with these physical structures in mind. As the sets were of a very organic styling, building traditional card and foam models was notgoing to be accurate enough.As all the setsand furniture were designed using 3Dsoftware, the next natural step was to buildtabletop models using 3D printers. The Art Department had up to eight 3D printers and a team of model makers building maquettes of all the sets and even the entire ship. A B C D