Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1526889
The Corbelan Designing the exterior and the interior of the Corbelan was essentially one intrinsic task, seeing as the physical sets would have to fit in the hypothetical volume of the exterior ship (which would be realized in miniature and CGI). PD Naaman Marshall noted early in the design processes that Alvarez was finding it useful to see rough sketches of volumes and cross sections of how the interior related to the exterior design and how this would inform the way scenes could be shot. Matthew Savage's cross section was the final visual used to help the crew understand Alvarez's vision for the Corbelan interior and exterior. The Renaissance Space Station Exterior The majority of the film takes place on an abandoned space station called the Renaissance—a mysterious structure orbiting a ringed planet where the main characters reside. According to Alvarez, the film is set between the original Alien film and the sequel Aliens. He wanted one half of the station (the Romulus module) to have design elements of the older ship, the Nostromo—"Then they cross through that building and on the other side: boom! You're in a hallway that looks like Hadley's Hope (from Aliens)," says Alvarez Concept Artist Josh Viers explained, "The Romulus space station's exterior needed to be a new design that paid its respects to the Tesotek refinery (that the Nostromo is towing) from the beginning of Alien, as well as the Sulaco ship seen in Aliens." Members of the Art Department submitted designs for the station until Fede had the epiphany that the overall shape of the space station should resemble an infinity top. With this clear direction, an early design of the Romulus exterior was developed starting with an infinity top imbued with the detail and lighting we can see in the first two Alien films. Once the rough silhouette of Renaissance station was approved, I was tasked with designing the film- ready space station with a look that satisfied all the A. SET PLANS OF THE CORBELAN INTERIOR HALLWAY. B. IN-PROGRESS DIAGRAMMATIC SKETCH OF THE RENAISSANCE SPACE STATION DEPICTING THE ROMULUS AND REMUS MODULE SEPARATION, AS WELL AS THE ENTRY POINT FOR THE CORBELAN SPACECRAFT. ART BY ALEX NICE. C. RENAISSANCE STATION EXTERIOR. ILLUSTRATION BY JOSH VIERS. PHOTOSHOP WAS USED TO SKETCH A QUICK SILHOUETTE IN CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH FEDE ALVAREZ. A B