At the earliest stages of development on LVJ we always planned to have a large scale space battle between the Earth forces and the invading aliens, the Veranyi. Along with every space battle comes the requirement for an assortment of fighter craft that will perform in dynamic dogfights in space or over the surface of a Mothership or space station. For this we have our X74 on the side of the humans and the Veranyi have a small one man fighter, named the Wasp.

The Wasp fighter began life as an initial concept design by Chris Taylor.  The look of this first design was a short stocky, snub nosed fighter with a real chunky feel to it.  We liked the chunky design, but deep down we knew it could be improved, so moved onto other tasks while stewing on the Wasp fighter for a while.

It was around this time that concept designer Lee Ray offered to help out on the movie and he suggested making it sharper and angrier looking, which fitted in perfectly with the idea of the fighter attacking in a swarm like fashion.  Along with refining the design, Lee also created the digital model that is used in the movie.

So we had our fighter for our space battle, but there was one thing that we still needed and that was a cockpit interior.  Using Lee's model as a guide, Chris Taylor created a more detailed interior section just for these cockpit shots. We wanted the fighters to feel like they'd seen a lot of action so a significant amount of wear and tear was required to make them looked lived in.  This was more apparent in the cockpit since we'd be much tighter in on the model and it would need to stand up to closer scrutiny.  Although the Wasps are from another world we wanted to see familiar aspects like handles and pipes and even a seat with a leathered finish that would remind people of WWII fighter planes.

Now all that remained was to add our pilots. Actors playing the alien fighter pilots had been shot previously against bluescreen and were now composited into the CGI cockpit.  Like any visual effects shot that includes creating an entire environment virtually, a certain amount of 'comp love' will be required.  This means adding a load of sweeteners to help bring the shot alive, in the case of these shots that included reflections in the canopy, depth of field and lens distortion artifacts, not to mention a fair smattering of glows, halos and flares.

The film LVJ is not in 3D but as technology has moved forward throughout production we’ve planned a few special shots that will be finished in stereo 3D.  They’ll appear as extras packaged with the film upon completion, but just for fun, here’s a stereo 3D test shot featuring the Wasp fighter.  Put on your funny red and green glasses now!