STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY VFX

A space graveyard built for a 27K LED wall

The core challenge was a 27K by 4K looping environment that had to play continuously across a large LED wall during shooting, holding up as an immersive volume on set. We built it in Houdini and Solaris on a USD based pipeline, which let us manage a large, data heavy world efficiently in a non-destructive, procedural workflow.

Because the wall needed a seamless 27K wide looping clip for continuous playback, render management mattered as much as the look. Our team developed at low resolution to align with the wider production crew, then committed to multi layered final renders, using deep rendering to hit the fidelity the display demanded.

Building the USS Miyazaki, the ghost ship at its centre

The Miyazaki was the hero of the build. We started from rough base models and developed the ship through texturing, surface damage and deck holes until it read as a genuine wreck rather than a clean asset, the kind of detail that holds up when the camera moves in close.
Working on the Graveyard sequence was a significant technical and creative challenge, but one that proved immensely rewarding. I was responsible for the modelling and surfacing of the scene’s centrepiece, the USS Miyazaki, a Federation vessel left drifting among the wreckage after meeting an untimely demise.

In addition, I oversaw the lighting of the vast floating graveyard environment, designed for a large scale LED wall installation. The complexity of the sequence, combined with its high resolution and extended loop duration, made rendering particularly demanding. By leveraging deep rendering techniques, we were able to navigate these challenges and achieve the visual fidelity required for the display.

– Kris Slagter, CG Lead

One environment for both the LED wall and the CG shots

Rather than build separate assets for virtual production and post, we developed a single environment that worked across both. It had to hold up across the full 27K wall on set and still support tightly framed CG shots later, which meant a consistently high level of detail plus enough flexibility for shot specific cameras and animation without breaking continuity.

Building once shifted environment development much earlier than a traditional VFX schedule, so art direction, mood, layout, lighting and compositing all had to be locked before the shoot. The USD pipeline also let the finished asset go back to the production for reuse by other vendors, a real efficiency for the production rather than just for us.

Bringing the Athena out of warp

Once production had used the environment across Episode 6 on the virtual wall, we were asked to pick up four hero shots as the Athena came out of warp and into orbit of the ship graveyard. Each had to match seamlessly back to what had been shot on set. The air of mystery around the Miyazaki, as the Athena shuttle drew closer, gave us some of the sequence’s most striking visuals.

Where the build took us next

The graveyard sequence led directly into further LED wall work for the same production team, including the interior of the Athena’s shuttle bay and launch area. It also pushed Cause and FX further into large-format environment work, proving the pipeline could support both virtual production playback and final CG delivery from the same build.

Creating a mysterious ship graveyard at 27K for projection during shooting isn’t an easy ask. The team jumped right in and delivered flawlessly, including a hero space ship for the full CGI components of the episode. We had concerns about our first ventures into live projection that had to match perfectly to the CGI components of the VFX, and were delighted that CFX’s creative and technical team eagerly took on the challenge and succeeded easily.

– Brian Tatosky, VFX Supervisor, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy