Loaded with laser weapon and full of fiery explosions and hostile enemy ships, Deepwater Black, Empire Entertainment’s new live-action/3D animation sci-fi series with ytv and USA Networks, has kept the in-house cgi department busy around the clock and lacking in ‘cryo’ sleep.

Although they did consult with different experts on some of the more difficult effects, all the bright blasts and dazzling f/x for the half-hour show were done by Empire’s cgi department, making the $300,000 an episode series more cost-effective.

‘We have more control this way,’ explains coproducer Alex Nassar. ‘It’s the same reason you don’t contract out your editing or the key things in a production, you might do it in a commercial or a feature film, but when you get into a long-running series you like to maintain more control of it.’

Using people who are part of the production as opposed to outside artists working on contract gives the producers more flexibility and the opportunity to make changes when necessary, says Nassar.

Deepwater Black marks Empire’s first attempt at in-house effects, adding it to a growing list of series such as Babylon 5, Robocop and Tek War which opted to open their own cgi departments and keep effects in-house.

Whether Empire will continue to do all the effects in-house will depend on the project itself and the level of complexity of the special effects work.

Set to air in August on ytv and in July on usa’s Sci-Fi channel, the series shot 13 episodes from mid-February to the end of April and the producers are hoping to shoot nine more in late fall, completing the first season of 22 episodes. Directing the new sci-fi adventure are George Mendeluk (Traders, Due South) and Don McCutcheon (Street Legal, Jake and the Kid).

The series follows six genetically enhanced teens who travel through space aboard the Deepwater seeking to restore the human race after a dna plague has wiped out planet earth.

It was shot at Toronto’s Cinevillage where set builders and designers transformed 10,000 square feet of studio into the civilian vessel, complete with high-tech instruments for controlling the ship and futuristic decks and walkways.

Unlike the familiar spaceships of television past, such as the Starship Enterprise, Deepwater is not a physical model but was built within the realm of Alias Wavefront.

‘All of the exteriors are done in the computer,’ says cocreator and producer Jeff Copeland. ‘It is still the same thing as actually making a model; they are designing, executing and making something, they just aren’t physically making a model.’

While many use the 3D modelling application form.Z to produce these types of effects, Heidi Matijevic, project supervisor and composite artist, says form.Z is difficult to use when working with organic forms and round shapes, of which there are many in Deepwater, and she is happy with the results she is seeing from Alias.

With models and textures set, the seven people who make up the cgi department spent about a week transferring and digitizing for each half-hour venture through space.

Although the series is laden with effects – from the bright lights flashing before the crew as they hurtle through space to the detailed computer screens of the control deck, done in Director – they only play a supporting role, they are not the stars of the show.

‘The effects don’t make the story, they add to it,’ says Matijevic. ‘We are not like a lot of other shows where special effects are the main focus.’

Matijevic describes Deepwater as having a kind of ‘young rave’ look to it, and says with the special effects they are trying to keep with that look, following the lead of the dialogue and stories which were set during production.

And although cool cosmic effects may not be the center of the series, the cgi team is having a blast with the battle scenes and is particularly excited when presented with the opportunity to blow up alien ships.

Explosions are done in two different applications, Adobe After Effects or ElectricImage, or both depending on the look of the shot.

According to visual effects coordinator Daniel Riley if it’s just a fire ball it would be done in After Effects, but when chunks of a ship are shattered through outer space the flying pieces are done in Electric Image and are then composited with After Effects. ‘Really big effects are done using both,’ he says.

Half a millennium into the future aboard the Deepwater, crew members look to their holographic guide Genesis DX37 (Julie Khaner) to instruct them through their mission. Genesis, a biomass computer which projects a human hologram of itself to communicate with the crew, was done in ElectricImage and After Effects. ‘All shattery pieces were done in ElectricImage and all the glowy neat stuff around her was done in After Effects,’ says Riley.

The stories are based on a trilogy of books by New Zealand writer Ken Catran, the first one of which is called Deepwater Black. Cocreators Copeland and Barry Pearson started adapting the novels to television two years ago, made a development deal with ytv and usa, and brought their international distributor Sunbow International aboard.