Gestation was a labor of love, carefully crafted as a collaboration between the motion design and VFX teams at FX, a VFX few shots from the folks at Tendril, sound design from Echolab, the production eye of The Joelsons, as well as the skilled fabricators at Studio Gillis.
To develop the scale and detail needed for a piece like Gestation, we began with a mood piece, with much of the vibe continuing into the final product. From there, we moved into storyboards, look dev of the various creature stages, and development of both content and design of the screens featured at the end of each phase.
Since this creature’s gestation process did not exist within the canon of Alien: Earth, we carefully developed each phase with the information we did have about the final creature and the Alien universe at large. Careful research also went into naming the developmental milestones and designing realistic charts tracking the gestational activity within each phase. The custom designed screen content was then input into a CRT monitor and shot in-camera to create a tactile and cinematic feel.
To release this beast into the world, it was initially teased in individual Phase videos. Over the course of four days, videos for Phase One through Four were released leading to the full Gestation spot launch. These all lived on a custom IGN site, allowing us to reach a vast Alien fanbase through both IGN and FX audiences, amassing a collective 4.5 million views.
Phase One
Phase Two
Phase Three
Phase Four
