The film pipeline consists of Maya for animation models, lighting in mental ray and 3Dlight for rendering the creatures in space. According to Gross, Image Engine was able to make use of talented shader writers that allowed them to get the most out of its system.

There is one model with some basic variations in terms of height and scale, and a maximum of six aliens on board pushing Star Trek-like buttons.

As far environments, Gross says they were responsible for creating a gas giant in "Darkness," which was recognizable yet contained an alien quality. On "Light," the featured environment was the sun. Again, Image Engine used reference from our own solar system, and NASA, in getting exceedingly close to the sun with a lot of creativity.

"The thing that I love about the series getting grittier is the way we can move our camera around," Gross continues. "It seems to me that a lot of the way they are shooting is almost a documentary style, which means we can get away with some really dynamic camera moves in 3D. So I think that opened up the way the compositions played out."

Garrad concludes, "They are definitely upping the threshold and we couldn't have done it without the previous alien work in District 9. We can use what we have and push forward at the same time. We'll just have to see if the aliens return in season two."

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN & VFXWorld.