I finally got around to making the bridge red-alert display graphics. Basically it was just a matter of making a copy of my regular display graphics in Adobe Illustrator, and making them red and white. As always, I’m trying to recreate it as accurately as sanity allows, so the graphics which on the set are just flat transparencies don’t change color - only the “TV sets.” While I was in LCARS mode I also made some extra-trashed displays for when the ship is severely damaged.

Now there are six alert settings: No Alert (Full lighting), Red Alert, Red Alert (dark), Blue Alert, Blue Alert (dark), and Trashed. The (dark) options are for when the alert indicators are between blinks, so the pillars, center dome, and console strips are all dark. I’m not planning on animating anything so they’ll never actually blink, but it was little extra trouble to set up, and might add a feeling of rhythm if I periodically switch to the dark versions in some panels of the eventual comic book.

I also did a lot more fiddling with the automation so that all the consoles switch their displays to the appropriate alert graphics when I change the alert status control in Cinema 4D. The more-complex setup is visible on the Bridge page, along with three renders of the displays at the Engineering station.