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Secret Sauce FX Cinematic Worldbuilding & Story-Driven Visual Effects

10/02/2026

SECRET SAUCE FX
GENERATIVE VISUAL R&D

Three years of generative visual exploration, 2024-2026
Selected Spotlight Images by Daniel McMillan
https://www.midjourney.com/

I've been roughing in some backdrops targeted at Mel Gibson's new "Siege" film project about the historic 1565 Great Sie...
08/29/2026

I've been roughing in some backdrops targeted at Mel Gibson's new "Siege" film project about the historic 1565 Great Siege of Malta.

© 2026, Secret Sauce FX
Art Direction - Daniel B. McMillan
www.secretsaucefx.com

TQKura & Fallak - "Keeper of Orb" scene from our screenplay(Original 1993 sketch by Daniel McMillan and present day rend...
08/21/2026

TQ
Kura & Fallak - "Keeper of Orb" scene from our screenplay

(Original 1993 sketch by Daniel McMillan and present day render interpretation by AI, including the Kurosian City in the background thatis "mind-rendered" by the Kurosians every An'Sos (Kurosian Generation language).

© 2026, Secret Sauce FX
www.secretsaucefx.com

06/29/2026

Dragon Riders of Pern - Fan Art

Young Aramina is a girl who hears dragons. She possesses uncontrollable telepathy that allows her to hear the thoughts and communications of all dragons on Pern, even though she never Impressed one herself. Read more about her: https://pern.fandom.com/wiki/Aramina

Fan Art by Daniel McMillan
© 2026, Secret Sauce FX
www.secretsaucefx.com

Aerospace Industrial Design: imagining the infrastructure of humanity's next frontier.From heavy-lift launch systems and...
06/11/2026

Aerospace Industrial Design: imagining the infrastructure of humanity's next frontier.

From heavy-lift launch systems and lunar extraction vehicles to off-world mining complexes and self-sustaining industrial colonies, these concepts explore the machinery, architecture, and engineering that could one day transform distant worlds into thriving centers of exploration and industry.

What do you think humanity's first permanent industrial settlement beyond Earth will look like?



© 2026, Daniel McMillan
Secret Sauce FX
www.secretsaucefx.com

Rose Valor didn't start as a character.She started as a tiny 2D icon in the UI of a mobile game called Sea of Conquest.A...
06/05/2026

Rose Valor didn't start as a character.

She started as a tiny 2D icon in the UI of a mobile game called Sea of Conquest.

After playing her character for a while, she began to develop an attitude of her own. I wrote a short narrative around her and started incorporating those ideas into a prompt.

From there, every render became a casting call.

Each iteration refined the character's appearance, expression, camera language, costume design, and visual style until the technology began reflecting the personality I imagined. Prompt development evolved alongside visual direction, eventually settling on a cinematic aesthetic inspired by high-end photography, Unreal Engine rendering, and film production techniques.

What fascinates me most is that Rose was never simply "generated."
She emerged through a dialogue between imagination, narrative, and technology.

The attached image represents the point where her character finally looked back at me and said, "Yes, that's who I am."

Her ship, crew, world, and adventures are next.

As Marshall McLuhan observed in 1964, "The medium is the message." The tools we use to create and communicate shape the outcome as much as the content itself.

In many ways, Rose Valor is as much a product of the creative process as she is a character within the story.








© 2026, Secret Sauce FX
www.secretsaucefx.com

An industrial refinery complex rises from the frozen surface of a distant moon, extracting volatile resources beneath th...
06/02/2026

An industrial refinery complex rises from the frozen surface of a distant moon, extracting volatile resources beneath the glow of a massive gas giant. Harsh environmental conditions, towering reactor structures, and isolated workers hint at the immense scale and danger of sustaining industry beyond Earth.

EXT. PLANET TRAXAN REVEAL – VALORIUS SPACECRAFTThe Traxan Sun pierces a dense cloud nebula, illuminating the massive rin...
06/02/2026

EXT. PLANET TRAXAN REVEAL – VALORIUS SPACECRAFT

The Traxan Sun pierces a dense cloud nebula, illuminating the massive ringed world of Traxan. Beneath the South Pole, a rotating black hole siphons matter from the planetary rings, transforming the polar region into a volcanic inferno.

Emerging from the darkness, the sunlight reveals the lifeless Ark Ship Avalaunte.

This sequence was developed as part of the larger TQ screenplay universe — evolving from screenplay concepts into environmental paintings, spacecraft design studies, and physical miniatures built for cinematic visualization.

One of the most rewarding aspects of long-form worldbuilding is carrying a single idea across multiple creative disciplines: writing, visual development, practical effects, and production design.

From screenplay page to physical model.

The concept of this heavy lunar excavation vehicle is designed to traverse the surface of our moon, engineered for lunar...
05/21/2026

The concept of this heavy lunar excavation vehicle is designed to traverse the surface of our moon, engineered for lunar mining and industrial operations. It is designed with modular components, some of which could potentially be 3D printed and assembled in one of the moon's lunar lava tubes.



© 2026, Secret Sauce FX
www.secretsaucefx.com

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