Foundation Imaging Foundation Imaging – set up in in Valencia , California , and headed by founders Ron Thornton and Paul Beigle - Bryant – produced computer - generated , or digital , ( VFX ) , commonly abbreviated to CGI ( Computer - Generated Imagery ) , for several " Star Trek " productions . The organization also worked on other genre productions , most notably " Babylon 5 " , for which they provided groundbreaking CGI . General history . In the process of working on " Babylon 5 " , Foundation Imaging was partly responsible for the fact that the software the company used , ( then called , a hardware - software combination ) became an industry standard for the next two decades . For that show , which was the first to be exclusively done in CGI , Foundation had to come up with both believable and cost - effective CGI . " Babylon 5 " was widely regarded as the definitive breakthrough for CGI in television productions and heralded the end of the predominance of the traditional methods of producing VFX , among others , model miniature construction , motion control photography and matte painting . According to CEO Ron Thornton , Warner Brothers decided not to renew Foundation for " Babylon 5 " and instead decided to go in - house for the VFX , to which end Executive Producer formed the new effects house , which ( from onward ) became the sole supplier of CGI for the " Babylon 5 " franchise . This left Foundation in a precarious situation , as Thornton recalled ; " " It was only after " Babylon 5 " decided not to renew us that I turned around to them [ meaning s producers ] and basically begged for work . We were in such dire straits ; I had to lay everybody off – and I never thought that was going to happen – but " Voyager " was really wonderful and started coming in with stuff . " " It was former Foundation employee Mitch Suskin , now working for " Voyager " , who introduced the company to the producers of the show , which led to the association of the company with the " Star Trek " franchise . A grateful Thornton has stated in this respect , " " When " Babylon 5 " decided they were going to do it on their own , it was absolutely devastating , but it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me . " " ( ) The move over to " Star Trek " in prompted some of the original employees to split off from Foundation and join Netter ' s company . Outside " Star Trek " and " Babylon 5 " , the company worked as digital effects supplier on the movies " The Jackal " ( ) , " SubZero " ( ) , " Today ' s Life " , " Max Steel " , " They Crawl " , " Shu shan zheng zhuan " , and " Twisted Metal : Black " ( the latter five all in ) . Television productions the company worked on , in the same capacity , included the animated series " Skeleton Warriors " ( – 1995 ) and " Roughnecks : The Starship Troopers Chronicles " ( ) , as well as the television movies " Project Viper " , " Superfire " ( both ) and " The Extreme Team " ( ) . In later years , the company operated its own instructional facility , the Foundation Institute , to hone and further the skills of new and existing employees alike . One of its instructors at that time was Randy Sharp , who , while not during his time at Foundation Imaging , was yet to work on " Star Trek " later on . Foundation Imaging closed its doors in the summer of 2002 , shortly after the end of season one of and had its assets sold in an auction on ( as may be seen at website ) . Their website , foundation - i . com , is no longer functional , and visitors to the site are redirected to a domain name holding company . Former Visual Effects Supervisor Adam Lebowitz has later reported that the entirety of Foundation ' s work was left on the servers when they were auctioned off , and that no formal back - ups were preserved by the copyright holding entities , including CBS Television Studios / Paramount Pictures . Upon closure of Foundation , a number of employees moved over to then - recently - formed Eden FX . Despite its relatively short , eleven year , lifespan , Foundation Imaging has been a signature innovative and influential contributor to the way visual effects are produced for television productions , as was evidenced by the slew of visual effects Emmy Award wins and nominations Foundation employees garnered during the " Babylon 5 " and " Star Trek " years . The vast majority of persons who each served as a member of Foundation ' s staff has , at the very least , one nomination credited to his or her name , stemming from that period in time . " Star Trek " association . An opportune lucky circumstance aided Thornton , as the " Voyager " show had just found itself without CGI vendor due to Amblin Imaging closing its doors at the start of its second season , but , upon introduction by Mitch Suskin , contracting his company was not automatic , as the show ' s producers were wary of Foundation ' s visual style being so completely associated with that of " Babylon 5 " ( interestingly , some " Babylon 5 " influences " did " creep up in the later productions of " Voyager " , most notably the by Steve Burg designed Species 8472 bio - ship and Krenim weapon ship , which harkened back to the ships of the former series , also by conceived by Burg ) . The company had to prove their mettle , and to this end , they received Amblin ' s CGI USS " Voyager " database in order to generate establishing shots for the producers to evaluate . ( ) Foundation passed the test and its first production commission was for the " Voyager " second season episode , when Dan Curry charged the company with creating the Hanonian land eel . John Teska ' s creation was such that Curry became definitively convinced that Foundation was up to the task . From onward , Foundation became the regular CGI supplier for " Star Trek : Voyager " . ( ) Foundation ' s probation piece , the CGI USS " Voyager " , was later greatly improved upon by the company for it to become virtually the sole model used in the later four seasons of the series , replacing the physical studio model . Originally , the intention was that the CGI workload for televised " Star Trek " was to be divided between Foundation for " Voyager " and Digital Muse for . In practice , however , the workload became such , especially in later seasons , that both companies were called upon to help each other out for specifically tasking episodes , resulting that both did CGI work for either series , the 1997 " Deep Space Nine " episode being both the pivotal as well as the prime example . ( " " , p . 501 ; ; " et al . " ) Though Rick Sternbach was , and remained the main production illustrator for " Voyager " , confidence in , and ease of cooperation with Foundation grew to such an extent , that some of its CGI artists were on occasion allowed to design the " ship - of - the - week " . The first episode they were entrusted with this task on a more regular basis , was the season four two - parter , where Steve Burg , responsible for the design of the earlier Species 8472 bio - ship , designed the Krenim weapon ship ( built by Thornton ) and Brandon MacDougall designed and built the ships of " Voyager " s allies , the Nihydron warship and Mawasi starship , while Sternbach himself remained responsible for the smaller Krenim ships . ( " Sci - Fi & Fantasy Models " , issue 32 , September 1998 , pp . 51 - 52 ) MacDougall went on to design several more ships for the series , as Lebowitz has proudly stated , " " One of our model builders [ Brandon MacDougall ] gets to design ships on a regular basis – the ship of the week , when it ' s a throwaway . That ' s pretty cool . You don ' t get a lot of that with other shows . " " ( ) One of the studio ' s final projects was the late Robert Wise ' s of , released in 2001 . The company was brought in on recommendation of Visual Effects Supervisor Daren Dochterman , who , upon approval , subsequently served as the primary liaison between production company Robert Wise Productions and the team of digital modelers at Foundation . ( ) The drawback of the studios ' short - sightedness of not willing to pay for the upkeep of the computer files , once the original production was in - the - can , became already quite obvious in , when Paramount Pictures released the remaster ed DVD and Blu - ray editions of that movie . Only the original theatrical release could be remastered , as the computer files used by Foundation Imaging for the " Director ' s Edition " were no longer available , and the franchise ' s failure to maintain ownership might not have bode well , cost - wise speaking , for possible remastered versions of " Deep Space Nine " , and " Voyager " in particular ( it having been Foundation ' s primary assignment ) , as Lebowitz explained ; " " When Foundation closed down , the servers – along with the content – were auctioned off . Much of the content may have been saved by artists who worked on the series , but it would have to be tracked down . No matter how you slice it , it would be a considerable amount of work to re - integrate the entire " Voyager " visual effects server and re - render the FX in . In addition , although the series was shot on film , the entire post - production process was finished on NTSC video ; to create an HD episode of " Voyager " , Paramount would have to go back to the vaults , re - transfer the film and [ re - build ] the episodes from scratch using the original editing data – if THOSE files still existed . " " However , in , former Foundation staffer Robert Bonchune came forward as one of these artists who did save all of Foundation ' s " Star Trek " CGI files , elaborating , " " If they ask one of us – and if they use a team that uses LightWave – it ’ ll be much easier for them to redo . . . because the guys who worked on it , like me , have the assets . We have the original ships ; we have most of everything that was used [ in the making of the series ] . That would eliminate a ton of the cost of rebuilding . " "