Matte painting A matte painting is a form of artwork that is added to live - action footage to enable filmmakers to create the illusion of environments that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit . Such paintings were used for planet ary scenes in many " Star Trek " films and television series . Even though the nomenclature suggests art , as production asset , a matte painting is currently understood to be a ( VFX ) element and as such is created under the auspices of the production ' s respective VFX companies , instead of that of the studio ' s art department . Traditionally done on glass or other transparent materials for lighting purposes , the traditional methods of creating matte paintings are currently all but replaced by the technique of computer generated imagery . Original series paintings . For , matte paintings were usually on glass and were backlit . ( " " , p . 42 ) Even they were too costly for frequent use in the series , though they always increased visual scope to an episode . ( text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ) All the matte paintings for TOS were done by Albert Whitlock . He noted , " " I only had about a week to do each one , mostly futuristic architecture . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 11 / 12 , p . 72 ) The scenes that the paintings represented include : Clouds surrounding the city of Stratos in were also represented with a matte painting . ( " " , p . 329 ) Also , various matte paintings were created for Starbase 11 ( for both and ) . The matte paintings of Rigel VII , the Delta - Vega Station , Eminiar VII and the underground colony on Janus VI were all reused to depict other locations ( namely , Holberg 917G , the Tantalus Colony on Tantalus V , Scalos and caves housing the Provider s on Triskelion in the original versions of , , and , respectively ) . Similarly , the painting of the Delta - Vega Station inspired the cover of the magazine " Galaxy " from . Films . For , approximately one hundred matte paintings were used . ( " " , p . 212 ) There were two particularly major examples of the matte paintings created for the film : as two backgrounds for planet , which were combined with live - action footage filmed at Yellowstone National Park and Paramount ' s B Tank , and a skyline for San Francisco , including Golden Gate Bridge and Starfleet Headquarters . ( " The Making of Star Trek : The Motion Picture " , p . 212 ) The latter was reused as stock footage in . The film ' s " wing walk " sequence involved a matte painting of the " Enterprise " s saucer section . ( " The Making of Star Trek : The Motion Picture " , p . 212 ) For of the film , these matte paintings were replaced by CGI digital mattes . The ceiling of the recreation room in the scene where the ship ' s crew was assembled was also a matte painting . The set was built without a ceiling , and the visible lighting necessary to film the scene was replaced by the matte painting in post - production . Matte paintings were also used to optically enlarge such areas as the air tram station in San Francisco and the " Enterprise " s cargo bay . ( " " , interior colored photographs ) Sketch test renderings of the cargo bay in different configurations were done by Andrew Probert , some of which featured long range shuttle s . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 167 ) The shuttles were excluded from the final version , though . Probert noted , " " When they did the final matte painting , they omitted shuttles of any kind . " " The matte painting of the air tram station was created by Matthew Yuricich , the film ' s regular matte artist . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , interior color photographs ) For the film , three matte paintings , created by Industrial Light & Magic , helped enhance the illusion of the Genesis cave . The main painting was done by matte artist and was photographed by Neil Krepela and Craig Barron . Two more paintings , one by Frank Ordaz and another by Chris Evans , were also used for the cave . ( " " , p . 137 ) Director Nicholas Meyer commented that the matte painting was mainly a cost - saving device , and he thinks it looked cheap and unconvincing . If time and budget had allowed , he would have filmed the Genesis cave on a real location . ( audio commentary , " " DVD ) For , a matte painting was used for views of the " Enterprise " through a row of large windows in the Spacedock cafeteria . This painting simply enlarged the windows that were built for the cafeteria set , extending them upward . ( " " , 3rd ed . , p . 94 ; text commentary , " " DVD ) At least three more matte paintings were used for the Genesis planet , helping give the impression that scenes on the planet ' s surface were outside . ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , p . 57 ) Although matte paintings are relatively expensive , their use in the Planet Genesis scenes was an economically sound investment , as they reduced the required size of the set for the planet . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) Several more matte paintings were created for and Mount Seleya . ( , p . 27 ) One of these was later reused in . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) The matte paintings of " Star Trek III " were created by Chris Evans , Michael Pangrazio and Frank Ordaz . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) For " Star Trek IV " , a matte painting backdrop was created for Starfleet Command , combined with live - action footage of extras and shuttlecraft models . Stock footage of this sequence was reused in . For footage of a wild storm in the film , the effects artists intentionally avoided using matte paintings . " " The biggest difficulty [ with creating the storm footage ] was doing it without going for tons of miniatures and matte paintings , " " recalled Optical Supervisor Ralph Gordon . ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 72 ) For , two matte painting landscapes of Yosemite National Park were created by Illusion Arts , Inc . , who were already working on at the time . For the film , Matte World was assigned to create three matte paintings . These did not include an establishing shot of Starfleet Headquarters that appears early in the film . Associate producer Brooke Breton explained , " " This shot was added so very late in the schedule that we didn ' t even have the time to do a matte painting [ for it ] [ . . . ] since the matte department here was busy on " Hook " . " " The shot was instead created via the less time - consuming method of combining miniature elements with a live - action plate , the latter of which featured the Golden Gate Bridge . ( " Cinefex " , No . 49 , pp . 41 46 , 48 ) The three settings for which Matte World did work were : For the opening shot of , Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor of Illusion Arts provided matte painting enhancement , creating several Borg interior illustrations . ( " " , pp . 121 – 122 ) Another matte painting – an enlarged , super - detailed one – was prepared to matte into the film ' s spacewalk sequence , though it was deemed unnecessary as the " Sovereign " - class model was sufficiently detailed as to be used instead . ( " The Making of Star Trek : First Contact " , p . 116 ) Matte World also did some matte painting work for the Vulcan landing sequence in " First Contact " , using miniature trees . This work included the last shot of the movie , for which Vision Arts provided the Vulcan ship , the " " . Paintings for spin - off series . During production of , the regular matte artists were Syd Dutton , Robert Stromberg and Eric Chauvin , who worked for the now defunct Illusion Arts , Inc . , a company specializing in matte paintings . However , visual effects supervisor Dan Curry also contributed some of the paintings . He stated , " " I ' ve been learning matte painting but on a small scale only . " " ( , p . 72 ) For the first season , Illusion Arts created three matte paintings . The first represented the surface of Ligon II in . The second was used to represent the surface of Angel I , in . This matte painting was reused several times during the three modern " Star Trek " series : in ( as Starbase 515 ) , ( as Malcor III ) , ( slightly modified , as Krios Prime ) , ( as Klaestron IV ) , and ( as ) . The third matte painting was created to represent the surface of Velara III in . For the second season , two matte paintings were created : the first to represent the Darwin Genetic Research Station for . It was later reused to represent Arkaria Base in , and Ohniaka III Research Station in . The second was created for to represent the vast interior of the Borg cube . Three matte paintings were created for the third season . The first , to represent the surface of Tau Cygna V for . The second was created to represent Qo ' noS in . This matte painting was reused many times during the three modern spin - off series , when the Klingon capital planet was featured . Also , a matte painting backdrop was created for the surface of Jouret IV for , expanding the planet set which was created on Paramount Stage 16 , by Richard James , who also oversaw the creation of the matte . ( ; " The Best of Both Worlds " text commentary , " " ) Two matte paintings were made for the fourth season . The first was a backdrop for La Barre , France in . The second was created to represent the surface of Ventax II in . The fifth season introduced the matte painting for Romulus , in , another painting that was reused many times , when the Romulan capital was featured . This season also saw a matte panting for Moab IV in , one for Penthara IV in , and finally , another frequently reused illustration : a matte painting of Starfleet Academy in , extending the footage filmed at Tillman Water Reclamation Plant . For the pilot episode , Illusion Arts created a matte painting of the underground Ocampa city . The surface of Ocampa was also shown using a matte painting , after Dan Curry created numerous different electronic sketches of matte painting elements . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , pp . 134 – 135 ) One unusual use of a matte painting is featured in the main title sequence of " Voyager " , representing an icy moon that the starship " Voyager " flies over . John Grower , the founder of Santa Barbara Studios , stated , " " This foreground moon was actually a matte painting done by Craig Mullins , but then we took the matte painting and mapped it onto three - dimensional geometry , so it became a 3 - D matte painting . We painted what ' s called a height - map that ' s a black - and - white map in which the bright parts extend closer toward you , and the dark parts get pushed back . You ' re essentially painting and creating three - dimensional geometry by playing with the contrast between white and black . You place the painting onto this geometry , and now you have a three - dimensional surface that you can rotate . You can have perspective happen within the painting . " " ( , p . 15 ) Another matte painting was created by Open Films for the fourth season " Voyager " episode . ( " " , p . 463 ) For , Syd Dutton of Illusion Arts created matte paintings of Qo ' noS , as is first shown in the pilot episode , and a devastated Earth city for the first season cliffhanger . ( " Broken Bow " text commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD ; )