John Eaves John Michael Eaves is a concept illustrator and designer who worked as production illustrator on the television series for its last four seasons , on in its entirety , as well as on no less than eight . " Star Trek " . In the early stages of his production design career , which happened to be " Star Trek " , John Eaves preferred to have physical models at hand to get a feel of the three - dimensionality of his starship designs in particular , especially when they were to have a significant visual impact . As , obviously , no commercial model s were available to this end at the time , Eaves had to construct them for himself , building upon his previous experience as studio model maker . Especially noteworthy were the study model s he built for ( the " Enterprise " - B study model ) and ( the " Enterprise " - E , and " T ' Plana - Hath " study models ) . As confidence in his own prowess as a production designer grew , Eaves eventually dispensed with the practice . Most of his study models turned up , and were sold , later at various " Star Trek " auctions . By starting work in 2015 on the 13th movie installment , , Eaves became tied with Michael Okuda for the record of having worked on the most " Star Trek " movie productions , held by an officially credited studio production staffer ( strictly speaking , Gene Roddenberry holds the record as he is credited on every movie , though these are honorary credits only , save for on which he had " actually " worked ) . However , by counting his known , but uncredited work on , Eaves has actually surpassed the record of his friend and former co - worker Okuda . Earliest " Star Trek " work . John Eaves ' very first production involvement with " Star Trek " , was working at Gregory Jein , Inc . as an uncredited studio model maker for the 1989 movie " The Final Frontier " . Still a relatively newcomer at that time , Eaves later expressed gratitude for Gregory Jein , who took Eaves under his wings , during the production of " The Final Frontier " , " " As an introduction to " Star Trek " I had the best time working for Greg and in all honesty I wasn ' t ready for all the responsibilities he gave me and in many ways I feel I didn ' t have the knowledge to perform as good as I wanted to ! ! ! ! ! but he continued to nurture me on and I am so grateful for that opportunity . " " Eaves stayed on at Gregory Jein , Inc . for a time after " The Final Frontier " , further honing his skills as a model maker for productions the company was contracted for , including , among others , the third ( second half ) and fourth season s of . On the occasion of the passing of VFX Supervisor Gary Hutzel , Eaves later recalled , " " Back in the TNG days , I was making models with Greg Jein and we would take them to a place called Image G to be filmed . That is where I met the great Gary Hutzel . What an amazing man he was , and it was great fun to watch him set up a motion - control shot for the VFX . A man with a great sense of humor , and he loved to be creative and work , work , work . You had to make him take a day off or go home at the end of a long work day . We did a Joe Dante show called " The Osiris Chronicles " and whenever the main ship would be on the rig to film he would shout out , " It ' s a fish ! " Hah . . . and that is what it looked like . I loved that Mister Hutzel and will miss him terribly . " " Contracted five years later for " Generations " , and under the supervision of Production Designer Herman Zimmerman , he was first and foremost tasked with modifying the model , turning it into the . " Deep Space Nine " and " First Contact " . John Eaves , a bit to his own surprise , became a permanent staff member the following year as production illustrator for " Deep Space Nine " , as a vacancy opened up when illustrator Jim Martin left the franchise at the start of the fourth season . Apparently , he had made an impression on Zimmerman , as it was he who personally invited Eaves to work on the production . ( " " , p . 79 ) For the remainder of that series , Eaves designed numerous set pieces , props and starships , the first one being the " Groumall " ( ) , as well as the later Breen warship . During his tenure on " Deep Space Nine " Eaves was invited to contribute to the movie , for which his most visible contribution was the design of the new , and which he kept refining for its two subsequent appearances . " Insurrection " , " Enterprise " , and " Nemesis " . Following his tenure at " Deep Space Nine " , John Eaves was not asked to join the production team , simply because there was no position available at the time . Nevertheless , Eaves was in that period of time contracted for an illustrator position on , for which he most conspicuously designed the various Son ' a ships . Still , not being hired on " Voyager " turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise , as former colleague Geoffrey Mandel has intimated , " " When they started " Enterprise " , they made a conscious decision to bring in some new blood , and not just round up the usual suspects ; but in practice , it meant that fans like Rick Sternbach , Tim Earls and myself weren ’ t asked back . However , a number of fans who had worked on " DS9 " and had been taking an extended leave of absence came back when " Enterprise " started , so the total number of " Star Trek " fans stayed about the same . " " Working on " Star Trek : Enterprise " as a regular production illustrator , supervised by close personal friend Doug Drexler ( whom he had met and befriended during his " Deep Space Nine " days , and who , like him , had taken " an extended leave of absence " ) , Eaves continued designing starship s , space station s and more . His first assignment had actually been to start with the design of the new " hero ship " , , for the new series , before that task reverted to Drexler . ( " see : NX class model " ) In that period of time Eaves also contributed to the last " Star Trek " film set in the prime universe , , for which the designs of the " Scimitar " and the Romulan warbird were his most notable contributions . Surviving the transition from prime to alternate universe . Excepting the Industrial Light & Magic staffers , who had previously worked on the " Star Trek " franchise and were still in the employment of the company at the time , John Eaves became the only studio production staff veteran who had worked regularly on the prime universe " Star Trek " productions , to be officially hired and credited for J . J . Abrams ' 2009 , re - imagined , alternate reality as conceptual illustrator ( though it is known that former colleague Mandel had also done some short - lived , uncredited , pre - production design work for the 2009 outing ) . While Abrams steered clear from hiring any former " Star Trek " staffers in order to be as unencumbered as possible for his vision on the franchise , he was aware that some consistency needed to be observed , or as Production Designer Scott Chambliss has put it , " " I brought John in because he knew the story and lore , what should and shouldn ' t be done . The ships in the Starfleet Armada to go to were influenced by John ' s knowledge . " " ( " Star Trek - The Art of the Film " , p . 58 ) The design work he has done on that movie , has earned him an ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the following year . Eaves ' designs for this movie included the hovercruiser , medical and military shuttle s , and the new " Enterprise " s escape pods . In 2011 , Eaves worked in the same capacity on the twelfth installment of the movie series , eventually titled , designing props for the Nibiran s as well as revamping various Starfleet gadgets and Klingon weapons , earning him an additional ADG Award nomination . Most recently , Eaves has been working as concept designer for the props along with property master Andrew M . Siegel on the sequel " Star Trek Beyond " . Returning to the prime universe . Pursuant his stint on " Star Trek Beyond " , Eaves returned to the revitalized " Star Trek " television franchise as Concept Illustrator on " Star Trek : Discovery " , set in the prime universe , and being credited as such for eight episodes ( plus one uncredited ) of its first season . While Eaves had been a sole surviving prime universe production staffer on the alternate universe movies , this time around he was joined by some officially credited former colleagues from the prime universe productions such as Scott Schneider ( whom he already knew from his Gregory Jein , Inc . days ) and David Takemura . Other official " Star Trek " work . Working with the Official Star Trek Fan Club and their magazine , John Eaves designed and produced masters for a PVC replica of the Captain ' s yacht ' , as well as for the Legends in 3 Dimensions ' 1996 cold - cast resin sculpture of the ' , for which his own study model came in handy . ( ) Eaves also designed " sculptural " three - dimensional starship plates for The Hamilton Collection . Much of his design work on " Generations " and " First Contact " was published in the 1998 reference book " " , which Eaves co - authored . Another official print publication Eaves regularly contributed to , was the popular " " calendar series . Unlike most of his fellow illustration contributors for this publication , Eaves submitted his contributions " old - school " as he has not made the transition to digitally creating his illustrations . Eaves ' involvement in " Star Trek " continued in his role as a design consultant and concept artist for Perpetual Entertainment in developing their abortive version of " Star Trek Online " , designing several starships for the game . Prior to the game ' s cancellation , Eaves commented on his contributions in the 2007 TOS - R Season 1 HD DVD special feature , " Preview : Star Trek Online " . A selection of his starship designs for the game was posted on his . Eaves has also worked as a technical consultant for model kit companies Bandai ( no . 116424 , 2003 ) and AMT ( no . AMT853 , 2013 ) for their " Enterprise " - E model kit outings . Eaves also contributed two designs , that of he " Olympia " shuttle and " Copernicus Station " , to the 2004 film portion of the " Borg Invasion 4D " - ride at the " " - attraction , but for the longest of times he was not aware of it ; only after Doug Drexler had posted the CGI model s he had constructed after Eaves ' designs on his blog in 2009 , was Eaves ' memory jogged , " " I just found the art work for this one ! ! ! I forgot What we were doing this for but so loved the modeling you did on it and that crazy tikki faced space station ! ! ! Your " [ sic ] " the KING ! ! ! " " It had turned out that both designs and their corresponding digital builds had been rejects for " Enterprise " , but were resurrected for the attraction . This was not an unusual thing , as Eaves had clarified on another occasion , " " Between Doug and I we have far more rejected pieces than approved . . . and you were always worried when all the ideas went to a meeting that they would choose the one you didn ’ t want to get approved . " " " John Eaves ' Sketchbook " is a special feature series on the , in which the artist delves into his design work for that series . Unofficial " Star Trek " work . Outside the official franchise , John Eaves has additionally worked as Art Director on Tim Russ ' fan film project " Star Trek : Renegades " along with Walter Koenig , Manu Intiraymi , Gary Graham , Courtney Peldon , Robert Picardo , Rico E . Anderson , Clint Carmichael , Richard Herd , Jason Matthew Smith , John Carrigan , and Ryan T . Husk . Currently in pre - production is the fan film project " Star Trek : Axanar " ( 2015 ) on which he works as concept artist . The project will also feature Tony Todd , Kate Vernon , Garrett Wang , J . G . Hertzler , Gary Graham , David Gerrold , Alec Peters , Ryan T . Husk , Scott Trimble , Daren Dochterman , and April Marie Eden . Inspired by the similarly conceived - blog of his friend Doug Drexler , Eaves also started his likewise successful blog , , on 16 March 2009 . He stated on that occasion , " " I have to thank the ever and all talented master of media and VFX illusionist , Doug Drexler , for encouraging me to get off my fat butt and finally start a fun blog page ! ! ! I have always wanted to have place to share the fun and adventures of those glorious movie and Star Trek days with friends , coworkers and fans of the films and shows . . . " " Like the DrexFiles , Eaves shared on his blog a considerable amount of his " Star Trek " design art , as well as his thoughts behind them , with the " Star Trek " fan community for four years , though , as of 2013 , and while still " live " , activity on the blog has ground to a standstill , with Eaves henceforth communicating to the world at large through his . " Star Trek " starship designs . Starships designed by John Eaves : Career . A lifelong fan of the science fiction and fantasy genre ( those of the 1980s in particular and including but not limited to " Star Trek " ) , and to date a frequent visitor to the genre conventions , movie buff John Eaves started out a model maker , prior to his work on " Star Trek " , " Top Gun " ( 1986 ) being his very first professional assignment . As to his start in Hollywood Eaves recalled , " " Grant [ McCune ] gave me my first job in Hollywood , at the once - great FX house Apogee , in 1985 . Not only has Grant been a great teacher and source of encouragement , he ' s also a good friend . I owe much of all I ' ve achieved in my career to him . " " ( " " , p . 79 ) Having worked in that capacity for a succession of companies like Apogee , Inc . , Grant McCune Design , and Boss Film Corporation , other pre - " Star Trek " films he worked on as model maker were , among others " Innerspace " ( 1987 , featuring Robert Picardo , Dick Miller , Wendy Schaal , William Schallert , Henry Gibson , Kenneth Tobey , Andrea Martin , music by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by Andrew Laszlo ) , " Alien³ " ( 1992 ) , " Batman Returns " ( 1992 , with Vincent Schiavelli , Anna Katarina , Biff Yeager and Felix Silla ) , " Strange Days " ( 1995 , with Michael Jace and cinematography by Matthew F . Leonetti ) , and more recently , post - " Star Trek " , on " X - Men : The Last Stand " ( 2006 , starring Patrick Stewart , Famke Janssen , and Kelsey Grammer ) . In the latter half of 1989 , Eaves worked for Greg Jein – with whom he struck up an enduring friendship – , and , apart from " The Final Frontier " , has worked for his company on " The Hunt for Red October " ( 1990 , with Ron Gress , Alan McFarland , and Bruce MacRae ) . In 1987 he added graphics to his skills set , and started also working as a graphic artist , first as concept / storyboard artist on the movie " Nightflyers " ( 1987 ) , as well as on the later television series " seaQuest DSV " ( 1993 - 1995 ) , subsequently as concept artist / illustrator for the " Star Trek " franchise and the film " Virtuosity " ( 1995 , with Louise Fletcher , Danny Goldring , and the voice of Frank Welker ) , After his tenure on " Generations " , Eaves returned to Grant McCune Design in 1994 . He remembered , " Clark [ Shaffer , who worked with Eaves on " Generations " ] and I were originally model makers , with a lot of artwork thrown in for fun . Together we designed and built a lot of models for Grant . After Apogee closed , Grant kept the lease on the model shop and called it Grant McCune Design . While there , Clark and I started working together on " Batman Forever " . Our assignment : to design and build Arkham Asylum , that nasty place where Jim Carrey ' s " Riddler " is seen at the story ' s end . " After I worked on " Generations " , the way I approached drawings and sketches changed . Before , I ' d draw a three - quarter view , and when time for model construction came , I ' d fill in details as needed . When building the model , I had in my mind all the information that wasn ' t on paper . Thus , if anyone else had to build a model from one of my sketches , they faced a lot of gray areas , a lot of detail that needed to be addressed . " Generations " taught me that the more sketches I make ( especially plans , even rough one ) , the better they assist those who had to make models from my drawings . " So when we started working on models for " Batman Forever " and I had to do the sketches , not only did I do three - quarter drawings for the producer ' s approval , I did plans too , which I ' d never done before . The Arkham model became so large , Clark and I had a whole crew of model makers working with us – and all the plans and drawings wound up being great assets and timesavers . " While Eaves has largely maintained his revised stance for the " Star Trek " features he later worked on , he somewhat reverted to his earlier way of designing for the television franchise , as he wanted to have the modelers at the various visual effects houses to have their own creative input in order to finish up on his designs . On at least one occasion , in the case of the Jem ' Hadar battle cruiser , that has led to a continuity error . One year later , in 1996 , Eaves was invited by Herman Zimmerman to work for " Deep Space Nine " , to fill the position of Jim Martin , after the latter had left the show , which for Eaves was heart wrenching . He continued , " " Illustration has always been my first love , but it was a tough decision , because I also love making models for Grant . After a week of sleepless nights spent trying to decide which path to follow , I said farewell to Grant . And it was back to the ol ' drawing board at Paramount . . . " " ( " " , p . 79 ) As is already indicated above , shortly before he started work on " Deep Space Nine " , Eaves worked as a conceptual designer on the 1996 science fiction television movie , intended as the pilot for the planned Paramount Television science fiction series " The Osiris Chronicles " . A somewhat ill - conceived attempt to further capitalize on the new found popularity of science - fiction television shows , the series was not picked up however , and the pilot was under its eventual title aired on 27 January 1998 on the recently established studio television network UPN and released as a direct - to - VHS home media format to the rest of the world . Soon - to - be " Deep Space Nine " colleagues who had also worked on the production included Michael and Denise Okuda , Don Greenberg and Davy Nethercutt . Studio models Eaves had designed for the production , built at the company of his former mentor Greg Jein and including the protagonist " hero model " Gary Hutzel had deemed a " fish " , were later sold in various 2008 " It ' s A Wrap ! sale and auction " s as lots and . Ironically , his " fish " - like hero ship design , called the " Daedalus " , bore more than a passing resemblance with the Xindi - Aquatic cruiser he much later designed for " Enterprise " . When reminded of " The Osiris Chronicles " by his blog participants , Eaves , his memory jogged , remembered that the canceled production had even more behind - the - scenes ties with the " Star Trek " franchise , " " We did " Osiris " immediately after " Generations " and both were Paramount films . When " First Contact " was starting up we brought over all the sets from " Osiris " and incorporated them into " Star Trek " . It was an oddity to take elements I had drawn for OC and then redraw them into the TNG world . . . everything came together well and if you have seen " Osiris " or ( Battle lords ) the tub shaped set piece that the Plentum was in became the center piece of the Warp core of the " Enterprise E " . " " As graphic and concept / storyboard artist mostly in the role of production illustrator , Eaves has worked after his " Star Trek " television career on " Sky High " ( 2005 , with music by Michael Giacchino ) , " Santa Clause 3 : The Escape Clause " ( 2006 , with Michael Dorn ) , and " Evan Almighty " ( 2007 ) , and as illustrator on " Ghosts of Mars " ( 2001 , with Joanna Cassidy ) , " The Majestic " ( 2001 , with David Ogden Stiers and Earl Boen ) , " Flight of the Phoenix " ( 2004 ) , and " Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides " ( 2011 ) , earning him a second ADG Award nomination the following year . His television credits as concept artist include the series " Bones " and " Raines " , the latter of which starred Linda Park . In recent years Eaves has showed an increasing interest in model ( the female kind ) photography , and an increasing amount of his photoshoots are featured on his blog . His " Star Trek " roots are evident as his models are often attired in female Starfleet uniforms from era . Eaves has currently a listing on the model photographers blog " Model Mayhem " , as well as a separate , photography dedicated , . Eaves has concurrently lent his talents to The Overview Institute , a non - profit organization founded in 2008 and made up of real - world space specialists like astronauts , scientists , and authors , dedicated to " research and educate both the space community and the general public on the nature and psycho / social impact of directly experiencing space " . As consultant he is member of " The Overview Effect " team , the part of the organization , responsible for visualizing the work of the institute by producing documentaries and the like . In the team he has been joined by former " Star Trek " alumni Douglas Trumbull and Dan Curry . Most recent credits as Concept Illustrator and Artist include the fantasy adventure " Oz the Great and Powerful " ( 2013 , with Bill Cobbs and production design by Robert Stromberg ) , the sequel " Iron Man Three " ( 2013 , with William Sadler and Miguel Ferrer and music by Brian Tyler ) , the comic sequel " Captain America : The Winter Soldier " ( 2014 , with Alan Dale and art direction by Gary Kosko , Steve Christensen , Beat Frutiger , and netting him his fourth ADG Award nomination , shared with his colleagues but still not won ) , and Brad Bird ' s science fiction film " Tomorrowland " ( 2015 , written and produced by Damon Lindelof , produced by Jeffrey Chernov , music by Michael Giacchino , and production design by Scott Chambliss ) . As if to underscore his allegiance to the science - fiction genre , Eaves became a member of the Board of Advisors of the recently established . Founded at the start of 2016 , the museum is slated to start out as a traveling exhibition tour , before settling down in 2018 , at a permanent home in an intended location in North Hollywood , California . It has reunited Eaves with a slew of former " Star Trek " colleagues , who not only serve on the advisory board , but on the Board of Directors as well . " Star Trek " awards . ADG Excellence in Production Design Award . Eaves received the following ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations as Illustrator in the category Fantasy Film