Robert Swarthe Robert Postal Swarthe was part of the special animation effects team of Robert Abel & Associates ( RA & A ) , the company that was initially contracted to do the ( VFX ) for the movie , . While there , Swarthe worked on the wormhole mishap sequence , one of RA & A ' s few , if not only , VFX sequence to survive to be featured in the movie , after RA & A was pulled from the project . When RA & A was released from the project in February 1979 , Swarthe was asked by VFX Supervisor Douglas Trumbull , who was already acquainted with Swarthe ' s abilities , to join his company , Future General Corporation ( FGC ) , the VFX company that took over the work from RA & A . As animation supervisor in FGC ' s art department , Entertainment Effects Group ( EEG ) , Swarthe and his team continued to work on the additional animated visual effects sequences , most notably that of the ' s warp streaking effects and the various " V ' ger " approach effects scenes . The work done on the movie garnered him and his team an Academy Award nomination , as well as , though not personally nominated , helping others of the visual effects team win the movie ' s only award , the 1980 Saturn Award for " Best Special Effects " . In 1979 , while he was still working on the movie , Swarthe had talked in depth about his work for the production to " Cinefantastique " reporter Preston Neal Jones , but the latter ' s copy was only published 35 years later in the title listed below . Career outside " Star Trek " . Born and raised in Los Angeles , Robert Swarthe has developed a keen interest in the art of animation from an early age onward . As a student , he already produced an unofficial Disney short cartoon in 1964 , entitled " Uncle Walt " , as part of The UCLA Animation Workshop . The only known mass public screening of the short took place in June 1972 at the American Film Institute , as part of a presentation titled " 50 Years of American Animation " . Legend had it that Walt Disney wanted to know who made it in order to launch legal proceedings against its creator . The short however , did not contain any titles , so that Disney was not able to go through with legal proceedings during his lifetime . Early projects Swarthe has embarked upon on personal title after his student days , were the shorts " K - 9000 : A Space Oddity " ( 1968 ) and " Kick Me " ( 1975 ) , the latter of which bringing him some renown in peer circles , as it earned him his first , 1976 , Academy Award nomination in the category " Best Short Film , Animated " . In the early to mid - 1970s , Robert Swarthe worked for the effects company Graphic Films , where he met and befriended Douglas Trumbull . It was through this acquaintance with him , that Swarthe was asked by Trumbull a few years later to work for FGC on the science fiction film ( 1977 , starring Teri Garr ) as the VFX and animation supervisor , in particular on the film ’ s many starfields , revisiting that production , directly after " The Motion Picture " had wrapped for its 1980 " Special Edition " , as so many " The Motion Picture " visual effects staffers did . After his tenure at FGC , Robert Swarthe worked for Francis Ford Coppola on two of his productions , " One from the Heart " ( 1982 ) and " The Outsiders " ( 1983 ) , yet seemed to have left the motion picture industry afterwards , as no other motion picture credits are known for him . Academy Award . Robert Swarthe received the following Academy Award nomination in the category Best Effects , Visual Effects :