Koji Kuramura

Koji Kuramura was a CGI artist for Foundation Imaging and subsequently at EdenFX, after the former went out of business in 2002. He worked on numerous episodes of , and , and .
Kuramura's work on Deep Space Nine entailed among others the launch bay , and animating the Fire Caves sequence in . For Voyager, his work included among others, constructing the warp nacelle interior for the crash sequence in , the severely damaged USS Voyager in , and the Unicomplex and the damaged Borg sphere in . () 
For Enterprise, by then in the employ of Eden FX, noticeable contributions were the CGI models of the International Space Station featured in the opening titles of the series, the under construction and the , as well as his CGI build of the . Kuramura has counted his Enterprise builds of the Romulan Bird-of-Prey (22nd century) and the abandoned prime-universe D4-class among his personal favorites. His work earned Kuramura three Emmy Award nominations, one for the Voyager episode "Year of Hell, Part II", and two for the Enterprise episodes (which did win him a VES Award) and .
Besides the live-action Star Trek productions, Kuramura, despite his low profile, has been one of the most featured contributors to the Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars, much of which reproduced in its 2006 book derivative. He has, to date, only appeared once in a live Star Trek interview in the "The Next Generation's Legacy: 2007"-special feature on the extra DVD disc of the TNG Complete Series Boxset.
Outside the official Star Trek franchise framework, Kuramura collaborated as CGI Artist on the 2006 vignette "Center Seat" of James Cawley's fan-made internet series Star Trek: New Voyages, which he has followed up with his participation in "Prelude to Axanar" (featuring a host of Star Trek alumni such as J.G. Hertzler, Tony Todd, Gary Graham and Kate Vernon), the 2014 introductory featurette to the fan movie , produced and co-written by, as well as featuring Alec Peters.
== Career outside Star Trek ==
Apart from Star Trek Koji Kuramura has worked as a special effects crew member on the short film The Blair Witch Mountain Project in 2002, directed and produced by, as well as starring Ike Eisenmann. Another film as digital artists is the horror thriller Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist in 2005, being employed at Eden FX alongside former Foundation co-worker John Teska. Kuramura has also contributed to the Electronic Arts, Inc. Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun – Firestorm (2000). 
In 2006, Kuramura was hired by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in order to create visualizations, for which his prior experiences on Star Trek were singularly well suited, of space exploration, or as Kuramura himself has put it, "Our job is to bring some Hollywood pizazz, the wow factor, to everything we do". Former Foundation and Star Trek colleague Michael Stetson joined him at JPL. 
After a long absence, Kuramura returned to the motion picture industry, having recently worked as digital modeler on Iron Sky (2012, along with former Foundation Imaging colleague Lee Stringer).
== Star Trek awards ==
=== Emmy Awards ===
As CG Model Artist/(Lead) CGI Artist, Koji Kuramura has received the following Emmy Award nominations in the category Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series:
* for , shared with Eric Chauvin, Arthur J. Codron, Paul Hill, John Teska, Greg Rainoff, Mitch Suskin, and Adam Lebowitz
* for , shared with Arthur J. Codron, Pierre Drolet, Steve Fong, Robert Bonchune, Sean Scott, John Teska, Greg Rainoff, and Mitch Suskin
* for , shared with Arthur J. Codron, Dan Curry, Pierre Drolet, Steve Fong, Sean Jackson, John Teska, Greg Rainoff, and Mike Stetson
=== Visual Effects Society Award ===
* VES Award win in the category Best Models and Miniatures in a Televised Program for the episode , shared with John Teska, Pierre Drolet and Sean M. Scott
== Bibliography ==
*Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars – Co-illustrator
**2002 – May spread
**2004 – June, August and October spreads
**2005 – October and December spreads
**2006 – May spread
**2008 – June spread
**2009 – October spread
**2010 – August spread
== External link ==
* 
es:Koji Kuramura
Category:Special and Visual effects staff
Category:Star Trek calendar artists
Category:Emmy Award nominees
Category:VES Award winners