Ed Giddings

Ed Giddings is a CGI artist who has contributed to a number of Star Trek-related projects and is the owner of , a digital visual effects production house.
Giddings, through prior associations with "Mojo" Lebowitz, has made a number of contributions to the Star Trek print franchise. Around the turn of the millennium, Giddings was commissioned by Lebowitz to construct CGI models of starship designs that either did not previously exist or were intended to replace those production CGI models deemed unsuitable for print publication. Lebowitz needed these models for illustrations in his planned (but ultimately canceled) Unseen Frontier reference book project in 2000. 
Having previously drawn up a list of ships that he wanted to tackle, Lebowitz had Giddings start on these as he himself was still working on at Foundation Imaging at the time. Giddings had already completed models of the and the , among others, when the project fell through. Despite the project falling through, his work earned him an accolade of praise from his consignor, "A few years back, when I was working on a Star Trek book for Simon & Schuster, I hired Ed to help out with modeling chores. The CGI Excelsior model we had used on DS9 wasn't very detailed, so I asked Ed to create a new one. Armed with a ton of reference photos of the physical model, he went to work, sending me daily progress images, upon which I would scribble notes and make suggestions. After a few weeks, Ed put the finishing touches on what is easily the best CG model of the Excelsior to date, matching the studio model rivet by rivet." Nevertheless, much of his work was eventually featured in later officially licensed Star Trek print publications including the Star Trek Fact Files, , the Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars, and their book derivatives. 
Praised by Lebowitz for their high level of detail, his Centaur and Excelsior models were deemed by Eaglemoss Collections' project manager Ben Robinson – to whom he was introduced by Lebowitz (Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2151-2293, p. 6) – , as ideal for use in the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, as had been his 2010 spin-off build of the Excelsior-class refit , built for Robert Bonchune's USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual. Giddings subsequently made several more contributions to the Collection.
Giddings also produced a model of a Bird-of-Prey's bridge for the Klingon Bird of Prey Owners' Workshop Manual and co-produced a model of the alternate reality's for Roddenberry.com. Before his official, eventually realized franchise contributions, Giddings had already created CGI models for several episodes of the 2000-2007 fan-made Star Trek: Hidden Frontier series and created a Martian canyon for Red Faction: Origins, a science fiction television production made by Syfy in 2011. 
Giddings became the CGI model provider of choice, when Eaglemoss decided in 2017 to add starships to their Alien hitherto figurine only line, also headed by Robinson, and has to date contributed the digital models of at least seven starships stemming from that franchise. Additionally, he became the company's modeler of choice for the subsequent starship collections from , Space 1999, and franchises. Gidding's elevation to Eaglemoss modeler mainstay, was necessitated in part by the illness of his prolific colleague Fabio Passaro, who would die from it a short while later on 22 October 2022.
Giddings' elevated status at Eaglemoss however, was itself cut short when the company went bankrupt in August 2022.
==Bibliography==
*Star Trek: The Unseen Frontier Declassified Images from the History of the Federation, 2000 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler (canceled)
*Star Trek Fact Files (uncredited)
** Issue 297, 2002 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
** Issue 298, 2002 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
* (uncredited)
**Volume 3, Issue 6, 2002 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 34, 2002 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
*USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual, 2010 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler (uncredited)
*Klingon Bird of Prey Owners' Workshop Manual, 2012 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler (uncredited, but acknowledged)
*Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection (as identified in social media and the various iterations of Giddings' official site, but uncredited)
**Issue 1, 2013 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 9, 2013 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue , 2014 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 18, 2014 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue , 2015 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue , 2015 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue , 2015 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue , 2015 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 59, 2015 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 90, 2017 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 98, 2017 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 103, 2017 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 123, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 142, 2019 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 176, 2020 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue 180, 2020 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue , 2013 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue SP15, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue SP18, 2019 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue SP25, 2021 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue SP29, 2022 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue SP30, 2023 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue XL07, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Issue XL08, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Bonus issue 04, 2017 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Bonus issue 08, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Bonus issue 16, 2019 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
**Bonus issue 32, 2020 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler
*Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2151-2293, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler (credited)
*Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 to the Future, 2018 – Co-Illustrator, Digital Modeler (credited)
== External links ==
* – official site
* 
Category:Star Trek reference artists
Category:Merchandise staff