Howdy all, and welcome to my new blog page! First of all, 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. You’re invited to come on over and be a part of all the fun that we had behind the scenes. Every day was full of laughs, crushed bones, pranks and completely unreal scenarios that could only happen in Hollywood and would be completly banned in Phoenix Arizona!!!
To start this page off right, we have to go back 30 years to the pre release of Star Trek the Motion Picture. It was my senior year in High School and everyone was abuzz about what the movie would hold in it’s December release. I was most anxious to see what the new models were going to look like, and the Klingon battle cruiser was the one I could not wait to see. No disappointments when that baby rolled onto the screen with that dizzying flyby in the opening of the film.
Working at Apogee many years later, I came across the files of photos shot during the film’s VFX filming days, and shown here is a beauty shot of the unfinished model. This image was presented to the producers who were approving the model’s look as they progressed. In this shot, the bridge area is void of details. Early conversations had this part of the ship clean as was with the original series model. John Dykstra started the discussion of highly detailing this part of the ship because of the shots that would so highly feature this part of the model. At that time, Star Wars had changed all we knew about the look of movie models, and the more the detail, the bigger the scale. After all was said and done, this one stands out as one of the most beautiful of all movie models next to the incredible odel of the Enterprise also from The Motion Picture. The two pictures at the top of the page are of the same model, but reworked by the model making geniuses at ILM for Star Trek VI…note all the beautiful brass work.
pic 1
#2
what a beauty!
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Well, John, it’s great that you too started a blog. I am curious to hear your stories, see your pictures.
Cheers
Thorsten
Thanks and i am so glad to finally get this up and running!
Holy crap!
I’m SO diggin’ the Armada Class!
Beautiful concept craft.
Hey John —
I’ve enjoyed your comments over on Doug’s site and I’m looking forward to this new blog — I love your work. My college buddy Craig Andujar who’s over at Disney vfx worked with you a couple of times I think. Good luck with the site, can’t wait to hear your Trek stories…
thanks and I owe it all to Doug!!! Yes it’s true! greg was around the corner from me when we did Witch Mountain,,, we would talk Indiana Jones and movie music all day!!
hi John,
I just finished reading Anonymous Lawyer. What a crack-up; all it is is his blog(s) and email to his niece. He has not-so-nice-but-descriptive nicknames for everyone he talks about, since he needs to remain anonymous and thought I’d pass that suggestion on to you……I can only imagine what you’d come up with for people! Have fun with your site and I’ll visit it often. Do you have a counter on it?
thanks and I’ll check it out
WOW John,
How do you ever find the time to write, keep a blog and maybe still workout? Kudos to you my friend and this will be one I’ll keep an eye on!
Howdy michael, great to hear from you and soon I’ll put up some of the fun we had on Evan Almighty!!!
Cute.
Funny you should say that John. Steve Carell is in our Art Dept right now planning his Directorial ‘Debut’ for The Office!
That is so funny!!!
Smaller world than we think… or is it: “Perfect timing’? I think the later… Much better for joksters…
This is great! It’s good to see you online, John. Love the photo. That’s such a beautiful model.
It is, I was so glad that we got over to take these pictures before it was sold. I love that picture of you , Denise, and Doug out at the cape!!! I have heard your doing all the mission patches now!!! that is such an awesome dream job for you!!!
Hey John,
I look forward to reading your blog and seeing some of your Trek goodies that we not seen yet.
BTW I love your Generation and Frist Contact Concept Art book.
do you have plans to write another one?
I was so looking forward to making that book with everyone stuff in it, but it was all going on in the middle of the dark divorce days!!! AAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGG!!!!
John – a real beauty. Great to see you documenting this history!
Thanks Adam,
Soon the PHX will have a big day here!!!
Huh? Did I read ‘Divorce?”
yes but that was a historical comment from the 90’s, the first time around was a snafu!!!
ok, ok… I’m all up to date then….
Congrats for getting this up and running John! Can’t wait to read the goodness to come!
daren
It’s so great that you’re getting this going! It’s so obvious you enjoy doing this stuff and sharing it with everyone. 🙂 I may just be one of the masses that the film and TV industries entertain, but I love the stories about how things were done and the real people behind the images and characters. I never miss the extra features on DVDs (and enjoyed your DS9 feature, by the way), and I’ll be checking this out looking for more fun and interesting bits of information. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually contribute some fun, if not so interesting, stuff myself!!
I like the pic of you working on the Die Hard 2 set…the size and detail are great! Maybe you can get some of those up here. Of course, the fumes were rotting your brain, unfortunately!!!
One day in the future will be Die Hard day, as well as The Hunt for Red October day!!
You beat me to the punch John! If there is anything you need from me about the old model making days (1986 – 1999) let me know. Good Luck!
Cool blog,hope we can get out to some more crash sites soon,Blue skies,Bob
Soon. I am still trying to track down the PHX in Buttercup before it gets to hot!!!
Hi John; This is a great experence being here and checking out your site.. I am glad you have been able to do it. Good for you!
Your work in the industry has been something I have followed for a long time; your skills and tallents are an insperation to the world and my self; a modeling hobbiest and collector.
I recently saw the “Witch Mountain” movie it was Good ! and as always for me it had the gratuitous Space ship (saucer) shots; which made my day.
The design of the saucer was excelent; did you have anything to do with it?
It will be good to see you at the Wonderfest show; please do bring any of your art work with you; even the thumbnail and sketch book stuff; Ied love to see them. Be well and say hi; your friend; Michael
Thanks for the compliments and glad to have you on board!!!
Finaly, one of my favourite illustrators from the world of Trek starts a blog 🙂
I loved your work on the Enterprise E and look forward to reading more entries from you.
thanks and if you want to see anything in particular just let me know!
Wow, first Mojo gets a blog, then Doug Drexler, and now John Eaves. And to top it all off, a new movie in less than two months! I’m in Star Trek heaven.
Thanks for starting this blog, John. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us. One request: If you have any concept art or orthos of the little Starfleet vessel from ENTERPRISE called the Sarajevo, or the “elite observation vessel” as documented in the concept art, I’d love to see it.
As noted on Doug Drexler’s blog, great to finally see you online after all these years of researching your ship designs, especially the Enterprise-E and the DS9 ships.
Since the comments have started to cover a number of subjects, I have a quickie Enterprise-E question — both Doug Drexler and Mike Okuda recall that Rick Berman changed the deck count of the Enterprise-E at one point, possibly causing Doug Drexler to redraw his cutway schematic.
They don’t remember any specifics, however; I only know for certain that Rick Sternbach determined 23 decks originally and used 23 in his blueprints, that those 23 somehow became 24 in Picard’s quote in FC, and there have also been unexplained references to Deck 26 in FC and Deck 29 in Nemesis.
Now, I’m curious if you happen to remember anything about eventual changes to the Ent-E deck count, so I can put this annoying little mystery to rest. 🙂
Regards,
Boris
Here is the story of the ever changing decks. When the E had a final approved design. we drew up a chart of all the Enterprise’s in profile. Herman and I set down a whole bunch of cutouts of the E in various sizes to see where this new ship should scale with the others. We found one size that looked appropriate and we put a scale to it’s length and that would be 2248 feet. Rick was waiting to do the blue prints and add his creativity to the design so we gave him a drawing with this one measurement. from there he sized the whole ship and came up with 23 decks at 10 feet per deck hight. there was a space of about 6 feet remaining in his breakdown,,,,not enough to constitute a full deck. from there the plans were drawn the windows were counted and ILM made the model. So as far as the finished model goes there are 23 physical decks. During the TNG days Mike, Denise and Rick created a bible that had all the standards of Star trek set in print. This was given to the writers so when technical issues arose, the answers were set in stone. The features didn’t have this type of reference and all though the information was there it didn’t get to the story tellers. So in conclusion naivety was the driving force in all the fluctuations in deck #s
I’ll try and stay on topic and off of all of your other fun potential topics!
This Klingon cruiser was the first Trek alien design that I felt connected to the race which it belonged. It is so utilitarian, not going for aesthetics but brute functionality. At the time I didn’t appreciate the added detail as much as I do now. I love hearing about the creative process, what drives the changes and improvements in design and effects. Star Wars pushed a lot of people beyond their comfort zone at that time! – kudos to a creative bunch of folks!!!
When I watch a movie or show, I find myself paying more attention to the creative details and missing plot points! Thanks for the intro to the behind the scenes design world, John. 🙂
Doug’s blog is awesome, I’m glad it got you open to starting your own. Looking forward to hearing your stories 🙂
Thanks for starting up a blog, John! It’s great to be in onboard on the ground floor on this one! Love the battlecruiser pics, it’s just such an iconic design. I always wondered what a 24th century development of this ship would look like (in contrast to the semi-Starfleet look of the Vor’cha and Negh’Var). Along those lines… how much of a reference point was the Klingon Bird-of-Prey when you were coming up with the beautiful Valdore Romuland warbird design for Nemesis? (Would leave to see some more pics of that ship if you have any!) 🙂
Cheers.
Mark
Thanks and glad your here… The Valdore was a very fun ship loosely based on Andy Probert’s War bird from TNG and fueled by the script it was an opportunity to combine both Klingon and Romulan architectures. I have a lot of imagery on this one and it should be up soon!
She is a beaut’ eh!
Hi and thanks John, and thanks for your new blog as well. 🙂
PLL,
deg
Welcome aboard, I look forward to reading and commenting on your blogs as I do Doug Drexler’s. I have every intention of being a regular reader and commentator.
I’m glad that Doug convinced you to start your own blog, John! You guys did such fantastic work and it’s fun to live vicariously through your experiences!
Hi John,
I’m so Happy you decided to start your own blog. I always loved viewing your artwork in Magazines and in particular the Art books on the Movies. Now I can enjoy finding people’s names in your drawings once again.
Your Blog and Dougs are two websites I have to visit Daily for my fix!
It’s about time for me to drop by.
The K’t’inga is a great topic to launch this blog with. I love this ship model!
All the best luck with your blog, John!
Oh, and thanks to George who referred me to this place!
Thanks for the blog John! This is a great way for a creative artist and trekkie to get inspiration… really really great work!
Is there a way to buy Aboriginal artwork? Here in The Netherlands its almost impossible to get some art, and I’am looking for art for my new home 🙂