Here is episode #2 in the battle of the “ST, First Contact” art departments. The great Herman Zimmerman came to me and said we need to work out what these escape pods do and how they are launched for the VFX sequence. So I started drawing pods and and working out the mechanics of the launch system. the first sketch was of a grenade style pod that I passed on, and went for a more faceted look. from there a color rendering was done and a quick launch scene with an explosive hatch that would add some visual excitement when the pods ejected,,,, Meanwhile up at ILM Alex Jeager was doing the same thing for his boss Jeff Mann. The stuff Alex did went to the producers, got approved and a model was ordered to be built. the next day Herman took our stuff over and came back and said these are now considered art exercises, so back to the Vulcan ships for you. He laughed and told me the story!! We both laughed and and I was going up to ILM in a week or two and couldn’t wait to see what Alex had come up with,,,, Once there the model was pretty far along and was being constructed mainly from Vacu-formed pieces. wow this is looking cool and then saw the drawings Alex had done hanging on the wall. loved the cool simplicity he had designed and especially how he merged the exterior of the “E” to be a functional part of the pod!!! As always the amazing amount of fun on this film especially getting to work with my ILM heros will always be amongst my favorite Star Trek memories. here are the pod concepts and one shot of the finished ILM model!
grenade pass
sketch
color pass, 227 is my dad's HP badge #
3-2-1, blast-off!!!!
awww!!! the brilliance of Alex Jeager
one of Bill George's and John Goodson's handywork!
wow what a shot and loved the Goldsmith theme that played out this scene!
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
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