Xindi underwater bomb platform

the million dollar idea

the $12.00 versions

Enterprise introduced many new races of Aliens for the series banking on the idea that there would be so many races encountered not all we need to be mentioned of, or seen again in the already existing Trek films and series,,, I guess in a Galaxy as big as Star Treks there would be countless discoveries of different races that you could get away with what this show did regulerly,,,, So today  I wanted to show some of the designs for the Xindi’s ultimate planet destroying weapon in it’s underwater cradle from Episode #70 “Azati prime” . In case you haven’t noticed, it appears that if you are to design the ultimate battle station with enough fire power to destroy an entire planet,,, the chosen shape is  round. .. Let me see know there was the Borg Sphere, the Xindi sphere, the chrome sphere from Star Man, the sphere from “Day the Earth stood still, and I believe there was a big one with a dent in it from some show called Star Wars….HMMMM round must be a bad shape. Anyways here is the first pass of the assembly station hidden under the sea. the idea was big and the technology was to reflect a submerged ship yard with multiple layers of cabling, lights, and construction vessels working round the clock to get this bomb ready for delivery to Earth. This first idea was brutally rejected, and stripped down to a few not so exciting simple frame work ideas. I believe Doug wound up finishing this one up and his versions also were taken down to bare minimums. So despite it’s 4F rating I still liked how it turned out and it now is a fav in my Portfolio.

it’s a messerschmit me 262

 

#1

#2

color sketch

 

details

 

 

 

 

Enterprise episode #34 “The Communicator” offered the art depart a real fun story to work with. It called for an alien race that had flying technologies that were fairly primitive compared to Starfleet but pretty advanced from a general aviation point of view. The director was a fan of German jets from WWII and we all new which little jet had to provide the inspiration. The ME 262 was one Germany’s most feared invention,, while the rest of the world were flying prop jobs, Hitlers engineers upped their efforts and started to make rockets and jets. Despite the advancements it always depended on the pilot and not the aircraft when it came to who would win in a dog `

Pierre's cg model

fight and many of these technologically advanced  beauties were shot done by your average old Propeller driven airplane. In designing this new type of alien aircraft The Me 262 was combined with an even earlier style of plane,,,the biplane ,   all this was thrown in the mixing bowl with a sprinkle of  sci fi and after it baked a while, this new little vehicle was ready to go. All together there were 4 or 5 concepts pitched for this plane and this one is the final approved piece. here are some of the drawings and a frame of the CG model created by Pierre  from Eden FX.

Orion slave ships

 

 

66

 

66 color

key frame with tattoos.

69 pencil/pen

 

rough color

final approved version

 

 

 

 

Enterprise Episode #93 (Bound) To finish off the Gorn/Orion architectural arc, Here are the ship concepts for the massive Orion slave vessel. The ship is heavily armed and is decorated with a teeth and alien tattoos. The following sketches lead up to the final approved art and color schemes. This was almost the end of Enterprise and having Manny as the driving force behind the fourth season brought new life to the series and made the final season a real treat to be a part of. besides the Zindi, these were among my favorites of new alien ships.

the orion battle ships of Boarderline

 

version #46

Version #65

 

final concept

 

 

 

Last week’s post featured some concepts for a Gorn attack ship,  turned Orion via a script change. Todays post will show one more concept, and then the final approved design. Wondering in a black-hole of ideas that weren’t making the vision that Manny Cotto had envisioned is the first sketch today. Manny had a very distinct idea about what this ship was going to look like and the earlier concepts were just not falling where he wanted them. I took this piece over to his office and he didn’t care for what he was seeing, so he did some research and handed me a copy of what looked like a standard on a pole from either a fictional movie or from something that really existed from somewhere in the world. It was a cool shape with a kind of crescent, mirrored blade look to it. So from their I translated the shape into a ship keeping the basis of the picture as the cornerstone.Manny was very happy with this one and he really liked the teeth,,, he thru in another thought of hitting the nose and wing tips in a bloody red color to accent the the nature of the vessel. With that here is the pen/penciled concept and the finished color key frame.

Denobulan Vessel

 

3/4 concept view,,,,

 

B&W line drawing

key frame

 

 

 

 

This new ship was created for the Dinoblians and classified as a medical vessel. It made it’s debut in Cold station, Episode # 81. here is the sketch of the ship, the B&W of the asteroid field hiding the entrance to the hidden base, and the colored key frame version.

the Orion Fighters of Enterprise

 

 

model kit of the P-40

art by Roy Williams

big Roy

 

combo page

version 1

version 2

 

 

 

 

These are some variations of Orion Fighters from “Enterpise” Episode #80 entitled “Boarderline” Early on the rough of this story was that these ships were to be Gorn ships and that was quite a thrilling thought. The architecture seen her still reflects that idea even though they are now Orion fighters. As a favorite enemy I wanted to put the Gorn as a solo pilot of a very aggressive gun ship. Based on the stylization of the Curtis P-40 these two ships were drawn to reflect that WWII in space look. in this pack of art and images there is the flying tiger logo. This is a great little side story during WWII, Disney cartoonist were constantly being asked to design nose art for our boys planes. It got to be such a huge amount of work That Disney appointed a group that specifically handled all the  designs for nose art. The P-40 in particular had these awesome shark teeth drawn on the engine cowling  and on the side of the plane was characterization of a fling Tiger. Well if you remember big Roy (Roy Williams) from the mickey Mouse club,,, he was one of the adult Mouseketeers who always was smiling,,,, he was the one who penciled this beauty. I have a book at home of wartime nose art and there was a little article crediting him with this early 1940’s art

the early NX-01

 

 

the whatever it is version

the other what ever it is version

 

 

 

 

 

When Enterprise was starting up the first and foremost top of the list was the new ship, and orders were to try everything under the sun and don’t go for the obvious… Doug Drexler was seriously stuck over at Foundation Imaging and he was pining to come over and start on day one…. It was a big show and and for a month or so it was void of it’s greatest designer. My boss Herman Zimmerman gave me both the NX and the Sulibon vessels as a starting point. He had found a shape he liked in one of Syd Meads many books and thus had me translate the shape into a starship thus is the first image,,, I was so glad that after he saw it on paper he changed his mind and we started to pursue a more traditional starship look. Many many versions came and went and all were getting the boot with little to no direction on what they wanted to see from the producers end. by now time was getting critical and the Sulibon stuff was falling behind as well. On the side Doug had started to also work on Enterprise concepts and his work was very impressive and filling the voids of time and history with great ease,,, I think being away from the heavy pressure at the art department was a blessing for what he was doing. Sadly non of his beauties were getting anywhere either. the next sketch was the last that I had drawn together with Herman, and it was a fun piece just to for concept sake. Doug was now free and starting on the lot so our duties split thankfully. Doug had a huge nightmare to work thru but I’ll let him tell you that story!!! and the Sulibon was also full of horror and gnashing of teeth. but the art department family was back together again and there was no better place to be.

Romulans from Enterprise

top view

belly view

Orthos by the world famous Rob Bonchune

Wah's beauty

on the set

Enterprise Episode #29 entitled “Minefield” was one of my Favorites!!! The story called for an attack by a classic TOS favorite,,,,THE ROMULANS!  the art Department was again a glee with bringing in an old adversary  legend into our Version of Star Trek. immediately the consensus was to retro out  Wah Chang’s original design for our episode, as with the Klingon Battle cruiser from “Unexpected”.  The architecture was pulled back about a hundred years and the end result was just enough to still pay homage without creating a whole new ship. As a final gesture we put the war bird graphic on the bottom of the vessel,,,,,, and just when you think you’ve done the right thing,,,, lighting strikes,,, the graphic had to be removed…  Ahhh,  shuckydarn!!!! in addition to the concept art here are some images of Wahs ship and some uncredited plans from the internet.  Thanks to the artist who created these images and hope you get to see your talents posted here.

vulcan architecture

 

 

 

This was a very fun project. We had the task of creating The Vulcan high Command Bldg. and these sketches show the process of setting a standard for the aesthetics of their artistic culture. The skyscrapers are representative of sword blades fashioned into buildings. Sketch one was approved for the look of the buildings but for an establishing shot the angle ws to high. Sketch two shows a lower version so the planets horizon is a part of the grand view. Once approved the illustration went to color which seen here is a combination of traditional marker and ink and accented with photoshop. A lens flare was added to complete the image. from here the piece went to Foundation to have a CG model made for the episodes FX shots and Doug took the on the task of creating the Translight for the live action and to add a level of detail that to would be copied and modeled over at Foundation.

tholian

 

 

 

one of the great things about “Enterprise” was that every now and then we would get to work on a vessel that we so loved from the original series… This was a great assignment to retro out the Tholian ship. The drawings went thru fairly easily with only two versions shown here in the sketch. The prominent version in the center was chosen and from here the Foundation boys took over and did their magic!!!