(written from a Production point of view)
David "Dave" A. Lombardi, Jr. (born 24 November 1973; age 50) is a digital visual effects artist who has worked for several years on several Star Trek live-action productions, while in the employ of a succession of digital effects companies.
Upon being hired as Senior Artist/Digital Effects Supervisor by Digital Muse, Lombardi was, in his first true professional gainful employment, instantly involved in the creation of CGI effects for the television shows Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (thirteen episodes, including "Chimera") and Star Trek: Voyager (twenty episodes). During these years he has also created CGI models of the Sovereign-class (that was passed over in favor of Santa Barbara Studios' version, but found its way in the trailer of Star Trek: Insurrection and into various licensed print publications), [1](X) and the Excelsior-class, [2](X) which was extensively used in the later seasons of DS9 and Voyager. During this time he was co-nominated for an Emmy Award in the category "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series" for DS9: "What You Leave Behind".
In 2000, Lombardi followed Muse's founder John Gross, as the latter left the company due to a hostile takeover, to Eden FX, the new VFX company Gross had founded, serving in the same capacity, and where he also worked on the ENT: "Broken Bow" episode (that did receive an Emmy Award, but for which he had not received credit). He left that company in 2001, but not before having received a second Emmy Award co-nomination in the same category for VOY: "Workforce".
A decade and a half later, Lombardi was reacquainted with the franchise when he volunteered to consult with Ben Robinson on his Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection project. [3] [4] Lombardi still maintained a partial database of the CGI models built at Digital Muse for Deep Space Nine specifically, and it were these that Robinson was particularly interested in for his Collection, since, as Robinson had put it, "There is an excellent [CGI] archive of ships from Voyager and Enterprise. Less so with the other shows." [5] In return, Lombardi's Insurrection build of the Enterprise-E became prominently featured in that, and its spin-off publications.
Career outside Star Trek[]
David Lombardi attended the College of Design Art Architecture and Planning and the Industrial Design course at the University of Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 1996, before heading out to the West Coast. After a short two-month stint at Pixel Magic, his career began in earnest when he was employed by the newly formed visual effects company Digital Muse as Senior Artist/Digital Effects Supervisor.
After leaving Eden FX, Lombardi has predominantly freelanced for several effects houses (among others Digital Domain, but not during their Star Trek Nemesis involvement), and has worked on productions like Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004), Sin City (2005), and more recently on Alice in Wonderland (2010).
Currently, Lombardi is no longer working in the motion picture business and is employed for corporations, operating from his hometown Cincinnati.
Emmy Award nominations[]
Emmy Award credits in the category "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series":
- 1999 Emmy Award nomination for the episode "What You Leave Behind", shared with Dan Curry, Gary Hutzel, David Stipes, Adam Buckner, Arthur J. Codron, Judy Elkins, Gary Monak, Paul Maples, Steve Fong, Don Greenberg, Paul Hill, Davy Nethercutt, Kevin Bouchez, Gregory Rainoff, Larry Younger, Sherry Hitch, Rob Bonchune, and Adam Howard
- 2001 Emmy Award nomination for the episode "Workforce", shared with Dan Curry, Chad Zimmerman, Paul Hill, Gregory Rainoff, Dave Morton, Ronald B. Moore, John Teska, and Brandon MacDougall
Bibliography[]
- Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars – Co-illustrator
- 2003 – Cover
- USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual, October 2010 – Co-Illustrator (uncredited)
- Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection (uncredited)
- Issue 21, 2014 – Co-Illustrator
- Issue XL3, 2017 – Co-Illustrator
Further reading[]
- "Digital Generation", Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 169, January 2020, pp. 14-17
External links[]
- David Lombardi – official site
- Demo reel – reworked version from the ones featured on the previous version of Lombardi's official site, still including the demo footage of his Sovereign-, and Excelsior-class builds.
- David Lombardi at the Internet Movie Database
- David Lombardi's resume at Digital Artist Agency