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Inspired by artist [[Ralph McQuarrie]]'s example, who left the aerospace industry to work for George Lucas on ''[[Star Wars]]'', Sternbach made the decision as well to move to California in order to seek illustration work in the motion picture industry. After some work for Disney and [[PBS]], the latter of which he did preliminary work for on [[Carl Sagan]]'s television series ''Cosmos'', he was offered the position in the art department for ''The Motion Picture''. Around the same time he had worked for JPL, where had collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and Jim Blinn on the real world Voyager 1 Jupiter flyby movie, creating textures for the Galilean satellites. That flyby movie became the primary inspiration source for [[Alvy Ray Smith]] (at the time a co-worker of Sternbach at JPL) and [[Loren Carpenter]] at the [[Pixar|Graphics Group]], when they designed the very first fully textured [[CGI]] effect seen by the general public, the "[[Project Genesis|Genesis Demo]]", for {{film|2}}.
 
Inspired by artist [[Ralph McQuarrie]]'s example, who left the aerospace industry to work for George Lucas on ''[[Star Wars]]'', Sternbach made the decision as well to move to California in order to seek illustration work in the motion picture industry. After some work for Disney and [[PBS]], the latter of which he did preliminary work for on [[Carl Sagan]]'s television series ''Cosmos'', he was offered the position in the art department for ''The Motion Picture''. Around the same time he had worked for JPL, where had collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and Jim Blinn on the real world Voyager 1 Jupiter flyby movie, creating textures for the Galilean satellites. That flyby movie became the primary inspiration source for [[Alvy Ray Smith]] (at the time a co-worker of Sternbach at JPL) and [[Loren Carpenter]] at the [[Pixar|Graphics Group]], when they designed the very first fully textured [[CGI]] effect seen by the general public, the "[[Project Genesis|Genesis Demo]]", for {{film|2}}.
   
After his tenure on ''The Motion Picture'' he returned to PBS to resume work on ''Cosmos'', which he continued to do for the entire run of the series. Despite Sternbach's noticeable visual contributions to ''Star Trek'' universe, his work has never been acknowledged with an [[Emmy Award]] nomination, yet he did receive one in 1981 for his work on the ''Cosmos'' episode, "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean".
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After his tenure on ''The Motion Picture'' he returned to PBS to resume work on ''Cosmos'', which he continued to do for the entire run of the series. Despite Sternbach's noticeable visual contributions to the ''Star Trek'' universe, his work has never been acknowledged with an [[Emmy Award]] nomination, yet he did receive one in 1981 for his work on the ''Cosmos'' episode, "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean".
   
 
Other motion picture projects he has worked on, predominantly as illustrator/graphic artist were, ''Rich and Famous'' (1981, uncredited), the documentary ''Future Flight'' (1987), ''The Last Starfighter'' (1983, for which he also story-boarded visual effects sequences and developed texture maps for CGI space scenes), and the remake of the science movie ''Solaris'' (2002)
 
Other motion picture projects he has worked on, predominantly as illustrator/graphic artist were, ''Rich and Famous'' (1981, uncredited), the documentary ''Future Flight'' (1987), ''The Last Starfighter'' (1983, for which he also story-boarded visual effects sequences and developed texture maps for CGI space scenes), and the remake of the science movie ''Solaris'' (2002)

Revision as of 12:55, 20 September 2013

Template:Realworld

For the in-universe article on the illustrator for Incredible Tales, please see Rick Sternbach (artist).

Richard "Rick" Michael Sternbach (born 6 July 1951; age 72) was the (senior) production illustrator/designer for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. He was also the scenic artist for Star Trek Nemesis, providing designs for everything from the Argo shuttle to a Romulan Valdore-type sculpture.

Rick Sternbach was offered his illustrator position in the art department on Star Trek: The Motion Picture in April 1978. Working alongside Mike Minor, he designed control panel layouts and signage for the starship sets, and for which he co-authored the updated internal instruction manual, "Enterprise" Flight Manual. Besides this, he also helped to create the animated asteroid wormhole sequence and helped to obtain source material from NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), that was used in the design of V'Ger. [1]

Recalling how he was hired for the television franchise, Rick Sternbach has reminisced, "The story I usually tell is that late in 1986, when Paramount announced TNG, I heard it over the radio while driving on the freeway, pulled off to a pay phone, and talked to Susan Sackett, Gene's assistant, all within about 25 seconds. I had a few meetings with Bob Justman, Gene, Dorothy Fontana, and David Gerrold, left my portfolio, and was officially hired on in January of 1987. Andy Probert and I were the first two artists brought in, even before an art director, and for the first few months we worked up a foamcore model of the bridge and hundreds of sketches of all the things a good Star Trek production should have. We initially worked up generic items, but eventually we got into story-specific sets and props for "Encounter at Farpoint"." [2] For the the television shows, Rick Sternbach, after he succeeded Probert as senior illustrator when the latter left the franchise upon the conclusion of The Next Generation' first season, has designed a multitude of starships and space stations. He also was responsible for the design of hundreds of props and set pieces, including the mural painting of the Enterprise-D in Picard's ready room, which was painted by Probert. He also developed weaponry, PADDs, tricorders and communicators for Starfleet, Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Bajoran, Kazon, Ferengi, and other races. As a big fan of Japanese animation, anime references are often secretly placed in his designs, notably "the Egg", a design borrowed from the Dirty Pair.

Together with Michael Okuda, he served as a technical consultant to the script staff, maintaining technical and chronological continuity and inventing scientific terms and technobabble, resulting in internal documents as Star Trek: The Next Generation Writers' Technical Manual and Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual. In 1980 he created several illustrations for the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology by Stanley and Fred Goldstein. He has also co-written the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints as well as the "Starfleet Technical Database" articles in Star Trek: The Magazine.

Sternbach started out making his designs the traditional way, that is in paper and pencil, but acquired skills in computer generated imagery (CGI) modeling as well (skills he picked up while working in 1983 on the science fiction movie The Last Starfighter), turning in design concepts at a later stage both in paper and pencil and rudimentary CGI models. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 12, pp. 94-97)

He has been critical of the Production Design of the 2009 film Star Trek, specifically that of the design of the USS Enterprise. He criticized the apparent lack of line of sight for the nacelles to open space, proportions of various sections, and an overall lack of knowledge of how Star Trek technology works. "Perhaps the designers didn't know exactly how the different hardware bits worked". [3]

While no longer working on Star Trek, Sternbach continues to create futuristic designs for sci-fi productions. He also actively maintained contact with the Star Trek fan-base through Internet blogs like "Trekbbs" and more recently the "DrexFiles(X)" by answering questions and explaining his thought processes on his work for Star Trek. Sternbach is also operating a webshop, "intrep74656", through eBay, selling commercialized editions of his work.

Work outside Star Trek

An Connecticut native, Rick Sternbach enrolled in that state's university in 1972 with an art major, but switching after a couple of years to marine biology. [4] Nevertheless, he became a book and magazine illustrator upon graduation, among others for the Galaxy Science Fiction and Analog magazines, having for example provided the cover and interior art for Starlog Press' Future Life issue 17 of 1980. During this time he helped found he helped found the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA), an organization which aim it was to tender legal advice to science fiction and fantasy artists on contracts and copyrights.

Inspired by artist Ralph McQuarrie's example, who left the aerospace industry to work for George Lucas on Star Wars, Sternbach made the decision as well to move to California in order to seek illustration work in the motion picture industry. After some work for Disney and PBS, the latter of which he did preliminary work for on Carl Sagan's television series Cosmos, he was offered the position in the art department for The Motion Picture. Around the same time he had worked for JPL, where had collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and Jim Blinn on the real world Voyager 1 Jupiter flyby movie, creating textures for the Galilean satellites. That flyby movie became the primary inspiration source for Alvy Ray Smith (at the time a co-worker of Sternbach at JPL) and Loren Carpenter at the Graphics Group, when they designed the very first fully textured CGI effect seen by the general public, the "Genesis Demo", for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

After his tenure on The Motion Picture he returned to PBS to resume work on Cosmos, which he continued to do for the entire run of the series. Despite Sternbach's noticeable visual contributions to the Star Trek universe, his work has never been acknowledged with an Emmy Award nomination, yet he did receive one in 1981 for his work on the Cosmos episode, "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean".

Other motion picture projects he has worked on, predominantly as illustrator/graphic artist were, Rich and Famous (1981, uncredited), the documentary Future Flight (1987), The Last Starfighter (1983, for which he also story-boarded visual effects sequences and developed texture maps for CGI space scenes), and the remake of the science movie Solaris (2002)

Outside his Emmy Award, Rick Sternbach's illustration work in the 1970s has garnered him two consecutive Hugo Awards for "Best Professional Artist" in 1977 and 1978. Considered by the usenet newsgroup sci.space.history as a leading expert on the various paint schemes used on the Saturn V booster, Sternbach has until recently, through his official website, "Space Model Systems", sold accurate decals for model kits of the Saturn V, as well as the Apollo Command Module.

Starship and Space Station designs for Star Trek

Rick Sternbach's designs for several new studio models, including:

Star Trek credits

Bibliography

Star Trek interviews

Further reading

External links