Richard Michael Sternbach (born July 6, 1951) is an illustrator who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek television series.
19-551: Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology is a 1980 book written and edited by Stan Goldstein and Fred Goldstein, and illustrated by Rick Sternbach . At the time of its publication it was the official history of the Star Trek universe. The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation used references and dates that indicated that the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology was no longer being followed, and it
38-807: A Creative Technical Craft . At around the same time, Sternbach collaborated with Charley Kohlhase and Jim Blinn at JPL on the Voyager 1 Jupiter flyby movie, creating textures for the Galilean satellites . With four other artists, in 1981 Sternbach helped found the non-profit International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), to arrange projects that promote and foster space art. In 1983, he worked as an illustrator on The Last Starfighter , story-boarding visual effects sequences and developing texture maps for computer rendered space scenes. After Star Trek , as Scenic Artist on Steven Soderbergh 's Solaris , Sternbach contributed control panel designs to
57-743: A friend of science fiction writer Greg Bear , after his illustration of "A Martian Ricorso" featured in the cover of the February 1976 issue of Analog . During 1974 to 1976 he produced several original works of art for the Gengras Planetarium, part of the Children's Museum of West Hartford, in Connecticut. The works included airbrush paintings of the Earth as a primeval planet. It is unknown if these works are still in possession of CMWH,
76-566: A number of concepts to add realism to the Star Trek universe, such as the Structural Integrity Field and the Inertial Dampener. To this end, they produced a technical manual for each series, that was made available along with the series bible to any prospective script-writers to familiarize them with the concepts behind the series' technology. In 1991, Pocket Books published an updated, illustrated version of
95-628: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Rick Sternbach Born July 6, 1951, in Bridgeport, Connecticut , in 1969 Sternbach enrolled at the University of Connecticut with an art major, but after a couple of years switched to marine biology. After leaving University, he became an illustrator for books and magazines, with his first cover illustration published on the October 1973 issue of Analog magazine . Sternbach became
114-762: The Next Generation Technical Manual and then seven years later, the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual . When Voyager finished its seventh year in 2001, the producers decided they wanted a different look for the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise that was set in the 22nd century, so Sternbach did not transfer over to the Enterprise art department, concluding his fourteen-year employment at Paramount Studios . Sternbach returned to Star Trek in 2002, when he produced control panel designs and signage for
133-703: The Enterprise-E and Romulan starships in Star Trek Nemesis . As of 2015, he is also a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Science Fiction Museum. Sternbach is also a noted contributor to the usenet newsgroup sci.space.history, and is an accepted expert on the various paint schemes used on the Saturn V booster. His company, Space Model Systems , is a leading provider of accurate decals for model kits of
152-558: The Universe . The IAAA was founded in 1982 and was formally registered as an association of astronomical artists in 1986. Since its founding, the IAAA has grown to approximately 200 members, representing twenty countries. The organization serves the community of artists creating works inspired by astronomy and outer space, serving as a networking resource on topics specific to the trade as well as issues common to professional artists. Although
171-776: The Cardassian Galor class starships , the Klingon Vor'cha and Negh'Var class starships and Federation starships such as the Prometheus class, the Dauntless, the Nova class and the USS Voyager itself. As fans of the original series of Star Trek and fans of the space program, Sternbach and Michael Okuda found roles as Technical Advisors on the series, advising the writers on technical matters and developing
190-537: The Prometheus station set and the Athena 7 ship cockpit and also designed and rendered animated loops to play on background set displays. In January 1987, Sternbach was hired along with Andrew Probert (the first two art department hires) to start design work for a new Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Next Generation . Sternbach recounts that he heard the news about TNG on his car radio, and then quickly called Gene Roddenberry 's office. Sternbach helped define
209-539: The Saturn V, as well as the Apollo Command Module . International Association of Astronomical Artists The International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), is a non-profit organization whose members implement and participate in astronomical and space art projects, promote education about space art and foster international cooperation in artistic work inspired by the exploration of
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#1732797942742228-495: The data from observatories and space probes, and convert them into believable images. They may also be called upon to depict those very probes and satellites (often working with NASA or JPL scientists) – for who is out there to photograph them? They paint in oils, acrylics, gouache and markers, use pens, pastels or coloured pencils, or the latest digital technology. But these artists have an advantage over mere technology, for they can travel where machines cannot; and this includes into
247-430: The early practitioners in the 1930s and 40s, such as Lucien Rudaux and Chesley Bonestell, (see Space Art ) were realists, many IAAA artists produce work which is impressionistic, expressionistic, abstract or surreal; however, the majority (unlike science fiction and fantasy artists, who work almost purely from imagination) do have a background in astronomy, physics and mathematics which enables them to interpret accurately
266-491: The film and television industry. After some work for Disney and PBS , in April 1978, Sternbach was offered an illustrator position on Star Trek: The Motion Picture . As a member of the art department, working alongside Mike Minor , Sternbach designed control panel layouts and signage for the starship sets. He also helped to create the animated asteroid wormhole sequence and helped source material from NASA / JPL that
285-420: The look of the 24th century that would be used throughout The Next Generation and the series that followed it, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager . Props such as the phasers , tricorders , PADDs and the communicator badge were all based on his designs. During his time in the Star Trek art department at Paramount, Sternbach was also responsible for a number of starship designs including
304-497: The original owner and client of Sternbach. In 1976 he helped found the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA), to give legal advice to science fiction and fantasy artists on contracts and copyrights. In 1977, inspired by the story of artist Ralph McQuarrie 's move from working in the aerospace industry to working for George Lucas on Star Wars , Sternbach moved to California to seek illustration work in
323-430: The past, the future and faster than light. A major activity of the IAAA is space art workshops, in most cases at remote locations with geology common to what has been discovered on other worlds. Iceland, Death Valley, Hawaii, The Colorado Plateau including Meteor Crater, and other locations with a sense of the unworldly about them have been visited in workshops. Painting and sketching such scenery outdoors helps in training
342-447: Was eventually replaced by Star Trek Chronology as the official history of the Star Trek universe. "Spaceflight" was later declared apocrypha in 2002. In 2006, Pocket Books published Voyages of Imagination , which expanded Star Trek Chronology to include the events of all of the Star Trek novels. This article about a science fiction book is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Star Trek article
361-514: Was used in the design of V'ger . From 1977 to 1980, Sternbach worked as an Assistant Art Director and Visual Effects Artist on Carl Sagan 's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series, where he designed sets and storyboard sequences during pre-production and then worked on visual effects scenes during production. For his work on the episode The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean he won the 1980-1981 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in
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