John Eaves

John Eaves

Birth name:

John Michael Eaves

Date of birth:

9 April1962

Place of birth:

Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Awards forTrek:

1ADG Excellence in Production Design Award, 2 nominations

Roles:

Model Maker;Production Illustrator;Star Trek author,Publication Artist,Video game production staff,Merchandise staff

John Michael Eaves (born9 April1962; age 63) is a concept illustrator and designer who has worked as a production illustrator forStar Trek: Deep Space Nine (for its last four seasons),Star Trek: Enterprise (for its entirety), the first season ofStar Trek: Discovery,Star Trek: Picard (for its entirety), and eightStar Trek films.

Star Trek[]

In the early stages of his production design career, which happened to beStar Trek, John Eaves preferred to have physical models at hand to get a feel of the three-dimensionality of hisstarship designs in particular, especially when they were to have a significant visual impact. As, obviously, no commercialmodels were available to this end at the time, Eaves had to construct them for himself, building upon his previous experience asstudio model maker. Especially noteworthy were thestudy models he built forStar Trek Generations (theEnterprise-B study model) andStar Trek: First Contact (theEnterprise-E, andT'Plana-Hath study models). As confidence in his own prowess as a production designer grew, Eaves eventually dispensed with the practice. Most of his study models turned up, and were sold, later at variousStar Trekauctions.

By starting work in 2015 on the 13th film installment,Star Trek Beyond, Eaves became tied withMichael Okuda for the record of having worked on the mostStar Trek film productions, held by an officially credited studio production staffer (strictly speaking,Gene Roddenberry holds the record as he is credited on every film, though these are honorary credits only, save forStar Trek: The Motion Picture on which he hadactually worked). However, by counting his known, but uncredited work onStar Trek V: The Final Frontier (he was featured though on his contributions in one of thespecial features on the 2003Star Trek V: The Final Frontier DVD release), Eaves has actually surpassed the record of his friend and former co-worker Okuda. With hisfirst season work onPicard, Eaves is now known to have worked at least thirty-one years on the live-actionStar Trek franchise, albeit intermittent, surpassing Okuda's twenty-eight years, earning him the distiction of becoming the production staffer whose professional services to the franchise spans the longest known time interval.

His work on the franchise earned Eaves twoADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations in 2010 and 2014, complemented with the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award,[2] thereby following in the footsteps of his former supervisorHerman Zimmerman, who preceded him with the same award in 2013, and who actually presided over the ceremony that honored his former subordinate.[3]

EarliestStar Trek work[]

John Eaves' very first production involvement withStar Trek was atGregory Jein, Inc. where he worked as an uncredited studio model-maker for the 1989 film,The Final Frontier. Still a relatively newcomer at that time, Eaves later expressed gratitude forGregory Jein who took Eaves under his wings during the production ofThe Final Frontier and wrote, "As an introduction toStar Trek I had the best time working for Greg and in all honesty I wasn't ready for all the responsibilities he gave me and in many ways I feel I didn't have the knowledge to perform as good as I wanted to!!!!! but he continued to nurture me on and I am so grateful for that opportunity."[4]

Eaves stayed on at Gregory Jein, Inc. for a time afterThe Final Frontier and further honed his skills as a model-maker for productions that the company was contracted for, including, among others, thethird (second half) andfourth seasons ofStar Trek: The Next Generation. On the occasion of the passing of VFX SupervisorGary Hutzel, Eaves later recalled, "Back in the TNG days, I was making models with Greg Jein and we would take them to a place calledImage G to be filmed. That is where I met the great Gary Hutzel. What an amazing man he was, and it was great fun to watch him set up a motion-control shot for the VFX. A man with a great sense of humor, and he loved to be creative and work, work, work. You had to make him take a day off or go home at the end of a long work day. We did a Joe Dante show calledThe Osiris Chronicles and whenever the main ship would be on the rig to film he would shout out, "It's a fish!" Hah… and that is what it looked like. I loved that Mister Hutzel and will miss him terribly."[5]

Contracted five years later forGenerations and under the supervision of Production Designer Herman Zimmerman, his first and foremost task was modifying the design of theUSSExcelsiormodel to convert it into theUSSEnterprise-B.

Deep Space Nine andFirst Contact[]

John Eaves, a bit to his own surprise, became a permanent staff member the following year as production illustrator forDeep Space Nine, following the vacancy opened up when illustratorJim Martin left the franchise at the start of thefourth season. Apparently, he had made a positive impression on Zimmerman, as it was he who personally invited Eaves to work on the production. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, p. 79) For the remainder of that series, Eaves designed numerous set pieces, props and starships, the first being theGroumall (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 2, p. 22), then theBreen interceptor, and more notably, the twoJem'Hadar capital ships.

During his tenure onDeep Space Nine Eaves was invited to contribute to the filmStar Trek: First Contact for which his most visible contribution was the design of the newUSSEnterprise-E, a design he kept refining for its two subsequent appearances.

Insurrection,Enterprise, andNemesis[]

Following his tenure atDeep Space Nine, John Eaves was not asked to join theStar Trek: Voyager production team, simply because there was no position available at the time. Nevertheless, during this period, Eaves was contracted as an illustrator forStar Trek: Insurrection, for which he most conspicuously designed the variousSon'a ships.

As it turned out, not being hired onVoyager turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise, as former colleagueGeoffrey Mandel has intimated, "When they startedEnterprise, they made a conscious decision to bring in some new blood, and not just round up the usual suspects; but in practice, it meant thatfans likeRick Sternbach,Tim Earls and myself weren’t asked back. However, a number of fans who had worked onDS9 and had been taking an extended leave of absence came back whenEnterprise started, so the total number ofStar Trek fans stayed about the same."[6]^(X) Working onStar Trek: Enterprise as a regular production illustrator, supervised by close personal friendDoug Drexler (whom he had met and befriended during hisDeep Space Nine days, and who, like him, had taken "an extended leave of absence"), Eaves continued to designstarships,space stations and more. His first assignment had actually been to start with the design of the new "hero ship", theEnterprise NX-01, for the new series, before that task reverted to Drexler. (see:NX class model)

In that period of time Eaves also contributed to the lastStar Trek film set in theprime universe,Star Trek Nemesis, for which the designs of theScimitar and theValdore-typeRomulan warbird were his most notable contributions.

Surviving the transition from prime to alternate universe[]

Excepting theIndustrial Light & Magic staffers, who had previously worked on theStar Trek franchise and were still in the employment of the company at the time, John Eaves became as conceptual illustrator theonly regular studio prime universeStar Trek production staff veterans, to be officially hired and credited forJ.J. Abrams' 2009, re-imagined,alternate realityStar Trek – though it is known that former colleague Mandel had also done some short-lived, uncredited, pre-production design work for the 2009 outing, withJames MacKinnon serving as an uncredited make up artist, as was his colleagueKevin Haney, whereas formerNemesis co-workerEugene P. Rizzardi served as a propmaker, all likewise uncredited. While Abrams steered clear from hiring any other formerStar Trek staffer in an official capacity in order to be as unencumbered as possible for his vision on the franchise, he was aware that some consistency needed to be observed, or as Production DesignerScott Chambliss has put it, "I brought John in because he knew the story and lore, what should and shouldn't be done. The ships in theStarfleet Armada to go toVulcan were influenced by John's knowledge." (Star Trek - The Art of the Film, p. 58) The design work he has done on that film, has earned him anADG Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the following year. Eaves' designs for this movie included thehovercruiser,medical andmilitary shuttles, and the newEnterprise's escape pods.[7]

In 2011, Eaves worked in the same capacity on the twelfth installment of the film series, eventually titledStar Trek Into Darkness, designing props for theNibirans[8]^(X) as well as revamping variousStarfleet gadgets andKlingon weapons,[9] earning him an additional ADG Award nomination. Most recently, Eaves has been working as concept designer for the props along with property masterAndrew M. Siegel on the2016 sequelStar Trek Beyond. For both sequels, Eaves was joined by set designerScott Schneider, a formerStar Trek production irregularand former Gregory Jein, Inc. employee where he had worked alongside Eaves on The Hunt for Red October|The Hunt for Red October.

Returning to the prime universe:Discovery[]

Pursuant his stint onStar Trek Beyond, Eaves returned to the revitalizedStar Trek television franchise as Concept Illustrator onStar Trek: Discovery, set in the prime universe, and being credited as such for eight episodes (plus one uncredited) of itsfirst season. While Eaves had been a sole surviving prime universe production staffer on the alternate universe films, this time around he was joined by some officially credited former colleagues from the prime universe productions such as Scott Schneider andDavid Takemura.

His more prominent contributions to the new series were the designs of the two "hero" shipsUSSShenzhou and theUSSDiscovery itself, as well as all the other Starfleet vessels seen in the first season – and which to a large extent reflected the comment Scott Chambliss made, when he brought in Eaves on the first alternate universe film back in 2009. (Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection, issues 1-3) Most notably however, was his modernization of the look of, orretconning, the original configurationConstitution-class for its first appearance asChristopher Pike's ship, theUSSEnterprise, in the first season finale "Will You Take My Hand?". This he did in conjuncture with his old friend Schneider, who constructed theCGI model of the modernized version. (Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves, pp. 202-205)

Even though Eaves and Schneider turned in a CGI model version in October 2017 that adhered more closely to Matt Jefferies' classic design – nearly becoming the definitive one – , the producers decided that further, predominantly dimensional and proportional redesign changes were deemed necessary in order to meet Production DesignerTamara Deverell's (Eaves' and Schneider's superior on the show) requirement to "cheat it as a larger ship".[10] The additional changes to the model into the final, onscreen-used one, were done by the digital modellers atPixomondo without further design input from Eaves and Schneider. (Star Trek: Discovery Designing Starships, pp. 202-203) Nonetheless, an early Eaves/Schneider version made an onscreen appearance as an USSDiscovery bridgecomputer display graphic in thesecond season opening episodeDIS: "Brother".

Departure fromDiscovery[]

Shortly after the retconnedEnterprise had made its first appearance onDiscovery and became prominently featured a short while later in the2019Ships of the Line calendar, Eaves became embroiled in a controversy with his employer, thenStar Trek franchise ownerCBS Broadcasting. Eaves felt compelled to explain to his fellowStar Trek fans the reasoning behind the redesign of the famed starship. On 13 April 2018, he posted an explanation on his Facebook page, mentioning that he "started with the guideline that theEnterprise forDiscovery had to be 25% different" from the original due to issues of "Star Trek ownership" between Paramount Pictures andCBS Studios Inc..[11] Some fans interpreted this remark as meaning thatDiscovery's production companySecret Hideout had inherited the stipulations of an "alternate license" deal struck between CBS and Paramount andits production partnerBad Robot Productions for the alternate realty films. CBS reacted quickly on 17 April when it posted a reaction on theComicBook.com website (which it had acquired only two weeks before), emphatically stating that the redesign had nothing to do with any legalities whatsoever and that "any changes made to the design of theEnterprise were creative ones to utilize 2018 VFX technology."[12] Meanwhile, Eaves had not only removed the posting, but his entire Facebook page as well, before CBS had posted its response.

It is not known whether Eaves' speaking out of turn had anything to do with him not being reassigned to the second season ofDiscovery, as the production had to contend with severe budget cuts.[13] Friend andEnterprise co-redesigner Schneider on the other hand (who had participatedand had, to the best of his knowledge, backed up Eaves in the latter's facebook posting), was retained, though remaining uncredited, for the second season as well as being signed for the follow-up seriesStar Trek: Picard. Schneider had been terrified to embark on theEnterprise redesign task, as he feared the fan reactions, but was persuaded by his friend to do so after all.[14]

Eaves' place on the second season as lead (Federation) ship designer was taken over by his former subordinate, Concept ArtistRyan Dening, whose first contributions as such became theUSSHiawatha and thelanding pod. (Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection, issue 22, pp. 9; issue 20, pp. 8-14; issue 23, pp. 8-14)

Star Trek: Picard[]

It turned out that Eaves' release fromDiscovery did not spell out the end of hisStar Trek career as its longest serving official live-action production staffer; Eaves has it on his official website stated that he is concept designer forPicard, reaffirmed on the IMDb website, though he has not (yet) received an official credit in the episodes as aired. His reinstatement on the live-action franchise was not that surprising in hindsight, as it was Eaves who was most intimately acquainted with the in canon most recent prime universe starship design lineages seen on screen, those of theNext Generation films thePicard series was intended to be a sequel of, having been responsible for among others the look of theEnterprise-E, various film Borg vessels as well as the newest Romulan ship classes.

In the end Eaves wound up designingall ships seen in the series'first season, save for the "hero ship",La Sirena. Unlike his tenure onDiscovery, where he had to report to a succession of production designers, Eaves only had to report toTodd Cherniawsky (but one of the many production designers onDiscovery's first season, incidentally) while working onPicard.

In March 2020, it became known that Eaves was also signed for the series'second andthird seasons,[15] where he was joined by his old co-worker friends Doug Drexler and the Okuda couple, though none of them were to receive official credits for their contributions.[16]

Star Trek: Prodigy[]

Pursuant his input onPicard, Eaves was sought out to provide additional input for another Kurtzman-eraStar Trek show,Star Trek: Prodigy. He was asked to come up with ideas for the design of the "hero-ship"USSProtostar. And while his particular early version of the design was not quite the one eventually featured on the show, ultimate co-designerBen Hibon was very appreciative for Eaves' input, "John helped sketch rough ideas at the start of the process. The final design ended up looking very different, but his work was always inspirational."[17]

Other officialStar Trek work[]

The Captain's yachtCousteau andT'Plana-Hath replicas, produced by Eaves for theOfficial Star Trek Fan Club
	The Hamilton Collection "sculptural" 3D starship plates designed by Eaves
The Hamilton Collection "sculptural" 3D starship plates designed by Eaves	The Eaves-designed Franklin MintPhoenix
The models Eaves unknowingly designed forBorg Invasion 4D: theOlympia shuttle (l) and "that crazy tikki faced"Copernicus Station (r), as built by Drexler

Working with theOfficial Star Trek Fan Club and their magazines, John Eaves designed and produced the masters for a PVCreplica of theCaptain's yachtCousteau, andLegends in 3 Dimensions' 1996 cold-cast resin sculpture of theT'Plana-Hath, for which his ownstudy model proved useful. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 120, p. 32) Eaves also designed four "sculptural" three-dimensional starship plates forThe Hamilton Collection that were released in 1998, and aPhoenix for TheFranklin Mint that reached retail in 2001.

Much of his design work onGenerations andFirst Contact was published in the 1998reference bookStar Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, which Eaves co-authored.

Eaves regularly contributed to the popularStar Trek: Ships of the Linecalendar series and, unlike most of the other illustrators for this series, submitted his contributions "old-school", as he had not made the transition to creating his designs and/or illustrationsdigitally.

Eaves' involvement inStar Trek – actually embarked upon directly after the cancellation ofEnterprise – continued as a design consultant and concept artist forPerpetual Entertainment's development of its eventually unrealized computer game version ofStar Trek Online, and designed several starships for the game. Prior to the game's cancellation, Eaves commented on his contributions in the 2007TOS-R Season 1 HD DVD special feature, "Preview: Star Trek Online". It was at Perpetual that Eaves met and befriended the aforementioned Ryan Dening, actually working under him, before the positions became reversed onDiscovery a decade later.[18] Selections from his starship designs for the game were posted on hisblog.

Eaves has also served as a technical consultant formodel kit companiesBandai (no. 116424, 2003) andAMT (no. AMT853, 2013) for theirEnterprise-E model kit outings.[19]

Eaves also contributed two designs, that of theOlympiashuttle andCopernicus Station, to the 2004 film portion of theBorg Invasion 4D-ride at theStar Trek: The Experience-attraction, but for the longest of times he was not aware of it; only after Doug Drexler had posted theCGI models he had constructed after Eaves' designs on his blog in 2009, was Eaves' memory jogged, "I just found the art work for this one!!! I forgot What we were doing this for but so loved the modeling you did on it and that crazy tikki faced space station!!! Your[sic] the KING!!!"[20]^(X) It had turned out that both designs and their corresponding digital builds had been rejects forEnterprise, but were resurrected for the attraction. This was not an unusual thing, as Eaves had clarified on another occasion, "Between Doug and I we have far more rejected pieces than approved…and you were always worried when all the ideas went to a meeting that they would choose the one you didn’t want to get approved."[21]

"John Eaves' Sketchbook" is a special feature series on theStar Trek: Deep Space Nine DVDs, in which the artist delves into his design work for that series. Additionally, he had two dedicatedreference books published on his work for the franchise,Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, released in May 1998 and covering his work on the first twoNext Generation films, andStar Trek: The Art of John Eaves, an updated reference book covering his work on the entirety of the franchise, released in October 2018.

Starting in 2013, Eaves was frequently consulted by project managerBen Robinson for his twopartwork publicationsStar Trek: The Official Starships Collection, the 2018Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection andtheir 2021 follow-upStar Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, particularly on those starships Eaves himself had designed. Robinson was already acquainted with Eaves, when he had interviewed him for his 1999-2001 behind-the-scenes articles featured in Robinson's previous editorial assignment,Star Trek: The Magazine.[22]

UnofficialStar Trek work[]

Outside the official franchise, John Eaves has additionally worked as Art Director onTim Russ' fan film projectStar Trek: Renegades along withWalter Koenig,Manu Intiraymi,Gary Graham,Courtney Peldon,Robert Picardo,Rico E. Anderson,Clint Carmichael,Richard Herd,Jason Matthew Smith,John Carrigan, andRyan T. Husk.

Alec Peters' fan film projectStar Trek: Axanar, on which he works as concept artist, also featuresTony Todd,Kate Vernon,Garrett Wang,J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham,David Gerrold,Alec Peters, Ryan T. Husk,Scott Trimble,Daren Dochterman, andApril Marie Eden. However, that project, slated to start production in 2015, is put on hold as a result of an injunction filed against it in December that year by franchise owner CBS Studios.[23]

Inspired by the similarly conceivedDrexFiles^(X)-blog of his friend Doug Drexler, Eaves also started his likewise successful blog,Eavesdropping with Johnny, on 16 March 2009. He stated on that occasion, "I have to thank the ever and all talented master of media and VFX illusionist, Doug Drexler, for encouraging me to get off my fat butt and finally start a fun blog page!!! I have always wanted to have place to share the fun and adventures of those glorious movie and Star Trek days with friends, coworkers and fans of the films and shows…"[24] Like the DrexFiles, Eaves shared on his blog a considerable amount of hisStar Trek design art, as well as his thoughts behind them, with theStar Trek fan community for four years, though, as of 2013, and while still "live", activity on the blog has ground to a standstill, with Eaves henceforth communicating to the world at large through histwoFacebook pages, one of them deleted in April 2018 for reasons as explainedabove.

Star Trek starship designs[]

This list is currently incomplete.

Starships and space stations designed by John Eaves:

Career[]

A lifelong fan of the science fiction and fantasy genre (those of the 1980s in particular and including but not limited toStar Trek), and to date a frequent visitor to the genreconventions, movie buff John Eaves started out a model maker, prior to his work onStar Trek,Top Gun (1986) being his very first professional assignment. As to his start in Hollywood Eaves recalled, "Grant [McCune] gave me my first job in Hollywood, at the once-great FX houseApogee, in 1985. Not only has Grant been a great teacher and source of encouragement, he's also a good friend. I owe much of all I've achieved in my career to him." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, p. 79) Having worked in that capacity for a succession of companies like Apogee, Inc., Grant McCune Design, andBoss Film Corporation, other pre-Star Trek films he worked on as model maker were, among othersInnerspace (1987, featuringRobert Picardo,Dick Miller,Wendy Schaal,William Schallert,Henry Gibson,Kenneth Tobey,Andrea Martin, music byJerry Goldsmith and cinematography byAndrew Laszlo),Alien 3 (1992),Batman Returns (1992, withVincent Schiavelli,Anna Katarina,Biff Yeager andFelix Silla),Strange Days (1995, withMichael Jace and cinematography byMatthew F. Leonetti), andX-Men: The Last Stand (2006, starringPatrick Stewart,Famke Janssen,Rebecca Romijn andKelsey Grammer).

In the latter half of 1989, Eaves worked for Greg Jein–with whom he struck up an enduring friendship–, and, apart fromThe Final Frontier, has worked for his company onThe Hunt for Red October (1990, withRon Gress,Alan McFarland, andBruce MacRae). In 1987 he added graphics to his skills set, and started also working as a graphic artist, first as concept/storyboard artist onNightflyers (1987), as well as onUniversal Studios'seaQuest DSV (1993-1995), subsequently as concept artist/illustrator for theStar Trek franchise and the filmVirtuosity (1995, withLouise Fletcher,Danny Goldring, and the voice ofFrank Welker),

After his tenure onGenerations, Eaves returned to Grant McCune Design in 1994. He remembered,

"Clark [Shaffer, who worked with Eaves onGenerations] and I were originally model makers, with a lot of artwork thrown in for fun. Together we designed and built a lot of models for Grant. After Apogee closed, Grant kept the lease on the model shop and called it Grant McCune Design. While there, Clark and I started working together onBatman Forever. Our assignment: to design and build Arkham Asylum, that nasty place where Jim Carrey's "Riddler" is seen at the story's end.

"After I worked onGenerations, the way I approached drawings and sketches changed. Before, I'd draw a three-quarter view, and when time for model construction came, I'd fill in details as needed. When building the model, I had in my mind all the information that wasn't on paper. Thus, if anyone else had to build a model from one of my sketches, they faced a lot of gray areas, a lot of detail that needed to be addressed.Generations taught me that the more sketches I make (especially plans, even rough one), the better they assist those who had to make models from my drawings.

"So when we started working on models forBatman Forever and I had to do the sketches, not only did I do three-quarter drawings for the producer's approval, I did plans too, which I'd never done before. The Arkham model became so large, Clark and I had a whole crew of model makers working with us–and all the plans and drawings wound up being great assets and timesavers."

While Eaves has largely maintained his revised stance for theStar Trek features he later worked on, he somewhat reverted to his earlier way of designing for the television franchise, as he wanted to have the modelers at the various visual effects houses to have their own creative input in order to finish up on his designs. On at least one occasion, in the case of theJem'Hadar battle cruiser, that has led to a continuity error. One year later, in 1996, Eaves was invited by Herman Zimmerman to work forDeep Space Nine, to fill the position of Jim Martin, after the latter had left the show, which for Eaves was heart wrenching. He continued, "Illustration has always been my first love, but it was a tough decision, because I also love making models for Grant. After a week of sleepless nights spent trying to decide which path to follow, I said farewell to Grant. And it was back to the ol' drawing board at Paramount…" (Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, p. 79)

As is already indicated above, shortly before he started work onDeep Space Nine, Eaves worked as a conceptual designer on the 1996 science fiction television movieThe Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy, intended as the pilot for the plannedParamount Television science fiction seriesThe Osiris Chronicles. A somewhat ill-conceived attempt to further capitalize on the new found popularity of science-fiction television shows, the series was not picked up however, and the pilot was under its eventual title aired on 27 January 1998 on the recently established studio television networkUPN and released as a direct-to-VHS home media format to the rest of the world. Soon-to-beDeep Space Nine colleagues who had also worked on the production included Michael andDenise Okuda,Don Greenberg andDavy Nethercutt. Studio models Eaves had designed for the production, built at the company of his former mentor Greg Jein and including the protagonist "hero model" Gary Hutzel had deemed a "fish", were later sold in various 2008It's A Wrap! sale and auctions as lots7528^(X) and9615^(X). Ironically, his "fish"-like hero ship design, called theDaedalus, bore more than a passing resemblance with theXindi-Aquatic cruiser he much later designed forEnterprise. When reminded ofThe Osiris Chronicles by his blog participants, Eaves, his memory jogged, remembered that the canceled production had even more behind-the-scenes ties with theStar Trek franchise, "We didOsiris immediately afterGenerations and both were Paramount films. WhenFirst Contact was starting up we brought over all the sets fromOsiris and incorporated them intoStar Trek. It was an oddity to take elements I had drawn for OC and then redraw them into the TNG world…everything came together well and if you have seenOsiris or (Battle lords) the tub shaped set piece that the Plentum was in became the center piece of theWarp core of theEnterprise E."[27]

As graphic and concept/storyboard artist mostly in the role of production illustrator, Eaves has worked after hisStar Trek television career onSky High (2005, with music byMichael Giacchino),The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006, withMichael Dorn), andEvan Almighty (2007), and as illustrator onGhosts of Mars (2001, withJoanna Cassidy),The Majestic (2001, withDavid Ogden Stiers andEarl Boen),Flight of the Phoenix (2004), andPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), earning him a second ADG Award nomination the following year. His television credits as concept artist include the seriesBones andRaines, the latter of which starredLinda Park.

In recent years Eaves has showed an increasing interest in model (the female kind) photography, and an increasing amount of his photoshoots are featured on his blog. HisStar Trek roots are evident as his models are often attired in female Starfleet uniforms fromStar Trek: The Original Series era. Eaves has currently a listing on the model photographers blog "Model Mayhem", as well as a separate, photography dedicated,Facebook page.

Eaves has concurrently lent his talents to "The Overview Institute", a non-profit organization founded in 2008 and made up of real-world space specialists like astronauts, scientists, and authors, dedicated to "research and educate both the space community and the general public on the nature and psycho/social impact of directly experiencing space".[28] As consultant he is member of "The Overview Effect" team, the part of the organization, responsible for visualizing the work of the institute by producing documentaries and the like. In the team he has been joined by formerStar Trek alumniDouglas Trumbull andDan Curry, though Eaves has withdrawn from the organization since then.[29]

Other credits as Concept Illustrator and Artist includeOz the Great and Powerful (2013, withBill Cobbs and production design byRobert Stromberg),Iron Man 3 (2013, withWilliam Sadler andMiguel Ferrer and music byBrian Tyler),Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014, withAlan Dale and art direction byGary Kosko,Steve Christensen,Beat Frutiger, and netting him his fourth ADG Award nomination, shared with his colleagues but still not won), andTomorrowland (2015, written and produced byDamon Lindelof, produced byJeffrey Chernov, music byMichael Giacchino, and production design by Scott Chambliss).

During his 2018-2019 sojourn away from theStar Trek franchise, he has worked as prop designer and concept artist on the 2018 filmAnt-Man and the Wasp, the sixthMarvel Comics Universe film he had worked on after his first 2010 one,Iron Man 2. 2019 films includedCaptive State andGodzilla II: King of the Monsters. A television project he worked upon in this period, concerned the television series remake of the 1982 fantasy filmThe Dark Crystal forNetflix, the original having actually been a personal favorite of Eaves.[30]

As if to underscore his allegiance to the science-fiction genre, Eaves became a member of the Board of Advisors of the recently establishedHollywood Sci-Fi Museum. Founded at the start of 2016, the museum was slated to start out as a travelingexhibition tour, before settling down in 2018, at a permanent home in an intended location in North Hollywood, California. It has reunited Eaves with a slew of formerStar Trek colleagues, who not only served on the advisory board, but on the Board of Directors as well. However, neither tour nor a permanent locus for a museum have come to fruition as of 2020, because its founder, Huston Huddleston, faced accusations for possession of child pornography in May 2018, after which both boards distanced themselves in their entirety, including Eaves, from the organization.[31]

Motion picture career summary[]

Note: as specified by Eaves himself on his now defunct Facebook page.

• 1985 20th Century Fox
• 1986MGM Studios
• 1988-1995Boss Film Studios
• 1988-1992Gregory Jein, Inc.
• 1993Universal Studios
• 2000-2002 Fantasy II Film Effects
• 2000-2010 Culver Studios
• 2009 Marvel Studios

Star Trek credits[]

Star Trek awards[]

ADG Excellence in Production Design Award[]

Eaves received the followingADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations as Illustrator in the category "Fantasy Film", and win in the category "Lifetime Achievement",

• 2010 nomination forStar Trek, shared withScott Chambliss,Keith P. Cunningham,Dennis Bradford,Gary Kosko,Curt Beech,Luke Freeborn,Beat Frutiger,Aaron Haye,James Clyne,Ryan Church,Paul Ozzimo,Andrew Reeder,Dawn Brown Manser,Andrea Dopaso,Jeff Frost,C. Scott Baker,Kevin Cross,Scott Herbertson,Joseph Hiura,Billy Hunter,Harry Otto,Anne Porter,Jane Wuu,Clint Schultz,Bruce Smith, andKaren Manthey
• 2014 nomination forStar Trek Into Darkness, shared with Scott Chambliss,Ramsey Avery, James Clyne,Lauren Polizzi,Kasra Farahani,Michael E. Goldman,Harry E. Otto,Andrew E.W. Murdock,Jason Baldwin Stewart,Natasha Gerasimova,Steve Christensen, Andrea Dopaso,Nathan Schroeder, Ryan Church,Christopher Ross,Victor Martinez,Steven Messing,Karl Strahlendorf,John Chichester,Tex Kadonaga,Kevin Cross, Andrew Reeder, Anne Porter, Jane Wuu,Richard F. Mays,Allen Coulter,Karl Martin,Scott Schneider,Lorrie Campbell,Easton Smith,Tammy Lee,Tim Croshaw,Clint Schultz, and Karen Manthey
• 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award win forStar Trek,et al., sole nominee

Bibliography[]

Star Trek interviews[]

External links[]

• John Eaves atWikipedia
• John Eaves at theInternet Movie Database
• Eavesdropping with Johnny – official blog