Template:Realworld James "Jim" E. Martin (born 25 November 1967; age 56), and often credited as Jim, Jim E., or James Martin, is an production illustrator who has worked as such on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager's pilot episode "Caretaker", Star Trek: Enterprise, and as storyboard illustrator on Star Trek Generations. His most widely-known creations are the Danube-class runabout, which he co-designed with Rick Sternbach, and later the USS Defiant, which he designed under the direction of Herman Zimmerman and Gary Hutzel. He is featured in the interviews in the special features of the DS9 Season 2 DVD, the DS9 Season 3 DVD and the DS9 Season 4 DVD. Martin also designed the Bajoran phaser rifle. [1]
A graduate from the California State University, Northridge, Deep Space Nine, which he joined in August 1992, was his first professional Hollywood employment [2], having been tipped off by a friend working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, that a new Star Trek series was in the making. Hired by Production Designer Herman Zimmerman on the strength of his portfolio, Martin started out as a personal assistant (PA), as no other position was available at the time, but which afforded him to learn the practical trade from the ground up. He was taken under the wings of Zimmerman, and Production Illustrator Doug Drexler, the latter recalling in good nature, "Jim started with us as art department PA, a rotten one I might add [remark: apparently, Martin was especially bad at coffee-making (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 13, p. 20)], but went on to become a kick ass illustrator. So we forgive him. We had a big brother-little brother relationship, and I teased him every chance I got.(...)I used to lock him in the blueprint room, and turn off the lights, steal the wheels off his bicycle, take the microphone out of his telephone, and once even had the guard at the parking structure call and say his car was on fire. We even got into a scuffle in the art department after some heinous prank I pulled on him. He’s twice my size and should have had me pinned immediately, but the old man is up at five in the morning lifting weights...surprise!" [3](X) One year later Martin was promoted to production illustrator, though he had already started designing props for Deep Space Nine under the auspices of Zimmerman, while still being a PA. As designer of space craft, Martin was influenced by the fighter craft designs seen in the Star Wars franchise, which was frowned upon by his mentor Drexler, "Being a number of years younger than the rest of us, Jim was highly influenced by Star Wars, and often that would show in his work. Nothing gave me more excess stomach acid than that, so I would carry an eleven foot G-95 cattle prod and used it in case the "Force" clouded his vision." [4](X)
Jim Martin shortly served as senior production illustrator on the third season of the show, after Rick Sternbach, who held the position for the first two seasons, was permanently assigned as such to the new Star Trek: Voyager production. However, Martin left the franchise in April 1995 at the start of season four, and his position was filled by John Eaves for the remainder of Deep Space Nine. Martin has left the franchise on his own accords and on good terms. He has stated as reason for doing so, "I really feel that you need different experiences to grow as an illustrator. You have to push yourself to do different things. I know that finishing the third season of Deep Space Nine I was feeling pretty comfortable with the show and with what I was doing, and I think that's the wrong feeling for an illustrator. I wanted to increase my horizons, and maybe I needed to leave the womb of Star Trek. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but it was good to get out and work for some new people and to do different things." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 13, p. 27) Martin shortly returned in 2001 as freelancer for the pre-production of Enterprise's pilot episode "Broken Bow" as prop designer, but has not received official credit for his input.
Together with Brandon MacDougall, James MacKinnon, and Michael Westmore, Martin contributed as "spacecraft designer" to the video game, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1997).
Career after Star Trek
After having left Star Trek, Martin has worked a free-lance production illustrator on productions as Starship Troopers, Alien: Resurrection (both 1997), The X Files (1998), Mission to Mars (2000), Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), the 2002 productions The Scorpion King, Spider-Man and Lilo & Stitch , and the 2003 productions, The Matrix Reloaded, Hulk and The Chronicles of Riddick. From March 2003 until April 2008, Martin was employed at Walt Disney Animation Studios as visual development artist working on, among others their productions Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Bolt (2008), and The Princess and the Frog (2008), before resuming his career as a free-lance artist. The more recent projects he has worked upon as such were Alice in Wonderland (2010), the 2011 productions Rango, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Immortals as well as on the recent Oblivion (2013).
Further Reading
- "Designing the Defiant", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 4, August 1999, pp. 71-80
- "Designing the Bajoran Solar-Sailing Ship", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 11, March 2000, pp. 44-48
- "Jim Martin", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 13, May 2000, pp. 20-27
- The Art of Star Trek, 1995
External links
- JimMartinDesign.com - official site
- Jim Martin Concept Art - Jim Martin's Blog
- Template:IMDb-link
- Jim Martin at Linkedin.com