Steven Messing is a concept illustrator and visual effects matte artist who worked on Star Trek Into Darkness. Among his concept work for this film was the creation of the surface of the Ketha Province on Qo'noS and the red forest on Nibiru. [1] [2]
In 1998, Messing worked as intern during the production of Frog and Wombat which featured Ronny Cox. In the 2000s, he started to receive credit as digital matte artist while working for the companies Matte World Digital and Digital Backlot on projects such as Invincible (2006), The Last Mimzy (2007), Zodiac (2007, art direction by Keith P. Cunningham), Spider-Man 3 (2007, starring Kirsten Dunst and James Cromwell), The Golden Compass (2007), The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008), Body of Lies (2008), Grey Gardens (2009), and John Adams (2008).
In 2009, Messing worked as digital matte artist for CIS Hollywood on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with Rachel Nichols and as matte artist on 2012 (2009) and The Road. For his work on Avatar, Messing received his first Excellence in Production Design Award in the category Fantasy Film from the Art Director's Guild in 2010.
Further credits as concept illustrator and digital matte artist, mostly for the company Crazy Horse Effects, include Alice in Wonderland (2010) for which he received another Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the category Fantasy Film in 2011, Clash of the Titans (2010), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Prometheus (2012) for which he earned another Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in 2013, Life of Pi (2012), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), and Ender's Game (2013).
Following his work on Star Trek: Into Darkness, Messing worked for Pixomondo on After Earth (2013), as visual effects art director on Godzilla (2014), and as concept designer on X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014, directed by Bryan Singer and starring Patrick Stewart) and on Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). He was senior illustrator on Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) and matte artist on Maleficent (2014).
Between 2010 and 2014, he worked first as digital matte artist and later as visual effects art director on Boardwalk Empire and between 2014 and 2015 as visual effects art director on Black Sails. His work on Black Sails earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Special and Visual Effects in a Supporting Role in 2014. Messing also worked as visual effects artist on the fifth season of Game of Thrones in 2015.
Further projects he worked on include True Detective (2015), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015), and The Martian (2015) for which Messing won an Excellence in Production Design Award in the category Contemporary Film in 2016.
Later projects as visual effects concept designer include Westworld (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016, also directed by Bryan Singer), and Alien: Covenant (2017, written by John Logan).
Star Trek award[]
ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards nomination[]
Messing received an ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nomination as Set Designer in the category Fantasy Film
- 2014 for Star 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, John Eaves, Nathan Schroeder, Ryan Church, Christopher Ross, Victor Martinez, Anne Porter, Karl Strahlendorf, John Chichester, Tex Kadonaga, Kevin Cross, Andrew Reeder, Jane Wuu, Richard F. Mays, Allen Coulter, Karl Martin, Scott Schneider, Lorrie Campbell, Easton Smith, Tammy Lee, Tim Croshaw, Clint Schultz, and Karen Manthey
External links[]
- MatteShot.com – official site
- Steven Messing at the Internet Movie Database
- Steven Messing at Instagram