Hardback volume showcasing the diverse work of one of Star Trek’s most talented alumni, Dan Curry, whose contributions to the TV shows and movies include visual effects, practical effects, title design and weaponry.
With more than 50 years of history to its name, Star Trek is one of the world’s most treasured popular culture institutions, and seven-time Emmy award winner Dan Curry is one of its most enduring talents. His amazing contributions have ranged from directing, title design and concept art to practical on-set effects and weapon design. From The Next Generation to Enterprise, Dan’s incredibly diverse Star Trek work has resulted in some of the series’ most memorable moments.
Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry reveals the many and varied techniques used to produce some of the most spectacular visual effects used in the various series, while Dan also goes in-depth to divulge the secrets of some of his own personal favourite creations. This is a book for all Star Trek fans to treasure!
Gregory Akerman –
Brilliant
Brilliant
mPm –
A technically well made book, but entire layout & design choices, to present its contents, is flawe
Someone here needs to do a thorough review of this book, so other Trek fans can be better informed and won’t be as disappointed,as I was, in the presentation of the content within this book.So, it looks like this review effort will fall to me.After just recently getting this book and spending s decent amount of time perusing this publication, here are my initial impressions.The book page and size and heavyweight matte paper used is NOT well used or graphically laid out well, at all, to maximise the available page space given.This book’s design is a large format book, filled with tiny type with mostly tiny images that make this book hard too read, and comprehend and makes all of the content, within this book, uninteresting and un-initiating to even bother attempting the effort to read and to learn from.No one wants to read and large format, “coffee table” size book with small, unreadable text with small-ish, and sometimes downright dinky images!The typeface used is too small, the page layout design leaves way too much white space and does NOT take advantage/maximise the page size, at all.The typeface is not large enough OR heavy ( dark enough ) to comfortably read.In general, overall printed images are, also, simply too small!It seems the graphic layout artist involved with the page layout design of this book, was more concerned about keeping a strict, rigid uniform layout from page to page and NOT allow ANY flexibility of each page to have text and images move in and out of this rigid graphics formatting.Each topic in the book is dedicated to one, maybe two page/spread layout at that is it!As a result text readability suffers and the cramming in of many small images into single pages, makes all of the info, in this book, difficult to “glean” what you are looking at and feels insignifcant and unimportant in its overall presentation.Also, many of the printed images appear/“feel” very grainy.Either the original source images were grainy OR the print resolution of these images during layout were reduced in resolution to save on the digital file sizes.Some graphic designer, at Titan Publishing, OR the original author, needs some serious training in photo/image editing and enlarging and getting the best resolution from photos and initial “low quality” images.A different graphics layout is sorely/woefully needed for this book publication to make it A WHOLE LOT BETTER than it is now and the text needs to be mostly separated from images, when needed, more pages for info rather than cramming additional info into smaller insert boxes into a single page and the images in this book, for each category discussed, need to be much larger, with much better resolution and maybe moved to additonal pages for a better, visually pleasing content within this book.Trying to explain a complex topic, such as a TV series concept, design, and filming process involve with a franchise, like Star Trek and Mr. Curry’s involvement, cannot be easily conveyed in a seriously hard to read text size, with less than ideal size page images.This book should have been paged out to between 250-300 pages to allow for larger text and larger, higher resolution images.The actual info, if you attempt struggle through to read it, is a serious insight into the many everyday activities and volumes of work and filming efforts involved, in creating a weekly science fiction series, and the many people and coordination it takes.It is just such a shame that all of this important information is so poorly presented in a large format book that should have been used more creatively to showcase and celebrate the work of Dan Curry and all of the talented people who have worked on the Star Trek franchise over the many years.This book’s layout and design tends to make all of that feel small, “dragged down”/“bogged down”, insignificant and not worth the time and efforts needed to learn all of this interesting and important info that the author took the time and effort to convey in this poorly graphically laid out publication.This is s very pretty book on the outside, but a very difficult to read and appreciated book on the inside.Disappointed in author’s/publisher’s choices of design and presentation of this “behind the scenes” Star Trek book.A real shame.A recent additional commentI have been trying to read this book under a fairly bright bedroom reading light and with the small and fairly light in weight typeface, it is next to impossible for me to read this book without me having to put my face closer to pages AND EVEN THEN, it is still quite a strain and challenge to read, starting to induce eyestrain and headaches.Who/m ever decided to OK the design/typeface and graphic layout of this book, knows next to nothing about graphics and book design.Trying to actually read and attempt to enjoy the content contained in this book in a bedroom reading light setting is a near epic fail!Just a poorly laid out and designed publication, overall!Sad.With all of this stated, anyone who purchases this book in the future will now know what to expect from this published work.Purchase at your own discretion and risk.It is worth adding to your Star Trek book collection, barely!
5 people found this helpful
D. Gottwald –
not what i expected (actually better!)
so i’ve got just about every book ever published on star trek art and design. for me the appeal of the various series over the years has been not the characters nor the writing but rather the world-building, the production design.i had assumed that this book on dan curry’s some eighteen years with trek would be like the recent “art of john eaves” trek volume (also published by titan books). that is to say, mostly concept art and things scanned from personal notebooks and studio archives.how wrong i was! this book certainly has that…but also so, so, so much more. co-written in the first-person by curry, this book is essentially a visual textbook for how optical (and later, digital) effect were achieved from 1987 and season 1 of TNG through to 2005 and season 4 of enterprise.model work, mattes, motion control camera work, 3D modelling, concept sketches, storyboards, weapon prototyping and forging, kitbashing, title sequences… it’s all here. about the only thing not covered (which was not curry’s department) is makeup design and alien creatures. species 8472 is here, because they were modeled in CGI, but actual stuff applied to actors is not.if you dig the art and design of star trek—with particular attention paid to the production of TNG—then get this book. you won’t regret it!
9 people found this helpful
Peter BlinnPeter Blinn –
Just watching those shows is not enough, folks!
As my personal involvement with the Star Trek franchise ended very, very early on, I paid little attention to Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Dan and I hadn’t crossed paths very much during the latter 80s and 90s, and I moved on to other types of science- and space-oriented projects.But boy, what a revelation!! This book should be an absolute gold mine for anyone with even the most casual interest in photographic — and later on, digital — special effects, art direction, and pretty much every other specialty that goes into an off-world production. Plus on the workaday side, you really get a feel for the challenges, struggles, and compromises involved in getting such an ambitious job out the door every week.The organization here is beautifully systematic and chock-full of diagrams, storyboards, and study sketches that just seem to go on forever. It’s the kind of book you’ll set aside for a while, then dig into again, and again, and again for years to come.
2 people found this helpful
resqspc –
A superb look at the work of one of the most influential designers of the Star Trek franchise.
A fantastic look at the one Trek franchise’s giants. This is not the summary of a career; rather, it’s the summary of an artist who devoted 18 years of a career behind the camera to bringing the return of Gene Roddenberry and his successors’ vision of the stories of the guardians of the Federation. A large format allows beautifully detailed images of props, set pieces, shooting models and matte paintings (later CGI backgrounds). These are accompanied concept sketches, in-progress photos, diagrams, and notes. One interesting feature: sidebars throughout with comments from various Trek cast and crew members on working with both the man and his creations. This deserves to be on most fans’ shelves, but especially those of the modelers, costumers, and prop makers.
3 people found this helpful
Gerardo Broussi –
Must-have for Star Trek fans
This is a fantastic book! It ‘reveals’ many of the pioneering visual and special effects tricks that Dan and team had to do to create these imagined worlds before CGI. The fact that Dan experienced working with scale models and practical effects, all the way to fully computerized imaging, is an education into the evolution of both technology, creativity, and innovative thinking. The book is full of illustrations and descriptions of how they made some of the most memorable moments in Star Trek history and even goes beyond spaceships to include elements of martial arts (Dan created the Klingon Bat’leth) and creature development. This book is definitively a must-have for Star Trek fans.
2 people found this helpful
Jared –
Fascinating illustrated history
Beautiful volume that shows Star Trek as not just the sprawling universe that it is, but also the result of individual artists’ vision and talent. A must-collect for any sci-fi fan or practical sfx fan.
Alan Sehmann –
Love the Art!
The illustrations versus what you see on the screen is so amazing, love the ideas and how they came to be or change. Knowing what was going on doesn’t change my feeling for the show. So many interesting things in the creation processes.
3 people found this helpful
Ronald B. Moore –
Left a mark on a great legendary series.
High quality book with wonderful art and insights into the Star Trek Universe from TNG through Enterprise. Dan is one of the greats and his influence shows in every episode over 18 years!
One person found this helpful
Captcardor –
I bought two…!!!
I bought two of these for Trekkie friends. They are now eternally grateful to me. For anyone who is not a Trekkie, but loves digital art and animation, this is the best look at how to do it right.
2 people found this helpful
Marc Wade –
A great peek behind the scenes!
Long-time fan of Dan’s work – flipping through the pages brought a smile to my face as his ingenuity and artistry was revealed.
Cniquet –
Satisfaite
Très satisfait pour un fan de Star Trek
Liza –
Amazing book.
This is a great book. Packed with information.
Brandon –
Very cool
I really love this book you will as well.
Amazon Customer –
Came in mint condition
Came in mint condition. Exactly what I wanted.
Amazon Customer –
Trek art
One of the best Star Trek books out there!
Chaz Wilson –
Love the book!!
Very nicely illustrated book! Love ❤️ Star Trek books like this!!
2 people found this helpful