TAS Production design

[Harry]

I've browsed through IMDb and STARTREK.COM, but since I'm quite ignorant about animation processes, I'd thought I'd try here.

Who was (were) the people that designed the TAS-specific starships, interiors, aliens, etc. I'm assuming that this was all done by Filmation, with no further direct influence from the TOS production crew?

Furthermore, did these kinds of new designs get a similar amount of work as is done for non-animated production? Or is it that they just come up with the starships/shuttles/aliens when making storyboards? And have any of these possible sketches/storyboards ever turned up within the fan community? It seems there's quite little on "The Making of TAS", so to speak.

To conclude: the most direct (geeky) question I have is: Who can be credited with designing the TAS starships?

 

[Kail]

I have many TAS storyboards, and I can tell you the look of the aliens and ships very often changed quite a bit before hitting the screen.

 

[Christopher]

Well, here are some relevant credits, copied from Curt Danheuser's TAS site ( http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/Prod.html#Credits ):

Art Director: Don Christianson
Background Director: Ervin Kaplan
Storyboard:Sherman Labby, Paul Fennell, Dale Hale, Jack Miller, Michael O'Conner, Louise Sandoval, Ken Southworth, Dawn Huntley
Key Layout: Herb Hazelton, Albert De Mello, Kay Wright


The art director (whose name is actually Don Christensen, not Christianson) would be the equivalent of a production designer. He would've probably been the main person responsible for alien, ship, and prop design, though he probably had various people on his staff contributing ideas. I would imagine the background director oversees the design and creation of background paintings under the art director's supervision. Layout artists also play a key role in designing animation shots, their appearance and composition. In Warner Bros. cartoons, the layout artists did the preliminary background designs, which the background artists then followed. I'd assume it's done similarly in other animation.

And yes, there was no involvement from Matt Jefferies or anyone from the TOS art staff.

Hmm, a couple of interesting names in the TAS credits. One of the subordinate layout artists was Glen Keane, who went on to become a major Disney animator, responsible for animating such lead characters as Ariel the mermaid, the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Tarzan. He also designed Pocahontas, who's probably my favorite Disney character design. The TAS staff also included Virgil Ross, an animator who worked on literally hundreds of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for WB over the course of six decades.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher said:
The art director (whose name is actually Don Christensen, not Christianson) would be the equivalent of a production designer.

And, according to that 1969 Paramount to Filmation memo Andy Mangels, and Filmation animator/historian Darrell McNeil, uncovered (for a recent UK edition of Titan's "Star Trek Magazine"), Don Christensen was involved from the very start, when they mooted a group of cadets shadowing the TOS crew on a smaller vessel, the 6D12 Lightly.
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