Season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continued the show’s tradition of genre-hopping, venturing even further into fantasy, and with that came a whole new cast of characters and creatures that I was asked to help design. From Commander Cassell, played by Saffron Burrows, to the eccentric Dendru, played by Dave Foley, and Klingon commander Kor in the film noir episode, I started with scans of the actors and digitally sculpted and rendered the makeup designs to develop their final looks.

Creating the werewolf for Episode 9, “Once La’an a Time,” was by far the most fun. I developed the design around the proportions of a suit performer on stilts wearing an animatronic head, allowing the creature’s exaggerated anatomy to work within the requirements of a practical suit. The finished design then went to Legacy Effects, where it was 3D printed and fabricated to closely match the original concept.

As an unexpected bonus, my final werewolf design also made it directly into the episode as a painting held by Princess Thalia, played by Christina Chong.

Project Highlights