I’m Michael Cavallaro and I’m the VFX Lead here at Cryptic Studios. When I first heard that we were creating Star Trek Online, I was so excited. Star Trek is one of the most beloved IPs in the world and I wanted this challenge.

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Creating the visual style of Star Trek Online was no easy task. You might think that everything we would be creating has already been done, but not only are references several years old but they vary across the board. The effects changed from series to series and from movie to movie, and of course you have the J.J. Abrams version, which is different than all of them. If there is one thing we learned from Abrams it is if you make it cool enough, the fans will like it.

There are many occasions where we need to create an effect for an old IP element, and the only reference we have is from TOS Star Trek. We all know the budget they had for visual effects back then was small, so ours has to look better, but fans still know and love the original. Our job is to modernize the look but still keep the original feel so fans will immediately recognize the IP and be impressed by the updated look.

The first step in visualizing an effect is to meet with the design team to see exactly what something does, when it’s used and how much damage it inflicts. From there we scour old episodes and movies to find all the reference for that particular effect.  Sometimes we have several versions and sometimes it just doesn’t exist. In the case of different versions from different time periods, we try to find the most iconic one to build off of and give it a modern look. For new effects, we work closely with the Art Lead and Concept Team to make sure that what we are creating looks and feels like it is Star Trek IP. It’s kinda cool to think that a future Star Trek movie or TV show might use something we created as canon.

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Creating environment effects is one of the most fun things we do. The environment team is creating stunning landscapes in space and on the surface, and the effects we create give them some life. Weather effects like rain and snow on the planet surface or star clusters and nebulas in space give environments that extra something that makes the hours spent in game that much more appealing.

We have several effects artists on the team, all with unique skills. Some have a proclivity for the technical side, and some learn toward the art side. We try and channel everyone’s talents to make this game the best we’ve made yet.

 

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To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Trek Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.

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