(written from a Production point of view)
Tom Lay (13 October 1940 – 8 January 2013; age 72) was a production illustrator on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and illustrator on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
One of his concept illustrations included Regula I with the USS Enterprise. This piece was offered as a print on the commercial market.
For The Search for Spock, he was responsible for backdrops that created the vistas of the surface of Genesis. He also designed the Hall of Ancient Thought (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 68; The Making of the Trek Films, 3rd ed., p. 53; Trek: The Unauthorized Story of the Movies, p. 101) and Mount Seleya. Mount Seleya was based on ILM concept art and Lay made concept paintings of the area, the first of which was a small illustration which demonstrated the scene at night. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 62) Lay outlined which segments of the painting would have to be converted to backdrops, and drew up the correct scale. He reminisced about the painting, "Everybody loved that […] They said, 'Well, OK, except paint it for daytime and we'll light it for night.' So I did that, and there were a few other changes." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63) In fact, the backing evolved through four sketches and was blown up to a large scale. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, p. 78) Lay concluded, "The changes were done accurately but, by the time they saw it in a finished size, they couldn't even recognize it!" (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 63)
External link[]
- Tom Lay at the Internet Movie Database