John Eaves
John Michael Eaves  is a concept illustrator and designer who has worked as a production illustrator for  (for its last four seasons),  (for its entirety), the first seasons of  and , and eight .

Star Trek 
In the early stages of his production design career, which happened to be Star Trek, John Eaves preferred to have physical models at hand to get a feel of the three-dimensionality of his starship designs in particular, especially when they were to have a significant visual impact. As, obviously, no commercial models were available to this end at the time, Eaves had to construct them for himself, building upon his previous experience as studio model maker. Especially noteworthy were the study models he built for  (the Enterprise-B study model) and  (the Enterprise-E, and T'Plana-Hath study models). As confidence in his own prowess as a production designer grew, Eaves eventually dispensed with the practice. Most of his study models turned up, and were sold, later at various Star Trek auctions.

By starting work in 2015 on the 13th film installment, , Eaves became tied with Michael Okuda for the record of having worked on the most Star Trek film productions, held by an officially credited studio production staffer (strictly speaking, Gene Roddenberry holds the record as he is credited on every film, though these are honorary credits only, save for  on which he had actually worked). However, by counting his known, but uncredited work on  (he was featured though on his contributions in one of the special features on the 2003 ), Eaves has actually surpassed the record of his friend and former co-worker Okuda. With his first season work on Picard, Eaves is now known to have worked at least thirty-one years on the live-action Star Trek franchise, albeit intermittent, surpassing Okuda's twenty-eight years, earning him the distiction of becoming the production staffer whose professional services to the franchise spans the longest known time interval.

His work on the franchise earned Eaves two ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations in 2010 and 2014, complemented with the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award,  thereby following in the footsteps of his former supervisor Herman Zimmerman, who preceded him with the same award in 2013, and who actually presided over the ceremony that honored his former subordinate.

Earliest Star Trek work

John Eaves' very first production involvement with Star Trek was at Gregory Jein, Inc. where he worked as an uncredited studio model-maker for the 1989 film, The Final Frontier. Still a relatively newcomer at that time, Eaves later expressed gratitude for Gregory Jein who took Eaves under his wings during the production of The Final Frontier and wrote, "As an introduction to Star Trek I had the best time working for Greg and in all honesty I wasn't ready for all the responsibilities he gave me and in many ways I feel I didn't have the knowledge to perform as good as I wanted to!!!!! but he continued to nurture me on and I am so grateful for that opportunity." 

Eaves stayed on at Gregory Jein, Inc. for a time after The Final Frontier and further honed his skills as a model-maker for productions that the company was contracted for, including, among others, the third (second half) and fourth seasons of . On the occasion of the passing of VFX Supervisor Gary Hutzel, Eaves later recalled, "Back in the TNG days, I was making models with Greg Jein and we would take them to a place called Image G to be filmed. That is where I met the great Gary Hutzel. What an amazing man he was, and it was great fun to watch him set up a motion-control shot for the VFX. A man with a great sense of humor, and he loved to be creative and work, work, work. You had to make him take a day off or go home at the end of a long work day. We did a Joe Dante show called The Osiris Chronicles and whenever the main ship would be on the rig to film he would shout out, "It's a fish!" Hah… and that is what it looked like. I loved that Mister Hutzel and will miss him terribly." 

Contracted five years later for Generations and under the supervision of Production Designer Herman Zimmerman, his first and foremost task was modifying the design of the  model to convert it into the .

Deep Space Nine and First Contact
John Eaves, a bit to his own surprise, became a permanent staff member the following year as production illustrator for Deep Space Nine, following the vacancy opened up when illustrator Jim Martin left the franchise at the start of the fourth season. Apparently, he had made a positive impression on Zimmerman, as it was he who personally invited Eaves to work on the production. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, p. 79) For the remainder of that series, Eaves designed numerous set pieces, props and starships, the first being the Groumall (), then the Breen ship, and more notably, the two Jem'Hadar capital ships.

During his tenure on Deep Space Nine Eaves was invited to contribute to the film  for which his most visible contribution was the design of the new , a design he kept refining for its two subsequent appearances.

Insurrection, Enterprise, and Nemesis
Following his tenure at Deep Space Nine, John Eaves was not asked to join the  production team, simply because there was no position available at the time. Nevertheless, during this period, Eaves was contracted as an illustrator for , for which he most conspicuously designed the various Son'a ships.

As it turned out, not being hired on Voyager turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise, as former colleague Geoffrey Mandel has intimated, "When they started Enterprise, they made a conscious decision to bring in some new blood, and not just round up the usual suspects; but in practice, it meant that fans like Rick Sternbach, Tim Earls and myself weren’t asked back. However, a number of fans who had worked on DS9 and had been taking an extended leave of absence came back when Enterprise started, so the total number of Star Trek fans stayed about the same."  Working on Star Trek: Enterprise as a regular production illustrator, supervised by close personal friend Doug Drexler (whom he had met and befriended during his Deep Space Nine days, and who, like him, had taken "an extended leave of absence"), Eaves continued to design starships, space stations and more. His first assignment had actually been to start with the design of the new "hero ship", the , for the new series, before that task reverted to Drexler. (see: NX class model)

In that period of time Eaves also contributed to the last Star Trek film set in the prime universe, , for which the designs of the Scimitar and the  Romulan warbird were his most notable contributions.

Surviving the transition from prime to alternate universe
Excepting the Industrial Light & Magic staffers, who had previously worked on the Star Trek franchise and were still in the employment of the company at the time, John Eaves became the only regular studio prime universe Star Trek production staff veteran, to be officially hired and credited for J.J. Abrams' 2009, re-imagined, alternate reality  as conceptual illustrator – though it is known that former colleague Mandel had also done some short-lived, uncredited, pre-production design work for the 2009 outing, with James MacKinnon serving as an uncredited make up artist, whereas former Nemesis co-worker Eugene P. Rizzardi seved as a propmaker, likewise uncredited. While Abrams steered clear from hiring any other former Star Trek staffer in an official capacity in order to be as unencumbered as possible for his vision on the franchise, he was aware that some consistency needed to be observed, or as Production Designer Scott Chambliss has put it, "I brought John in because he knew the story and lore, what should and shouldn't be done. The ships in the Starfleet Armada to go to  were influenced by John's knowledge." (Star Trek - The Art of the Film, p. 58) The design work he has done on that film, has earned him an ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the following year. Eaves' designs for this movie included the hovercruiser, medical and military shuttles, and the new Enterprises escape pods. 

In 2011, Eaves worked in the same capacity on the twelfth installment of the film series, eventually titled , designing props for the Nibirans  as well as revamping various Starfleet gadgets and Klingon weapons,  earning him an additional ADG Award nomination. Most recently, Eaves has been working as concept designer for the props along with property master Andrew M. Siegel on the  sequel Star Trek Beyond. For both sequels, Eaves was joined by set designer Scott Schneider, a former Star Trek production irregular and former Gregory Jein, Inc. employee where he had worked alongside Eaves on the 1990 submarine thriller The Hunt for Red October.

Returning to the prime universe: Discovery
Pursuant his stint on Star Trek Beyond, Eaves returned to the revitalized Star Trek television franchise as Concept Illustrator on Star Trek: Discovery, set in the prime universe, and being credited as such for eight episodes (plus one uncredited) of its first season. While Eaves had been a sole surviving prime universe production staffer on the alternate universe films, this time around he was joined by some officially credited former colleagues from the prime universe productions such as Scott Schneider and David Takemura.

His more prominent contributions to the new series were the designs of the two "hero" ships  and the  itself, as well as all the other Starfleet vessels seen in the first season – and which to a large extent reflected the comment Scott Chambliss made, when he brought in Eaves on the first alternate universe film back in 2009. (Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection, issues 1-3) Most notably however, was his modernization of the look of, or retconning, the original configuration  for its first appearance as Christopher Pike's ship, the , in the first season finale . This he did in conjuncture with his old friend Schneider, who constructed the CGI model of the modernized version. (Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves, pp. 202-205)

Even though Eaves and Schneider turned in a CGI model version in October 2017 that adhered more closely to Matt Jefferies' classic design – nearly becoming the definitive one – , the producers decided that further, predominantly dimensional and proportional redesign changes were deemed necessary in order to meet Production Designer Tamara Deverell's (Eaves' and Schneider's superior on the show) requirement to "cheat it as a larger ship".  The additional changes to the model into the final, onscreen-used one, were done by the digital modellers at Pixomondo without further design input from Eaves and Schneider. (Star Trek: Discovery Designing Starships, pp. 202-203) Nonetheless, an early Eaves/Schneider version made an onscreen appearance as an USS Discovery bridge computer display graphic in the second season opening episode .

Departure from Discovery
Shortly after the retconned Enterprise had made its first appearance on Discovery and became prominently featured a short while later in the 2019 Ships of the Line calendar, Eaves became embroiled in a controversy with his employer, then Star Trek franchise owner CBS Broadcasting. Eaves felt compelled to explain to his fellow Star Trek fans the reasoning behind the redesign of the famed starship. On 13 April 2018, he posted an explanation on his Facebook page, mentioning that he "started with the guideline that the Enterprise for Discovery had to be 25% different" from the original due to issues of "Star Trek ownership" between Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios Inc..  Some fans interpreted this remark as meaning that Discoverys production company Secret Hideout had inherited the stipulations of an "alternate license" deal struck between CBS and Paramount and its production partner Bad Robot Productions for the alternate realty films. CBS reacted quickly  on 17 April when it posted a reaction on the ComicBook.com website (which it had acquired only two weeks before), emphatically stating that the redesign had nothing to do with any legalities whatsoever and that "any changes made to the design of the Enterprise were creative ones to utilize 2018 VFX technology."  Meanwhile, Eaves had not only removed the posting, but his entire Facebook page as well, before CBS had posted its response.

It is not known whether Eaves' speaking out of turn had anything to do with him not being reassigned to the second season of Discovery, as the production had to contend with severe budget cuts.  Friend and Enterprise co-redesigner Schneider on the other hand (who had participated and had, to the best of his knowledge, backed up Eaves in the latter's facebook posting), was retained, though remaining uncredited, for the second season as well as being signed for the follow-up series . Schneider had been terrified to embark on the Enterprise redesign task, as he feared the fan reactions, but was persuaded by his friend to do so after all. 

Eaves' place on the second season as lead (Federation) ship designer was taken over by his former subordinate, Concept Artist Ryan Dening, whose first contributions as such became the  and the landing pod. (Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection, issue 22, pp. 9; issue 20, pp. 8-14; issue 23, pp. 8-14)

Star Trek: Picard
It turned out that Eaves' release from Discovery did not spell out the end of his Star Trek career as its longest serving official live-action production staffer; Eaves has it on his official website stated that he is concept designer for Picard, reaffirmed on the IMDb website, though he has not (yet) received an official credit in the episodes as aired. His reinstatement on the live-action franchise was not that surprising in hindsight, as it was Eaves who was most intimately acquainted with the in canon most recent prime universe starship design lineages seen on screen, those of the Next Generation films the Picard series was intended to be a sequel of, having been responsible for among others the look of the Enterprise-E, various film Borg vessels as well as the newest Romulan ship classes.

In the end Eaves wound up designing all ships seen in the series' first season, save for the "hero ship", La Sirena. Unlike his tenure on Discovery, where he had to report to a succession of production designers, Eaves only had to report to Todd Cherniawsky (but one of the many production designers on Discoverys first season, incidentally) while working on Picard.

In March 2020, it became known that Eaves was also signed for the series' second season.

Star Trek: Prodigy
Pursuant his input on Picard, Eaves was sought out to provide additional input for another Kurtzman-era Star Trek show, . He was asked to come up with ideas for the design of the "hero-ship" . And while his particular early version of the design was not quite the one eventually featured on the show, ultimate co-designer Ben Hibon was very appreciative for Eaves' input, "John helped sketch rough ideas at the start of the process. The final design ended up looking very different, but his work was always inspirational."

Other official Star Trek work

Working with the Official Star Trek Fan Club and their magazines, John Eaves designed and produced the masters for a PVC replica of the Captain's yacht , and Legends in 3 Dimensions' 1996 cold-cast resin sculpture of the , for which his own study model proved useful. () Eaves also designed four "sculptural" three-dimensional starship plates for The Hamilton Collection that were released in 1998, and a Phoenix for The Franklin Mint that reached retail in 2001.

Much of his design work on Generations and First Contact was published in the 1998 reference book Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, which Eaves co-authored.

Eaves regularly contributed to the popular Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendar series and, unlike most of the other illustrators for this series, submitted his contributions "old-school", as he had not made the transition to creating his designs and/or illustrations digitally.

Eaves' involvement in Star Trek – actually embarked upon directly after the cancellation of Enterprise – continued as a design consultant and concept artist for Perpetual Entertainment's development of its eventually unrealized computer game version of Star Trek Online, and designed several starships for the game. Prior to the game's cancellation, Eaves commented on his contributions in the 2007 TOS-R Season 1 HD DVD special feature, "Preview: Star Trek Online". It was at Perpetual that Eaves met and befriended the aforementioned Ryan Dening, actually working under him, before the positions became reversed on Discovery a decade later.  Selections from his starship designs for the game were posted on his .

Eaves has also served as a technical consultant for model kit companies Bandai (no. 116424, 2003) and AMT (no. AMT853, 2013) for their Enterprise-E model kit outings. 

Eaves also contributed two designs, that of the Olympia shuttle and Copernicus Station, to the 2004 film portion of the Borg Invasion 4D-ride at the Star Trek: The Experience-attraction, but for the longest of times he was not aware of it; only after Doug Drexler had posted the CGI models he had constructed after Eaves' designs on his blog in 2009, was Eaves' memory jogged, "I just found the art work for this one!!! I forgot What we were doing this for but so loved the modeling you did on it and that crazy tikki faced space station!!! Your [sic] the KING!!!"  It had turned out that both designs and their corresponding digital builds had been rejects for Enterprise, but were resurrected for the attraction. This was not an unusual thing, as Eaves had clarified on another occasion, "Between Doug and I we have far more rejected pieces than approved…and you were always worried when all the ideas went to a meeting that they would choose the one you didn’t want to get approved." 

"John Eaves' Sketchbook" is a special feature series on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine DVDs, in which the artist delves into his design work for that series. Additionally, he had two dedicated reference books published on his work for the franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, released in May 1998 and covering his work on the first two Next Generation films, and Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves, an updated reference book covering his work on the entirety of the franchise, released in October 2018.

Starting in 2013, Eaves is frequently consulted by project manager Ben Robinson for his two partwork publications Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, the 2018 Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection and their 2021 follow-up Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, particularly on those starships Eaves himself had designed. Robinson was already acquainted with Eaves, when he had interviewed him for his 1999-2001 behind-the-scenes articles featured in Robinson's previous editorial assignment, .

Unofficial Star Trek work
Outside the official franchise, John Eaves has additionally worked as Art Director on Tim Russ' fan film project  along with Walter Koenig, Manu Intiraymi, Gary Graham, Courtney Peldon, Robert Picardo, Rico E. Anderson, Clint Carmichael, Richard Herd, Jason Matthew Smith, John Carrigan, and Ryan T. Husk.

Alec Peters' fan film project Star Trek: Axanar, on which he works as concept artist, also features Tony Todd, Kate Vernon, Garrett Wang, J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham, David Gerrold, Alec Peters, Ryan T. Husk, Scott Trimble, Daren Dochterman, and April Marie Eden. However, that project, slated to start production in 2015, is put on hold as a result of an injunction filed against it in December that year by franchise owner CBS Studios. 

Inspired by the similarly conceived -blog of his friend Doug Drexler, Eaves also started his likewise successful blog, , on 16 March 2009. He stated on that occasion, "I have to thank the ever and all talented master of media and VFX illusionist, Doug Drexler, for encouraging me to get off my fat butt and finally start a fun blog page!!! I have always wanted to have place to share the fun and adventures of those glorious movie and Star Trek days with friends, coworkers and fans of the films and shows…"  Like the DrexFiles, Eaves shared on his blog a considerable amount of his Star Trek design art, as well as his thoughts behind them, with the Star Trek fan community for four years, though, as of 2013, and while still "live", activity on the blog has ground to a standstill, with Eaves henceforth communicating to the world at large through his  , one of them deleted in April 2018 for reasons as explained above.

Star Trek starship designs
This list is currently incomplete.
Starships and space stations designed by John Eaves:
Amargosa observatory
refit-Excelsior-class

Borg cube (film version)
Borg sphere
Phoenix
Sovereign-class
T'Plana-Hath-type

Cousteau yacht
Federation holoship
Federation mission scoutship
Ru'afo's flagship
Son'a battle cruiser
Son'a collector
Son'a shuttle

Argo (shuttlecraft)
Scimitar

USS Enterprise-E spacedock

Kelvin-type shuttlecraft
Class III neutronic fuel carrier ()

DS9 Season 4
Groumall-type
DS9 Season 5
Jem'Hadar battle cruiser
DS9 Season 6
Jem'Hadar battleship
Cardassian orbital weapon platform
DS9 Season 7
Breen ship

ENT Season 1
OV-165

Inspection pod

Shuttlepod (22nd century)
Suliban cell ship (spherical)

Malurian vessel
Nausicaan ship

Echo Two
ENT Season 2

Romulan Bird-of-Prey (22nd century)

Menos' ship
Gosis' species' jet
Retellian freighter
Andorian battle cruiser
Tholian ship (22nd century)

NX-Alpha
Goroth's starship
Klingon Bird-of-Prey (22nd century)

"Warp Delta"
ENT Season 3
Xindi-Insectoid starship
Xindi-Aquatic cruiser
ENT Season 4

Orion Interceptor
Denobulan medical ship
Laneth's starship
Harrad-Sar's barge
Tholian ship (22nd century)
Borg Invasion 4D (former Enterprise rejects )
Olympia shuttle
Copernicus Station

DIS Season 1

 (retcon)

PIC Season 1

Federation shuttle (2385)
Romulan Bird-of-Prey (Picard redesign)
Oh's warbird aka Romulan flagship
Romulan starship (2399)
Romulan warbird (2399)
Seven of Nine's ship
Snakehead
 Tug

PRO Season 1
 ("early ideation")

Career 
A lifelong fan of the science fiction and fantasy genre (those of the 1980s in particular and including but not limited to Star Trek), and to date a frequent visitor to the genre conventions, movie buff John Eaves started out a model maker, prior to his work on Star Trek, Top Gun (1986) being his very first professional assignment. As to his start in Hollywood Eaves recalled, " Grant [McCune] gave me my first job in Hollywood, at the once-great FX house Apogee, in 1985. Not only has Grant been a great teacher and source of encouragement, he's also a good friend. I owe much of all I've achieved in my career to him." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, p. 79) Having worked in that capacity for a succession of companies like Apogee, Inc., Grant McCune Design, and Boss Film Corporation, other pre-Star Trek films he worked on as model maker were, among others Innerspace (1987, featuring Robert Picardo, Dick Miller, Wendy Schaal, William Schallert, Henry Gibson, Kenneth Tobey, Andrea Martin, music by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by Andrew Laszlo), Alien³ (1992), Batman Returns (1992, with Vincent Schiavelli, Anna Katarina, Biff Yeager and Felix Silla), Strange Days (1995, with Michael Jace and cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti), and more recently, post-Star Trek, on X-Men: The Last Stand (2006, starring Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, and Kelsey Grammer).

In the latter half of 1989, Eaves worked for Greg Jein–with whom he struck up an enduring friendship–, and, apart from The Final Frontier, has worked for his company on The Hunt for Red October (1990, with Ron Gress, Alan McFarland, and Bruce MacRae). In 1987 he added graphics to his skills set, and started also working as a graphic artist, first as concept/storyboard artist on the movie Nightflyers (1987), as well as on the later television series seaQuest DSV (1993-1995, the ill-fated The Next Generation emulation attempt by Universal Studios), subsequently as concept artist/illustrator for the Star Trek franchise and the film Virtuosity (1995, with Louise Fletcher, Danny Goldring, and the voice of Frank Welker), 

After his tenure on Generations, Eaves returned to Grant McCune Design in 1994. He remembered,
"Clark [Shaffer, who worked with Eaves on Generations] and I were originally model makers, with a lot of artwork thrown in for fun. Together we designed and built a lot of models for Grant. After Apogee closed, Grant kept the lease on the model shop and called it Grant McCune Design. While there, Clark and I started working together on Batman Forever. Our assignment: to design and build Arkham Asylum, that nasty place where Jim Carrey's "Riddler" is seen at the story's end.

"After I worked on Generations, the way I approached drawings and sketches changed. Before, I'd draw a three-quarter view, and when time for model construction came, I'd fill in details as needed. When building the model, I had in my mind all the information that wasn't on paper. Thus, if anyone else had to build a model from one of my sketches, they faced a lot of gray areas, a lot of detail that needed to be addressed. Generations taught me that the more sketches I make (especially plans, even rough one), the better they assist those who had to make models from my drawings.

"So when we started working on models for Batman Forever and I had to do the sketches, not only did I do three-quarter drawings for the producer's approval, I did plans too, which I'd never done before. The Arkham model became so large, Clark and I had a whole crew of model makers working with us–and all the plans and drawings wound up being great assets and timesavers."
While Eaves has largely maintained his revised stance for the Star Trek features he later worked on, he somewhat reverted to his earlier way of designing for the television franchise, as he wanted to have the modelers at the various visual effects houses to have their own creative input in order to finish up on his designs. On at least one occasion, in the case of the Jem'Hadar battle cruiser, that has led to a continuity error. One year later, in 1996, Eaves was invited by Herman Zimmerman to work for Deep Space Nine, to fill the position of Jim Martin, after the latter had left the show, which for Eaves was heart wrenching. He continued, "Illustration has always been my first love, but it was a tough decision, because I also love making models for Grant. After a week of sleepless nights spent trying to decide which path to follow, I said farewell to Grant. And it was back to the ol' drawing board at Paramount…" (Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, p. 79)

As is already indicated above, shortly before he started work on Deep Space Nine, Eaves worked as a conceptual designer on the 1996 science fiction television movie , intended as the pilot for the planned Paramount Television science fiction series The Osiris Chronicles. A somewhat ill-conceived attempt to further capitalize on the new found popularity of science-fiction television shows, the series was not picked up however, and the pilot was under its eventual title aired on 27 January 1998 on the recently established studio television network UPN and released as a direct-to-VHS home media format to the rest of the world. Soon-to-be Deep Space Nine colleagues who had also worked on the production included Michael and Denise Okuda, Don Greenberg and Davy Nethercutt. Studio models Eaves had designed for the production, built at the company of his former mentor Greg Jein and including the protagonist "hero model" Gary Hutzel had deemed a "fish", were later sold in various 2008 It's A Wrap! sale and auctions as lots  and . Ironically, his "fish"-like hero ship design, called the Daedalus, bore more than a passing resemblance with the Xindi-Aquatic cruiser he much later designed for Enterprise. When reminded of The Osiris Chronicles by his blog participants, Eaves, his memory jogged, remembered that the canceled production had even more behind-the-scenes ties with the Star Trek franchise, "We did Osiris immediately after Generations and both were Paramount films. When First Contact was starting up we brought over all the sets from Osiris and incorporated them into Star Trek. It was an oddity to take elements I had drawn for OC and then redraw them into the TNG world…everything came together well and if you have seen Osiris or (Battle lords) the tub shaped set piece that the Plentum was in became the center piece of the Warp core of the Enterprise E." 

As graphic and concept/storyboard artist mostly in the role of production illustrator, Eaves has worked after his Star Trek television career on Sky High (2005, with music by Michael Giacchino), Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006, with Michael Dorn), and Evan Almighty (2007), and as illustrator on Ghosts of Mars (2001, with Joanna Cassidy), The Majestic (2001, with David Ogden Stiers and Earl Boen), Flight of the Phoenix (2004), and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), earning him a second ADG Award nomination the following year. His television credits as concept artist include the series Bones and Raines, the latter of which starred Linda Park.

In recent years Eaves has showed an increasing interest in model (the female kind) photography, and an increasing amount of his photoshoots are featured on his blog. His Star Trek roots are evident as his models are often attired in female Starfleet uniforms from  era. Eaves has currently a listing on the model photographers blog "Model Mayhem", as well as a separate, photography dedicated, .

Eaves has concurrently lent his talents to "The Overview Institute", a non-profit organization founded in 2008 and made up of real-world space specialists like astronauts, scientists, and authors, dedicated to "research and educate both the space community and the general public on the nature and psycho/social impact of directly experiencing space".  As consultant he is member of "The Overview Effect" team, the part of the organization, responsible for visualizing the work of the institute by producing documentaries and the like. In the team he has been joined by former Star Trek alumni Douglas Trumbull and Dan Curry, though Eaves has withdrawn from the organization since then. 

Most recent credits as Concept Illustrator and Artist include the fantasy adventure Oz the Great and Powerful (2013, with Bill Cobbs and production design by Robert Stromberg), the sequel Iron Man Three (2013, with William Sadler and Miguel Ferrer and music by Brian Tyler), the comic sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014, with Alan Dale and art direction by Gary Kosko, Steve Christensen, Beat Frutiger, and netting him his fourth ADG Award nomination, shared with his colleagues but still not won), and Brad Bird's science fiction film Tomorrowland (2015, written and produced by Damon Lindelof, produced by Jeffrey Chernov, music by Michael Giacchino, and production design by Scott Chambliss).

During his 2018-2019 sojourn away from the Star Trek franchise, he has worked as prop designer and concept artist on the 2018 film Ant-Man and the Wasp, the sixth Marvel Comics Universe film he had worked on after his first 2010 one, Iron Man 2. 2019 films included Captive State and Godzilla II: King of the Monsters. A television project he worked upon in this period, concerned the television series remake of the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal for Netflix, the original having actually been a personal favorite of Eaves. 

As if to underscore his allegiance to the science-fiction genre, Eaves became a member of the Board of Advisors of the recently established . Founded at the start of 2016, the museum was slated to start out as a traveling exhibition tour, before settling down in 2018, at a permanent home in an intended location in North Hollywood, California. It has reunited Eaves with a slew of former Star Trek colleagues, who not only served on the advisory board, but on the Board of Directors as well. However, neither tour nor a permanent locus for a museum have come to fruition as of 2020, because its founder, Huston Huddleston, faced accusations for possession of child pornography in May 2018, after which both boards distanced themselves in their entirety, including Eaves, from the organization.

Motion picture career summary
Note: as specified by Eaves himself on his now defunct Facebook page.
1985 20th Century Fox
1986 MGM Studios
1988-1995 Boss Film Studios
1988-1992 Gregory Jein, Inc.
1993 Universal Studios
2000-2002 Fantasy II Film Effects
2000-2010 Culver Studios
2009 Marvel Studios

Star Trek credits 
 – Gregory Jein, Inc.: Model Maker (uncredited)
 – Illustrator
 – Illustrator
 – Illustrator
 – Illustrator
 – Conceptual Illustrator
 – Illustrator
 – Concept Designer

TNG Season 3 – TNG Season 4 – Gregory Jein, Inc.: Model Maker (uncredited)

DS9 Season 4 – DS9 Season 5 – Illustrator
DS9 Season 5 – DS9 Season 7 – Senior Illustrator
 – Concept Artist
 – Concept Illustrator
Star Trek Online – Concept Artist
Borg Invasion 4D – Concept Artist (uncredited)
What We Left Behind (illustrator, USS Emmett Till)

Star Trek  awards

ADG Excellence in Production Design Award 
Eaves received the following ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations as Illustrator in the category "Fantasy Film", and win in the category "Lifetime Achievement",
  nomination for , shared with Scott Chambliss, Keith P. Cunningham, Dennis Bradford, Gary Kosko, Curt Beech, Luke Freeborn, Beat Frutiger, Aaron Haye, James Clyne, Ryan Church, Paul Ozzimo, Andrew Reeder, Dawn Brown Manser, Andrea Dopaso, Jeff Frost, C. Scott Baker, Kevin Cross, Scott Herbertson, Joseph Hiura, Billy Hunter, Harry Otto, Anne Porter, Jane Wuu, Clint Schultz, Bruce Smith, and Karen Manthey
  nomination for , shared with Scott Chambliss, Ramsey Avery, James Clyne, Lauren Polizzi, Kasra Farahani, Michael E. Goldman, Harry E. Otto, Andrew E.W. Murdock, Jason Baldwin Stewart, Natasha Gerasimova, Steve Christensen, Andrea Dopaso, Nathan Schroeder, Ryan Church, Christopher Ross, Victor Martinez, Steven Messing, Karl Strahlendorf, John Chichester, Tex Kadonaga, Kevin Cross, Andrew Reeder, Anne Porter, Jane Wuu, Richard F. Mays, Allen Coulter, Karl Martin, Scott Schneider, Lorrie Campbell, Easton Smith, Tammy Lee, Tim Croshaw, Clint Schultz, and Karen Manthey
  Lifetime Achievement Award win for Star Trek, et al., sole nominee

Bibliography 
 The Making of Star Trek: First Contact, 1996 – Co-illustrator
 Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, 1998 – Lead Illustrator/Co-author
 The Secrets of Star Trek: Insurrection, 1998 – Co-illustrator
 , 2000 – Co-illustrator
 Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars – Co-illustrator
 2006 – December spread
 2011 – December spread
 2012 – August spread
 2013 – August spread
 2014 – May spread
 2015 – March spread
 2017 – December spread
 2018 – March spread
 2019 – June & July (with Scott Schneider) spreads
Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection – Co-illustrator, Interviewee
 Issue 10, 2013
 Issue 13, 2014
 Issue 21, 2014
 Issue 24, 2014
 Issue 26, 2014
 Issue 27, 2014
 Issue 30, 2014
 Issue 31, 2014
 Issue 35, 2014
 Issue 37, 2015
 Issue 40, 2015
 Issue 41, 2015
 Issue 44, 2015
 Issue 49, 2015
 Issue 53, 2015
 Issue 55, 2015
 Issue 64, 2016
 Issue 65, 2016
 Issue 69, 2016
 Issue 71, 2016
 Issue 75, 2016
 Issue 80, 2016
 Issue 82, 2016
 Issue 84, 2016
 Issue 85, 2016
 Issue 88, 2016
 Issue 93, 2017
 Issue 94, 2017
 Issue 99, 2017
 Issue 102, 2017
 Issue 115, 2017
 Issue 117, 2018
 Issue 124, 2018
 Issue 128, 2018
 Issue 129, 2018
 Issue 131, 2018
 Issue 134, 2018
 Issue 137, 2018
 Issue 148, 2019
 Issue 154, 2019
 Issue 155, 2019
 Issue 157, 2019
 Issue 160, 2019
 Issue 163, 2019
 Issue 167, 2020
 Issue 168, 2020
 Issue 171, 2020
 Issue 172, 2020
 Issue 174, 2020
 Bonus Issue 21, 2020
 Bonus Issue 22, 2020
 Bonus Issue 28, 2021
 Issue SP14, 2018
 Issue SP18, 2019
 Issue SP19, 2019
 Issue SP22, 2020
 Issue SP25, 2021
 Star Trek: Designing Starships – Co-illustrator, Interviewee
 Volume One, 2016
 Volume Two, 2017
 Volume Four, 2019
 Volume Five, 2021
 Star Trek Discovery: Official Collector's Edition, 2017 – Co-illustrator, Interviewee
 The Art of Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline, 2017 – Co-illustrator
 Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection – Co-illustrator, Interviewee
 Issue 1, 2018
 Issue 2, 2018
 Issue 3, 2018
 Issue 5, 2018
 Issue 7, 2018
 Issue 9, 2018
 Issue 11, 2019
 Issue 12, 2019
 Issue 15, 2019
 Issue 17, 2019
 Star Trek: The Art of John Eaves, 2018 – Illustrator, Interviewee
 Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection – Co-illustrator, Interviewee
 Issue 2, March 2021
 Issue 3, May 2021
 Issue 4, June 2021
 Issue 5, July 2021
 Issue 6, September 2021
 Issue 7, September 2021
 Issue 8, September 2021
 Issue 10, December 2021

Star Trek interviews 
Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray special features:
  special feature, "The Journey" (ported over to the 2009 Blu-ray disc counterpart)
  special feature, "The Art of First Contact" (ported over to the 2009 Blu-ray disc counterpart)
  special feature, "The Art of Insurrection" (ported over to the 2009 Blu-ray disc counterpart)
  special feature, "Romulan Design" (ported over to the 2009 Blu-ray disc counterpart)
 TOS-R Season 1 HD DVD special feature, "Preview: Star Trek Online" (2007)
 DS9 Season 4 DVD special feature, "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: John Eaves", interviewed on 
 DS9 Season 5 DVD special feature, "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: John Eaves", interviewed on 3 December 2002
 DS9 Season 6 DVD special feature, "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: John Eaves", interviewed on 3 December 2002
 DS9 Season 7 DVD special feature, "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: John Eaves", interviewed on 3 December 2002
Print publications:
 "The Evolution of the USS Enterprise-E", Pamela Roller, , August/September 1997, pp. 52-57
 , John Eaves/Ben Robinson
 "Designing the Cardassian Freighter", Volume 1, Issue 2, June 1999, pp. 22-25 
 "Star Trek: Insurrection – Concept Art (Part 2)", Volume 1, Issue 3, July 1999, pp. 20-25 
 "Star Trek: Insurrection – Concept Art (Part 3)", Volume 1, Issue 4, August 1999, pp. 28-33 
 "Behind the Scenes: Arming Deep Space Nine", Volume 1, Issue 17, September 2000, pp. 57-61 
 "Designing Borg Ships", Volume 1, Issue 23, March 2001, pp. 50-58
 Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, John Eaves/Ben Robinson
 "The Klingon Ships Of John Eaves", bonus issue 21, January 2020, pp. 6-18
 "Star Trek: Concept Illustrator", bonus issue 28, August 2021, pp. 10-17

External links 
  – official site
 
 
  – official blog
 
 

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