A Couple of months ago Alec Peters(Producer of Prelude to Axanar, and the 2 upcoming episodes of Axanar) asked me to interview Axanar Fan Artists as a way to spotlight their impressive and hard work to create fan art.
First up in the “spotlight” is German artist Thomas Raube
1 – tell us a bit about your background?
I’m Thomas Raube, a german SciFi-Fan who likes everything that has to do with space, scifi, and fantasy stuff. “Star Trek” and “Mass Effect” are my primary source of inspiration when it comes to artworks. Currently I work as a freelance graphic designer/illustrator for SciFi Games and Books.
I’m a big Fan of Fanfilms in general, because I’m fascinated by the creative process of devoted Fans, that’s why “Axanar” is of course something I’m interested in. I’m part of a small Fanfilm group myself, called “Euderion – Infinity” who creates No- to Low-Budget Green Screen Star Trek Fanfilms. Our last 15 min one is online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
I was responsible for the digital works such as the SFX, Space and Starship Scenes.
2 – what about Axanar(and the four years war) intrigued you to want to do fan art of that era in Star Trek?
For short, Axanar was for me a welcome glimmer of hope for Star Trek. After many years of official Star Trek productions that don’t deliver a Trek feeling to me, Prelude of Axanar was the first thing after over a decade where I could say “Yes, that’s Star Trek”. Sounds, Actors, Designs, all seems fitting. From there, it was just a matter of time ’til I assimilated it into my head canon and created fan art about ‘The four years war’.
3 – how long does it take you to create and finish a piece of artwork?
It really depend on the scene. I can do a quick render with post work in around 1 hour, when I use my countless presets I created over the years. But if I do a scene from scratch its more a 6 to 8 hour work for my usual 4k Wallpapers. The painting of the stellar nebulas for the backgrounds are digitally hand painted and needed around 2 hours. Lighting and texturing the models demand up to 2 hours. Line up the models (Ships, Asteroids, Planets etc) to create the scene is a 1 hour work. 3D Rendering of the image itself range from 5 min to 6 hours depending on how much going on in the scene. And finally the post work such as light spots, blurs or camera lens effects is another one hour.
4 – what is your favorite ship in the Axanar time period to draw/create?
Thats for sure, Sean Tourangeau’s Ares class design. I’m a big fan of the Akira and Centaur class myself, and the Ares class shares many design elements of my two favorite ships. I very like how Axanars CGI Artist Tobias Richter creates a 3d model which have the high standards of a today’s starship design with lots of hull details but it still reveals that it comes from the TOS Era. Thats something I miss in all the current official Star Trek productions.
5 – do you do commissions for fans? If so, what are the normal costs for them?
I do commissions from time to time, but not very often. It needs a project that I am interested in, that I accept work for others. The price depend on the complexity of the work. A little Fan art like when someone said “Please make me a firing Galaxy class starship wallpaper” I do for a symbolic price of 1 Euro (just to sort out the people who request a work just because its free).
Real Commissions (Non-Fan arts) range from 15 Euro to 150 Euro for a painted Cover/Wallpaper. More if I have to build new 3d Models.
6 – website plug/contact information
DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
