Karl J. Martin

Karl J. Martin is a digital artist and set designer who worked as digital artist on, and  and as set designer on , directed by J.J. Abrams.

Martin worked as visual effects model maker on the comic adaptation The Rocketeer (1991, starring Billy Campbell), the science fiction comedy Mom and Dad Save the World (1992, with Teri Garr, Thalmus Rasulala, and Wallace Shawn), the science fiction film Monolith (1993, with Musetta Vander), and the drama Fearless (1993).

Beside his work on the Star Trek television series he also worked as digital artist on the television series SeaQuest DSV, M.A.N.T.I.S. (1994), Spy Game (1997), and Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999), the television science fiction film Without Warning (1994), the action thriller Broken Arrow (1996, starring Christian Slater), the science fiction film The One (2001), the television movie Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future (2001, starring Greg Ellis), and the thriller The Sum of All Fears (2002).

His work as set designer was part of the thriller Final Embrace (1992), the adventure The Last of the Mohicans (1992), the horror comedy Innocent Blood (1992), the television series The X-Files, SeaQuest DSV, and Babylon 5, the drama Ed Wood (1994), the science fiction horror film The Puppet Masters (1994), the drama Apollo 13 (1995), the thriller Air Force One (1997), the fantasy drama What Dreams May Come (1998), the horror film Deep Blue Sea (1999), the science fiction thriller The Astronaut's Wife (1999), the science fiction thriller Supernova (2000), the television series The Division, She Spies, CSI: Miami, and Lost, the science fiction films The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and The Island (2005), the television series E-Ring, Heroes, Day Break (2006), Deadwood (2006), Wildfire (2007), Eli Stone (2008), Sons of Anarchy (2008), Eleventh Hour (2009), House M.D. (2009), and Medium (2009), and 's science fiction blockbuster Avatar (2009).

For his work on Avatar, he won an Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild in the category Fantasy Films in 2010 which he shared with fellow Trek alumni Robert Stromberg, Dorian Bustamante, Ryan Church, James Clyne, Daphne Yap, C. Scott Baker, Scott Herbertson, Joseph Hiura, Tex Kadonaga, and Gregory Jein.

Martin was the production designer on the action film Shadow of the Dragon (1992) and the short films Untitled: 003-Embryo (2002, with Ethan Phillips) and Legion: The Word Made Flesh (2005). He had featured cameo roles in the Babylon 5 episode "The Ragged Edge" (1998, with Andreas Katsulas, Marshall R. Teague, and Mirron E. Willis) and in the science fiction film The One (2001).

More recently, Martin worked as set designer on the television remake Wonder Woman (2011), the comedy The Three Stooges (2012), the science fiction film Battleship (2012, set design by William Ladd Skinner and Aaron Haye), the comedy I Hate You, Dad (2012), the crime drama Gangster Squad (2012, with Geoffrey Mandel), the fantasy sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and the television series Ray Donovan (2012).