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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy · Paramount+ · 2026

Starfleet Academy — virtual production and visual effects

Jason Zimmerman discusses Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in American Cinematographer's February 2026 issue, and breaks down the season's visual effects on the befores & afters podcast.

The crew of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy shooting a desert scene with a camera crane inside the production's LED volume at Pinewood Toronto Studios.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy — LED volume at Pinewood Toronto Studios. Photo by John Medland, courtesy of Paramount+, via American Cinematographer

In brief

Production
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy · Paramount+ · 2026
Leadership involved
Jason Zimmerman — Visual effects supervisor
The problem
The inaugural season combines virtual production, digital characters, space sequences and motion graphics — the subjects Jason Zimmerman discusses in his befores & afters interview.
The approach
American Cinematographer's February 2026 issue covers the inaugural season with cinematographers Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC, Maya Bankovic, CSC and Philip Lanyon, CSC, showrunner Alex Kurtzman and Jason Zimmerman. The issue's behind-the-scenes photography shows the crew working inside the production's LED volume at Pinewood Toronto Studios.
The result
  • The published interviews cover the inaugural season's cinematography and visual effects, including LED-wall shooting, character work, space sequences and screen graphics.
The lesson
Virtual production and LED-wall shooting

Summarised from the sourced detail below. Full narrative and attribution follow.

Antique Robots team members involved

  • Jason Zimmerman

    Visual effects supervisor

This production predates Antique Robots. It is listed as production experience carried by the people named above, not as work produced by the company.

The challenge

The inaugural season combines virtual production, digital characters, space sequences and motion graphics — the subjects Jason Zimmerman discusses in his befores & afters interview.

The approach

American Cinematographer's February 2026 issue covers the inaugural season with cinematographers Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC, Maya Bankovic, CSC and Philip Lanyon, CSC, showrunner Alex Kurtzman and Jason Zimmerman. The issue's behind-the-scenes photography shows the crew working inside the production's LED volume at Pinewood Toronto Studios.

The process

On the befores & afters podcast, Zimmerman breaks down the season's main visual effects challenges: the approach to virtual production and LED-wall shooting, the character work — including Almond Basket and Rok-Tahk — and the show's space scenes and motion graphics.

What it enabled

  • The published interviews cover the inaugural season's cinematography and visual effects, including LED-wall shooting, character work, space sequences and screen graphics.

Why it matters to Antique Robots

The coverage connects virtual production with the wider visual-effects work required to bring a new Star Trek series to the screen.

Key principles

  • Virtual production and LED-wall shooting
  • Digital characters
  • Space sequences and screen graphics

Sources

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