Moore began working in the film industry in 1978, and for a period worked at Boss Film Studios under Richard Edlund. While there, he worked on films such as Ghostbusters and 2010 as well as a variety of television series. He joined the team on Star Trek: The Next Generation working on the pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint".[1] Industrial Light & Magic had produced a series of shots of the new Enterprise, with the intention that these would be used throughout the series. Moore was familiar with ILM's techniques and when he interviewed for the position he was shown the raw non-composited footage. He later said because he understood the "mess", he was hired to fix it and this resulted in 18 years of continuous employment on the franchise.[2]
His initial role was to organise the main titles, and then afterwards he became the visual effects coordinator. He was then promoted to visual effects supervisor, and to complete the work he split the special effects section into two teams who would work on alternating episodes. Moore also worked on two video games in the franchise, Star Trek: Klingon and Star Trek: Borg.[2] Moore adopted the use of his middle initial to differentiate himself from writer Ronald D. Moore, who also worked on the series.[3] However, he is still sometimes confused by fans with the other Moore and on occasion signs as him rather than point out the mistake.[4]
He continued to work on the series through the seven seasons, and on the first feature film, Star Trek Generations as supervisor of visual effects. He then joined the team on Star Trek: Voyager, and when that series finished, switched to Star Trek: Enterprise.[1] He appeared on screen as Commander Ronald Moore of the USS Pegasus in the finale of Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages...".[4] Outside of Star Trek, he has worked on a variety of other projects including the visual effects on the music video for the Michael Jackson single Black or White,[1] and the Alejandro González Iñárritu film Birdman.[4] Moore also formed OMR Productions, alongside Dan Curry, a special effects colleague from his time on the Star Trek series.[1]
Moore won five Emmy Awards for his work on Star Trek,[4] as well as 11 nominations.[5]