dearborn%hyster.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (07/17/85)
From: dearborn%hyster.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (DTN264-5090) > Also, Trumbull, NOT Dykstra, did the special FX for Star > Trek- The Motion Picture. Since Industrial Light & Magic has done > both STII-TWOK and STIII-TSFS, I assume Dykstra was involved in > those. Both Trumbull AND Dykstra were brought in by Paramount to do the effects work on ST:TMP after they fired Robert Able Assoc. Trumbull was primarily responsible for the more ethereal effects like the V'ger cloud. Dykstra's people did most of the model work, like the Enterprise and the Vulcan ships. A lot of this had been started by the model shop at Magicam. Paramount originally wanted to use the Magicam process in the film. Able was probably responsible for botching that deal too. Syd Mead designed the V'ger entity, which Dykstra then built and shot. The work was very quickly thrown together....and at times it shows. The project was already far behind schedule, and had to be delivered to the theatres by the promised release date. I believe that all Able produced for the film was the 'smearing' effect of the 'wormhole' effect. Nothing else was usable, or shot at all. Looking carefully at the film, there are two very distinct styles to the execution of the effects. Had they had more time, pehaps Trumbull and Dykstra could have brought them a little closer. Randy Dearborn Digital Media Services Merrimack, NH (Facts gleaned from "Special Effects: Creating Movie Magic")