In its liquid state at -321 degrees Fahrenheit, liquid nitrogen the STAR TREK secret for spectacular organic-looking visual effects - is cold enough to freeze a car tire so solid it can be shattered like glass.
When the effects staff read the script for ‘All Good Things,’ the finale to STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, we were stumped by the concept of a time-space anomaly. "A what?" we asked. "A cosmic event that can destroy time and space? How are we going to do that??!" With a multitude of shots in the script, the effects crews scrambled for their own little piece of fun work to do. The one piece NO one wanted was the ‘anomaly that ate the universe.’
Organic effects expert |
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Well, no one except Dan Curry, the Visual Effects Producer for THE NEXT GENERATION, VOYAGER and DEEP SPACE NINE. Dan is known as the master of the organic effects used on STAR TREK. "In ‘All Good Things' we were called upon to create the time - space anomaly that threatened the existence of all life on earth," says Dan. "Everyone wanted to avoid doing this aspectof the show but I thought it would be kind of fun to do."
Dan began visualizing how he might create such a phenomenon. "Actually, I had a vision of what I wanted the anomaly to be. I assumed it was something like a black hole, an immense gravitational field that would pull matter into it.
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So I knew that I could get liquid nitrogen to either gush up and spill out of a hole in the center of something or gravity would pull it down through the hole depending on how it was used."
Inspired by the physical properties of liquid nitrogen, Dan envisioned a multi textured event horizon with gaseous streamers being sucked into a central point. "We created some holes in black velvet-covered cardboard and had liquid nitrogen vapors coming up through them.
“Over the years I discovered that the temperature of the surface, how you lean it, and the volume of liquid nitrogen affects the results.
It sometimes has wonderful streamers and sometimes concentric circles. |
Sometimes it is fire-like. So learning how to control it made it possible to create elements with different patterns that we could digitally composite one on top of the other, in layers, to create the very complex anomaly that you saw in that show."
Understanding the physical properties of liquid nitrogen is only part of the challenge to filming visual effects elements. "The other critical factor," says Dan, "is lighting. If you cross light liquid nitrogen, you can enhance or diminish its texture or you can back light it to make it look like there is a glowing central core. So I think we have used liquid nitrogen for time - space anomalies more than anything else."
Dan began using liquid nitrogen extensively on Star Trek after watching Dick Brownfield, the physical/mechanical effects supervisor, using it for warp core breaches and general mayhem. "I watched how it flowed around," says Dan, "and realized it had other applications."
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