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Syd Dutton (born 1 December 1944; age 79) is a visual effects artist, specialized in matte paintings, who worked on several Star Trek television series and films. Dutton was interviewed on 16 October 2003 for the special feature "The Art of Alien Worlds" on the VOY Season 4 DVD. In this special, he explained several matte paintings for episodes such as TNG: "Devil's Due" and VOY: "Caretaker", as well as the exterior of the Romulan Senate in Star Trek Nemesis. According to the call sheet from Monday 27 January 1992, Dutton was picked up at home at 8:00 a.m. from the transportation department to work on the matte painting for the episode "The First Duty", including location sketches at the Japanese Garden.

Personal and awards[]

Born as Sydney Richard Dutton in San Francisco, California, Dutton started his career in the matte department at Universal Studios in the late 1970s. He learned from matte expert Albert Whitlock, who provided matte paintings for Star Trek: The Original Series. In 1983, Dutton helped form (along with Bill Taylor) the effects company Illusion Arts, Inc., located in Van Nuys, California, which provided matte paintings for several Star Trek projects. The company was closed in 2009 and Dutton joined the Culver City-based VFX shop "Zoic Studios" as art director and lead matte artist. [1]

During his time on Star Trek, Dutton earned two Emmy Award nominations and one win for Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects:

In 1985, Dutton won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for the television mini-series A.D., shared with Bill Taylor and Albert Whitlock. Dutton was also two times nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects: in 1992, for the horror film Frankenstein Unbound, shared with Bill Taylor, and in 2005, for the fantasy film Van Helsing, shared with Scott Squires and Ben Snow.

Early career[]

At the beginning of his career, Dutton worked as matte artist and special effects artist on feature films such as Family Plot (1976, with Albert Whitlock and Bill Taylor), Joseph Sargent's MacArthur (1977), The Wiz (1978), the science fiction television movie Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979, with Scott Squires, David Stipes and fellow matte painter Dan Curry), The Blues Brothers (1980), History of the World, Part I (1981), Ghost Story (1981), Cat People (1982, starring Malcolm McDowell), Dune (1984, with Brad Dourif and Patrick Stewart), the drama The River (1984), Out of Africa (1985), Red Sonja (1985), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Real Genius (1985), Clue (1985), Psycho III (1986), and The Karate Kid Part II (1986).

Illusion Arts, Inc.[]

After founding the company Illusion Arts, Inc., Dutton worked with his company on films including the comedy Critical Condition (1987), the comedy Dragnet (1987), Spaceballs (1987), Glory (1989), The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Addams Family (1991, with Christopher Lloyd and Carel Struycken), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1993), Batman Forever (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Dragonheart (1996), Daylight (1996), he Mask of Zorro (1998), Psycho (1999), Muppets from Space (1999), Mystery Men (1999), Bicentennial Man (1999), The Gift (2000), The Fast and the Furious (2001), From Hell (2001), The Time Machine (2002), The Bourne Identity (2002), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), The Village (2004), Æon Flux (2005), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), You, Me and Dupree (2006), the remake Miami Vice (2006), and Defiance (2008).

The last contributions of Illusion Arts, Inc. can be seen in the biopic Milk (2008),Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009).

Star Trek credits[]

(This list is currently incomplete.)

External links[]

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