Gary Dean Hutzel (November 4, 1955 – March 1, 2016) was an American

visual effects supervisor In the context of film and television production, a visual effects supervisor is responsible for achieving the creative aims of the director or producers through the use of visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the pr ...

from

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

who worked on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', and ''

Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, '' Galactica 1980'', a line of book adaptat ...

'', among others. He was nominated more than 20 times for

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

, winning on four occasions.

Early life

Gary Hutzel was born in

. He studied mechanical engineering at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

for a period, but decided that he wanted to pursue a career in films and moved to California, where he studied photography at the

Brooks Institute The Brooks Institute was a private for-profit art school in Ventura, California. It was formerly the Brooks Institute of Photography and was originally based in Montecito and Santa Barbara. His first job in the industry was as a van driver for the commercial production house

FilmFair FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced children's television series, animated television series, educational films, and television advertisements. The company made numerous stop motion films using puppets, cl ...

. While there, he decided that he wanted to pursue visual effects.

Special effects career

His first visual effects job was as second assistant cameraman on the 1985 film ''

Teen Wolf ''Teen Wolf'' is a 1985 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Rod Daniel and written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Michael J. Fox stars as the title character, a high school student whose ordinary life is changed when he discover ...

''. He then began to freelance for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, working on ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

''. In 1986, he was recruited to work on the new ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' television series, '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' as a visual effects coordinator. He continued to work on the show for the following five seasons, before moving to work on the spin-off series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' where he was the visual effects supervisor for all seven seasons. During his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise, he worked on a great number of visual effects shots including the breakapart model of the

Borg The Borg are an alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the ''Star Trek'' fictional universe. They are Cyborg, cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a Group mind (science fiction), hive mind called "The Collective". The Borg co- ...

Cube seen in the two-part episode " The Best of Both Worlds", the design of the USS ''Defiant'' and the blending of old and new footage required for "

Trials and Tribble-ations "Trials and Tribble-ations" is the 104th episode of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', the sixth episode of the fifth season. It was written as a tribute to the original series of ''Star Trek,'' in ...

". He also produced renderings for several non-canon ''Star Trek'' novels, although he was known as being reluctant to use

computer generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in art, printed media, simulators, videos and video games. These images are either static (i.e. still images) or d ...

and preferred to work with physical models where possible. Hutzel co-wrote ''The Magic of Tribbles: The Making of Star Trek Deep Space Nine – "Trials and Tribbles-ations"'' alongside Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block. Following the end of ''Deep Space Nine'', Hutzel worked on the film '' Red Planet'' and the ''

Spy Kids ''Spy Kids'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of spy action comedy films created by Robert Rodriguez. The plot follows children siblings, who discover that their respective parents are spies and become involved in an espionag ...

'' franchise. He was hired by writer

Ronald D. Moore Ronald Dowl Moore (born July 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on ''Star Trek,'' as well as on the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, for which he won a Peabody Awar ...

to work on the rebooted ''

'' television series. Hutzel had worked with Moore on ''Deep Space Nine''. In addition, Hutzel went on to work on the prequel to ''Battlestar Galactica'', ''

Caprica ''Caprica'' is a 2010 American science fiction drama television series, which is a prequel spin-off of the 2004–2009 series ''Battlestar Galactica''. ''Caprica'' is set 58 years before the main series, and shows how humanity first created the ...

''. He then worked as visual effects supervisor for the television series ''

Defiance Defiance may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Defiance'' (1952 film), a Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander * ''Defiance'' (1980 film), an American crime drama starring Jan-Michael Vincent * ''Defiance'' (2002 film), a ...

''.

Awards

Hutzel was nominated for more than 20 nominations for

during the span of his career. He won four in total, two for his work on ''Battlestar Galactica'' and one each for ''The Next Generation'' and ''Deep Space Nine''.

Personal life and death

While working on the special effects for the Freeform television series '' Beyond'' on March 1, 2016, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he had a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

and died. Freeform released a statement saying "We are deeply saddened by the loss of our friend and colleague, Gary Hutzel. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and our 'Beyond' family". He was survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hutzel, Gary 1955 births 2016 deaths Visual effects supervisors Primetime Emmy Award winners University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni People from Ann Arbor, Michigan