Rhyl model The rhyl , convincingly as it might have seemed at the time , was not a real - world animal , but rather an imaginary CGI model . As one of the two major effects houses charged with providing the production with the digital visual effects , it was Blue Sky / VIFX , responsible for the planet - bound VFX for the feature , that was to construct the CGI model of the rhyl . read , " " EXT . VILLAGE - DAY - ( OPTICAL ) Artim is playing with a tiny ' palm - pet ' , a colorful cross between a caterpillar and a jellyfish that crawls over his hand and between his fingers , as Sojef moves over with Picard and Data . . . " " , and as " palm - pet " it would remain known for the modelers at Blue Sky . Design . First - off a general design of the creature had to be come up with as Animation Director Mark Baldo recalled , " " We gathered our full team of modelers , designers and animators , then began submitting designs based on a vague script description suggesting a cross between a caterpillar and a jellyfish . We went through some amazingly cool designs , eventually tailoring it to look like a baby seal or walrus mixed with small rodent elements . Shaun Cusick sculpted both the maquette and the 3 - D computer model , which was modeled in Alias " [ remark : the name of the company that owns and markets the software ] " and animated in Softimage . He incorporated something of my baby daughter Miranda , as well , which gave the creature these huge cute cheeks . " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 77 , pp . 81 , 83 ) The producers were late in signing - off on the decision to have a palm - pet included , and Baldo elaborated on another occasion , " That was extremely quick . They needed us on set with a maquette two weeks after they gave us the go - ahead . What was so exciting was that there was nothing , not even a cocktail - napkin sketch , to start with , although the script described the creature as a cross between a caterpillar and a jellyfish . Some of the early designs were pretty wild . Everyone who wanted to submitted a design , and it came down to a core group of our modelers and animators , including Mike DeFeo , Sean Cusick , Jim Bresnahan and myself , all drawing and going crazy trying to get ideas . Sean Cusick ' s sketches ended up being closest to what they had in mind , so that design was selected and refined . We then had our artists start sculpting . The first unit was shooting the scene that introduces the Palm - Pet during our first day on the set " . ( " American Cinematographer " , issue January 1999 , p . 45 ) Continuing , Balbo elaborated , " " We opened it up to all the designers at our company to get ideas . We submitted about a dozen different designs to Jonathan and Rick , which got narrowed down to one , tailored to their specifications . " " Nevertheless , getting there was an arduous process as Digital Effects Supervisor Mitch Kopelman recalled , " " Some of the original sketches were quite absurd . And they were all very humorous . " " , not few of them resembling a little seal at one point , to which Baldo added , " " ( . . . ) with a big head , a big neck , a tapered body and four little flippers . " " It was left to Senior Animator Jim Breshnahan to actually produce a variety of concept illustrations . Yet , thanks to Jim Hourihan ' s particle generating software , by then incorporated as a module in the Maya CGI software , the CGI software package of choice for Blue Sky , a plush felt was soon applied to the naked " seal " . ( " " , p . 151 ) Study and CGI models . Yet , that being said , form and texture was only part of the big problem of getting the rhyl to life , or as Kopelman has put it , " " The biggest question , since there are no actual palm - pets to base it on , was " How does this thing move ? " " " Part of the solution was to have three - dimensional study model s built , for the CGI modelers to mull over . Those models were built by Modeler / Animator Cusick ( " " , pp . 151 - 153 ) , the definitive one being presented to Director Jonathan Frakes , fondly remembered by Balbo , when he " " ( . . . ) showed Jonathan Frakes the maquette — I ' ll never forget this as long as I live — he held it in his hands and said , ' What ' s not to love ? " " . ( " American Cinematographer " , January 1999 , p . 45 ) In the meantime , Balbo and Animator Doug Dooley , watched countless hours of tapes of caterpillars , seals and an assortment of rodents , just to determine a concept of movement of " " ( . . . ) how this little creature moves , how it reacts , and what it does . We developed a background for how it behaves . " " , as Baldo elaborated . Consequently , Modeler Shaun Cusick constructed a CGI wire - frame model of the palm - pet , for Dooley to manipulate to see if the model was up to the required tasks . Cusick then , " " ( . . . ) made a little sculpt of it , which we cast in resin so it could travel . We even put a little fur on it . " " , Baldo reiterated . It was this sculpture , to be handled by Michael Welch , playing Artim , and his counterpart , Brian Scheu , playing Artim ' s friend , that provided the raw footage , or photographing reference plates , for Blue Sky / VIFX ( East ) to build their finalized CGI model upon , and as it also conveyed the very tasking CGI composition ( at the time ) of the palm - pet transitioning from one hand to another . As to the CGI transition composition , Baldo has stated , " " The first shot – which was supposed to be simple , with one kid passing it to another & ndas ; wound up being staged up in a tree . There was a moving camera with rack focus going on through this dappled - sunlight scene , so it became a monster tracking job later . We were tracking the hands of these kid actors as well as the movement of the camera , which included a tilt and a dolly - out . Jonathan Frakes gave me so much freedom it was shocking . He said , " You ' re the animation director , so get up on the tree and tell the boys what you need . " " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 77 , p . 83 ) Baldo , whose filming team was further comprised of digital effects supervisors Mitch Kopelman and Christopher Scollard , added further , " " Jonathan graciously allowed me to work with the boys , to explain what the little CGI palm - pet would be doing and to show them what to do with their hands . I told Michael Welch , who plays Artim , to make sure that his hand drops down a little bit when the other boy hands him the animal . That will help the animators , because it gives them a physical cue as to when the full weight of the creature is in the actor ' s hand . " " It subsequently took further advanced manipulation of the footage to produce the final footage as featured , including footage shot with the use of two small physical objects , a plastic cube and a light gray ball , for additional post - production film editing purposes . ( " " , pp . 153 - 155 ) In that respect Kopelman commented , " We use mathematics to figure out the field of view for our computer camera . Since the cube is a very simple perspective object , we can use it to confirm that our mathematics are correct . We ' ll create a computerized cube thew same dimensions as the physical cub the actor is holding , line them up , and make sure that any lens issues are resolved perfectly . And we use the gray ball as a lighting reference . On such a simple geometric shape it ' s very easy to get all the directional information regarding the lighting environment . We ' ll place a computer generated sphere in the same space as the real sphere and play with the lighting until it is pretty well matched on each . When the computerized sphere looks just like the reference photo , we know we ' re almost there . ( . . . ) The biggest chore is the rotoscoping . We created a CG hand in rough animation , and then we had to match each move of the animated hand in the computer to the real hand . It takes a lot of time . " " Chiming in , Baldo added , " " We also shot the resin model for reference . It told us the scale , how the light hits it and how light interacts with the fur , which is different from the skin . So the model wasn ' t only a tool to help actors visualize , it was also a tool for us back at the studio . ( . . . ) We take all our cues from the live footage . We even have to know what film stock Matt Leonetti uses because we have to match the film grain in our CGI world . " " ( " " , pp . 154 - 155 ) Originally , the modelers at Blue Sky , animated the rhyl as being a fast moving critter , much like real world rodents . Yet the producers rethought the characteristics of the palm - pet and decided to considerably slow down its movements . This meant that Blue Sky had to redo the animation at a slower pace and that the animation already done , had to be discarded . ( " Cinefex " , issue 77 , p . 83 ) The enormous amount of work entailed at the time notwithstanding , Visual Effects Supervisor Jim Rygiel did state somewhat proudly , " " I think they pulled it off pretty well . It ' s something you ' ve never seen , but it had to have the fine detail of a living , breathing thing . They managed to make it look cute , as opposed to looking like a slug . " " ( " American Cinematographer " , January 1999 , p . 46 )