Harold Weed Harold " Howie " S . Weed is a studio model maker who worked for Industrial Light & Magic and Matte World on the " Star Trek " feature films , , , and as one of the model makers of the for the pilot episode . Around 1999 Weed switched from making models the traditional way , to constructing them digital ly , and as a digital modeler , he worked on digital models and simulations for the 2009 movie . Weed started to work in the motion picture industry in the early 1980s while employeed at Chris Walas , Inc . As creature crewmember and model maker he contributed to feature films such as the action adventure " Romancing the Stone " ( 1984 ) , the horror comedy " Gremlins " ( 1984 ) , the television fantasy film " The Ewok Adventure " ( 1984 ) , the science fiction drama " Enemy Mine " ( 1985 ) , the short science fiction film " Captain EO " ( 1986 ) , the horror film " The Blob " ( 1988 ) , the horror sequel " The Fly II " ( 1989 ) , the science fiction sequel " RoboCop 2 " ( 1990 , starring Peter Weller ) , the horror film " Arachnophobia " ( 1990 ) , and the comedy sequel " Look Who ' s Talking Too " ( 1990 , starring Kirstie Alley ) . In a 2010 interview , Weed recalled how he started out professionally , " " My first professional gig was indeed on the first Gremlins movie back in 1983 . I had been working on a low budget horror movie in San Francisco called Dracula ' s Disciple , and through the connections I made there mixing gallons of fake blood , I was hired at creature effects studio Chris Walas ( CWI ) . When I joined Gremlins I was 19 and still in college , so I decided to take a semester off and see how things went . I came on the Gremlins project just as there was a big push to build the dozens of background puppets for the movie theater scene . I had a great time learning how to make proper molds and cast foam rubber Gremlin body parts . While Mr . Spielberg himself didn ' t actually hire me , it sure was a stroke of luck to be on that project , learn the trade , and then have the resulting film become such a landmark in the creature effects industry . " " Further film work includes the comic adaptation " Batman Returns " ( 1992 ) , the horror film " Dracula " ( 1992 ) , the fantasy comedy " Hocus Pocus " ( 1993 ) , the comic adaptation " The Flintstones " ( 1994 ) , the thriller " Clear And Present Danger " ( 1994 ) , and the action thriller " Mission : Impossible " ( 1996 ) . In 1987 Weed permanently joined ILM ( though for awhile continuing to work for Chris Walas on an ad - hoc basis ) , and has remained in their service ever since . Weed further recollected in the 2010 interview , " " I had just returned from working in Toronto on " The Fly " " [ 1986 ] " for CWI . The shop had some down time so I gathered my meager portfolio and cold - called the ILM Model Shop for an interview . As it turned out , the timing was perfect . They had just completed " Howard the Duck " and were about to mount a major organic effects film called " Inner Space " . I was interviewed by ILM model shop supervisors Charlie Baily and Jeff Mann for the job of building half scale puppets of Kevin McCarthy and Fiona Lewis . That interview went pretty well and I started the next week . Really , I couldn ' t believe my good timing . " " In the same year , immediately after " Innerspace " , Weed became part of the team that built the studio model of the " Enterprise " - D . For ILM , Weed worked as technician and model maker on the fantasy film " The Witches of Eastwick " ( 1987 ) , the fantasy sequel " Ghostbusters II " ( 1989 ) , the drama " Fire in the Sky " ( 1993 ) , the adventure " Congo " ( 1995 ) , the sequel " The Lost World : Jurassic Park " ( 1997 ) , and the science fiction comedy " Men in Black " ( 1997 ) . More recent credits for ILM included the special edition of the science fiction sequel " Star Wars : Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back " ( 1997 , in which he played the Wampa creature , albeit uncredited ) . Around 1999 , Weed made the switch to digital modeling and has predominantly worked as digital modeler and digital artist on further productions like , the prequel " Star Wars : Episode I – The Phantom Menace " ( 1999 ) , the science fiction drama " Artificial Intelligence : AI " ( 2001 ) , the science fiction film " Minority Report " ( 2002 ) , and the sequel " Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines " ( 2003 , starring Kristanna Loken ) , " Star Wars : Episode III – Revenge of the Sith " ( 2005 ) , the remake " War of the Worlds " ( 2005 ) , the first three " Pirates of the Caribbean " films ( 2003 , 2006 , and 2007 ) , the science fiction film " Transformers " ( 2007 ) , the adventure " Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull " ( 2008 ) , the science fiction thriller " I Am Number Four " ( 2011 ) , J . J . Abrams ' " Super 8 " ( 2011 ) , the science fiction films " Cowboys & Aliens " ( 2011 ) and " Battleship " ( 2012 ) .