Tony Meininger

Fredric G. Meininger , generally credited as Tony Meininger, was a studio model maker who, as an independent contractor, operated his own modeling shop, Brazil-Fabrication & Design. While usually associated with his builds for the productions and , he was actually already involved at the very start of the spin-off television series in 1987.
He began his association with the Star Trek-franchise with three uncredited, early single contributions as an outside subcontractor to . His very first contribution was for the title sequence of the new series. Visual Effects Coordinator Gary Hutzel recalled, "We wanted to fly through a series of nebulas. Well remember, at that time, there were no virtual clouds. You could not just program clouds flying by or something. You had to physically shoot something. So, it was decided to make what we call the "whorehouse mattress", which was a fiber base put over chicken wire in a frame. It was actually first created by Tony Meininger, who did many, many things for the show. He basically had spent probably what amounted to 100 man-hours. Once he had put this pad in, poking at it, and pulling it, shaping it, until it looked like a series of clouds." (TNG Season 5 DVD-special features, "Departmental Briefing Year Five: Shooting Elements")
His second contribution arrived in the form of the Delta Rana warship physical studio model for the 1989 third season episode . On this occasion, Meininger's input was required as the series' regular studio model vendor, Gregory Jein, Inc., was temporarily unavailable to the franchise. Subsequently, he build the painted fiber glass model of the spaceborne lifeform, featured in the 1990 fourth season episode . Ultimately, this was followed-up by him becoming the primary studio model vendor for the first four seasons of Deep Space Nine, and first two seasons of Voyager. It was to this end that Meininger expanded his hitherto two-men company with additional staff.
He built the models of the , the ships and the Federation attack fighter as well as the miniatures for the Voyager pilot episode with the exception of the Maquis raider. He also modified the model for it to become the in Deep Space Nines third season. Meininger's most notable work however, were the physical hero studio models builds of the space station Deep Space 9 and the model. His work on Deep Space Nine earned Meininger, under his birth name, two Emmy Award nominations.
It has been under his birth name that Meininger has received his very last known motion picture credit, that of "tool person", for (2013).
A modest and reticent man, Tony Meininger has never been one for interviews, and virtually none, not a single one whatsoever on his work for Star Trek in particular, are known to exist, be it in print or on tape. He was featured however in the 1994 documentary –"Models and Miniatures: A Model of Perfection" during the build of the Deep Space 9 model, but he is only seen at work, not providing any spoken commentary. Still, Meininger does have an named after him.
== Career outside Star Trek ==
Tony Meininger had, together with his wife Marianne, already founded his company as early as 1983, but the extent of his or that of their company's work during its first decade of its existence, aside from the Next Generation contributions, is unknown as Deep Space Nine is its first recorded motion picture contribution.
Outside Star Trek, he has, while operating his company, worked on (1997, alongside several other former Star Trek VFX staffers ). Upon completion of this project, Meininger found the services of his company no longer needed for the Star Trek-franchise as it had completed the full transition to the CGI visual effects technique, all but replacing the craft of physical studio model building and its filming, and he decided to close down his company.
Meininger subsequently joined the visual effects company Dream Quest Images (DQI, co-founded by Hoyt Yeatman and other former FGC employees who had worked on ) as a model shop supervisor/department manager and has, while employed by this company, worked on and , (both 1999, but uncredited for the former ), Mission to Mars and (both 2000). After DQI closed its doors in 2001, Meininger worked as an uncredited model shop/miniature construction supervisor on (2002), as an uncredited scenic key artist on (2005), and as a toolman on Cowboys & Aliens (2011). It was during this period in time that Meininger was either credited as "Tony" or "Fredric".
== Emmy Awards nominations==
For his work on Star Trek Tony Meininger has, under his birth name, received the following Emmy Award nominations as Model Maker in the category Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects:
* for the episode , shared with Joshua Cushner, Judy Elkins, Steve Fong, Dennis Hoerter, Adam Howard, Don Lee, Gary Hutzel, Glenn Neufeld, Scott Rader, Jim Rider, and Joshua D. Rose
* for the episode , shared with Judy Elkins, Gary Monak, Paul Maples, Adrian Hurley, Steve Bowen, Steve Fong, Davy Nethercutt, Kevin Bouchez, Laurie Resnick, and Gary Hutzel
== External links ==
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es:Tony Meininger
Category:Special and Visual effects staff
Category:Emmy Award nominees