Google isn't helping on this one so far. But I'm sure it must have been covered at some point in some "Making Of" special sometime. Photo attached, of the lights I'm talking about. The ring of moving lights around the edge of the airlock opening of the CE3K mothership. They moved in unusual flowing patterns which were very interesting. I'm referring to the "idle" animation of the white lights, by the way, not the hand-animated colorful ones from the conversation scene.



My guess is that it was done with a variation of his slit-scan technique that he famously used for the trippy stargate sequence in "2001". It has that kind of feel to it.

It's a shame he died last year, otherwise I could have just emailed and asked him directly. I even spoke to him once at a public appearance in Seattle several years ago, but I didn't think to ask him about it at the time.

Did anyone happen to watch some kind of "Making Of" special which covered this particular thing?