VALLEY SHOP MAKES A GROSS PROFIT.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

The Todd Masters Company of Arleta gives new meaning to the phrase ``No guts, no glory.''

There are plenty of fake guts strewn around the shop, many attached to full bodies in various postures of death. The company's inventory is the stuff of nightmares: Severed limbs, decapitated heads and gruesome space aliens.

And here comes the glory: The special effects firm is crafting the Borg alien for Paramount Pictures' coming feature ``Star Trek: First Contact.''

It's also designing the bald, anorexic extraterrestrials for ``Dark Skies,'' the coming NBC television series.

``We're sort of in the age of aliens,'' said the goateed, 29-year-old company owner, Todd Masters. ``Last year it was dinosaurs. This year it's aliens.''

The public's craving for space invaders is apparent with the box office smash ``Independence Day,'' and the television favorite ``The X Files.''

Demand for fake aliens - in movies, TV shows and commercials - has contributed to a 30 percent increase in business this year at Todd Masters Company.

The popularity of space aliens comes in cycles, since ``E.T.'' and ``Star Wars,'' said Jon Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations in Los Angeles, an entertainment information service.

Special effects, when done well, add to the effectiveness of a story. ``It's a plus to many a picture,'' Krier said.

The 10-year-old Arleta company has won several awards, although its four Emmy nominations haven't yet brought it that prize.

``I'm like the Susan Lucci of awards,'' Masters joked, referring to the soap opera actress who has often been nominated but never has won an Emmy.

Not that the company hasn't taken on high-profile projects. Its roster of films includes ``Mortal Kombat,'' ``Predator'' and both ``Addams Family'' movies. It is probably best known and recognized for its work on ``Tales From the Crypt.''

To get ideas for his creations - say, a slashed throat or a disemboweled body - Masters has studied anatomy and visited morgues.

``I've seen some pretty gruesome things,'' he said nonchalantly.

Creating spine-tingling effects takes, well - blood, sweat and tears.

To make a dummy body or prosthetic, artists make a mold of an actor's body or face. A body takes about 45 minutes, a face 15 minutes. Plaster or cement is poured into the mold to re-create the actor. That's called a lifecast. Then design details, such as bloody scratches or gaping wounds, are sculpted in.

To make a pliable ``skin'' in which to encase an actor or mechanized body part, designers take a lifecast and spread clay on top to create a thin layer.

Plaster is layered atop the clay to create an outer shell.

The plaster hardens into a mold and is taken off. Clay also is removed from the lifecast. When the plaster mold is put on top of the lifecast, a void is created where the clay used to be. Workers inject latex into this void to create thin ``skin'' pieces worn by actors or that sheath mechanical systems.

For ``Dark Skies,'' the company created a latex monkey suit for an actor. For more realistic simian facial movements, the head included a remote-controlled mechanical system that rolled the eyes, lifted eyebrows and moved the mouth.

Masters also combines physical special effects with ``digital engineering'' - using computers to enhance or create an effect.

That's what he used in the upcoming ``Star Trek'' movie.

In one scene, the Queen Borg's tailed torso descends and merges with her lower body. Then she walks off. In the torso-only shot, the actress's lower body was erased digitally.

Masters' company also has done work for various ``Star Trek'' TV episodes.

All this hard work has its rewards. The company grossed $3.2 million in 1995, and it projects more than that for 1996. Masters declined to release net income figures for his privately held company.

Twenty to 30 people work for the company, depending on the number of projects.

Usually, the company handles 30 to 50 projects a year, of which eight to 10 are for major films and two are for TV series.

Not bad for a Bellevue, Wash., kid who started working in the business at age 12.

Masters' persistence and enthusiasm landed him his first animation job painting cartoon cels for a birth control film - plus he looked older.

``I painted sperm and eggs and hormones, which I didn't understand at the time.''

At 15, he interned at Alpha Cine in Seattle, where he got a chance to work on visual effects coloring for ``The Empire Strikes Back.''

He moved to Los Angeles three years later.

Masters called on people in the business whose names he picked out of magazines, and on his first day landed a job making ghouls for ``Poltergeist II.''

In 1986, the Todd Masters Company was born.

While the company was founded on its gory creations, Masters says he doesn't relish crafting creatures for scenes of gratuitous violence.

``We get called upon to do some pretty awful stuff,'' he said. ``I don't like doing things that throw blood and guts at the camera.''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Todd Masters holds a mask his companymade for the movie ``Demon Knight.'' Masters says space aliens are the rage in the entertainment industry - again.

(2--Color) ``Tales From the Crypt'' mummies stick together.

(3) Jaremy Aiello gives an alien a facial at the Todd Masters Company.

(4) The ``Dark Skies'' TV series will feature this chimp as well as aliens.

(5) Powered by air blasts and cables, this ``ganglion'' will attach itself to people's brains in ``Dark Skies.''

David Sprague/Daily News