talkmagic.co.uk

Have you been involved with any of the King Kong premiers anywhere in the world over the last couple weeks?

Just curious...

Nah....I'm just a lowly clay jocky....sniff...

They don't let me play with the "big boys".

I am going to go see the Narnia film tonight. My "babies" are on screen! I sculpted 5 characters for the film including Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.

WARNING...ANY OVERT OR THINLY VEILED JOKES, PLAYS ON WORDS OR RUDE COMMENTS REGARDING THE TWO CHARACTERS MENTIONED ABOVE, OR THE WORK I DID, WILL RESULT IN A DONATION (FROM YOU) TO A CHARITY. WE HAD A "BEAVER" POT IN THE DESIGN ROOM FOR ANYONE WHO "QUIPPED" OR REACTED TO A "QUIP". THAT WAS OWING TO PEOPLE GETTING SICK OF IT. THE FINE SYSTEM WAS INITIATED AS A DEFENSE AND MUCH MONEY WAS RAISED...SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. RESIST THE PREDICTABLE AND GROW UP!

I sculpted 5 maquettes for the film and some for KONG. These were scanned into a computer to use as the basis for computer generated models and characters.

I will be going to see KONG next week as well but I have to pay my way like all the rest of Joe Public...BUT...I'm gonna wear my snazzie "Weta Workshop / King Kong crew jacket" that I just had sent to me!!!!
.

What other films have you made things for?

And how did you get into the job???

It sounds amazing seeing the things you created on the big screen

Tom Lauten wrote:WARNING...ANY OVERT OR THINLY VEILED JOKES, PLAYS ON WORDS OR RUDE COMMENTS REGARDING THE TWO CHARACTERS MENTIONED ABOVE, OR THE WORK I DID, WILL RESULT IN A DONATION (FROM YOU) TO A CHARITY. WE HAD A "BEAVER" POT IN THE DESIGN ROOM FOR ANYONE WHO "QUIPPED" OR REACTED TO A "QUIP". THAT WAS OWING TO PEOPLE GETTING SICK OF IT. THE FINE SYSTEM WAS INITIATED AS A DEFENSE AND MUCH MONEY WAS RAISED...SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. RESIST THE PREDICTABLE AND GROW UP!

Well said Tom, anybody that rises to this otter know better...

That's not a fine offence....a bad pun, sure...but not "illegal".

You'll go red when you think of one!

Go here if you want to see my "day job". www.nimbacreations.com

Here for my credits... http://www.nimbacreations.com/Credits.htm

wow what a great Job!

Exactly what I was thinking!!

You have made some really cool things for some realy famous movies and shows

Amazing!

whoh! you make this stuff?

tom.. we saw narnia last night and it was realy good but i don't think mrs beaver was quite big enough to encompase dawn frenches massive erm personality.

that said the film is a triumph of computer / makeup effects that sits on that fine line between just enough and overkill, well done that son.

I'll tell Dawn you said that...and Lenny as well!

I saw it aswell, the Beavers are cool

What else did you make in the film?

Excuse me for asking Tom, but is that your advice regarding blowing TV's up in this months FHM magazine?

Tom, I just recently saw Narnia - and I must say the work you did on the beavers was phenomenal. Many of the people I saw the movie with pointed these two creatures out as standouts among the other creatures in the film.

Are you involved with the work after the maquettes are scanned in and modeled in 3d?

Tom, I just recently saw Narnia - and I must say the work you did on the beavers was phenomenal. Many of the people I saw the movie with pointed these two creatures out as standouts among the other creatures in the film.

Are you involved with the work after the maquettes are scanned in and modeled in 3d?

Hello "Demitri", (Jim is that you? This is Tom...Tom Lauten that is. If it's not you 'Jim', my apologies.)

When hired by WETA Workshop as a sculptor, my role was to create scannable maquettes for the project. I was first asked to sculpt the Mr. & Mrs. Beaver characters.

To this end I was given photographs of real beavers, a huge pot of plastilene and two 500mm high sculpting armatures and I started modelling. The sculptures were approved by the director as the final designs for Mr. & Mrs. Beaver and (along with a variety of 12 or so facial expression studies) were photographed and those images taken to designers at WETA where they "arted them in" to test textures and the intended bulk of the fur.

"Gentle Giant Studios" scanned the sculptures and a number of "digital effects departments" took over and brought the creatures to life.

I was thrilled to see so much of the sculpture still in the final "screen" characters.

I was very lucky to go on to sculpt a number of other scannable maquettes for the film including, a werewolf, a phoenix and a mermaid.

Excuse me for asking Tom, but is that your advice regarding blowing TV's up in this months FHM magazine?

Yeah, I was contacted by FHM for that article...weird huh?! They wanted a potted overview of my aesthetics for a "TV destruction scene"...ok...fair enough.

I'm off to see King Kong tonight and quite by co-incidence, the links below were sent to me about 5 mins ago. Empty your piggybanks guys and go buy one!

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/search.d ... ode=CHIHEA

Or check this US site for a video, and it’s cheaper.
http://www.thegreenhead.com/cool-stuff/ ... tronic.php