The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug Creature work

Really pleased to be able to share this work from The Hobbit with you.  I'm restricted to using the artwork here so please be aware any sharing of these images is done so without my permission.  All of this artwork can be found in the latest installment of the Hobbit art of chronicles  so please get a copy for a better look and explanation of how the designs all went down.

This project was incredibly stressful and at times, seemed impossible to finish but once again I worked with an incredible team at the WetaWorkshop Design Studio and as I've said before a project like this is largely a collaborative one and I'd like to thank Richard Taylor and the crew as well as all the amazing artists at Weta Digital for bringing these beasts to life!

Please note that these images are reserved to use on this blog only and I cannot give permission for their use.

So here goes:

A small selection of the orcs!

 This particular guy was my favourite orc head that I designed  :)  Bilbo stabs him in AUJ.

These were some of the final passes I got on Azog.  Due to time constraints the design ended up being a lot more symmetrical than featured here and wish they'd have kept his birthmark under his eye.  Jamie Beswarick had a large influence on the overall character, I was involved with changing the design of the face.  Gus Hunter then did a costume pass using elements from Nick Keller's previous costume design.  But featured is just the artwork I created.  :)

Beorn.  He went through many looks and featured is a small amount of what I contributed to the character/creature.

Some spider designs.  I designed the overall look for the ones in the film, however the front of the head and some additional "jaws" were added to the film ones.  :/

Last but not least, the REAL king under the mountain  :)  Many hands contributed to the look of this amazing creature, and I was real happy with how he turned out in the end!  Special mention to John Howe, Alan Lee, Jamie Beswarick, Dan Cockersell, Greg Tozer, Gus Hunter, Mike Asquith and the Weta Digital crew!  My involvement mainly focused on the head and below is a SMALL selsect of some of the final art and the Zbrush sculpt I used for the last one.  More to come in the future hopefully but this is all I can show now.

 

Please note that these images are reserved to use on this blog only and I cannot give permission for their use.

Essence: Creatures

Something out of the ordinary for me.  I got the chance, a long with some other amazing creature artists and designers, to create a book focusing on creature design, inspiration and art.
 Essence: Creatures is a book featuring this fella below, and a few other creatures I've created for the book.  All the artists have contributed to a wide range of styles and takes on the subject, and any creature enthusiast should have a blast flippin through the pages.  Very stoked to have been asked, and a big thanks to Bryan Wynia for making this happen!

    

Phoenix Atelier Orcs

Hey all... very pleased to share the Orc's that I created for the Program I'm running at Phoenix Atelier !

It was a great experience creating the program, one I'm sure to repeat again!  My only challenge was creating the artwork on such a small scale on screen, but I got over it really quickly.  My students are quickly putting my work to shame!  I'll be dusting off my ol kitchen knives soon looking for work after this judging by how well they're doing!  :P

Phoenix really has created an awesome method for learning, one I wish I had when I was approaching this industry, and I'm really glad to be involved!

Mary Doe

I've had the great pleasure of working with M.E.G. outside of my Weta hours on a number of projects but namely Mary Doe which has been created by Nick Nicolaou and his team including Paul Katte, who has been a make up artist on a number of films including the Hobbit, which is where we met.

I think original story and independent properties like this are what will really change cinema, giving us all something to be excited about again.  It really was a pleasure to contribute to the wealth of idea' s that Nick has created in this world.

To get a better idea of it all, check out the kickstarter they have going and if the idea of it sounds good.. you can also see a creative spotlight on yours truly here... help out a little by backing.  Some cool rewards for those that do!

Phoenix Atelier Creature design

Hey all,
I was asked to do a course for the Phoenix Atelier on how I designed some of the creatures for the Hobbit.  It's my first instructional content so am a little nervous about it as I'm still learning and growing in this industry, but am happy to share my experience thus far.  Check it out here...

Phoenix Atelier - Registration

I also created a demo and introduction video with Phoenix for the program... check it here!  :)

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey pt2

We have been given permission to show some of the artwork that is in the public domain for The Hobbit!

As I mentioned in my first post it was an extreme honour to have been involved in this film to the capacity I was as Lead Creature designer for Weta.  I'd have to say out of all the briefs we've done for the film and still doing the Goblins were one of the biggest challenges.  There will be more artwork I can post as the books are released especially a lot of Orc design, Azog as well and the creatures we have yet to see. ( I think there's a dragon as well???)  :P

Here are some early Goblin designs that weren't in the film but I rather liked:

These were some of the designs that made it through.  There were A LOT of these guys! 

 These were the final designs and an early design for Grinnah, the one talking goblin and my favourite of them all (as well as the scribe, these two were my favourite).

 And the designs for the King of the Goblins  :)   There was a lot of work done on this guy and was really stoked with how he turned out!

I designed the Stone Trolls however It was mainly done in ZBrush and I wasn't able to get any "pretty' artwork done for them, so here's the design maquettes for their faces  :)

I was mainly involved with the creatures of the film but on occasion we're able to do some other design, here's some Thorin tests, a Radagast costume and Bombur's costume concept which I did as well as a warg rider and one warg concept which was pretty much all I was able to do on those creatures as I was focused on Orc's at the time.  

this warg was based roughly off a Nick Keller design  :)

There's plenty more and please check out the Art of books which document the concept's, design, and production by the talented Dan Falconer and team!  Looking forward to sharing more as we're able  :)  A film like this is only made on the backs of all the talented people that collaborate to make such an amazing looking film!  It was and will always be the biggest education I ever had working on this film and really was among the best company to get me through!  My art has progressed heaps since working at Weta and love the continuing learning curve!  :)