Designing movie creatures and characters : behind the scenes with the movie masters

Behind the scenes on landmark movies such as King Kong; the Star Wars trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, Predator, and Alien series; Hellboy; and The Chronicles of Narnia, are a host of visionary and often obsessive artists, designers, and technicians whose passion is the movies, and whose role is to create nothing less than cinematic icons. This unique book interviews and reveals the character designers, painters, illustrators, sculptors, and animatronic engineers who transform a sketch or a few words from a script into convincing characters with a life and personality of their own. Designing Movie Creatures and Characters reveals the inside story of how creatures of the imagination are brought to life onscreen - told by the makers themselves, and illustrated with exclusive, behind-the scenes shots from hundreds of movies. Learn what inspires and motivates these skilled artists; how Weta Workshop began; how Walt Conti builds swimming robot sharks and whales; how Patrick Tatopoulos creates his stunning designs; how molds, creature suits, eye mechanisms, and masks are constructed - and how dedicated artists bring characters to life in front of the camera, using suits, makeup, animatronics, puppets, masks, and CGI. Whether you are a designer, animator or an aspiring makeup artist, this book will entertain, challenge, inspire, and inform.