The following are in progress shots of the temple header seen in the first few episodes of LOST season 6.
We were given a blueprint with the basic outline for the header plus many books of the Angkor Wat ruins. I had the freedom to choose which ornament from the reference to sculpt into the confines of the shape. The “tree of life” in the center was at the request of the Production Designer.
Detail of the snakes.
The header installed with a coat of plaster and before paint.
Also got to be a part of the series finale. Being a fan of the show, it was very exciting working on the final set known as, The Light Cave.
Bead foam wall with “flow-stone.”
Light Cave being painted.
Whether the film is considered great or terrible, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen was very good to me. I spent 4 months sculpting on it and got to work on things I usually don’t get a chance to like ornament and scale maquette-models for some of the sets we were building.
-following photos will contain SPOILERS.-
By the time I was hired, all the math had been figured out to create this column, but I did get to help shape, detail and carve hieroglyphs on this 30′ tall polystyrene beast.
Over 14 copies were made of this so Mr. Bay could blow them up in any manor he chose.
Another sculptor did the eagle statue (that got blown up) and I did the eagle talons and seal underneath it that was seen in the college library scene.
The painters did an amazing job making this look like marble.
Next I got to work on the maquette for the Tomb of the Twelve. It was a cramped set loaded with dead, corroded robots who had been there for thousands of years. The Production Designer and Michael Bay wanted a combination of organic bone shapes and decaying alien robot parts.
This one shows real animal jaw bones with teeth, casted spine and lobster parts and oil based clay.
The following are the finished set.
The photos below show the making of a set from the scale model through to the finished full size polystyrene version.
The scale model.
Stacking and gluing the contour cut levels.
Hot wiring and detailing the polystyrene.
The Sculptors are done and the set is handed over for plaster and paint.
I was lucky enough to be shipped off to Hawaii for a couple of weeks at a time to help with some of the sets for the TV series LOST.
The column Locke’s father was chained to in Season 3.
The freezing cave where Ben turns the wheel that moves the island in Season 4.
Skulboy Strikes!
The following are featured in Season 5 when Ben is in the Temple of the Smoke Monster.
Hieroglyphs in 2 lb. foam.
Sealed, painted, installed and ready for camera.
Vartan is the main character in Fugitive Studios upcoming film East of Byzantium.
Vartan is 12″ tall sculpted in Pro-Clay and is still a Work In Progress.
This maquette is based on an illustration by Jim Starlin of Marvel’s Warlock. This was sculpted with Pro-Clay (mix of oil clay and wax) and the character if standing straight would be 10″ tall making him 1:7 scale.
He was sculpted without the costume and hair, molded and casted to be customized later.
Painted in a faux bronze finish.
I sculpted this 3″ Batman head as test for a new material (Pro-Clay) I wasn’t familiar with. I then molded it, casted it, painted it and sent it to a few of our friends.
20″ tall sculpted from medium Chavant. Still needs hair and a background.
20″ tall, sculpted with medium Chavant with the axe made from urethane foam. Decided early in the sculpt to go for the faceted muscle look.
This was my first attempt at a figure maquette. I was in between jobs as a Sculptor for set construction and Akiko had got me a couple of the John Brown sculpting DVDs for Christmas. Looking at it now, I see plenty of problems with her, but it was a good start.
I later went on to study under John Brown at Gnomon and learned a great deal.
Cave under graveyard. The arrow points to where Indy pulls out a skull to find the hidden switch to open the doors leading to more tunnels.
Water wheel from the temple.
Bead foam rock wall in Gold City.
Same wall sprayed with plaster and painted.
Gold City almost done.
This is a good example of how it’s done.
From left to right: Sculpted bead foam, foam coated with plaster and the back side of a wall showing how it was blocked up.
One of the coolest jobs I’ve worked on in the business was this full size Megatron. From belt buckle to the floor he measures 25′ tall.
A foam “sock” representing the interior mass was fitted to a steel armature in 3 separate sections. The sculpted bead foam individual robot parts were attached to the sock and the 3 sections were then stacked (pictured).
The foam was hard-coated, sanded and given a base coat of paint.
Here is Megatron on his stage with various techniques used to make him look frozen and ready for camera.
The ice cave where Megatron was found in the artic.
This is the body of the remote controlled aircraft that carried a nuclear bomb in Season 6. The prop was a based on a real plane, but scaled down to be much smaller.
River rock wall for Santa’s workshop in its raw foam form.
The finished workshop before getting hit with fake snow. Other foam elements here include the window sills and wall relief plant-ons.
Me with scary tree in 2lb. urethane foam.
Completed scary tree on location. The tree had animatronic arms with 2 puppeteers inside the tree working them.
A less scary tree sculpted for a different part of the same set.
Sculpted bead foam walls for wacky living room scene, about to be installed.
Walls installed, coated and painted.
Still from movie.
Sculpted out of 4lb. urethane foam. This was a fun job during reshoots and I got to meet Mr. Rob Zombie himself.
This is how it appeared on screen during a dream sequence.
This is a good example of how versatile Foam is. All the molding and ornament including and above the arches on this building facade are made from foam.
