Unleashed Castle
One of the central attractions in the Wētā Workshop Unleashed experience is the fantasy "miniature" castle made for the imaginary film "Age of the Ever-Clan".
I took over the 3D modelling work from Jack O'Connor who had the initial task of translating the concept art into 3D art. I then developed this model based on feedback, including a round of previewing the castle on its polystyrene rock using the Magic Leap AR headset.
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Unleashed Experience Project Supervisor: Sofia Bue Pederson
Castle Project Supervisor: Mona Peters
Throne Room Project Supervisor: Nizaad Shah
Castle Design: Rebekah Tisch
Castle Initial 3D Art: Jack O'Connor
The castle at home in the Unleashed experience in Auckland.
One of my favourite parts were the trees. I sculpted them in Zbrush and fitted small keys to the ends of branches. Once printed, the props team attached tiny pre-made trees to ends.
Project Supervisor Mona Peters stands with the final 3D printed piece. This was an assembly of around 20 SLA prints.
The team did an amazing job transforming the castle from 3D print to final product.
One of my favourite parts of the project was redesigning the viaduct bridge and incorporating the dinosaur sculptures into the pillars. I love what the team did with the terraces too.
I sculpted key sections of the castle in Zbrush to achieve a ruined effect.
As a bonus task I also designed and modelled the photo-op throne room in Maya. I produced a model which drove the CNC manufacture of polystyrene forms, which were then worked over by hand after assembly.
Sectioning the castle into manageable 3D printable pieces was a huge task. I automated some of the processing in Houdini, but did a great deal of work in ZBrush to ensure each piece was printable.