Saturday, August 17, 2013

Work From "Pacific Rim"

In the second half of 2011 I had the incredible opportunity to work on Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim".    I spent several months doing nothing but sculpting giant monsters all day, and was able to design/sculpt one of the guys that reached the screen, the one called Leatherback.   I also co-designed the baby Kaiju along with Francisco Ruiz Velasco and Guy Davis.    And I sculpted maquettes for two Guy Davis-designed creatures, Slattern and Otachi.   Later on I got to paint the models, along with my friend Simon Lee.   Here they are, hope you will enjoy seeing these.


Molding and casting of the Kaiju maquettes were done by Steve Newburn, Sean Sansom and Jason Detheridge, who were part of the team that built the incredible looking, on-set Kaiju organs for the movie.   In addition to this, since I left the production before Otachi could be molded, Sean and Steve also sculpted in the wing membranes between the arms of Otachi, and detailed the scales under the arms and tails, which I couldn't get to before the sculpture was cut apart for molding.   Anthony Veilleux also helped with molding- and a few others were involved with molding/casting, which I cannot think of at this point two years after the fact...so if you were one of them, please leave a note in the comments, thanks!





























24 comments:

  1. Wow man. I'm speechless. Fantastic work!

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  2. Wow! Incredible! Thank you for making them - and for showing them! :D

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  3. Glorious! I want to see as many of the kaiju designs in as much detail as possible - and these, done by Guy, are spectacular.

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  4. So well done. Inspiring to say the least!

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  5. u rock David!! amazing work as always!

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  6. Daaa@@ve! So good man, I love em'. That Leatherback fellah is just ace. They all are.

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  7. <3 <3 <3 your work Dave! Every time you post I can't help but giggle and wiggle my fingers like Mr Burns... eeeexcelllent! Congrats on your success with this, and what an amazingly fun movie too! It really gave me that sense of wonder and joy that movies like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones did when I was a kid. So awesome. It's been a long time since a movie really made me that happy and satisfied!

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  8. Dave, your work is mind blowing, the detail and the structure of the monsters is really focused on. I love the movie and the monster's really got my attention and i instantly loved the monster's as they appeared on the screen.

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  9. These are all amazing Dave! totally thought the Leatherback fulla was one of your creations he he popped up!
    Keep on cranking bol :]

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  10. Would it be possible to buy a signed copy of the Gnomon Workshop video "Sculpting a Stylized Character?"

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  11. Thank you very much everybody!! Tony, yes, I used NSP gray/green Chavant medium to sculpt these in. Hey John, I hope that can be arranged at some point- I have not yet received any complimentary copies from Gnomon and am currently out of the country for work...but maybe I can talk to Gnomon about signing some to sell when I'm back in LA, since they do all the sales...thanks for asking!

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  12. very impressive. So inspiring David!

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  13. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! sooooo cool!

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  14. so wonderful... thank you David Meng for your wonderful creative thoughts made manifest.

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  15. Hi David, you are a grate artist! Can you tell my what kind of clay you are using in your sculpting?

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  16. I had the honor of painting the digital versions of Leatherback and Baby Otachi for the film. Always a treat to be able to work from such truly epic reference.

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  17. Thanks again to everybody for their kind comments. Brad, the digital versions were AMAZING, they blew me away!! All of us who worked in concept for the Kaiju were really, really happy to see how they turned out on screen. Magnus, sorry for the late reply, but I sculpted all of these maquettes in Gray/green NSP Medium Chavant. The final painted models are cast urethane resin, hope this helps.

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  18. Hi David!! I have to say, your Leatherback design is my favorite from the film & I'm totally blown away by your talent! Out of curiosity, are there ever going to be sculptures made from your originals for sale are these one of a kind that you will be keeping? Again, awesome and inspiring work!

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    1. Hi Anna, thanks for the kind words! These particular models are not likely to ever be released to the public- Guillermo owns the only ones in existence!
      Best,
      David

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  19. Dear Mr Meng,
    Greetings from Mauritius.
    Very impressive work well done.
    My boss is very impressed by your sculptures, can you please contact me.
    I look forward to hearing from you.
    Thanks,
    Odile

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