The FIlm FX Industry Week hit the ground running last Monday! But how is this happening in Covid times you might ask?! Well, we're no stranger to zoom calls these days, so all our guest speakers joined us from the comfort of their own studios, while our students were watching online from home. Pretty impressive, huh?!
(Also how snazzy are the posters that Jack wipped up?! ) First up, on Monday morning, we had the awesome Stuart Bray demonstrating some skin texturing sculpting techniques. Stuart is an industry veteran, and has been working in the industry since 1994. He's got some pretty impressive credits under his belt... Saving Private Ryan, The Mummy 1 & 2, Shaun of the Dead... even a little show called Game of Thrones! He also co-hosts an amazing podcast (Battles With Bits Of Rubber) with Todd Debreceni, which is incredible by the way, so go check it out if you haven't already.
We've had the pleasure of hosting Stuart's talks for the last couple of industry weeks, including our first mini virtual Industry Week back in May, and they never disappoint. Our students got the opportunity to watch Stuart take a prosthetic makeup sculpt from it's initial blocking out stage, through to fine texturing... asking questions along with way and learning lots of helpful tips and trick to help them with their work.
Here's a bit of what Stu had to say about the process of texturing a sculpture.
' Texturing can seem like an act of vandalism as you dig into the surface, making marks. Believing the marks you make are the right ones is a big part of succeeding. You need to truly believe the marks you make will look right for them to do so. Just like the design itself, the faith in it has to be there at the beginning, and it allows the work to happen. Turning things you imagined in your head into real objects for others to see and interact with is a strange activity. Believing in your work literally allows it to become reality.
And now some lovely words Stuart had to say about our Industry week and our courses!
'The industry week is another example of how Bolton approach things from the right angle. Having a mix of different working professionals discussing aspects that they think is important is a good way of keeping a cohort all looking in the right direction. Independent takes on the working life in industry today provide a unique perspective to those looking to work in it.
The use of tech and tradition is great, integrating digital work into what has previously been a purely practical field. Bolton run high quality digital and practical courses, and collaborating on projects where model making, prosthetics and specialty costumes work hand in hand with digital manufacturing, CAD, digital sculpting and entirely CGI elements is a great way for learners to see how things slot together to create original work' You can check out Stuarts IMDB page, Youtube Channel, and of course, his podcast Battles with Bits of Rubber on these links.