As one of the original design team, I was involved in early character and creature design, sculptural maquettes, helmet design, fine detail sculpting on helmets and weapons, large scale sculpting (the Stone Trolls), scannable maquettes for computer effects work... I could go on… and I think I have!

I joined Weta to work on Peter Jackson’s remake of "King Kong" as a designer and as animator for the stop-motion "animatics". Though that project fell through, I stayed at Weta, becoming part of the design team.

I’m not sure I can focus in on just one highlight. I’m pleased with what I was able to achieve on the widely varied work I did, so I have many personal highlights. For me, the ongoing highlight was seeing all the armour, weapons, props, creatures, etc, coming together from "can we do it?" to "we’ve done it", and the movie being made.

Selection was determined by what helmets appear in "The Fellowship of the Ring": we wanted to do include all the main helmets. Because of the great variety of Orc helmets, we chose those which were the most varied and visually interesting.

An Elf. I like their other-worldliness, their wisdom, their sense of aesthetics… not that I possess all these qualities myself, but it never hurts to aim high!

Recreating the intricate details… at one-fourth scale. And so far- I still don’t need glasses!

Rainy days, dramatic landscapes, animals, old movies, stop-motion, especially the films of Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, books (favourite authors include Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs…), art, sculpture, museums, life.

"King Kong", followed closely by "The Valley of Gwangi", "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts". My favourite movies of all time is a long list! Not just stop-motion pictures- musicals, sci-fi… but one favourite- it has to be Willis O’Brien’s masterpiece.

Make my own movies. I’m currently in preproduction on my first feature.