Now that you’ve seen the wondrous creatures in The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it’s time to meet Ben Wootten of New Zealand’s award-winning Weta Workshop.
Concentrating on creature, armor and weapon design, Ben has been working in the New Zealand film and television industry since 1996, and played a major part as art director for Weta in realizing the now immortalized dwellers of Narnia.
Disney Movie Rewards: How did you meet the challenge of bringing to life creatures steeped in mythology?
Ben Wootten: The first thing we did was look at creatures like centaurs, mermaids, and unicorns, and decide whether to take a new direction and try to create a centaur like no one has ever seen before, or stick with the tried-and-true image and make them different in another way. Instead of surprising the audience, we felt they should say, “That’s a beautiful centaur.” Our spin was in the way the creatures behaved and creating a culture that surrounds them.
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