An article from the Sideshow site by Daniel

Came across this article written by Daniel about sculptor Gary Hunt's "King of the Dead" statue. He tells Hunt's tale from college to working in London, to his leap of faith trip to New Zealand and his eventual work at Three Foot Six, Ltd and then Weta Workshop. It seems that Gary was another LoTR fan and was eager to work on the project.

Daniel's bio is also listed:

"About the Writer: A trained illustrator, Daniel Falconer is a Conceptual Designer at Weta Workshop, one of a team of five full time design specialists based in the facility. Daniel has been with Weta since late 1996. Over that time he has been involved in design work for a variety of different projects including creatures for television shows like William Tell, Hercules, Xena and Young Hercules, films including Kong and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and most notably, designing creatures, armor, weaponry, props and costuming for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. A long time fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's writing, the opportunity to be so intimately involved in bringing Middle-earth to the screen was the fulfillment of a childhood dream for Daniel and helping visualize new worlds at Weta continues to be his 'dream-job'. "


Not so interesting sidenote: Turns out that Gary Hunt went to college in my Grandmother's hometown of Bournemouth, England! I visited there when I lived in London in '91-'92. A lovely seaside town with beautiful gardens, kind of like our coastal NJ shore towns, but without the neon. ;-)

Sensational Sand

Again, not a Daniel-related post, but interesting nonetheless.

SandSation is scheduled for this weekend in Berlin, Germany. Giant, and I mean GIANT, sand sculptures will be crafted right in Berlin. I saw photos from this event last year and they absolutely blew me away. I am, as I noted previously in this blog, 100% inept in the art deparment. My sand castles come from pre-formed, castle shaped, $1-store sand buckets. There's not a bucket in site with these masterpieces. If you can't go, check out the site for photos. Very cool stuff.

From their site:

"The best artists from all around the world will be allowing themselves to be inspired to create new marvels by the theme Modern Fairy-Tales. The festival area will be increased once again by a good 500 square metres between Lehrter railway station and the Federal Chancellery for SANDSATION 2005. The charming, wildly romantic landscape-park at Lehrter Straße Central Station, which is at the heart of the new centre of Berlin directly next to the Federal Chancellery, thus offering even more space to our artists from more than 10 countries for their gigantic, sandy works of art. Ten sand wizards who have received the highest international acclaim will be competing with individual sculptures within the framework of the 3rd German Sand Sculpture Prize in a friendly competition. Furthermore, the artists will create a huge Great Sculpture Complex of up to 12 metres in height."

ORC photos

Guess I never shared the photos I took at ORC on this blog...here's a few of Daniel. The rest can be seen here:

(click to enlarge)

The Swords of the LoTR

Weta Workshop's new site is totally cool...did I mention that already? Check out the page on Weapons. Gorgeous close-ups of the weaponry used in LoTR. I want Sting! What a beautifully crafted piece that is!




Daniel wasn't interviewed in this article (although it is mentioned that he was heavily involved with sword design), but I still find the info. incredibly interesting. I saw some of the LoTR swords at the LoTR Museum exhibit in Boston, MA last fall. They are amazing in their detail and workmanship. I got to hold one of the real swords, avec white protective gloves, and it was really heavy, and long, as I recall. No sword wielding was allowed (understandable, but still a bummer) but it was fun to hang onto it for a few moments. I don't know how Viggo worked with the real swords for so many hours during takes. He must've be packin' some huge sword-wielding guns under all that Ranger garb.
;-)

I like how they talk about the swords as described by Tolkien...once again, a great attention paid to the books, which I appreciate. And where it wasn't described specifically, they filled in the blanks with their great imaginations...

B: How much did you rely on the descriptions in the books? Tolkien was rather vague, but there are several hints on the design and performance of the swords.

P: The swords are all based on Tolkien's descriptions, but these are usually so brief, and sometimes so vague when looked at critically (for example, "great-hilted") that it left the designs very open. It was more about fitting the designs to the characters, and making each one distinctive and recognisable, but this is really a question that John can answer better than me.

J: Very little, I think the other motto being : "Well, it doesn't say it WASN'T like that in the books..."

***
B: How come the swords wielded by Arwen, Elrond and the other Elves are curved?

J: Why not? It fits well with their style of combat, and it's very Art Nouveau. Did Professor Tolkien say they are all straight? Damn, I must have missed that bit!

***

The entire article can be read at:

The Men Behind the Swords in “The Lord of the Rings”
An interview with Peter Lyon and John Howe
By Björn Hellqvist


Peter Lyon at work

Indy GenCon

All the gang's here from the swrpgnetwork.com! *waves hi* Hisham's partner in crime, Caleb ,writes that Daniel is scheduled to attend the Indy GenCon in August. Thanks, Caleb! = )

From their site:

"The Gen Con Art Show is the one of the industry's premiere showcase for fantasy, gaming and sci-fi art...Currently these artists had signed up for the Art Show - visit them in the Art Show and then check out their websites!"

Daniel, why doest thou not have a website listed? Get thee to a web-master-y. ;-)

More info on GenCon here.

From WetaWorkshop's site

Daniel's profile from the WetaWorkshop's very cool new site.

World Photo Day

Not anything to do with Daniel Falconer, but I thought I'd share a cool project that I participated in today.

It's called "World Photo Day" and here's the deal:

project date: june 01, 2005
subject: people, everyday life
time frame: just 24 hours
objective: to explore humanity through the art of photography
participation: open to all photographers
my hope is: that we all gain a greater, more positive insight into the circumstances that dictate our daily livesthe difficulties, the triumphs, the beauty, the pain, the good and the bad, all of it in just one 24-hour period.

My photo is listed under "carolynVB" and it's lame compared to a lot of the other photos on that site, but that's not the point, I guess. The shot I took of the people enjoying the day at the river could be taken anywhere...and was (with much better photographic results...lol) in Portugal, in upstate NY...a few other places. We're the same, is the point. We love our kids, we go to work, we suffer, we love beauty, we laugh. I'm here, you're there, but that's just about the only difference...geography.

Had fun getting out there capturing today. Here's a slideshow of today round here...

Go. Click their site. Enjoy seeing the World Today.

Ultimate Adversaries

From an SWRPGNetwork banner ad. Yes, ok, I read banner ads.
So what?!!!



Ultimate Adversaries

"Looking for a new villain or creature to throw at a party of heroes? Hunting for particular stats for a droid, creature, or character? The Ultimate Adversaries sourcebook is a great source for new challenges and combatants. Additionally, this book will feature the Star Wars RPG sourcebook debut of art by SWRPGNetwork Staff Artist Daniel "Reverend Strone" Falconer, adding just one more reason to pick this book up."

Daniel's Star Wars art

Thanks to Khairul Hisham for giving me this new link to Daniel's SWAG (Star Wars Artists Guild) art listings. His art for the Star Wars roleplaying game is listed here. Thanks, again, KH! ;-)