1ere newsletter de Weta:
Barad-dûr - Fortress of Sauron sera dévoilé au comic con avec les premiers produits du Hobbit
Only 1 month to go until Comic Con!
It's going to be a very special display this year with the unveiling of our first pieces from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the first full sighting of Barad-dûr - Fortress of Sauron
Building Barad-dûr - Fortress of Sauron
David Tremont - Senior Model Maker - has documented the long journey to Barad-dûr - Fortress of Sauron. Well, at least the long journey to making the collectible environment
Here's a snippet from Dave's writings on Barad-dûr:
"We have known that we would be doing Barad-dur for some time and has been the one that I have given a mental ‘gulp!’ for. If this series of environments continues to be successful our journey will take us to Barad-dur. It has always been there, next on the Shadow and Flame poll.... after Orthanc.... and has been a constant - how will I do this? I am my worst enemy, as in I am full of doubt about what I can do... then I just get on with it and do it.... ‘go figure’. The planning for this has been in the works for a while and has to go through the internal process of ‘can we do it’, ‘would it sell’, ‘how much is it going to cost and can we afford it’, ‘would the fans buy it (bless their little cotton socks)’, ‘can it be manufactured’... there are lots of ?????’s to consider before starting any project of this complexity. Next is the process of finding the studio miniature, getting internal permissions and sketching concepts and sizes for approvals from our friends at Warner Bros. Daniel Falconer was involved from the start and collected together images so we could co-figure out how big, how it is to be presented etc.
This is a special piece and should be bold, should be a show stopper and bigger than Orthanc but not so big that we price ourselves out of the market.... quite a gamble for such a difficult and costly model to build but we are very passionate about this particular collectible. I did a quick image for Tim to send off to Warner Bros., to get their approvals. Because of the massive amounts of detail, it was going to be very difficult to do it any justice on a very small collectible and was part of the reason to go larger. Tim was also concerned with the initial comments coming from me as to the complexity and time / cost that can be expected with this piece but was also very excited, as with the rest of us, about being able to do this one. Also, as with the all of us, looking at the images was a great concern about how complicated it is. We are embarking on a long journey. There was no way it could be to scale with Orthanc as it would make it several metres tall... good for some.
In the meantime Daniel had gathered more reference images of the miniature that I printed out large to give me a better look at the detail and complexity. I pored over these to try and get my head around it to work out a budget but the biggest part was trying to understand the shapes and details... it is very complex and impossible to understand from the pictures but I had to start somewhere and get an idea of time and a budget. This has to be perfect, I was not going to settle for anything less and to achieve that level will make this task even more difficult but I was determined it will happen..... I was very concerned because the first look at the images was... tricky.... this is going to be my biggest challenge yet....
.... OK... I was scared shitless.....
.... very scary and very exciting at the same time and as much as I want to build it as a model making exercise, I have to be responsible and consider the use of rapid prototype printing some, or all, of the model.
Going through the process of building the digital model (from the films digital version) was going to take a long time by itself. The digital Barad-dur is the skin only and is a hollow model; we only see the surface so it does not have to be solid. To do a print would require re-building the digital model to make it solid (watertight) and this takes a long time on something this detailed. Once we had an idea of how small the pieces were going to be, it was clear that artefacting, on the prints, was going to be impossible to clean up while retaining the tiny detail.... I would be better off building it.
Yah!... I’m going to build it...
Oh!.... grief, I’m going to build it.
watertight) and this takes a long time on something this detailed. Once we had an idea of how small the pieces were going to be, it was clear that artefacting, on the prints, was going to be impossible to clean up while retaining the tiny detail.... I would be better off building it.
Yah!... I’m going to build it...
Oh!.... grief, I’m going to build it.
One of the first things noticed was the amount of repeated detail, it is made up from many cast panels that get used several times each so in effect only half the model has to be built and then cast to make the rest.... this makes it a little more attainable. Looking at the image of the complete model is very daunting and can hinder making a start and, at this point, the start is working out how to, cost and time so it is focus on the smaller details, one at a time and build up a mental image from there. The small details have to be built and that is the main cost... how it all hangs together will have to come latter and will become more clear as I get into it.
Then, one day, Tim came in with the news that everything has fallen into place and we have permission to carry on and build the collectible. Tim has a fantastic relationship with Warner Bros making the approvals and communication process very easy. I hope that they are as excited about this piece as we are.
So in early July 2011 the process begins."
pressé de voir l'ensemble 
J'espère que j'ai quelques Weta points qui sont cachés dans mon compte !!
) c'est si l'oeil sera présent (ce dont je doute) et le prix, qui a mon avis sera très légerement inférieur à celui de Rivendell !
