woah, monster baker, u are best!
As always Rick, your work is outstanding! 
-R
wonderful work Rick, can you please show your texture maps and also the animation…
thanks
I love this guy! Its going to sound a little fanboyish Rick, but that character has been one of my all time favorite designs since I saw you sculpting it on a TV prime time news special in the early 80s. I remember seeing the waldo rig you had built for it(was it pouring water back and forth?) and a few years later in cinefx. I studied that pic as if it was the Mona Lisa, because for me it was!
While I studied every nook and cranny of your work since the 73 Famous Monsters magazine this Troll was a HUGE influence on me. I always wanted to see him finished, now if I am lucky I will!! Now if I could talk you into doing the night skies aliens so I could finally find out what they looked like! Excuse my geek moment Rick.LOL.
5 stars from me!
Speaking of the 73 Famous Monsters, I dug up my cover-less version and scanned this pic. Cover-less because it got worn out reading it over and over!
Greg,
I remember this photo too! So cool that you still have it!
I saved every photo I ever found on Rick from back then, and even showed them to him one day at the shop, so your not alone in “Squidsville”. Heck, I even had him sign the “Starlog” with him and his “Incredible Melting Man” stuff on the cover. I was like 14 years old too at the time. I think it was 1977, and he was very encouraging and nice to the little BW too. Wow!
He was then, and still is “The Man”.
Remember the one of him holding a little bust of Lon Chaney in “London after Midnight”, with his sculpting tool in hand? That was one of several that did it for me! I remember thinking, " How did he sculpt that!?"
Thanks alot for sharing this photo. Reminds me of the feeling I had back then about it all. Too cool!
Man, those were the days!
Cheers Greg,
~BW
Rick, the life you put into the troll is creepy! I 'm saving this image for expression reference. I still haven’t gotten Modo yet, but I shall.
Punchatz: Damn, that pic brings back memories. Check out the old Mixmaster on the second shelf. I used to use one of those to blend my foam latex back in the '80s…
Rick never got to see my makeup work back then , but Tom Savini did, back in '83 and when I ran into him 16 years later, he still remembered this foam latex human heart I made. He was teaching me to rig it up for blood and air bladders to make it beat. I’d love to get Savini into Z-Brush. Hmmmm…maybe it’s time for a phone call…
Dickie
Man do I feel old,
If you remember this picture or better yet have this in your collection… well…
Those were the DAMN good old days for sure and yes that Cinefex has had quite an impact on all of us.
I too remember that interview on TV… got to try and find that.
You can find anything on Internet now in days.
I was trying to remember the last time I was really Wowed at the movies.
I don’t remember the last time I got up and cheered.
I was in the hospital the first time I saw, “An American Werewolf in London”.
The good old PayTV days… remember when having Cable was so chic! Ha!
The dream sequence where he’s lying on the hospital bed in the middle of the Forrest, then opens his eyes and growls. Scared the crap out of me!
I still remember the nurses in the hospital running to my bed side cause my heart monitor sky rocketed. Ahhh good times.
It was so much simpler back then…
BTW Dickie, it was great hanging out with you guys in LA.
Hopefully we’ll be doing much more of that in the future.
And I too had my squid moment… I had Rick sign my copy of Octaman.
Mixed feelings about it though, got Rick on a bad day.
That’s part of life though, your idols have bad days too.
It’s funny, I actually avoided going to talk to him at the User group meeting.
I guess subconsciously or consciously, you know… avoid pain.
I love this piece, I too studied that picture for hours.
I clearly remember spotting it in the corner over at Bob Burns house and made a B line for it, kind of like seeing an old friend. I must have starred at it for 20 mins…
Life was so much simpler back then…
Just some guys in their garage having fun, no real responsibilities.
No kids, no wife, no real job! Ha, ha, ha!Thanks for posting that great pic and sorry Rick for Hijacking your post for my squid moment.
Just had a flood of awesome memories from that picture, it’s the simple things in life that bring us joy.
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey
BTW, Anyone else remember that great ET interview where Rick did himself up in grease paint.
I think it was London after midnight.
I’d love to see that one again.
[
]
…has baby’s face attitudes
Hey thanks everyone.I’ve been out of town and away from the internet since last Fri. this is the first chance I’ve had to check in. I’ll answer your questions when I get back. thanks for your comments
Ok I’m back to my computer.
Brian aka mr.monster I 'll try and answer some of your questions.
Yes it is the same mesh that I used for the earlier post of this character but with no fancy sculpting. I was saving that version at a high level and it screwed up the model , so I started again at level 1. No those places that you pointed out were not the Deco brush I’m not a big fan of it. I just use the simple brush usually with alpha 36 and adjust the draw and Z depths. I find that I can control it better than I can control the deco brush. Yes to the question of multiple custom alphas. Just simple white dots on a black BG.
The motion blur is just checking the box in the camera properties panel in LW.
I am planning on doing a more textured version with displacement maps for animation but it will have to wait until after Halloween, though I am kind of liking the not so over sculpted version.
Why the heck are you living in Prague?
I just sent the animation to Lemo and hopefully he will be able to post a link to it. Before you look at it I have to say that it is not that great it was mainly to see if my morph,bump and color maps were working. I did it without a plan and just went from one pose to another without much thought. There are no pauses just a lot of aimless moving around. I have not finessed the timing at all .There is basically no rig either, except for a few bones in the hands which are separate objects from the body . The head, eyes ,teeth, and shoulders are just moving from their pivot points which I think will be obvious when you look at the animation. So in other words please don’t be too hard on me as it was a quick test.
Greg thanks for posting the photo of me young to show how much I have aged.
Cesar thanks for posting the crappy octoman photo to show that I have gotten a little better over he years.
Again thanks everyone for your comments
Hey Rick,
I really love this character. Can’t weight to see the animation. It is also interesting that you went back to re-visit some old work.
I am also wounder if you plan to do something a little more Alain or monstrous soon?
Little D.
Hey Rick.
You’re very welcome.
It’s comforting to guy like me to know that you too began very humbly.
Not all of us can be born into the talent jackpot.
Some of us schleps have to works our butts off.
That’s what I always liked about your work.
Every year there was progression, you never settled.
I think that’s the difference… if you know what I mean.
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey
what’s this talent thing your talking about? I like the octopus, its even better because its a mutated manopus hybrid.
And more importantly you had a mullet, Rick?
Here is Monstermakers Troll animated. 14MB on a slow server.
www.onesmall.com/stuff/trollimation.mov
Enjoy and thanks Monstermaker for sharing it!
Cheers
Lemo
Great stuff.
The character has really clean deformation…
Little D.
Hi Rick,
Looks pretty good for a rough. Did you animate in LW?
TD
Fun stuff, There is a little “Harry” (as in Harry and the Hendersons) in him. Its the eye brows at the end.
Its great to see this progression to movement Rick, cant wait to see where this goes!
Greg
Rick,
Thanks for sharing the test. You’ve come along way pretty quick. You’ve worked hard at it and the rewards are showing.
Pretty good test I’d say. No disclaimers necessary for a test. Shows a lot of range of expression.
A big thanks also for taking time with in-depth answers to my plethora of texture questions. I will definately give them a try.
I thinks this version seems a little sweeter perhaps. Which is nice.
The other version just brought back memories and was a nice piece.
I’ll PM you about Prague sometime…
Thanks again,
~Brian
PS. Lemonado, thanks for the animation link!
When it´s about time to do the dishes and admit
who - again - just hurled the garbage out of the
kitchen window.
“Priceless acting talent you´ve gotten yourself, Sir”.
Cheers
tim
Looks like an Ogre to me