Massive Black presents Creature Sculpting with Peter Konig the DVD
Well folks this is my first foray into reviewing a DVD of any kind as it relates to the sculpting industry. I know that Peter Konig is not a member of our web site but one of the team from massive black is and sent the DVD over for me to review.
I would like folks to know that part of the proceeds go to the concept art community
http://www.conceptart.org . This is a place for artists of all kinds to share ideas and concepts with others around the world. There is some really cool things on this site to say the least.
Peter while not a name you may know well you do know some of the movies he has worked on over the years. His resume includes The Mask 2: Son of the mask, The Stepford Wives, Starship Troopers 2, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Blade 2, The One, Jurassic Park and many others over the years. You can see more of his work at his site
http://www.peterkonig.com .As you can see he is someone we all have seen work from even if we did not realize it.
I was pleasantly surprised when asked to review this project and want to thank Bonedog aka Aaron who made it happen.
Now to the review of the DVD.
Since as I’ve already stated this is my first DVD review and I am not a sculptor myself I am reviewing this as a fan of the art of sculpting and what it folks can do with all kinds of clay and other materials. So please bear with me.
Now the presentation of the DVD is a professional case and cover art and a real label. This is not some guys just playing around this is folks that have taken time to produce a quality product.
When you insert the DVD you get your typical menu but this one also has some quick links built in. I did not go there since I wanted to see the entire video. The quick’s have some good reference materials as well as a look at his studio.
The main part of the DVD is 1hr and 40 minutes long and full of some great in depth information. It is broken down into 8 sections and covers him sculpting just one piece. The piece is an insane baby carriage from hell. Lol. A creature concept he came up with for himself to do this DVD with.
He starts out with how to build an armature and this is very detailed. He uses some time lapse work through out to speed up the process. He discusses what to buy and how to put it together. It taught me more than I understood already. And I’ve watched some of the best in our industry sculpt.
Then he goes into the blocking in the of the sculpt and how to lay things out. He does not use a lot of filler but does talk about bulking up the piece to save on your materials. He goes through a good deal of how to lay things onto the armature and that gives us non sculptors even more knowledge.
The next section goes into initial refinement, then to roughing in the first details. These two sections really give you an idea this is going to look like the concept art. You can see things forming already and it is just cool how the progress goes along.
Then he goes into adding the canopy armature. This is a cool step since it is a second armature to produce even more details. Very in depth and does not seem to be incredibly hard to follow. Just some patience and of course the desire to sculpt quality work.
You then have further refinement, another section on placing clay and pushing it around. He goes into tools and how and whys. I do notice that every sculptor that I know has some of their own custom tools they have made for themselves. Peter is the same.
You then go into brushing out and surface details. In this section he goes into the blending of the sculpty with liquid… crap forgot if it was alcohol or lighter fluid or something else. Sorry folks. This is when the sculptor gets to blend to rough edges into smooth tones and textures. Very cool stuff in this section.
Then final part if of course final touches. He gets the end of the sculpt and it is spot on to the concept art he created. This is one twisted piece and if nothing else worth checking out just to see.
After seeing this DVD, I really want to give this a try myself even more than I have before. I can actually see coming up with something way better than that ashtray in the 3rd grade I did for my grandfather.
If you would like to order this DVD just copy and paste the link below and check it out. It is well worth it. Do not forget it also supports the concept art community with the proceeds.
Get it and start sculpting folks!
http://dvd.massiveblack.com/