iv
To my parents for making all things possible, and to Bill Johnson
and Paul Hudson for their guidance, inspiration, and friendshipAcknowledgments
There are so many people who bring a book like this to life; I would like to try to thank each
of them here. This includes those with a direct hand in the editing and layout as well as those
whose support makes this kind of endeavor possible. First off I’d like to thank my partner
Meredith Yayanos for her loving support, and Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger for their
friendship and support. I also want to thank Karl Meyer, Brian Sunderlin, and Gentle Giant
Studios for giving me a place to start my journey and remaining close and valued friends and
mentors to this day.
Thanks also to all the talented artists I have the good fortune to work with at Weta.
Thanks to Paul Gaboury for serving as tech editor and as a constant source of information
on the inner workings of ZBrush; to Ofer Alon and Jaime Labelle at Pixologic; and to Alex
Alvarez and everyone else at Gnomon.
I’d also like to thank Rick Baker and Dick Smith for inspiring me to pick up clay for the
first time. I must also thank those friends who have shared techniques and critiques: Neville
Page, Zack Petroc, Meats Meier, Scott Patton, Cesar Dacol, Ian Joyner, Jerad Marantz, Aaron
Simms, and JP Targete. I would also like to thank those incredibly talented artists I am fortu-
nate to work with every day and whose work never ceases to inspire and inform me: David
Meng, Greg Tozer, Will Furneaux, Paul Tobin, Gary Hunt, Jamie Beswarick, Mike Asquith,
Daniel Falconer, Greg Broadmore, Christian Pierce, Daniel Cockersell, Kim Graham, Warren
Beaton, and Steve Lambert, and the many other Weta artists from whom I learn something
new every day.
A very special thanks to Eric Keller for his input and for bringing this book to me. I
also must thank the wonderful team at Wiley who helped me through the process and were
always professional, patient, attentive, and helpful. Thanks to Mariann Barsolo for starting
the process and helping it along. Thanks to Laurene Sorensen for her expert developmental
editing, and to Pete Gaughan for guiding the direction of the book and helping to keep it on
track and clear. Thanks to Dassi Zeidel and her production team for their masterful copy-
editing and layout, bringing the final product to light.