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More about Casting Rumors, Characters, Conventions, Creations, Director news, Director Rumors, DragonCon, Events, Fans, Guillermo Del Toro, Headlines, Hobbit Book, Hobbit Cast News, Hobbit Movie, Lectures & Education, Locations Sets, Make the Hobbit Happen, Meet Ups, MGM, Miscellaneous, New Line Cinema, Peter Jackson, Production, Rumors Spy News, Studios, The Hobbit, TheOneRing.net Announcements, TheOneRing.net Community, Tolkien, TORn TUESDAYS Live!, WETA Cave, WETA Digital, WETA Workshop Meet WETA Tech Heads at Kiwi PyCon 2011Kiwi PyCon 2011, New Zealand’s conference dedicated to the Python programming language, is on this weekend at Te Whaea in Wellington. With a great lineup of speakers from Weta Digital, GitHub, a strong local and overseas contingent, as well as three international keynotes, there is still time to participate in this fantastic conference. More.. Collecting The Precious – Weta: The Collector’s Guide Contest Winners
Last Friday we announced a contest in conjuction with the folks at Weta for three copies of their amazing Collector’s Guide. As I said in the article this book came out during Comic-Con this year and the books first 147 pages cover their work on The Lord of the Rings line of collectibles. The contest ended this past Thursday at midnight PST and after receiving several entries I am proud to announce the winners: Tom F. of Visalia, CA, Alex G. of Australia, and the final winner Mike S. of England. We want to thank everyone for your entries!! If you would like to check out the review you can check it out my thoughts of the Collector’s Edition and buy your own copy from Weta. Weta opens shop in Auckland’s Sky TowerLocal news coverage of Richard Taylor, speaking about the new Weta shop in Auckland’s Sky Tower, setup in time for the rugby world cup. [TVOne] Collecting The Precious – Weta: The Collector’s GuideThe artisans at Weta as most folks know are some of the kings when it comes to the special effects world. We know their work from However, these fine artists are also some of the masters behind many of you Ringers favorite collectibles. That’s why I’m writing about this particular item because it shows the amazing work that the creators working at Weta have made over the last ten years. The item I will be writing a bit about is the brand new released at Comic-Con 2011 Weta: The Collectors Guide. This amazing book captures the work Weta has done over the last ten years into one of the best reference books and coffee table books I’ve had the pleasure to own. Just a couple of the reasons I love this book are the amount of pictures taken of the items ranging from The Lord of the Rings to Halo. They’re all beautifully done and show off just how great the work coming from Weta has been over the last ten years. The other being the amount of information in the book not just on the collectibles, but the people behind the scenes the artists themselves will give collectors a real insight into who made these pieces. Finally, a nice addition is quotes and pictures from collectors who own many of these pieces. It’s nice to see people who I call friends pictures or quote from people who say what I’ve felt when looking at these items. The History of CG Characters in Filma short history of CG characters in movies from lnrdshelby on Vimeo. David writes: I thought your fans may like this video about the history of CG characters in film at Awards Daily.com Andy Serkis: The Biggest Movie Star You Haven’t SeenAndy Serkis has had leading roles in mega-blockbusters that have earned over $2.5 billion worldwide. He’s the main character in a major movie opening this weekend, and this winter he’ll appear in a new 3D adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. And yet, odds are good that if you bumped into him on the street you’d have no idea he was a movie star. Because usually you never see his face. Serkis is one of the preeminent actors in the field of “performance capture.” That’s the process where an actor’s movements are recorded in three dimensions and used to create the animation of a fully digital character. Serkis broke new ground when he portrayed the computer-generated Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” films, and he is taking the form to another level in the new film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” More.. Exclusive: Andy Serkis talks ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes,’ ‘Hobbit’ with TORn
When the screenwriters threw in some character twists of the twisted character for Return of the King (for good or for ill, but don’t blame the actor) Serkis did it again. And of course his return as the same character to The Hobbit is as essential a tie between the films as any character. He went from Middle-earth to Monster Island with King Kong and even got to die a horrible death in his own skin on screen. Weta went on to create Pandora and its blue skinned inhabitants with James Cameron in Avatar then teamed up again on Tintin with Serkis playing a human in the hilarious Captain Haddock. But his role as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, just about to open in theaters everywhere, is his greatest performance yet. He moves from being a central character in a big movie to being the center of the film and stealing the show from the actors who get flesh and blood on screen. Collecting The Precious – Orthanc Pre-Order from WetaAlright, Ringers today is the day! The Orthanc Pre-Ruin environment has gone up for Pre-Order! Orthanc of course is the Movie City News Talks Tintin, WETA & NZRingerDingerDoo! writes: David Poland at Movie City News was invited to Wellington to meet with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to talk about Tin Tin and see some new footage. He took some pictures that reference Weta. More.. Collecting The Precious – Orthanc Pre-Ruin by Weta
During, Comic-Con 2011 Weta released the next amazing environment from their The Lord of the Rings line. The item is noneother than Orthanc the home or Saruman during the battle for The One Ring. This version of Orthanc is before we see Saruman tear apart Isengard to use in his part of making war in Middle-Earth. The detailing in Orthanc is off the charts! It looks like the statue is made from real obsidian and pulled from what we saw on screen during the trilogy. The addition of the trees add a feel of peace that this location had before Saruman sold himself out to Sauron. For owners who have Orthanc after Saruman destroyed the beauty that you see here the comparisons will make for one of the cooler looks in any The Lord of the Rings collecton. Collecting The Precious – Weta Gandalf the Grey statue
The awesome folks at Weta have a brand new The Lord of the Rings collectible for us today! Gandalf the Grey is going to be thenext item coming from Weta in a line of statues of characters from The Lord of the Rings. As many of you know the first statue done in this line by Weta was the Gollum statue which had two versions. One with the Weta Cave logo can only be bought at the Weta Cave in New Zealand and Gandalf will be the same here. However, there is a second version for those of us not able to make the trip to the Weta Cave and purchase the version with the logo on it. Gandalf the Grey will come with a price tag of $69 US or $99 NZ and will be like Gollum an open edition size. That does not mean he will be around forever and with a piece that has such an amazing likeness to Sir Ian McKellen I implore my fellow Ringers to get this piece before its gone. Also, Gandalf the Grey will be making an appearance at Comic-Con starting next week along with yet another surprise from Middle-earth! [Order Today] |
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