Film fanatic Chris Guise was working as a cartoon portrait artist in Wellington shopping malls when he got a job with special effects company Weta Workshop. For the next five years he worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy in various areas, including the miniatures department and the armor/weapons department, where he helped construct hundreds of suits of armor required for the films. He went on to sculpt several pieces for the Weta merchandising line, including a Muppets ‘Rowlf the Dog’ bust, which won the World’s Best Statue/Bust Global Award at Toy Fair 2003 in New York City.
Chris has also been involved in the Weta Workshop design studio on a wide variety of other projects, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Black Sheep, King Kong and the television shows Jane and the Dragon and The WotWots. In 2006, Chris was hired as Weta Workshop’s Lead Conceptual Designer for the 2011 Steven Spielberg film The Adventures of Tintin.
