Dan Platt | Character Modeler

I, Robot – Sonny

Back in 2003, I was fortunate to work on the visual development of Sonny for the film – I, Robot at Patrick Tatopoulos Studios. Working under Patrick’s direction, my main task was to develop the look of Sonny so we could build a life-sized lighting model to aide in accurate CG model lighting. Below are various shots of my CG development work for the film.

And yes, Sonny is my likeness. 🙂
 

Modeled in Lightwave and Maya
 

Full size physical prop

Princess Leia

This is a Princess Leia sculpture that I created for Hasbro around 2000. Modeled in an industrial toy wax, this sculpture actually comes apart in 9 pieces, cleverly hidden by natural costume breaks. I’ve always loved the lines of this piece. Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Medium: Wax

Height: 5 1/2″ tall

Medicus

Medicus is an icon that I created for Merck as a modern day Caduceus – the snakes were replaced with the double helix of DNA and Mercury, the medicinal seeker. This model also represents my first voyage into digital modeling.

Modeled in Lightwave 3D – 2000

Rendered in Lightwave and Electric Image

Star Wars Trilogy Movie Poster

These images are RARE. In 1996 I lucked into the dream job of a lifetime and was the sculptor chosen to create a large, poster size, relief to represent the first three released Star Wars films: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Like all of my images, these are copyrighted and not permitted for any other use.

27″ x 40″ – Resin

and the detail shot…

Digital Hero Award

Here’s a 15″ tall sculpture that I designed and manufactured for the European 3D Festival. Clicking the image will bring up a much larger shot.

The Jersey Devil

For anyone growing up in New Jersey, it would be impossible NOT to know about this legendary creature. And living on the edge of the dense Pine Barrens where “it” supposedly lived… made taking the garbage out at night an interesting experience. Not like it had any impact on me…

Sculpted in Supersculpey – on and off for about 10 days in 1987

12″ tall

The Cave – Mutant Bat Creature

Patrick Tatopoulos created a wicked sketch of this creature with a wildly strong silhouette. Once I nailed the silhouette, Patrick gave me pretty wide room to explore within those shapes. This maquette was created as a scanning model from which the CG bats would be modeled at a later time.

Sculpted in supersculpey in 3 weeks
Size: 4.5′ wide across the wings and about 2.5′ tall

The Cave – Mutant Mole

All of the sub creatures within the cave had to have the same look as the main bat creature – including moles the size of large house cats. The consistent design theme was thin, translucent skin stretched over a weird rib cage, twisted pelvis and deformed skull.

This sculpture was created in Roma Plastilina in about 2 weeks and was based on an African mole and the back end of an elephant. The underbelly was actually inspired by my lovable Jack Russel Terrier, Lexi!

…and the final result from the film. Can you say “wow”?

The Cave – Mutant Salamander

This sculpture was about 4′ long and took about 2 weeks to model in Roma Plastilina clay. With the lighting nearly dark, the subterranean, giant salamander was hardly visible in its splashing debut. At least there are these photos. I was working for Patrick Tatopoulos at the time and Patrick, an amazing designer, really let me run with the design.

I was given one day to airbrush the silicone skin. Here’s a quick shot of the work-in-progress.

…and a silly photoshop comp for kicks. In the film, it was nothing more than a big splash.

The Cave – Eel sculpture

Here’s an in-progress shot of a 10′ long mutant eel sculpture that I made for the film, The Cave. It was modeled in about 3 weeks using Roma Plastilina clay.

Here’s a photoshop comp of what it “could have” looked like. With the film called The Cave – everything was shot pretty dark.