Monster Clay in the Movies

Fearecia Maddox

Hey all,

I'm working with a group of students and introducing them to monster clay/wax based clays with the intent to transition to the basics of molding and resin casting. We're trying to convince them of the value of learning the tool that they are working with (the clay) by providing examples of places that it's been used, specifically movies they may be familiar with. Needless to say, figuring out which movies have used wax based clay is something of an endeavor, so I was hoping people the folks around here could readily list off characters/movies/projects that used wax based clay as part of the design process. Any images that can be dug up and provided would also be super helpful.

Thanks!

Arnold Goldman

Hi Fearicia:

Thank you for the question. This is Arnold from Monster Makers. My company is the manufacturer of Monster Clay. 

Monster Clay has been around for decades, so it has been used for many films and is used by most if not all of the fx shops around the world. The Artists that have used it in films are free to comment directly, but a few of the prominent films off the top of my head: Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Monster Clay was used to create the melted Darth Vader Mask. Monster Clay was also used to recreate Yoda in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Many of the creatures in David's lab for Alien Covenant were sculpted in Monster Clay as well. There are quite a few more but I would have to dig a little to get a more comprehensive list. For images you can find quite a large number by just searching some of the above references or just search Monster Clay.

Hope that helps and Happy New Year!

Best regards,

Arnold
monstermakers.com
cosclay.com

Chris Ellerby

Thanks for providing all that information, Arnold!

One challenge in identifying which productions use specific clays is in many cases individual artists can pick which clay they feel is best for the application, or which clay they want to work with.  I've seen many productions, both small and large, where Monster Clay is being used by different artists for different reasons.  It's currently my go-to for a lot of applications.

And Happy New Year!

/Chris 

Fearecia Maddox

Thank you both very much! Arnold, that should give me a good starting point to hunt down more information. Greatly appreciated! And Chris, yes, I know different wax based clays get used for different projects. I clearly worded my question poorly, as it was my intent to include all brands of wax based clay. Much of the wax-based stuff is either gray or red, which makes it hard to distinguish it in photos from regular clays (including terra-cotta). Sometimes I can figure it out based on the tool that's being used or the relative texture in the photos, but often times not.

Again, thank you both for your comments!