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Interview with Eddie Yang
Make up effects artist and Designer Eddie Yang talks about the move from practical to digital, his daily work, Eddie Murphy and his career along side industry legends such as Rick Baker and Stan Winston.
October, 19th, 2006, by Raffael Dickreuter, Bradley Gabe, Bernard Lebel
 |  | Eddie Yang, Artist and Designer
at Stan Winston Studio.
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Tell us a bit about where you grew up
I was born and raised in Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley.
What do you find so fascinating in characters and creatures?
My earliest memory of being interested in monsters was when I received a book called Movie Monsters by Alan Ormsby when I was seven. It taught kids how to create make-ups on themselves to become The Werewolf, Dracula, and Frankenstien, and I remembered being really interested in creating make-ups. I made all the examples in the book, from simple warts to a paper-mache Frankesnstien head piece. It really hit me when I saw an article on Lon Chaney and he was holding his make-up kit open and the article explained that he created his “thousand faces” all from the kit. I can’t pin-point what it was that I was so fascinated by but I definitely felt that it hit a chord with in me.
Did you have a particular moment of inspiration when you realized you wanted to work in this indusrty? If so, what was that moment, what was your inspiration, and when did you first begin to realize it was becoming a reality?
After Star Wars I realized I wanted to do something in the film industry and my interest increased through the 80’s with all the “splatter” movies that came out then, The Thing, An American Werewolf in London, Halloween, etc. I started making my own movies, on super 8 , could never find actors, so I did a lot of stop-motion, but I was quickly discouraged when my parents told me I was going to med school, and could never make a living in the film industry so I always felt like it was just a pipe dream to even think about working in movies.
Even though my parents discouraged me, they did allow me to take over part of the garage at home as my own art studio during high school. From here I started getting really serious. I visited a bunch of make-up effects studios one summer and met Bob Kurtzman , who was a talented effects guy himself at the time. He showed me many techniques about sculpting and mold making and make-up application, and through him I soon met Howard Berger, and many other make-up effects people. Bob and Howard later went on to form KNB Studio.
In 1987 there was the first annual “Monster Maker’s Costume Contest” and the judges were to be legendary FX artist, Dick Smith, Rick Baker, Stan Winston, and Tom Burman. I joined the mask category and won second place, but best of all I got to meet my idols at the time and many other crazy young artists as passionate about creatures as I was. It was around this time that I started working on Predator during Christmas vacation from high school , and I thought maybe I can do this instead of med-school, and I have been pretty much riding the wave since then.
What other career would most interest you and why?
I have many interests, and aside from the typical film industry interests that most of us have, like directing, writing, etc. I love Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and would be a professional competitor/teacher, if I could devote the time to it. I have no interests in sports at all! But this sport is so interesting to me. It is like paying a chess match with your body.
What other career would least interest you and why?
Probably medicine. lol
Flapjack For MIB 2 sculpted and painted. (left) - Creature a personal project
To create models and images, what are you sources of inspiration?
Usually when I create for myself it is quite different than creating for commercial purposes. When I do something for my self it usually is an image that appears in my head that I kick around for a while until I can’t wait anymore and I have to sculpt it. There are no rules, no parameters, no story it has to fit into, and in the end it is perhaps the most rewarding.
Commercially, I have to work within the parameters and then I would create from a number of inspirations. Many of my fellow artists constantly inspire me. Carlos Huante, Steve Wang, Matt Rose, Aaron Sims. Many past creature designs have come from nature based animal, amphibians, etc. but that’s getting old these days.
Do you think being proficient at traditional art is important for a 3D artist?
Very much so, and I think most digital artist know that by now, cause in the end the computer is just a tool. By its self , the computer and 3D app is not going to create much and in the hands of someone with no eye it won’t be much better, but the software in the hands of a cinematographer, painter, sculptor, or traditional animator, can make magic.
I think the 3d industry has already embraced that for years now, as evident from all the anatomy classes, painting classes, and figure studies done at many digital studios and schools. The same can be said for the practical fx side also. Many traditional artist now use Photoshop, Z-brush, and some 3d package, as they realize being proficient at the computer is a must.
Eddie and his fiance, Leisa (left) - Rick Baker with Eddie Yang after Rick won the Oscar for Men in Black.
You state on your website that it is only recently that you have discovered 3D imagery. How did that happen?
I guess I need to update my site. But I started learning digital stuff six years ago under the urging of Aaron Sims. He was always into it. I met Aaron when I was 16 and he was 20. We were both just starting in the make-up effects industry and eventually we both ended up working for Rick Baker for over 13 years together. Rick actually introduced Aaron to Photoshop and he was hooked. I didn’t quite know what to make of it at the time. Then we started hearing about film after film using digital effects. Aaron knew right away that the times were changing but the rest of us kept living in denial that digital was going to be the wave of the future. We would say,” well you can make robots but you can make organic beings”, then Jurassic Park came out, and we started getting nervous. “Well you can’t make translucent skin well”, then Golem came around and it was getting to the point where I just had to figure out what this digital stuff is. Aaron was already into Softimage then and I didn’t even know how to turn on a PC. He told me you have to learn this stuff. So I started going over to his place 2 times a week and we would make stuff. I was only modeling at the time, so I thought Softimage was just a modeling program. It was around this time that Rick had his first layoff at the studio. Many people were in shock and quite upset by it. I mean many of us had been with him for over thirteen years at the time, and now we were out on the street. I was thinking “maybe I should have gone to med school!” . By now Aaron was already quite proficient at Soft and soon got a job at Stan Winston Studio, and basically laid the ground work for Stan Winston Digital.
I, however, was not quite ready for digital yet and Rick soon opened his studio again, and I went back. I vowed to be ready the next time. Well the next time came a little less than 2 years and I sent out demo tapes and resumes, and soon after a few months on the McG version of Superman I got a call from Kent Seki at PLF and he gave me my first official digital job.
The original “Edgar bug” head Eddie designd for Men In Black 1 (left) - Maquette for a film.
You also say that 3D creation is very similar to traditional arts. Can you elaborate?
To me a 3d package like XSI is a movie studio in a computer, and you can use it to make films without having to get all your friend to sacrifice their weekends. You have the camera, the lights, the creature fx package. When we make a creature we start with the design phase, and as soon as that is done we go into production. The sculptor(modelers) sculpts the creature from the design, then the model gets textured (UV/painters) and molded, from here it gets split into two parallel production lines, the mechanics ( Riggers) get to start building their mechanics and the mold makers, start making the negative molds and running the skins. After the skins are run and seamed they get painted and assembled onto the animatronics (rigging). It then gets sent to the set and those lucky enough to have SAG cards get to puppeteer (animate) the character.
With the rise of computer generated effects, digital doubles and creatures, how do you see the future of traditional creature creation?
I see more and more of it going digital, but not completely disappearing. Eventually traditional FX will be used only if it is cheaper, or as a novelty, like how Tim Burton revisited stop motion, for a certain look for a film. Basically we have reached the physical limits of the materials available to us in the practical field. We can’t make skin more translucent, we can’t have a full scale dinosaur running in a master shot without twenty puppeteers trailing behind it, we can’t have the camera move perfect for a particular complex shot, and what is more appealing for a director than to hear “ just shoot it however you want , cause we can always fix it in post.” With that being said you will always have the directors that love and appreciate the craft of film-making and all the traditional art that goes into it. Then you will have those that push technology and advance the art and find their means to an end in that.
Predator_crew shot, one of my first films I worked on when I was in high school.
Tell us what your typical day is like? And if you don't have a typical day, what's that like?
I’m an early riser, so I get up around 6:30 am and get into work by around seven. I then do all my emails and extra curricular activities, and by eight I have XSI open, my head phones on and I am working away. I love concentrating on one thing and refining it, completely from my sculpting back ground, so one thing really hard for me to get used to is multi tasking. Many times I am working on something and the supervisor will come up and ask me how I set up the lighting for shot RB-306, and if it was the same as IB-1308, that I set up two weeks ago and at the same time some one is IMing me about shot SA-14306, and I just have to sit back and laugh. Everyone is so technical able to do 20 things at once. You have to understand that for the past twenty years I have been used to being locked up in a room with my music on sculpting on one figure for days, and would lose all concentration when some one would ask me if I filled out my time card.
Anyways, I try to be physically fit, so I spend lunch working out in the Stan Winston Gym and doing errands online. Unless I’m working late I’ll be home by 6 pm to show up to work for my fiancé. Just kidding Leisa.
What work are you most proud of?
I’m not sure I can say I have been proud of anything to be honest. Everything made for films has been an artistic struggle and all I see are the flaws, and what could have been done better. I’m not trying to come off as a perfectionist artist but it is true, after you revisit something you worked on years ago, everything just stands out and it is hard to look at sometimes. But the project I had the most fun on was a relatively unknown movie called “The Kung-Fu Rascals” My friend Steve Wang shot it on super 8 and and all of us pitched in on weekends and helped get it made and he eventually sold it to a distributor, but it was fun because he told me what he needed for the film and just let me do whatever I wanted. Complete creative freedom; well I guess cause he was getting it for free, but was was incredibly fun.
Scorcher, Character designed in XSI for a commercial.
How do you mix between life action effects and 3d work?
One reason that I like being at SWS so much is that it is a hybrid studio that appreciates hybrid artists. I get to do everything, which makes it so much more fun. I design, I sculpt, I paint, and do 3d. It never gets boring and I like to keep my chops up in all the fields. I believe that they understand that it is the artist eye that you need and everything else is just considered a different medium. So with that said everything at the studio is done to what works for the film. If it is more cost effective to shoot it practically, then we will make the prop, if it is the other way around the digital department gets involved, or it may be a combination.
Any stories you experienced in your career that are very funny or you always wanted to tell to the audience out there? tell it now.
There are so many great and funny memories that I have had over the years, it would be hard to condense here, but some of the great ones, were, winning second place at the Monster Makers contest, having make-up legend Dick Smith give me the trophy on stage and then take it away from me cause he thought he made a mistake and then watching Rick Baker and Stan Winston tell Dick that they had the right guy, and getting it back.
Removing make-up from Eddie Murphy during Nutty Proffessor was also great, the guy is just so funny. Picture him standing in a kid’s plastic pool in a room next to the sound stage late at night after the Richard Simmons scene with three guys rubbing him with power puffs soaked in make-up remover. He had a lot of material to work with that night and he kept us laughing so hard we could barely do our work.
Having ILM replace the Edgar Bug that I worked on for 9 months in Men In Black was pretty funny too…actually sorry, that wasn’t one of the funny things, that was the thing that made me want to do 3d.
Hummer robot for Stan Winston Studios for Hummer Commercial (left) - Gorilla, one of my first characters made in XSI.
Tell us how it was working for people such as Rick Baker, Stan Winston...
They are both such characters. To be completely honest I am much closer to Rick on a personal level, since I started with him when I was 18. He is a very smart guy, very sharp. He will remember the smallest details from things that happened years ago, and completely surprise me, and what an eye. If you haven’t seen his postings on Z-brush central, check it out. He has a whole new following of young artist. He is truly an artist. The decisions he makes are always based on producing the best quality art even if his business suffers. Since it is always a balance between art and business I would say Rick is more skewed to the art side of things.
Stan, I don’t know as well, but from what I have seen; he is always happy, full of life and energy and genuinely cares for his crew, and he shows it through some of the best benefits and vacation time that the make-up FX industry has to offer. Of the few short years that I have been working there I must say, that the place is a well oiled machine. Stan can take on 10 different projects at once and do them all well, or take on an enormous project with technology that has never been tested before and embrace it and make it industry standard. He’s very adventurous and has a great team that makes everything gel. He too is quite an artist but both guys have different styles. Rick tends to favor more natural designs and Stan seems to appreciate the more exotic.
How do you use XSI for your work?
I use it for everything I possibly can. For creature design I used to sculpt maquettes for Rick for years, so now I just sculpt in XSI and place it in a lighting set up so I can create different views to render out and then I’ll do some paint work in Photoshop. Or to see how something might work in theory like an exotic shoulder joint. Or how lighting may affect the look of something etc.
What features do you like in particular?
I love the Poly modeling tools in XSI, the fact that there is a compositor, and the texture editor
Which areas should be improved?
I wish it had a good 3d paint solution with projection capabilities that you could export to photoshop. At the moment I am using Deep Paint but It can’t handle the higher bit images. I wish it had some of the tools that Z brush has. Z brush is a very intuitive system that appeals well to people who sculpt and I think would bring more traditional artisit to 3D. The comp system needs some work too but with programs like Shake out there I would rather have the 3d paint resolution.
What is your recommendation to aspiring artists out there to get as far as you one day?
I think they should try and get farther. Almost any artist can become really good through creating over and over again. You hone your skills and suddenly you have this eye that you develop and sharpen and you just make good art. Then you start showing your portfolio and you start getting paid to make art that you would be doing anyways whether you were paid or not, and you gain knowledge from fellow co-workers around you thus further improving your skills. At this point you are a good commercial artist and can be hired to create under deadlines and I guess you could be considered a successful artist, but at the moment you are just another good artist. To be great you have to do something unique and have a style that is so cool that everyone wants to reference and steal from you, and this is hard. Trust me there are a lot of really good artists out there, strive to be great. I’m still striving.
Stay humble. There is so much talent out there it is unbelievable, and as long as you continue to try and get better you will. The day I am satisfied with my work is the day I should retire.
Related Links
Eddie Yang
Stan Winston Studio
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