- When we, when we first saw the Demogorgon
there was something really incredible
about seeing it physical.
They originally came to us for the creature designs.
We ended up helping them really design out the whole world,
the upside down.
And then that's the incredible thing,
specifically with Stranger Things because we had no clue
if it was gonna be any good or not.
- I'm Aaron Sims, the president of ASC,
that was founded here in 2005.
It started off just me
and now it's over 35 people here in 2017.
When I was a kid I'd be doing these drawings, sketching,
either fantasy like with a dragon, you know, creatures.
My friend Greg Ponchette was this incredible illustrator
I worked for.
They were just about to get into a new movie.
He asked we need a designer to design these creatures.
I designed a lot of the creatures for this film
and the lead that was running the show,
he asked me if I could sculpt.
And then they asked, could you mold cast?
You wanna learn all this?
And I said yeah, teach me everything.
During that time, I saw the industry start to change.
There's a lot of people in the industry
at that time that were afraid of it
because they thought this was the end of, you know,
what they did as a career.
I was fascinated by just the aspect of something that
wasn't physically there to come to life.
Now, where we're at is visual effects.
I do miss right now is touching clay.
As films get more expensive to make
studios and investors want it to be cheaper.
What I wanted was to find a process or a solution
so I could do what I used to do.
I wanted to get away from the whole
like just everything being on the computer.
- So actually the Duffer brothers,
they originally came to us for the creature designs
for the Demogorgon but it ended up turning into
a lot more than that.
We ended up helping them really design out the whole world.
The upside down.
The Demogorgon specifically was really cool.
And when we jumped into the design process
they had some kind of specific requirements.
- Basically there wasn't that much description
in the script.
Requirements really were that it was gonna be a biped,
it's actually gonna be humanoid,
very skinny, very thin, and no face.
- What we ended up coming up with
was this really interesting concept
where the head kind of flowered open
- We did feel it was a unique kind of face,
you know for a creature, which is great.
- Actually, Aaron was the first one that sketched out pencil
sketches to try and get an idea down.
That was really interesting 'cause then that allowed us
to pass off that concept onto some of the designers.
Because we had it in 3D,
we immediately started looking at 3D printing
and asset at the same time.
- 'Cause we don't have the luxury to do a sculpture,
it's 'cause of time.
And we basically pitch the idea,
hey we can make these maquettes.
Begin to 3D print and they go, oh really?
- It seems like a lot of producers
and a lot of directors want to keep that aspect
of the practical in play.
People really want to keep the physical.
- We end up printing, 3D printing them and painting 'em up
and bringing 'em in these meetings and.
- Printing something off for clients really helps solidify
that that concept is where they're gonna go.
'Cause they can see it in front of them.
They can turn it around.
They're gonna spend a couple hundred million dollars
on a film.
They want to know that the design that they're picking
is the correct one.
And oftentimes it really helps to see it in the round.
- The Demogorgon was one of the first prints that we did.
The first results were just amazing.
The detail, the level of detail in printers were like
something that I couldn't even imagine
that you could actually get in a printer.
So now it's become like this, this norm for us.
Going back to the days of when I used to sculpt with clay
and being able to see something and walk around it,
- It allowed us to get a tacit approval from the directors
right off the bat.
And then that actually even then further evolved later on
trying to figure out how that would actually work
into production, how that would work into the physical asset
specifically as opposed to an entirely CG,
entirely CG pipeline.
The Duffer brothers came back to us and asked us to help
out with some specific CG shots to really bring it to life.
- The audience wants more.
So you have to cater to that a little bit
as you're creating this
and they realized that as they were moving
on and had to do things that practical guy in a suit
just can't do.
- It's interesting to kind of think about,
especially as you know, the printing technology gets better,
as the materials get better,
how that's gonna play a bigger part
in integrating with the digital stuff that we're doing.
Already we're trying to figure out ways of, you know
blending the practical and the digital as we move forward.
I think that was the real success story here was,
was how the two complemented each other
- Sci-fi is, is now because of these tools
you can create anything.
Basically the imagination is endless
and who knows where it's gonna go in the future.
- Go go go go go!
Get the wrist rocket now!
- Go go go go!