Hi Rick,
You know, it still sounds as if you are sticking to what you said in your original post. This industry, not you personally, is full of people trying to take other peoples credit - that’s where I am coming from and it sucks.
TD
enough said on that and edited. Once again MM great piece of work
Hi Tarten,
The last thing that I want to do is to attack anyone on a personal level and I said that in my last post. I have nothing but respect for good work and Rick’s stuff is way up there. I dont know Rick on a personal level, only his work. I am not a giant in this industry and therefor it is easy to sweep my comments under the rug.The point I am making is that if I tried to claim that I came up a character similar to Shrek or Micky Mouse way before the people credited with the design, then I would be laughed out of court - especially if it was 20 or 50 years after the fact. On the other hand if a big studio decided to do the same then it appears to have a lot more clout to be taken seriously. These problems are not just in the movie industry - it’s everywhere how do you take on the like of Microsoft or IBM when they decide something was theirs?
Peace to All,
TD
Please continue your dispute via PM if necessary. Others try to enjoy the thread. Stay on topic please.
Lemo
I’m with Lemo, stay on topic!! (plus I have seen the 20 year old pictures,proof)
Now that that’s finished…(thanks Lemo and Scott), and we’re back…
Hi Rick, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you 
, hope all is well.
I have a genuine question…or two.
As I mentioned before, great work. I am a bit 
curious, is this the same model you posted previously? It seems a little bit, (tamer?), if that is the right word for it.
Here it is again, with all the sweet-spots highlighted.
Q:1). Did you use the “Deco” brush and just hand “snoodle” all the cool little details?
Q:2). For some of the pores, did you make different custom alphas and overlap them with varying degrees of zsub intensity? (Looks real).
(Oh, and how did you do the motion blur on your montage, in
Lightwave?)
I’d appreciate any feedback. Great work.
“Happy Halloween from Prague”
~BW
Hey Rick you are terrible. A monster for sure. This is great, but can you upload your animation??? 
A great work as usual.
If Rick has a movie he would like to share then I can host it for a few weeks.
I like that fellow. He has quite a bandwidth as character. Creepy, funny, sweet, horrible. I can see animators going nuts with that foundation.
Cheers
Lemo
hi,i must say this is a freakin cool character with freakin cool expressions
and i dont know who rick baker is except from this forum where he post
inspiring pieces of work,thanks man 
ps i drew a character similar to shrek and your one when i was five
.so where do i collect
{these dam satelites}
Hey Rick!
Beautiful art work as always. Very inspiring too!
Have a nice day!
Javier Loredo.
MonsterMaker doesn’t need to take anyone’s credit and neither does his former employee. It is not uncommon for colleagues to influence one another. MM and his former employee have also been friends for decades. Troll and Shrek are their own, unique characters. MM is correct when he notes how some people are more comfortable comparing a new design to an old rather than appreciate the new design for what it is: ‘new’. Just because they drank from the same well doesn’t mean anyone took anything.
~S.~
Funny, the maquette looks like the familly guy with a shrek mask. Ha!
Lemo
WOW !!
This looks fantastic MM !
The skin material looks superb, and I love the way his lips and nails catch the light. And the viens in his hands are so subtle, . .it’s really beautiful stuff.
You know, . . the potential is so huge now. I can just imagine the stuff you can do, . .a full werewolf transformation in one unedited shot, . an ape going from ‘kiss’ to ‘fear grin’ in one movement. Oh, .and I remember my favorite thing that you’ve done, ‘Harry’ (from the Hendersons). The detail you put into that sculpt, and the animation of that mask was perfection !!
I think we’re only one step away from that now !
Realtime viewport rendering of hair is just around the corner !
you’ll be in your element 
Must be an exciting time to be an FX man !
woah, monster baker, u are best!
As always Rick, your work is outstanding!
-R
wonderful work Rick, can you please show your texture maps and also the animation…
thanks
I love this guy! Its going to sound a little fanboyish Rick, but that character has been one of my all time favorite designs since I saw you sculpting it on a TV prime time news special in the early 80s. I remember seeing the waldo rig you had built for it(was it pouring water back and forth?) and a few years later in cinefx. I studied that pic as if it was the Mona Lisa, because for me it was!
While I studied every nook and cranny of your work since the 73 Famous Monsters magazine this Troll was a HUGE influence on me. I always wanted to see him finished, now if I am lucky I will!! Now if I could talk you into doing the night skies aliens so I could finally find out what they looked like! Excuse my geek moment Rick.LOL.
5 stars from me!
Speaking of the 73 Famous Monsters, I dug up my cover-less version and scanned this pic. Cover-less because it got worn out reading it over and over!
Greg,
I remember this photo too! So cool that you still have it!
I saved every photo I ever found on Rick from back then, and even showed them to him one day at the shop, so your not alone in “Squidsville”. Heck, I even had him sign the “Starlog” with him and his “Incredible Melting Man” stuff on the cover. I was like 14 years old too at the time. I think it was 1977, and he was very encouraging and nice to the little BW too. Wow!
He was then, and still is “The Man”.
Remember the one of him holding a little bust of Lon Chaney in “London after Midnight”, with his sculpting tool in hand? That was one of several that did it for me! I remember thinking, " How did he sculpt that!?"
Thanks alot for sharing this photo. Reminds me of the feeling I had back then about it all. Too cool!
Man, those were the days!
Cheers Greg,
~BW
Rick, the life you put into the troll is creepy! I 'm saving this image for expression reference. I still haven’t gotten Modo yet, but I shall.
Punchatz: Damn, that pic brings back memories. Check out the old Mixmaster on the second shelf. I used to use one of those to blend my foam latex back in the '80s…
Rick never got to see my makeup work back then , but Tom Savini did, back in '83 and when I ran into him 16 years later, he still remembered this foam latex human heart I made. He was teaching me to rig it up for blood and air bladders to make it beat. I’d love to get Savini into Z-Brush. Hmmmm…maybe it’s time for a phone call…
Dickie
Man do I feel old,
If you remember this picture or better yet have this in your collection… well…
Those were the DAMN good old days for sure and yes that Cinefex has had quite an impact on all of us.
I too remember that interview on TV… got to try and find that.
You can find anything on Internet now in days.
I was trying to remember the last time I was really Wowed at the movies.
I don’t remember the last time I got up and cheered.
I was in the hospital the first time I saw, “An American Werewolf in London”.
The good old PayTV days… remember when having Cable was so chic! Ha!
The dream sequence where he’s lying on the hospital bed in the middle of the Forrest, then opens his eyes and growls. Scared the crap out of me!
I still remember the nurses in the hospital running to my bed side cause my heart monitor sky rocketed. Ahhh good times.
It was so much simpler back then…
BTW Dickie, it was great hanging out with you guys in LA.
Hopefully we’ll be doing much more of that in the future.
And I too had my squid moment… I had Rick sign my copy of Octaman.
Mixed feelings about it though, got Rick on a bad day.
That’s part of life though, your idols have bad days too.
It’s funny, I actually avoided going to talk to him at the User group meeting.
I guess subconsciously or consciously, you know… avoid pain.
I love this piece, I too studied that picture for hours.
I clearly remember spotting it in the corner over at Bob Burns house and made a B line for it, kind of like seeing an old friend. I must have starred at it for 20 mins…
Life was so much simpler back then…
Just some guys in their garage having fun, no real responsibilities.
No kids, no wife, no real job! Ha, ha, ha!Thanks for posting that great pic and sorry Rick for Hijacking your post for my squid moment.
Just had a flood of awesome memories from that picture, it’s the simple things in life that bring us joy.
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey
BTW, Anyone else remember that great ET interview where Rick did himself up in grease paint.
I think it was London after midnight.
I’d love to see that one again.
[
]