site.btaBrian Muir, the Movie Sculptor Whose Work Was All Done by Eye and Hand

"All my work was done by eye and hand, so there was never any artificial intelligence used," Brian Muir, the creator of a myriad of recognizable film sets, artefacts and characters for TV, cinema and advertising, including Darth Vader's helmet and armour in Star War, said in a BTA interview. While he says that AI and digital tools, like 3D printing, can make the process easier and produce impressive results, he believes traditional hand-sculpting offers a unique, pleasing quality - even if it’s less perfect.

The artist, who is known for his work for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Krull, James Bond, Stormtrooper and Mission Impossible, to mention but a few, was in Bulgaria on the invitation of Aniventure Comic Con.

He spoke to BTA's Dahnyelle Dymytrov about his impressions from Aniventure Comic Con, the biggest pop culture event in Bulgaria, the inspirations in his work, his teachers and AI in the business. 

About Sofia and festival

It's great. It really is run well. We've been put in a lovely hotel. What we've seen of Bulgaria we like. Sofia, it's very nice. We're really pleased to have come here and we're pleased how lovely it is and how good this convention is. It really is a nicely run convention. A lot of staff everywhere, always very helpful. So yes, it's been good. 

It's just for fun and we love meeting the fans and we've travelled all over the world as far as China, America, Canada, Mexico, all over Europe. And we have a great time doing it. I mean I spent 48 years in the film industry but I retired eight years ago. So what we do with our time now, we travel and meet lots of lovely people and go to many lovely places all over the world.

About inspiration

You have to do whatever they actually want sculpted. You have to be professional in actually doing everything that is asked of you.

It might be an Indian palace so you do all the incredible architecture that would be in there and that makes it believable. So they might go out to India to shoot the outside of a palace but all the interiors would be done back in Pinewood Studios or any of the other studios. Even with science fiction movies, all the sets are actually made within the studio.

The designer will design them and then it's up to us to create all the details, the sculpture and all that as well.

Teachers

I had an old guy, I was lucky, I was the only apprentice sculptor ever in the film industry in England. So I was a professional sculptor at the age of 16.

I had four years at Elstree Film Studios while going to art college so I had different teachers there teaching me life drawing, life sculpting, wood carving, so I did that as well. And then when I came out of my apprenticeship, because the British film industry was in such a bad way, I got made redundant the day I came out of my apprenticeship. So I went outside, I went to a company up in London who had been going for a hundred years and at the age of 20 I had work unveiled by the Queen of England for the new Stock Exchange, a bronze plaque for the hall there which was very detailed.

I had work unveiled by the Queen Mother and lots of prestigious work all over London. And then I had a phone call to go back into the film industry. The film was Star Wars and the rest is history really. I was told there were some strange characters to sculpt on it and I turned up at Elstree Studios at the beginning of 1976 to start working on the film.

Artificial intelligence

All my work was done by eye and hand so there was never any artificial intelligence used. But I think in a way AI makes it very easy because you can do it all on the computer and even then you can put it through a 3D printer so it does make it a lot easier and you can do very nice work with it but it's not quite the same as sculpting it using your eye and your hands. It might not be quite so symmetrical if you're doing it that way but to the eye it's very pleasing.