From WETANZ.com: Weta Designer Stephen Crowe returns to the forums to answer as many questions as he can on NZ Thurs 31 May. Here are some of the highlights from last week’s blitz…

Here’s a snippet:

What was your first project with Weta and what was your best?

Stephen: “I was originally brought in to work on the Neon Genesis Evangelion live action movie – which was good fun, and a very steep learning curve for me. The BEST one is probably what I’m working on right now – which of course I can’t talk about!”

Stephen hard at work on answering questions!

How do you find managing the often competing demands of a full work week, extra-hours freelance work, family, socialising and personal projects?

Stephen: “It’s really incredibly difficult to fit it all in, and to say that I’m ‘managing’ these aspects of my life would be grossly unfair to that word!

“Progressing some personal projects is becoming more and more important to me … in particular a graphic novel concept that I’ve been kicking around for a wee while now.. the book takes place somewhere else, or sometime else (is that specific enough?), or probably BOTH, and the main character is a freelancing engineer who is offered a lucrative and attractive contract to go and work on a nearby island that is populated by a mysterious but benevolent race of beings who have largely kept to themselves since their arrival quite some time ago. The engineer ends up becoming involved in a SINISTER PLOT, no less!

Stephen's work on Kong

“So lots of fun sci-fi design opportunities to keep me happy, and some action/drama to pull it all together. The challenging part will be writing the thing – so maybe a collaboration is in order, as I’ve never written fiction. So utilising my spare half hour per month to it’s fullest, I should be done by about 2047! Keep an eye out…”

Weta Designer Daniel Falconer and a mystery designer also jumped onto the Forums to join in, too!

Congratulations to Weta Forum members Ulrik_fC, hsaunderson, Targos, oldduffer and Arranz, who won a King Kong poster signed by Stephen himself.

Stephen will be hopping on again tomorrow NZ Thurs 31 May (that’s Weds to those of you in North America), so make sure if you haven’t already, you sign up and create an account (free!) to chat to Stephen and the crew.