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Todd Tucker - Master of Fantasy

by Scott Essman

Men, Makeup, and Monsters: Hollywood's Masters of Illusion and FX

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Todd Tucker Working His Magic.

As the creative force behind

Wonderworld Entertainment, and as oneof the keyspecial effects makeup artists and creature creators at Greg Cannom's studio, Todd Tucker creates prosthetic makeups, creature suits, and puppets that are used for both film and television. "Originally, I was going to be a cartoonist," Tucker said. "All through high school I worked on my illustration portfolio. I was always interested in horror and fantasy movies, so in 1985, I looked zinto schools that taught special effects makeup. Luckily, I met up with a couple of excellent special effects artists, Matt Rose and Steve Wang. They showed me sculpting and painting techniques and taught me what I needed to know." For the next five years, Tucker practiced in his garage, building his portfolio before moving to Los Angeles to try his hand at the movie business. He followed the nascent Rose and Wang — who collaborated on the creature for Predator among many others — coming to Hollywood from San Jose. "I showed Greg Cannom my portfolio and he liked my work," Tucker stated, "so he hired me that day and I started the following week." Tucker found

himself working as a sculptor, painter, moldmaker and fabricator over the next five years on projects including Bram Stoker's Dracula,

Mrs. Doubtfire, and The Mask. "Cannom hires people who are multi-talented: people who can sculpt, paint, mold, fabricate," observed Tucker. "They need to know everything. I jumped around quite a bit, which is fortunate because often times, people who work in a shop can get pigeonholed into one department like moldmaking, seaming, or running foam. I was able to work in all different aspects of the shop, then work on the set with the puppets and the makeups.

Due to his versatility, most of Tucker's assignments became steadily more interesting and challenging. "As the years went on, I became more involved in sculpting and designing

the characters," he recalled, "and within four years, I became one of the shop supervisors and was heading up my own shows through

Cannom Creations, including Jingle All the Way, Steel, A

Simple Wish, and Kull the Conqueror." During this time, though he was successful, Tucker never lost sight of his boyhood dream. "I always knew that my final goal was to write and create my own stories," he said. "That was my wish since I was a little kid — to follow in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Jim Henson and create worlds of characters."

Laboring at night and on weekends while he worked for Cannom Creations, Tucker formed Wonderworld Entertainment, then wrote scripts, created original character makeups and creature suits, and filmed three-minute "teasers" for two of his

projects: the first one, Wolvy, is the tale of a wacky werewolf character, his buddy, Gus, a four-armed abominable snow monster, his nemesis, WillyWeasel, and Willy’s pair of crusher bodyguards, called the Thug Brothers. For Wolvy,

Tucker designed and built all of the character elements, produced and directed the

action, and performed as the title character in a head-to-toewerewolf suit with a mechanical head. His second such endeavor, The Underworld, features a ghostly-white demon named Luth, his menacing sidekick, Scythe, and their plans to imprison the world above.

"They were self-funded," Tucker commented about his short films, "so I had to come up

with money inorder to build the characters, film them and do the post-production. I had to pull ever favor I possibly could to achieve what I needed on an extremely limited budget." A third project, Imaginary

Friend,

will follow the same inventive path, establishing Wonderworld Entertainment as a wholly unique fantasy-orientedproduction company. "My goal is to continue creating new storylines and characters and build a library of quality films," Tucker stated. Wonderworld Entertainment is currently in pre-production and expects to film and release a half-hour Wolvy pilot in the new millennium.
For young people, who, like himself a decade ago, want to break into makeup and creature

design professionally,

Tucker recommends a path with equal parts persistence and self-education. "The

Willy Weasel From Wolvy.

Gus From Wolvy.

Wolvy Poster Art.

best thing to do is get as many books, instructional materials, and videos that you could get your hands on, and practice, practice, practice," he

instructed. "Sculpt, paint, learn how to run foam, apply makeup, everything you can. Start building a portfolio of your best work. Once you feel confident that you have enough knowledge and talent, start presenting your work. Never think

that you're at a point when you can't learn any more. Always remember, if you really want something, it’s up to you to make it happen."

* Todd Tucker's Wonderworld Entertainment currently has an extensive display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum in downtown Hollywood. For more information, link to www.hollywoodmuseum.org.