Dutch born Gustav Hoegen is known for his spectacular animatronic designs for films such as Prometheus, Clash of the Titans, The Nutcracker 3D, Inkheart, Doctor Who, Isolation, The Brothers Grimm and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among others.
Gustav Hoegen grew up in the Netherlands and then moved to England when he was 19 where there was a thriving film industry that he could be part of. He studied at the Bournemouth Art Institute in the Design Modelmaking course. After two years in college, he was offered an apprenticeship at Artem.
He worked on numerous films including Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Ex Machina and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus to name a few. In 2013 Gustav Hoegen together Neal Scanlan were approached to run the Creature Effects department for the new Star Wars trilogy and the two Star Wars spin off movies. After five years and hundreds of Creatures Aliens and Droids Star Wars came to an end and Gustav opened a new chapter in his career by setting up his own company Biomimic studio.
Gustav Hoegen is no stranger to Playgrounds. We have been following this London based creature effects artist specializing in animatronics for quite some years. He also did an artist talk at our hybrid edition of The Art Department 2020.