A family of makers
Our workshop floor is alive with activity. With seventeen manufacturing departments housed in one facility, we have the technology, techniques, and talented crew to tackle almost any creative brief.
Over more than thirty years we’ve crafted hundreds of thousands of weapons; microscopically detailed miniatures; immersive attractions with Instagram-worthy centerpieces; bespoke specialty costumes; life-size animatronics; and plenty more besides.
Engineering to woodwork. Textiles to paint. Mold-making to model-making. 3D milling and casting, to sword-smithing and sculpture. For our manufacture crew, traditional handcraft walks hand in hand with innovative technology.
Wētā Workshop Co-founder and Creative Director Richard Taylor is on the workshop floor every day, sleeves rolled, leading our passionate team of artisans, technicians, and craftspeople to achieve creative excellence.
Manufacture Projects
Immersive Experiences
Wētā Workshop Unleashed
Complete build of location-based experience
Film & TV
Ghost in the Shell
Props, weapons, specialty costumes, miniatures, specialty make-up FX
Awards
Across our 30 years of operation, we have been privileged to be recognised for our contribution to the creative industries and to our community. Each award is the result of a phenomenal team effort, won through working alongside and collaborating with all sorts of clever people, all over the world. Among our proudest achievements are five Academy Awards® and four BAFTAs.
Manufacture for film & TV
We love to help our clients and collaborators tell their stories. For more than three decades, we’ve had the great fortune of working with many talented filmmakers on deliciously dark horror tales, cybernetic sci-fi futures, epic fantasies laced with magic, and almost everything in between.
Our manufacturing departments include paint, textiles, costume, props, hair and makeup FX, molding, casting, model-making, metalwork, leatherwork, costume, woodworking, 3D modelling, 3D printing, sculpting, prosthetics, engineering, and more.
Together, we’ve manufactured hundreds of thousands of prosthetics, suits of armor, weapons, vehicles, massive shooting miniatures, physical creatures, and costumes, and delivered them to sets all over the world.
We’ve built massive miniatures for Blade Runner 2049. We’ve suited up superheroes for Saban’s Power Rangers and yuletide ghouls for the Christmas horror Krampus. Our animatronics have wreaked havoc on screen in local horror Black Sheep. The armies of Middle-earth, Narnia, and Azeroth bear Wētā Workshop armor.
Our crew strive each day to push the boundaries of what can be achieved with physical effects.
Manufacture for film & TV
Manufacture for immersive experiences
At the heart of any themed entertainment experience, visitor attraction, or exhibition, lies a compelling story. Applying our cinematic thinking to immersive experiences, we’ve been privileged to contribute to awe-inspiring projects that speak to audiences on an emotional level.
Our crew employ the same processes used in crafting physical film effects to bring immersive experiences to life in extraordinary vividness. We collaborate with wonderful partners as well as designing and building unique Wētā Workshop experiences featuring our own IP.
Since 2015, we’ve built a legacy of crafting hyper-real figures of monumental size, scale, and detail. In 2018 we received a Thea Award for Gallipoli: The scale of our war, a record-breaking collaboration with New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa.
Develop games
It’s not all angle grinders, sawdust, and paint at Wētā Workshop. Our crew build cool digital stuff too, drawing on a suite of software engineers, programmers, game designers, audio specialists, and artists. Together we’ve applied our interactive capabilities to the experiential realm; from mixed, augmented and virtual realities to PC games, apps and beyond.
Includes:
- Game development
- Game design
- Native & web apps
- Mixed reality experiences
- VR & AR
- Audio design
Sculpt for collectibles
Distilling our creativity and craftsmanship into bite-sized versions, we offer a huge and diverse catalogue of high-quality collectibles from film, gaming, and beyond.
All of our collectibles are prototyped here in the Workshop. We then work with trusted manufacturing partners to make our prototypes a reality. We are equally skilled in producing collectibles for mass production as we are at high-end, highly limited edition runs. Our collectibles are available online and in stores all over the world.
Includes:
- Highly realistic polystone statues
- Mixed-media collectibles
- Stylised vinyl figures
- Prop replicas
- Jewellery
- Apparel
Manufacture for public art sculptures
Our work is not confined to the screen. We’re fortunate to have had the privilege of being invited to design and manufacture many wonderful works of public art. We have crafted the UK War Memorial in Wellington’s Pukeahu Park; “The Tripod,” opposite the iconic Embassy Theatre; massive Middle-earth sculptures for international airports; and many others. We have also created large-scale sculptures for display further afield, such as the monumental bronze Warcraft statue at Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California.
Our design studio and manufacturing departments collaborate to conceptualise these monumental sculptures and bring them to life.
Manufacture for private commissions
Exciting projects can come from anywhere. We take on private commissions that stir our creative blood. Each brief is tackled by our design studio and manufacturing departments, working closely and collaboratively with our clients to create one-of-a-kind works of art. From sculptures and monuments to beautiful murals and intricate display swords, we love to bring our clients along on the journey.
Manufacture Team Leaders
Brad Cunningham
Project Supervisor
Lans Hansen
Art Director
Alistair McDougall
Team Leader, Specialty Costume Props
Andrew Durno
Workshop 2IC
Flo Foxworthy
Team Leader, Costume
Marco Wuest
Team Leader, Props
Brian Stendebach
Project Supervisor
Zoilo Abad
Team Leader, Animatronics
Daniel Cockersell
Team Leader, Sculpting
Kim McAuslin
Team Leader, Woodwork
Antje McConnon
Team Leader, Hair
Joel Ahie-Drought
Team Leader, Engineering
Leonard Ellis
Team Leader, Collectibles
Get in touch
If you’re looking for a multi-service workshop for your next project, we’d love to chat.
- 17+ creative departments
- Over 30 years’ experience
- Highly awarded
- Design to manufacture
- Innovation and creativity
- Government incentives may apply