Nick Keller

I've always been interested in various forms of art, particularly painting which I studies throughout high school. However, when I finished school I was unsure of where I wanted to go career wise and ended up at the University of Auckland studying engineering.

After completing the degree in civil engineering I decided to change my career path and pursue my passion for painting and illustration. The film industry seemed to be a logical choice for the creative outlet I was after, so, after sending in a portfolio to the workshop I was invited to join the design department at Weta and began designing weapons and armour for the movie Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Having no experience with digital artwork, it was a crash course for me to come up to speed with using Photoshop for my design work. During this first big project (Prince Caspian) the major highlight was seeing my weapon and armour designs being built as hero props by the extremely talented artisans of the workshop. Since then I have been involved in a number of confidential projects which have encompassed concept illustrations of environments, characters, creatures and vehicles.

Being around such a large team of incredibly talented and interesting individuals has proved to be an excellent environment for me to develop my artistic skills and knowledge, while working on inspiring projects.