Biography.

Leigh Took has worked in the industry since 1978, starting as an apprentice in Pinewood’s matte painting department, working on films such as "Warlords of Atlantis", and "Clash of the Titans" under  matte painter Cliff Culley .
“I was fortunate enough to get a trainee position with the matte department at Pinewood on a film called Warlords of Atlantis (1978),” explains Leigh, “with a chap called Cliff Culley, who was one of the very few matte painters around in those days. I first got involved in miniatures working with Ray Harryhausen on Clash of the Titans (1981), making up little miniature sets, shooting them and combining those with matte paintings. All on film, using color separations and breaking film down to make new negatives, with a lot of in-camera effects creating things that you couldn’t normally achieve on a set. In those days, we would use front projection, back projection and latent image shots as well. It was a whole time of experimentation. Obviously, being before the digital age, it was all optical. We were constantly coming up with new techniques of how to achieve effects all the time. People such as John Dark and Kevin Connor were making films like Arabian Adventure (1979) and Warlords of Atlantis back-to-back. It was a good era for getting to experiment with effects and making models – to keep production costs down really.”

As well as being one of a handful of  traditional matte painters in the world, he has accumulated over 25 years’ experience in the supervision of miniatures, optical and digital effects on feature films, TV, commercials and pop promo’s.
After working for several years with the great special effects grandmaster Derek Meddings on films such as "Batman", Leigh set up Mattes and Miniatures, embracing the advancement of any digital technologies and tools that would assist their work. The base at Bray Studios includes a matte studio, motion control, model and special effects workshops, all of which work in conjunction with their own digital facilities at Pinewood, combining traditional film techniques with digital post production
 
 

Filmography:
 
 

- The Mutant Chronicles (2008) (model effects supervisor)
- Inkheart (2008)(miniature supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- Stardust (2007) (miniature supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- Highlander V: The source (2007)(miniature supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006) (model supervisor: MMAD)
- The Descent (2005) (visual effects supervisor)
- Naina (2005) (miniature supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- Ella Enchanted (2004) (miniature supervisor: mattes & miniatures)
- Solid Geometry (2002) (TV) (animator)
- "The 10th Kingdom" (2000) (mini) TV Series (visual effects artist)
- Guest House Paradiso (1999) (visual effects supervisor)
- Lost in Space (1998) (supervisor: digital matte painters)
- Batman (1989) (matte artist: visual effects unit)
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) (matte painter)
- Octopussy  (1983) (matte painting assistant)
- Clash of the Titans (1980) (matte painting and miniature assistant)
- Arabian adventure (1979) Matte paintin and miniature assistant)
- Warlords of Atlantis (1978) ( matte painting assistant)
 
 

To see some more samples of his work, visit his web site: http://www.mattesandminiatures.com/index.asp