Eleven years ago Stuart decided, possibly unwisely, to make a real-life version of the Tooth Fairy from the animated movie, ‘Rise of the Guardians’. In this talk he describes how this mad idea came about and the challenges of turning a 3D digital artwork character that was never intended to exist into a real-life creation without access to any of the 3D models.
Having absolutely no previous experience in costume creation and incapable of threading a sewing machine he committed himself to create a wearable costume that was visually and functionally as close to the movie character as possible and describes features of the character design that made that process so difficult.
The end result when it appeared, and Tooth’s acceptance as a character in her own right exceeded Stuart’s expectations and she continues to bring joy and fascination to thousands as she delights children and astounds adults.
There are tears of joy and tragedy as Stuart tells the tale of how his life was changed over the following eleven years with hundreds of appearances across the UK and trips to San Diego, New York, Tokyo and even DreamWorks Animation studios, plus winning every major competition along the way.
Now Tooth has a full diary of invitations and Stuart is thinking of retirement…