Donna Mae Cruz

After she completed her studies, she joined again in April 2021 and now works in our Models department.

She specialises in wardrobe and grooming aspects of models and uses specialised software developed in-house at Wētā FX as well as commercially available packages. For live-action projects there is usually a physical wardrobe that needs to be turned into CG and Donna works from samples, scans or reference materials provided by the studio and filmmakers.

Hair is created in Wētā’s software tool ‘Wig’, which lets the modellers create and manipulate realistic hair using a variety of mathematical parameters to achieve the desired look—from flowing luscious locks, clumps and fly-aways down to the fine peach fuzz you can barely see.

"I recently did the groom of Adar's hair, eyebrows and eyelashes for The Rings of Power, making sure our digital double perfectly matches the scans of the actor, how messy, oily, dry, or clumpy the hair is and sculpting the curve of any flyaway hairs."

DONNA'S ADVICE: Never lose your childlike passion and curiosity. Always be open to learning new things, accepting challenges head-on, and have the determination to keep on trying to achieve your dreams. These things will help you develop the skills and right attitude for this industry.

"Even though I know the work we do at Wētā FX is done with creativity, science and hard work, it still feels like magic!"