Gustav Hoegen

Gustav Hoegen is an animatronics designer and creature FX artist, founder of Biomimic Studio and supervisor of the animatronic department on the new Star Wars films. Growing up in the eighties, he developed a huge passion for Practical effects, heavy sci-fi and fantasy films of that period. Influenced by these films such as “Alien” and “Star Wars” franchises, it became clear early on in Gustav’s life that this would be the career he’d pursue. In 1996 Gustav left Holland and moved to London to follow his dream of working in the special FX industry. In 1998 Gustav got offered an internship at the Special FX company Artem. He spent three years there honing his craft working on many adverts and the occasional feature film.

During Gustav’s time at Artem he started to specialise in Animatronics. The ability to combine design, anatomy translated through mechanics, study of movement and the aesthetics of engineering made Animatronics and Creature FX very appealing to Gustav.

In 2001 Gustav entered the freelance world as an Animatronic designer working on numerous films, amongst them are Terry Gilliam’s Brothers Grimm, Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. After a 12 year career as a freelancer, Gustav decided to set up his own workshop under the name of Biomimic Studio. During the period of setting up his Studio, Gustav received the offer of a life time. Lucas Film approached him to run the Creature FX department for the new series of Star Wars movies. Eventually he teamed up with Neal Scanlan who helmed the whole Creature department while Gustav supervised the Animatronic department. Gustav has been working on every new Star Wars movie so far as well as running his studio.