With Celebration right around the corner, I can't help but get excited about one of Celebration's best attractions...The Diorama Workshop. The formal announcements have been made and The Diorama Workshop will be returning for Celebration Anaheim. The event has been a staple attraction at past Celebrations. The event lasts the entire duration of Celebration. It's a giant team build for everyone who wants to participate. Past builds were really amazing. Last Celebration a Jabba's Sail Barge was constructed. All was built in the traditional 3 3/4" scale.
The theme this time around is Bespin. The Diorama Workshop will be more ambitious then ever with THREE (3) full levels of Bespin hallways, reactor cores, and prison cells. They will be addressing the set all the way to the peaks of the skyscrapers outside in the skyline. There will be something for beginners as well as advanced diorama masters. The booth will be 60x60 feet of building space for the fans and 20 feet x 32 feet for tables used in the final display. For the first time EVER, The Diorama Workshop will be displayed INSIDE the actual HASBRO BOOTH !!! Giving the kids (and adults) creations even MORE exposure.
In ALL past Celebrations, fans have always been so generous and donated their unwanted or duplicate figures to The Diorama Workshop to use at the Diorama Workshops through the CIII - CIV - CV and CVI Figure Funds. Hasbro would then come on top and donate tons of toys from their warehouses to fill in the remaining gap so that ALL KIDS had at least ONE toy to go home with alongside their creation on the closing Sunday.
This year, they are again asking for your help !!. Especially with LESS THEN TWO (2) MONTHS till the show. Time is more precious then in years past. As you may also know, a diorama without any figures, as cool as the construction is, ONLY comes to LIFE with Hasbro TOYS. The loyal staff have gotten the ball rolling with 200+ figures, beasts and ships (purchased on ebay and from their own collections) but... that is just the beginning of what they need for final display. They have a page on their website with information on how to get involved.
This year, they are again asking for your help !!. Especially with LESS THEN TWO (2) MONTHS till the show. Time is more precious then in years past. As you may also know, a diorama without any figures, as cool as the construction is, ONLY comes to LIFE with Hasbro TOYS. The loyal staff have gotten the ball rolling with 200+ figures, beasts and ships (purchased on ebay and from their own collections) but... that is just the beginning of what they need for final display. They have a page on their website with information on how to get involved.
Frank D'iorio the creator of DioramaWorkshop.com works in Movie Visual Effects as a freelance Digital Compositor. Frank has been building diorama playsets to display his Star Wars Collection and share his designs with the world since the creation of his website NiubNiubsUniverse.com in the summer of 2000. In 2011, Frank joined the 21st century with the creation of Frank D'iorio's Diorama Workshop where viewers can enjoy "FREE" decals, blueprints and step by step instructions that are great for individuals who want to build action figure dioramas in their own home for either display or as your kid's playsets.
After getting a Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design at the Université du Québec a Montréal in 1990, Frank started his career working at a big local television studio doing animation and design for TV openings and their corporate videos. After several years in TV, his true passion for film led him to BUZZ IMAGE where he worked on his first film feature The Red Violin. In 2007, Frank's life long dream of working for George Lucas came true when he went to San Francisco's ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) to work on the film adaptation of Transformers. Since then Frank has continued to work at Lucasfilm in the winters and spends his summer months at local Montreal studios. Some of Frank's other film work includes: 300, Final Destination 3, Fantastic 4, and Terminator Salvation among others. You can see his work profile over at IMDB.com
Since 2002, Frank has been working along with Lucasfilm, designing and organizing all of the Diorama Workshops for all their Star Wars Celebration conventions. An opportunity that allows him to share his love for Star Wars and diorama building with kids of all ages.
