Former Noroff student Einar has participated in the making of Troll, "Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power", "Avengers: Endgame" and "Avatar: The Way of Water.

The Netflix film "Troll" premiered in December and immediately topped the most-watched lists in 93 countries. Former Noroff student Einar Martinsen (33) participated in designing the troll.

It was a dream come true. I grew up with stories about trolls and was inspired by drawings from Kittelsen when I was young. I think I drew my first troll when I was about five years old, says Einar.

He continues:

I was lucky enough to design the troll together with the director, Roar Uthaug. I think the design I made ended up being very similar in the movie to the one I had made. It was a fantastic feeling.

Einar creates a lot of exciting work on his own, see more of it here. He's starting to get an impressive list of films he's worked on, according to IMDb, such as Avengers: Endgame, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, TROLL, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League and War for the Planet of the Apes, Vol. 2, to name a few.

New Zeland. 📷: Einar Martinsen

Works for Paramount Studios

Einar has been living in New Zealand since 2015, and currently works as a senior concept artist and matte painter for Paramount Studios. Previously, he has worked for WetaFX and Amazon Studio.

– In 2015 I took a chance and applied to Peter Jackson's company, WetaFX. I thought it was unlikely that I would hear anything from them. You can imagine how surprised and excited I was when I got a call back for a job interview. I was offered the job and off I went to Wellington, New Zealand.

– It was an incredible feeling to be on the inside of the dream I'd had for so long, smiles Einar.

What is it like to live and work in New Zealand?

– New Zealand is a very cool and unique place. It feels a bit like going back in time 20 years, surrounded by Jurassic Park nature, but with smartphones. Wellington is an artsy and cool city, with a smaller population than Oslo, and with more varied nature.  

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Einar has also contributed to Child's Play (2019). 📷: Private

VFX concept artist on The Rings of Power

Through his work at WetaFX and Amazon Studios, Einar has contributed to the series The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power.

I'm a big fan of Lord of the Rings, and this production was a dream job for me.

I got to create landscape shots when I worked for WetaFX, and when I took a new job at Amazon Studios, I designed a lot of shots together with the people who ran the VFX production, he says.

The most exciting thing about VFX is creating concepts and designing how things should look. That's what I do the most now. I plan and draw what will be made in VFX, built on set or made as practical effects.

Do you have any advice for those who want to pursue VFX?

– If you have the passion, go for it and work hard. For me, it's easy to spend time in my spare time doing this because it's so much fun. It's important to choose a field you're passionate about if you want to thrive and make a career out of it. Be positive, kind and help others to succeed. It's a very small industry, so it's important to be collaborative.

According to Einar, it is absolutely possible to get a unique job in a creative field, which VFX is.

I didn't think I was going to get the dream job I have today, but things happen when you don't give up. It was a great interest in working with film that made it possible for me, he concludes.


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