.
.
>> Learn the steps to becoming a world class concept artist -by FusionFilter.com!
.
Thanks to parkablogs.com for an inside peek at the “Art of Avatar” art book, plus a decent review! It seems that you can just tell when a movie has “just enough” concept art to put out a legitimate book, and it looks like this might be the case. Seems there is more jungle art than anything else, but recommended if you just can’t get enough of Avatar.
-JDV
Click this link for a short page flipping video on Flickr.
.
Review courtesy of parkablogs.com:
(I’ve updated this review a bit after watching the movie.)
The concept art for this book is very different from most I’ve seen, in terms of style. Most of the art in this book are computer generated or look computer generated. There are very few pencil sketches. Quite a few pieces are created with mixed medium. For example, the extensive use of photography in matte paintings and the digital paintings over 3D models. I found the contrast of artistic style between the mediums quite jarring.
If you’re blown away by the visual quality of the Pandora, as shown in the trailers, you’ll be glad to see that majority of the art in this book are on the environments. There are also designs for the plants, animals, vehicles and the Pandora inhabitants, the Na’vi. Weta Workshop is also roped in to provide some models and help in designing the Na’vi. The creativity behind the design and the scale of work is of course amazing.
Somehow, this art book doesn’t really appeal to me. There’s an element of artifice that’s very hard to describe. I attribute that to the style of art because in the movie, Pandora and its world really look amazing and surprisingly believable.
This book is a bit underwhelming considering that every set and prop in the movie is made totally from imagination. They certainly could have packed more pages but the price is also lower for that matter.
I’m intrigued that James Cameron actually wrote the script in 1995. But he had to wait until 2006 before technology was (deemed) advanced enough (for him) to make the film. I thought technology was already available when Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was released in 2001. So what technology are we really talking about here? It’s not mentioned.
I also wanted to find out about how stereocopy, which James Cameron is an advocate of, is used, but it’s only briefly mentioned. The writeup talks only about the concepts behind the designs and very little on the production. I’ll definitely be getting the disc when it comes out.
It’s a great book but more for Avatar fans.
RELATED POSTS
This post is tagged AVATAR, VIDEOS, WORLD-DOMINATION
