Feng Zhu's Dynamic Transformers Concept Art Is More Than Meets The Eye

Z is for Zhu, Feng
Some of the greatest concept artists in the industry have at least one Star Wars movies in their resume. Is it because George Lucas sought out the best or did LucasArts turn them into great artists? I'm still not sure.

One of the greatest of the artists is Singaporean-American Feng Zhu who worked on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)


Nowhere in his resume or IMDb page does it list Transformers, but he has some Transformer robot designs and it's thought that he worked on Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).


Official Synopsis:
The battle for Earth continues in this action-packed blockbuster from director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg. When college-bound Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers, he must join Optimus Prime and Bumblebee in their epic battle against the Decepticons?, who have returned with a plan to destroy our world.

Here are his Starscream and other concept designs.

Whether they're officially from the movies or not, they're great designs.

See more of Feng Zhu portfolio at artbyfeng.com. He went to Singapore to launch FZD School of Entertainment Design in April 2009.

What do you think of the Transformers designs?



This post was part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I choose a letter from the alphabet and crafted a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

How Do You Design An Evil Underground Base For 'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra'?

Y is for Yon, Morgon
Super-villains love underwater bases for some reason. James Bond villains like Stromburg and Largo had some. Doctor Octopus had one. Even Dr. Evil had a submarine base. Would you build one?

The movie G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009) has some amazing action scenes in it. Director Stephen Sommers is known for huge set pieces and this film was no exception. Inspired by James Bond movies, he talked about his approach to the film in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly."

"Sommers adds that G.I. Joe, which also stars Dennis Quaid and features a cameo from his Mummy star Brendan Fraser, was partly inspired by the Sean Connery-era James Bond movies. 'I always loved the old Bonds," he says. "It's funny now how Bond wants to be Bourne. I loved Quantum of Solace, but it was like, man, this is a completely different movie to the Bonds I grew up with. In a very contemporary way, G.I. Joe is inspired by the memory of the kind of movies I saw when I was younger. I remember being in the theater for Thunderball and the big underwater battle at the end of that movie just blew my socks off. In G.I. Joe, there's an underwater battle under the polar icecap that's Thunderball times 10!'"

One of the many talented artists who worked on the film is Morgan Yon (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time , The Wolfman, Dorian Gray) who worked for The Moving Picture Company. Here are some concept illustrations of the designs for the underwater battle against the M.A.R.S. base Yon did. It's full of pipes, elevators and killer robot fish.

See more of Morgan Yon's portfolio at www.morgan-yon.com.

What do you think of the illustrations? What would you have in an evil underwater base?



This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge. 

Dress Like A Mutant With Oxford's 'X2: X-Men United' Concept Designs

X is for X-Men 

If you've always admired the X-Men's fashion sense, then these images are for you.
One of  the artists on the film X2: X-Men United (2003) was James Oxford  (Jurassic Park 2, Wild, Wild, West, Men in Black) and he posted some of his designs for the X-Men. I'm not sure if he was the costume designer or just worked off the costume designs to be honest.

Official Synopsis:

X-Men 2 (or "X2" as it is called in the movie) picks up shortly after the first film. Wolverine continues his quest to learn about his past, but he has little luck finding anything. Rogue has also formed a romantic relationship with her fellow classmate Bobby Drake, aka Iceman.
Meanwhile, the President is attacked in the White House by a teleporting rogue mutant. This prompts a public outcry against mutants and authorization of action against them by the President. Stryker, a special operations military official, pushes the President to allow him to attack Charles Xavier's school for mutants. Believing it is a training ground for secret mutant operations (which it is), the President authorizes the operation. Little does he know that Stryker controls the mind of the rogue mutant, named Nightcrawler, and he has his own reasons for wanting to attack the X-Men's school. Stryker also happens to hold the key to Wolverine's past.
When the school is attacked, it's up to Wolverine and the children to defend themselves alone. As our mutant heroes are sent their separate ways into hiding, Stryker also captures Professor Xavier. To make matters worse, Jean Grey has begun to lose control of her powers and exhibit incredible new abilities. As the X-Men face their darkest hour, their only hope may lie with their former enemies, Magneto and Mystique.

I love the alternate costumes for Storm.
Ororo "Storm" Munroe (Halle Berry)

Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner (Alan Cummings)

 

Logan "Wolverine" (Hugh Jackman)

Yuriko "Lady Deathstrike" Oyama (Kelly Hu)

James Oxford's portfolio is available for you to view at jamesoxford.com.
Via World of Black Heroes

What do you think of the illustrations? Any mutants you'd like to dress like?



This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

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Caesar Gets A Beatdown in Drummond's 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' storyboards

W is for Warren Drummond

Caesar is a pretty tough little ape, but he wasn't always that way. A ape named "Rocket" pretty much wiped the floor with the "Nancy-Boy" in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Warren Drummond's storyboards help show the action.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) has some incredible action scenes and one of the artists that worked on it was Warren Drummond (A Beautiful Mind, X-Men: First Class, Die Hard: With a Vengeance).

Official Synopsis:

A single act of both compassion and arrogance leads to a war unlike any other — and to the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. The Oscar-winning visual effects team that brought to life the worlds of Avatar and Lord of the Rings is breaking new ground, creating a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence, and epic battles on which rest the upended destinies of man and primate. 

Starring: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, and Andy Serkis

The video below is a compilation of storyboards from his site.

Director Rupert Wyatt specified that Ceasar POV shots be included so the audience feels what it’s like to move like Ceasar. - Dummond

See more of Warren Drummond's portfolio at http://warrendrummond.com

What do you think of the storyboards? Would you want to fight those apes?



This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

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Watch The Parliament Explode in Eichhorst's 'V For Vendetta' 2006 Storyboards

V for V for Vendetta 
The most controversial scene in the film V for Vendetta (2006) was the terrorist explosion of the Houses of Parliament building. In these storyboards by Axel Eichhorst (Mission: Impossible III, The Reader, The Ghost Writer) you can watch the destruction of The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace in all it's glory.

Official Synopsis

Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V For Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked vigilante known only as “V.” Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution when he detonates two London landmarks and takes over the government-controlled airwaves, urging his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V’s mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself – and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plot to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption. V for Vendetta was released March 17th, 2006 and stars Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Rupert Graves, Roger Allam. The film is directed by James McTeigue. 

 Here's what the artist said about the storyboards:

On this movie I got the chance to sketch the storyboards, after Steve Skroce, who started them, moved on to work on his comic novel series.

You can see more of Axel Eichhorst's work at http://www.axeleichhorst.com
 
©Copyright Warner Bros. 2006  

What do you think of the illustrations? Any other buildings you'd like to see blown up?

This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.