Ron Mendell is a professional concept artist, designer and modeler for Hollywood films like Star Trek (2009) and The Hunger Games (2012). He's shared some great concept art in his portfolio and I thought I'd share some with you.

Check after the jump for designs for Whiplash's chest arc reactor in Iron Man 2, Looper's time machine and more. All commentary comes from his site.

Click the images to enlarge.  In Esperanto, that would be "Alklaku la bildojn por fari ilin pli grandaj." Sometimes I get bored writing that last sentence...



IRON MAN

"Well of course this was an awesome film to work on. IM was one of my favorite characters growing up as a kid, who'd of thought I would be involved as much as I was. One of my attributes is being able to designas well as build, so both talents were put to use on IRONMAN 1. 

"First of all I did many designs for a case that would hold Tony Stark's suit for travel..."

"I also built the wall mounted JARVIS computers that were around his house. They had an actuating knob and backlit screens."

"Other designs I worked on include GRENADES, SUIT WEAPONS, MISSILES and CHEST X-RAY'S of TONY STARK showing the shrapnel in his chest along with the RT [Repulsor Transmitter]. I did not design the RT on this IRONMAN, but did for IRONMAN 2."

 Iron Man 2
"On IM2, I concentrated on Tony's RT. The power source in his chest. All these concepts were done in solidThinking, my software of choice for 3D modeling. The 3D files of the final design were sent to a vendor who built them directly from the solidThinking export."

"These are concepts for Ivan's RT, along with the final design as it appeared on screen."

"Among many other projects, I worked on designs for Tony's Formula 1 car and helmet as well as jewelry pieces."

Looper
"In the future, Rian wanted gasoline to be so costly and un-available that it was reserved for the super elite. Ed had the concept that the cars ran off their own emissions with the support of solar power. So I came up with the V.E.R.B. - Vehicle Exhaust Re-Breather. This system allowed the exhaust fumes to circulate thru a VERB that contained a readily available power cel, then back into the combustion system to power the cars. The solar panels powered the VERB and assisted other electronic functions in the cars.

"On the whole project I was responsible for styling over 40 different cars. I had my design space at Picture Car Warehouse in Reseda, CA where most of the fabrication happened. Final paint and tweaking happened when i traveled to New Orleans. Special thanks to Ted, Steve and Marty at PCW!"
 

V.E.R.B. Concept 

"Rian, Ed Verroux and Ram Bergman allowed me to have a huge design influence on everything LOOPER.

"The TIME MACHINE is another key item in the movie. Ed gave me initial sketches and as with the bike, I moved into 3D to generate drawings to build from. And the cool thing is... Sony gave the TIME MACHINE back to me, so it is sitting in my shop on display!"

The HOVER BIKE or SLATT BIKE as it was scripted was a great build. Rian gave me a photo of Bob Dylan riding an old red Triumph and he said... " Like this, but powered by a jet engine ". Ed did some initial drawings which [laid] down the overall concept. I took over and ran with it working in 3D and generating files to be water jet. The bike was pretty much made from scratch with the seat and handle bars donated from a scooter. The tank was stretched and modified from an existing bike. We built 2 bikes and had additional tanks and saddle bags to play them as multiple vehicles in the background. SPFX built a rig that supported the bike from the side of a pickup which was digitally removed later.

"After filming was complete, Rian asked me to do some concept design for VFX. These designs were used by the VFX department to create background vehicles."

Looper Official Synopsis:
In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented - but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper" - a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) - is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good... until the day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson and also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels. Ram Bergman and James D. Stern produce.

See more of Ron Mendell's portfolio at http://www.ronmendell.com/

What do you think of the illustrations?
 
@ Copyright 2012 Endgame Entertainment, DMG Entertainment, FilmDistrict, Ron Mendell. All rights reserved

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The Hunger Games DVD/Blu-ray has a behind-the-scenes clip showing how director Gary Ross and visual effects supervisor Sheena Duggal designed The Girl and Boy on Fire.

There are some great concept art and animatics showing how they translated the fire wings from the book to the screen.

Via Vulture

What do you think of the video? Do you think they did it justice?

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As often happens, since these images were not approved by the studio I've been asked to take them down.

H is for Hunger Games
Ian Joyner (Thor, Cowboys & Aliens, I Am Number Four) has posted some concept art from the film The Hunger Games showing some freaky creatures called "muttations." Apparently, they are a pretty big departure form the film. Book fans may appreciate these more.

If, like myself, you are new to this series here's an explanation: Muttations, sometimes referred to simply as "mutts," are animals that have been genetically altered by the Capitol for use as weapons, forms of torture and intelligence. - thehungergames.wikia.com

The designs are reportedly very different from the final version, but I haven't seen the movie yet. So, I can't say for sure. Here's what the artist said about the designs.

Tasked with designing the ‘muttations’, the idea was that these creatures were the fallen children brought back as horrible mockeries of themselves, forcing the survivors to deal with old friends and foes in a whole new way.

Here is just a small sample of the work I did on the film, from the very first pitch to the ‘final’ design. Sadly, it appears they’ve changed the designs pretty drastically later in film production.

Gary Ross, the director decided not to use the faces of the tributes for a specific reason according to ScreenRant:

GR: “We made the decision that they not be specific tributes, because if we did it, we would have been a massive digression at a moment in the movie where I didn’t think it could have afforded that. You’re hurdling toward the end and that would have taken a tremendous amount of room at a time when we didn’t have it. However, I will say that all the mutts, if you really look at them, they’re really half-human and half-dog. If you put a mutt’s face next to a dog’s face, and next to a human face, you really will see that they’re a hybrid of the two. And so we were specific about that.

The important thing about the mutts to me was, not specifically that they were tributes, but that they were a creation of the Capitol designed for this particular instrument at this particular moment in the games. And because we had the games and were actually able to show their creation, we were actually able to show them being birthed in that game center and then revealed in the games.

We had the ability to do something by cutting away that a novel isn’t when it’s constantly maintaining Katniss’s point of view."

You can see more of Ian Joyners portfolio at http://www.ianjoyner.com.

@ 2012 All images property of Ian Joyner, Lionsgate Films and Legacy Entertainment.

Via mockingjay.net

What do you think of the concept designs? Have you seen the Hunger Games? Would it have been better or worse with these designs?

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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When you're running through the wilderness arena with teenagers shooting to kill you, you need an advantage. The control room of The Hunger Games has a sprawling view of the arena and thanks to concept art you can get a good look at it.

Reid Southen, also known as 'Rahll,' was one of the artists on The Hunger Games (2012) and he posted some illustrations of the control room.

This view is from the trailer.

You can do an interactive tour at TheCapitolTour.pn.

You can check out Southen's portfolio at http://www.reidsouthenart.com and http://rahll.deviantart.com.

What do you think of the concept art?

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Here are some of the artists that worked on the science-fiction film The Hunger Games (2012). As always, there are many talented artists involved in the production of a film. These are only some of them according to IMDb.

Synopsis: 

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Directed by Gary Ross
Production Design by Philip Messina        

Art Direction by
John Collins (supervising art director) http://johnmcollins.com/
Robert Fechtman        
Paul Richards http://www.nutshellproductions.tv/      

Concept Artist \ Illustrator
Matt Codd    http://mattcodd.com/
Reid 'Rahll' Southen  http://www.reidsouthenart.com/
Vincent Thomas   
Tim Flattery http://www.timflattery.com/
Gloria Shih   
Jackson Sze http://jacksonsze.com/index.html
Alex Jaeger
Christian Alzmann
Production Illustrator
Laurent Ben-Mimoun  http://www.blueman.ws/


Prop Illustrator
Ron Mendell http://ronmendell.com/

Scenic Artist
Lillian Heyward   http://www.lillianheyward.com/
Rae Signer


I'll update this list as I find out more. If you know of any artists that worked on this that are not listed please let me know.

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