Last week I shared some concept art for Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) by Brian Matyas. Now you can see more of what you didn't see if you watched the movie.

Nick Ainsworth is a freelance prop concept artist for films like X-Men: First Class (2011), and TV shows like Game of Thrones, based in London.

Check out the rest of the images of the beanstalk, General Fallon's mace, Foom's slingshot and his favorite design that didn't make it into the film: The horrific "Man Catcher."

As always, click on the images to enlarge. In Japanese, それらを大きくするために、写真をクリックしてください.

Nick joined the production in early 2010 as a graphic artist doing some of the more illustrative graphic design work while it was still called Jack the Giant Killer.

Although the Production Designer, Gavin Bocquet, knew him primarily as a graphics person, he knew Nick wanted to do more concept work and gave him some props to design. "He liked what I did," Ainsworth said, "So I joined the props department and ended up doing the giant's weaponry, furniture and technological bits and pieces that inhabit the world of Gantua."

"It was [my] first fully fledged concept job on a studio film." Nick said, "I had done little bits on other films such as painting up technical drawings for colour and texture options and I had done some illustrations for prop posters and books but not straight up design."

"The transition from graphics to concepting was fairly smooth. I started on giant weapons which were supposed to be irregular and crude so that  was a good way to ease into it. I resolved the designs by initially doing them in elevation and just making sure they had a strong silhouette.

"I was also getting more confident in 3D at the time as well. So, when some of the more complex bits of giant tech needed resolving, I found that an invaluable tool to help get my head around the design."

"My favourite design was the 'Man Catcher' - which was like a smart gun crossed with a bear trap but unfortunately that was cut from the script so I never saw it get made which was a shame as it could have been quite terrifying."

See more of Nick Ainsworth's portfolio at www.krop.com/nickainsworth.

Click on the links to see more concept art for Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) and Nick Ainsworth.

Official Synopsis
Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

Official Site: jackthegiantslayer.warnerbros.com

What do you think of the illustrations?

@ Copyright 2013 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc., New Line Cinema, Legendary Pictures, Original Film 

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Feast your eyes on concept art of the massive world of the giants for the film Jack the Giant Slayer.

"It’s a very traditional fairytale, probably the most traditional thing I’ve ever done." director Brian Singer said describing the film, "But it’ll also be a fun twist on the notion of how these tales are told... Fairytales are often borne of socio-political commentary and translated into stories for children. But what if they were based on something that really happened?.. What if we look back at the story that inspired the story that you read to your kids? That’s kind of what this movie’s about."

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) has been out in the US since March 1 of this year, but it's just opening now in the UK. This means the embargo on concept art has been lifted and I can share interviews I've had with the concept artists that worked on the film.

The first one is from Brian Matyas who just updated his website, www.bmaty.com, with new illustrations.

Brian Matyas is Senior Cinematics Illustrator at Kabam and works on video games and on films like Mars Needs Moms and Beowulf (2007) . On Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014), he worked closely with Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson designing costumes for key characters.

Check out the rest of the illustrations and find out the most challenging part of designing a world of giants. As always, click on the images to enlarge. In Dutch that would be "klik op de foto's om ze groter maken."



Brian worked with the Production Designer Gavin Bocquet as a concept designer. He primarily did concepts for the Gantua (Giant World) environments. In fact, he says he recognized some of the root bridges he designed in the trailer.

Jack's Journey

Root Bridges

When envisioning the world of the giants in Jack the Giant Slayer, Singer said he imagined a world "more ancient and primitive, crudely built, with lots of stone. It’s a culture based on eating, because these beasts require a lot of food, so we focused on large areas where they could feed, primarily a converted throne room with massive, long tables"

Matyas said the scale of Gantua was a challenge, but a fun one.

"Jack had to appear as tiny as a doll except it had to be clear he was a normal sized human being and not Indian in the Cupboard." Matyas said, "A lot of what sold this concept was crazy camera distortion for scale. I used google sketch up quite a bit to make crude models of these environments to establish these camera shots."

Gantua City

"I worked on the film relatively early on and worked in several different versions of Gantua before the settled on the final on for the film." Matyas said, "A challenge for me would be getting attached to certain scenes and locations in the script, doing some concepts I was proud of pertaining to these, and then an executive decision was made to cut them in the later version of the script. It one of the many challenges a concept artist has to face when a script changes. You can marry your images and you have to reset yourself and start over."

These are only my favorites, so make sure you check out the rest of Brian Matyas' portfolio at www.bmaty.com.

See more concept from Jack the Giant Slayer and Brian Matyas on my site soon.

Official Synopsis
Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

Official Site: jackthegiantslayer.warnerbros.com

What do you think of the illustrations?

@ Copyright 2013 New Line Cinema, Legendary Pictures, Original Film Brian . All rights reserved

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I already shared concept art and an interview with artistDawn Brown on Oz the Great and Powerful, and Oz concept art from Michael Kutsche now check out artwork by professional concept artists Dylan Cole (Daredevil, TRON: Legacy, Superman Returns) and Daphne Yap (Avatar, Star Trek).

Hat tip to Comic Book Movie for finding this stuff.

Check out the rest of the picks after the jump and read the artist's comments. As always, click to enlarge. In Spanish: "haga clic para agrandar las fotos."

Dylan Cole
"Here is a concept painting I did of the Emerald City for OZ: The Great and Powerful. I started with a 3D base the did a ton of painting on top. A lot of the look for the courtyard area was established by Jonathan Bach and set designers"

"Emerald City" by Dylan Cole

 

 

Daphne Yap
"Some elements from 'Oz the Great and Powerful'"

"Hammerhead" by Daphne Yap

"Apple Pickin' Terror" by Daphne Yap

Dylan Cole has a website DylanColeStudio.com, but you can see his most recent stuff at Cole's Facebook page. Likewise check out DaphneYap's Facebook page and blog daphneyap1.blogspot.com.

Plus, don't forget to check out Dylan Cole's children's book The Otherworldly Adventures of Tyler Washburn: The New Kid and Daphne Yap's book Daphne 01: Sketches by Daphne Yap

Via Comic Book Movie io9

Official Synopsis
Disney's fantastical adventure "Oz The Great and Powerful," directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum's beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.



@ Copyright 2013 Walt Disney Pictures, Roth Films

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"My rule is always a little ambiguous, because I'm hired as a production designer, but that\u2019s not really what I'm good at or what I do. Where I'm really the strongest is stepping outside of the rules and guidelines and really just entering into my own artistic dream state. And my position as a star sort of allows me that privilege." -Moebius

One of the most strikingly visual movies of the last fifty years was The Fifth Element (1997) two of the designers were developed by Jean Moebius Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières.

Check out a behind-the-scenes video and more concept art after the jump and click the images to enlarge.



The following 18 minute video goes behind-the-scenes of their relationship and their amazing designs for the film.




Seeing how much joy he got working on the movie makes the next point strange. Years later, in 2011, the designer filed a complaint for plagiarism of his series "The Incal" in the movie "The Fifth Element".

"The designer Moebius and publisher Humanoids Associates today have lost their lawsuit against Luc Besson and Gaumont they accused of having infringed the comic 'The Incal' in the movie 'The Fifth Element' released in 1997. The plaintiffs complained of 'borrowings under clear, the scenery, scenes, characters and graphics and scriptwriting to Incal.' They demanded 13.1 million for unfair competition, 9 million in damages and 2-5% of net operating revenue of the film. The writer of comics, Alexandro Jodorowsky, also called 700,000 euros. The high court, however, gave reason for Luc Besson who considered that the applicants' claims that were not based 'on tiny fragments of the work' cartoon. It has however rejected the 100,000 euros in damages requested by the director for abuse of process." - Toutenbd (Translated from French)

All images were scanned from the (wildly expensive) book: Story of the Fifth Element Pb

(Images Via Fikacoffeebreak, movieprops.fr, yourprops.com, theairtightgarage.tumblr.com)

Wikipedia Synopsis:
The Fifth Element (French: Le Cinquième Élément) is a 1997 English-language French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson. The film stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich. Mostly set during the twenty-third century, the film's central plot involves the survival of humanity, which becomes the duty of Korben Dallas (Willis)—a taxicab driver (and former special forces Major)—when a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. Upon learning about her significance, Dallas must join efforts with the girl to recover four mystical stones essential to defending Earth from an impending attack.

See more of the late Jean Moebius Giraud's work at http://www.moebius.fr/

What do you think of the illustrations?

@ Copyright 1997 Gaumont, Jean Moebius Giraud. All rights reserved

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