io9: ryan church

5 Designers Reveal Secrets Of James Cameron's Avatar

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:30:00 PST

James Cameron's Avatar required many technical miracles, including next-gen 3-D cameras and motion-capture, but it also needed years of sketching and brainstorming from a platoon of concept-artists and designers. We talked to five designers, and learned Avatar's secret design history.

We interviewed creature designers Wayne Barlowe and Neville Page, plus concept artists James Clyne, Ryan Church and Daphne Yap, about creating a whole new universe from scratch. Plus we've got some stunning concept art, from the new book The Art Of Avatar. In a year that's seen some amazing books of movie concept art, The Art Of Avatar features 106 pages of lush full-color paintings, interspersed with the industry's greatest design minds geeking out about every little aspect of Avatar's creation.

So here are a few things you didn't know about the design of James Cameron's Avatar:

Avatar Started As A Four-Month, Late-Night Jam Session At James Cameron's House

"[We'd be] working late at Jim's house, and having him come back after a three week spell of being down at the freaking Titanic, and having him tell us a story [about being on the ocean floor]." Read the rest of the story.

Pandora's creatures were partly based on cars

Early on in the process, James Cameron "mentioned the core idea" of having Pandora's creatures be "superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes," says creature designer Neville Page. Read the rest of the story.

Those crazy color schemes are from the ocean floor — and Art Nouveau

"In the real world, we didn't invent these colors. They exist on animals today. We didn't invent a whole new palette. I think the problem is — the challenge is — you don't often see large creatures with this much color on them." Read the rest of the story.

The human hardware, including those crazy battlesuits, is all based on real stuff

"One thing I worked on big interior for the mech suits, and the whole interior had to have a reason and function for why the suits were lined up the way they were, and how they could work on them like a pit-stop at an F1 race. It had to have that functionality." Read the rest of the story.

Avatar concept art from The Art Of Avatar (Abrams 2009)

A Haunting Alien Cathedral, From Transformers 2 Concept Art

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:20:00 PDT

Star Trek concept artist Ryan Church also created some breathtaking vistas for Transformers: 2, including this scene inside an alien vessel called The Ark. All of a sudden, those big alien robots really do look alien. A few more, below.

The desert battle scenes look a lot more impressive (and coherent) in Church's imagination, and the underwater salvage of Megatron suddenly looks moody and Cameron-esque. Here are more of our favorites:

You can see the rest of Church's Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen concept art (plus tons of other great art) at the link. [Ryan Church via TFW2005]

10 Hollywood Designers To Watch Out For

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:57:00 PDT

Science fiction is all about creating strange and incredible worlds, whether they're the future of Earth or a far-off planet. And the key to the most breathtaking science fictional worlds always starts with the work of production designers and concept artists who create brilliant and freaktastic worlds, like James Clyne's concept art for Transformers, above. Or Warren Manser's original art for Stanley Kubrick's version of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, below the fold. Here's our roundup of the 10 designers whose work is exciting us the most right now — and whose forthcoming projects you should watch out for.

Everybody worships Syd (Blade Runner) Mead, or Ralph McQuarrie, who gave the original Star Wars trilogy much of its eyepopping vastness. But some of the designers and artists working today are doing work that's every bit as mindblowing and sensational. (We had a list of about 20 designers we wanted to feature in this post, and had to end up whittling it down. But maybe we'll feature some of the others soon.) A million, million thanks to Lauren Davis for the incredible research help.

Warren Manser (A.I., Spider-Man, Army Of Darkness, Serenity, Speed Racer)

James Clyne (A.I., Minority Report, Galaxy Quest, X-Men 3, Titan A.E., The Fountain, Transformers, Star Trek, Avatar, Battle Angel)

Miles Teves (Men In Black, Terminator III and IV, Iron Man, Outlander)

Nathan Crowley (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Mystery Men, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight)

Guy Hendrix Dyas (Indiana Jones IV, Superman Returns, Galaxy Quest, X-2: X-Men United, Brave New World)

Ryan Church (Star Wars Episode II and III, Avatar, Outlander, Star Trek, John Carter Of Mars)

Alex McDowell (Minority Report, Watchmen)

Jeannine C. Oppewall (Cat People, Pleasantville, The Happening, Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Richard Hudolin (Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: SG-1, Doctor Who)

Daren Dochterman (X-Men 3, Chronicles Of Riddick, Sky High, Get Smart, Dragonball, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Creature From The Black Lagoon)

Ryan Church, Master Of Creatures And Robots

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:30:00 PDT

Why he rules: If you saw a cool giant machine or floating city in Star Wars episode II or III, there's a good chance it was designed by Ryan Church. His designs for Revenge Of The Sith included a new generation of giant AT-AT walkers with longer legs, giant robot tanks, and a whole gaggle of dinosaur/dragon mounts for the Jedi and soldiers to ride on. And he designed the alien invaders from Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds movie, including the fiery concept paintings we've marveled at before.
What he's working on: His in-development credits read like a listing of the most-eagerly-awaited science fiction films of the next few years. They include the vikings-vs-aliens movie Outlander, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek film, James Cameron's 3-D motion capture film Avatar, the animated Escape From Planet Earth, Transformers 2 and John Carter Of Mars.

Yearning For Serene Flying Paddleboats

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:45:21 PST

A lot of sci fi concept art has a tendency to be spiky and sharp looking, and you'll usually see enough spires and knife-edged towers to populate an entire world with if you flip through a book of book of alien artwork. That's why artist Ryan Church's floating paddleboat here looks serene and peaceful. You could just imagine spreading a blanket under that tree and taking a nap while these leviathans glide by overhead. Could someone out there get a Huckleberry Finn in Space project started ASAP?

Of course, if pointy things and big guns are your thing, check out Ryan's website where you can see the concept art he created for War of the Worlds and the second and thirdStar Wars prequels. We never thought we'd see the new Star Wars movies as cool, but his concept art sure looks a lot better than the films ever did. In fact, note to George Lucas, we'd buy a DVD with filled with this artwork.