Showing posts with label art book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art book. Show all posts

6/24/2012

The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review

The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Average Reviews:

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The Art and Making of Star Wars Force Unleashed brings you behind the scenes into the game development process, while staying close to artists' drawing boards.
This book is choked full with breathtaking concept art, character designs, diary entries and screenshots from the game. It features over 300 pieces of art work in 168 pages. On two pages are pasted paper pockets, with each containing 5 character cards.
If you've owned the "art of" series for the Star Wars movies, expect the same high quality environment paintings. But this one goes up one notch with beautiful page layouts. It's the art magazine type of layout, so the every page design is essentially art in itself. Great effort from the book designers.
The 6 chapters in the book explains the game creation process in depth. That's from the development of a concept, to the pitch and approval stage, next to character studies, then environment and finally the technology behind.
There are lots of nitty gritty details that you won't read on Internet interviews. The authors bring you to the cutting floor and let you read all about the discarded ideas.
After reading the book, you'll literally feel like you've worked with these people (most probably as an intern).
For Star Wars fans, you have no reasons not to get this book. For people interested in concept design and animation, this book has lots of insight for you. This book is a great source of inspiration.
Be careful of the binding though. The part where the cover meets page 1 seems like they will come apart in the future. Easily fixed by pasting some clear tape to fix the problem before it develops.
(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

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The Star Wars saga continues! The Force Unleashed: Art of the Game chronicles the four-year development of the anxiously awaited, action-packed video game (releasing April 2008) developed by LucasArts from conception to completion. The book reveals innovative game design concept and images, three-dimensional renders, and behind-the-scenes photos. The Force Unleashed game casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the unexplored era between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The game re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking full advantage of new technologies that will be seen and experienced for the first time, such as Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) by Pixelux Entertainment and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd., paired with the powerful Havok Physics (TM) system. These new technologies create gameplay only possible on the new generation of consiles. DMM incorporates the physical properties of objects in the environment so that every element reacts exactly as it should--wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, Felucian plants bend in their unique way, and more. Meanwhile, as a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act, and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior and resulting in a different response every single time. Well before its release, The Force Unleashed game is already buzzing on blogs and gamer websites, at gamer conferences, and among Star Wars fans. LucasArts is fully backing the promotion of the game to the tens of millions ofStar Wars fans around the world.

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3/02/2012

The Art of Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace Review

The Art of Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace
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Sellers are using this page to sell a book that is actually titled: THE ART OF STAR WARS EPISODE I: an excerpt of the book written by Jonathan Bresman. The ISBN matches this work, which is only 44 pages in length and was given away with the purchase of a VHS version of the Phantom Menace. The way Amazon lists this book can be misleading because they refer to it as the paperback edition in the review which claims it is a massive volume with over 600 illustrations. They are actually referring to another edition of the book... the TRADE PAPERBACK EDITION. This error has caused me a lot of fuss with two of the used book traders here at Amazon. Know that you are not buying the 200+ page oversize work with this webpage.

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12/09/2011

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars
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This book is actually published by two publishers, Chronicle Books and Titan Books. I've seen both and they are the same except the price which depends on the country you're in. Chronicle Books is also releasing a US$120 limited edition as well but it's cheaper on Amazon. It comes with a white slipcase with 8 prints in an envelope inside the back cover.
The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a pretty thick book at 272 pages. It covers art for the movie as well as the TV series. The chapters are arranged according to the 22 episodes with the last chapter containing a sneak peak into Season II.
We have character designs, ship designs, storyboards, environment design, lighting studies, some film stills and plenty of beat boards (scenes featuring major story points). The artistic style and feel here are very different from the usual Star Wars art books since this is for the animated series. The characters might be a little over stylized but that's why it's done in animation.
A great deal of illustrations are digitally painted, to a point I feel there's an overdose and makes traditional pieces stand out by contrast. The detailed pieces are great because they have a hint of textures. The less detailed paintings look like a speed painting pieces with that blotchy feel. Curse the round-point tip brush! I guess I still like to see textures created by brush bristles.
The pencil sketches and other non traditional medium pieces are delightful to look at because they are more organic and the style is a breath of fresh air compared to the digital paintings. Many of the sketches come with handwritten notes from the artists.
Film stills are very few and there are almost no 3D models. This book really focuses on the pre-production concept art.
All the drawings are captioned by the artists and production team. They talk about the concept and sometimes some production stories, such as rigging, modeling and texturing. The pencil drawings on General Grievous's original form before mechanical "improvements" are interesting to look at, and read since the artists couldn't decided whether he's should be a gorilla or cockroach.
Overall, I consider this art book is worth the money because of its satisfactory volume, and art of course.
My reservation is only to the insane amount of full coloured illustrations digitally created. It's a personal preference.
(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

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9/13/2011

Star Wars Art: Visions Review

Star Wars Art: Visions
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This isn't the concept art book I imagined or was expecting. This isn't a concept art book at all.
Star Wars Art: Visions is more of a fan art book, except the 'fans' here are some of the best illustrators around. Think Moebius, Alex Ross, Syd Mead, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, H.R. Giger, Peter de Seve and James Christensen. There are 93 guest artists in all. Wow!
George Lucas has invited all these fine artists to create art for Star Wars, in their own style and interpretation. You'll see art from all sorts of styles, ranging from impressionist to manga to Picasso, punk(?), collage and more.
The book itself is huge, and the prints are large. You can see the details of the brush strokes and all. And most of the paintings are created traditionally.
The subjects are pretty cool, especially the more different ones like Kermit the Frog fishing with Yoda (from Peter de Seve), or the manga Leia which looks like she's from an alternate universe, or (gasp!) a nude Aayla.
This is a great collection of quality art. Easily recommended to any Star Wars fan.
(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

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When Star Wars debuted in 1977, it revolutionized mainstream American filmmaking, transporting fans to new galaxies and introducing them to countless now-classic characters, aliens, planets, and starships. In the decades since, the Star Wars Saga has become a phenomenon impacting cultures across the globe.
Just as George Lucas drew upon the work of N. C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell for his own visual inspiration, he has now invited more than 100 well-known and promising artists to draw upon the entire Star Wars galaxy for inspiration. Star Wars: Visions collects these magnificent artworks for the first time. Featuring pieces by renowned artists such as Amano, Allan R. Banks, Harley Brown, Gary Carter, James Christensen, Michael Coleman, Kinuko Craft, Jim Dietz, Phillipe Druillet, Donato Giancola, Ann Hanson, H. R. Giger, Daniel Greene, Ron Kleeman, Arantzazu Martinez, Syd Mead, Moebius, Paul Oxborough, Alex Ross, Anthony J. Ryder, Dolfi Stoki, William Stout, Dan Thompson, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, Scott Waddell, and Jamie Wyeth, Star Wars: Visions is a breakthrough tribute to the worldwide inspiration that is Star Wars.Praise for Star Wars Art: Visions:"Star Wars Art: Visions . . . acknowledges what fans have felt all along. They don't want to be mere spectators, but involved in the storytelling too." -Los Angeles Times

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8/25/2011

The Art of Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Review

The Art of Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
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Fantastic, beautiful book. Full of gorgeous artwork and pictures. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because for some inexplicable reason, the script is NOT included in the US version. However, the complete illustrated script IS included in the UK version, which I bought from Amazon.co.uk. I can't imagine why this was done, it is a real disservice to the US market. I highly recommend getting the UK version even though it will cost a bit more than the US version.

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Packed with breathtaking visuals created by a team of world-class artists, The Art of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith charts the visual genesis of this epic saga's climactic finale. For years, George Lucas's handpicked group has created characters, costumes, droids, starships, planetary vistas, digi-matte paintings, and sculptures–every type of visual imaginable.This extraordinary volume unveils never-before-seen images–thus taking readers on a fascinating journey from the first concepts to the final movie. While marveling at hundreds of brilliant pieces of art, readers will experience • Darth Vader–a look at the sinister chamber where he is created• stunning conceptual visions for the climactic lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi• the evolution of General Grievous–the new face of evil– from initial sketches to ILM animation art• fantastic full-color renderings of costumes, weapons, landscapes, and spacecraft• intriguing insights from exclusive interviews with the artists, whose groundbreaking work helped bring Lucas's ideas to lifeNew to this edition–the one and only Revenge of the Sith screenplay, revealing every beat of the action.For Star Wars fans everywhere, this treasure trove of images from the final, fateful Star Wars movie will provide a visual feast that promises hours of endless excitement.

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