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John Carter Sculpts by David Krentz

Hello All

I thought I’d showcase some of the very early design sculpts that I created for John Carter. I***8217;ve been on THREE versions of John Carter (of Mars) since February 2005, and was honored to be on the version that actually made it to the screen!

I did these in Aug to Nov of 2008 in Z3. These were design sculpts, which were executed very quickly and in a very loose style. Andrew Stanton is from the world of animation, and he could see the value of a rough without having artists spend weeks refining them to sell the idea.

Tars Tarkas was to be the ***8220;type specimen***8221; of the Tharks and would establish the anatomy for the whole race. I worked in tandem with Iain McCaig; whom I worked with on the other three versions of the film. He would supply drawings and I would work it out in 3D to sell to Andrew. The first thing to get approved was the head, and second was the body. Figuring out how the second set of arms fit into the anatomy was always the trick. You did not want to have two separate torsos or pecs that would have you staring at the middle of the body instead of his eyes. When I watched the finished movie I never once was focused on the final anatomy. It was a testament to everyone***8217;s efforts.

Woola was a passion of mine. I worked on designs for him in the Conran and Favreau version so I chomped at the bit to try it again. The jumping off point was a sketch by Derek Thompson that Andrew loved. I was asked to take that design and add elements of bulldog,rhino, snapping turtle and alligator. I did a ZBrush sculpt from that direction and then sculpted a clay maquette from it. My head was still thinking of Burroughs***8217;s description: where Woola looks scary as hell (he is a bull/guard dog) but the ***8216;cute***8217; aspect came purely from his acting. Andrew thought the appeal had been lost so I went back and simplified it-he loved the look of a frog- and that did the trick. In the book Woola has ten legs. In my previous incarnations there were only eight because ten legs in a row makes him look like a long caterpillar and the bulldog aspect disappeared. Putting the row of legs closer to the belly allowed ten legs and a shorter body. It also prevented elbows and knees from colliding during a walk or run cycle. I will post some of those at a later time.

After these were approved they went off to Legacy Effects and other talented artists on the show who took them further and made them sing! I moved over to help storyboard the movie. Of course the designs changed but that***8217;s just what happens in a collaborative effort. As the story, characters and animation are fleshed out so are the designs.

I***8217;m really happy with the final movie and amazed that it is actually DONE. Iain and I sat together during the screening and it felt as though we were both living in a dream. John Carter was on the big screen***8230;FINALLY!"

Attachments

TarsTarkas_Krentz_1.jpg

TarsTarkas_Krentz_4.jpg

TarsTarkas_Krentz_5.jpg

TarsTarkas_Krentz_6.jpg

TarsTarkas_Krentz_7.jpg

Woola_bones1_Krentz.jpg

Woola_bones2_Krentz.jpg

Woola_Krentz_2.jpg

TarsTarkasBronze_Krentz.jpg

Woola_Krentz_3.jpg

Here are some more. In a little bit I’ll post versions from earlier films.

DK

TarsTarkas_Krentz_2.jpgWoola_Run_Krentz_1.jpgWoola_Sculpt_Krentz_1.jpgWoola_Sculpt_Krentz_2.jpgWoola_Sculpt_Krentz_3.jpgWoola_Sculpt_Krentz_4.jpg

Thank you for sharing.

Great work David! :slight_smile:

So great to see these concepts - thank you for sharing your work!
Awesome sculpts!!!

He rocks!

Fantastic stuff David ! Going to watch the movie tomorrow =)

Awesome! I loved the books when I was a teenager and can’t wait to see the movie, especially after seeing your work on it. So glad it finally made it to the big screen after so many years and I want to thank you for sharing your fine work.

cool models bro,

Thank you for sharing David! This is an amazing work!!!

“After these were approved they went off to Legacy Effects and other talented artists on the show who took them further and made them sing!”

Is that how it happened?
Wow, history is a funny thing…
S

Wow…these are amazing! Love the rake textures on your design sculpts!

Man, what a dream project. Love your work. As always:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:

Thanks guys. Looking at these now is a little embarrassing, compared to the great stuff that other artists did. But, I need to remind myself that these were only quick designs to see if the drawings worked in 3D and to experiment with anatomy and shapes.
In 2008 raking was all the rage…
I just saw the John Carter Art Book this evening. There are great sculpts in there!
Also, GO SEE THE MOVIE!!! I loved it!

While I’m at it, here are some Woolas from the Favreau version.
John wanted Woola to look like a nasty animal that could hunt down and kill you. John Carter’s empathy for animals is what tames him. The Zbrush model was done (again, very quickly) in 2.5 mainly as a means to build a clay sculpture from Remember multi-markers?
There is also an Orthographic of the ZBrush model that I did the clay sculpt from the first posting for. I forgot to include it.

DK

Attachments

woola_favreau_Krentz.jpg

woola_favreauOrtho_Krentz.jpg

Woola_FavreauSculpt_Krentz.jpg

Woola_Krentz_1.jpg

Awesome Sculpts! :+1:

Patton

If what you are responding to is that my ill-worded sentence makes what Legacy did seem like an afterthought in the process THAT WAS NOT MY INTENT.
If it is about something else let me know.

D

I absolutely love what you did with woola but… can I ask you why in the world you designed the green martians that skinny?
In the books they are described as brutes 4 meters tall! Wearing 30 feet lances on their massive rides!

when I first saw them in the trailer it was very disappointing :frowning:

Fr3ak_XXX

I didn’t design them that way. It was what Andrew and Mark Andrews wanted, and Iain McCaig ( who also liked them skinny) drew them as such. Speaking for only what I know of the decisions, they wanted them to be like Massai. Making them so skinny avoided the look of a man in a suit. Also, Andrew loved the Michael Whelan covers growing up as a kid.
I believe the decrease in size had to do with the problems of filming something 15 feet tall. Especially when you want to have your hero and the Tharks on film at the same time. It was really hard to get both of their faces together without framing it wider. From my own point of view, it was to avoid having a lot of Thark groins in the frame when they were standing next to humans. Legacy did a life sized print of their model, and since I was storyboarding on the movie I took a bunch of snapshots of it with my fellow board artists to see how you could frame them together. 15 feet would have been really hard to do. I’m sure there were many other reasons: no decision was considered lightly.

D

Ok I understand the reasons, tnx for explaining them.

But still… it’s clashing with the mental image I’ve got of that race :frowning:
I hope the movie is going to be good! :slight_smile: