Watch Thor Demolish Destroyer in D'Alessandro's Dynamic 'Thor' Storyboards

The movie Thor had some insane visuals, but one of the scenes that got the biggest cheer is when Thor got his hammer and wasted the Destroyer armor.

One of the storyboard artists on the film was Federico D’Alessandro (I Am Legend, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger) and he has a storyboard on his website I had to share.

Here's the scene if you haven't seen it. Prepare to be amazed.


This is the scene from the script dated 03-26-10

Clad in his full battle armor, holding Mjolnir in his hand -- the God of Thunder once more.


Thor kneels, brings Mjolnir down onto the ground. 

KRAKABOOM!


Lightning strikes the Destroyer. It convulses.


Thor swings Mjolnir around, takes off straight up into the air, as the Destroyer gets back on its feet and looks up at the Thunder God. Storm clouds gather around Thor as he summons gale force winds.


Debris from the battle begins to rise up into the sky. The Destroyer stays there, kept grounded by its massive weight. It lifts its head up at the Thunder God, opens its faceplate, locks it in place, unleashes its blast. Thor dives downwards straight at it, with Mjolnir before him.


Mjolnir collides with the Destroyer's fiery energy blast, overpowering it, pushing it back, forcing it downwards at the Destroyer. Thor jams his hammer deep into the Destroyer's faceplate. The fiery energy within the creature builds up and EXPLODES within him, firing out of all his openings.


Thor smashes the Destroyer to the ground in a tremendous heap, the fiery energy within it extinguished forever. Thor pulls Mjolnir from its faceplate, walks away from its lifeless carcass. As he does, the other objects and debris pulled into the air by the gale winds drop down from the skies, around the Destroyer, burying it.

Amazing stuff.I actually prefer the way it was boarded since we get a side shot and a full view of the hammer just plowing through the armor.

See more of Federico D’Alessandro's portfolio at thefilmartist.com.

What do you think of the storyboards?

Marvel At The Towering Ice Spires of 'Thor'

Nathan Schroeder has done some amazing concept art for Thor, and what I found most impressive are the towering spires of the Ice World Jotunheim.
While I'm not a huge fan of computer generated concept art, this guy's work is turning me around. He says it's all Photoshop and Maya which is impressive.
Here's how he describes it:

Directed by Kenneth Branagh and designed by Bo Welch. Having worked with Bo a year before on LAND OF THE LOST, I was excited to create artwork for the ice world, Jotunheim; as well as the realm of Asgard, where Thor lives.

For reference, here's the fight scene with the Ice Giants in Jotunheim.

His use of light is amazing. Check out more of his work at NathanSchroeder.net

Craig Shoji Talks About Creating the Breath-Taking World of 'Thor'

I have another exclusive interview with concept artist Craig Shoji, and he talks about "geeking out" with Marvel, working with producer Bo Welch designing the world of Asgard and bringing Jack Kirby's comic book designs to life.

You've seen a lot of Craig Shoji's work without knowing it. A freelance artist living in California, he blew us away on The Golden Compass (2007), Avatar (2009) , Alice in Wonderland (2010). Now he's done it again with breath-taking visuals of Asgard for Thor (2011).

Q: How did you decide to become a concept illustrator versus other types of art?
It took a long time to even figure out what a concept illustrator was! When I was at UCLA I thought it was either graphic design for web, print or video, or new media (a la John Maeda and the MIT Media Lab). It wasn't until I took some foundation classes at Pasadena City College that I learned about Product Design and Entertainment Design. I began my Art Center education studying Industrial Design but soon realized that I enjoyed drawing fantastical things and realizing worlds that could only exist on a screen, than worrying too much about manufacturing and tolerances.

Q: What's your background as an artist?
(Image: Craig circa 1983)
I've always enjoyed drawing as a kid, but I was more a tinkerer than a painter. I liked to take things apart to see how they worked then attempt to put them back together again.

I got a degree in design at the University of California - Los Angeles, but it was a very general education and not too trade-oriented. So I continued my education in Pasadena at the Community College there as well as the private Art Center. It was here that I learned about entertainment arts and was able to network and refine my craft to do what I'm doing today.

Q: What was it like working on "Thor?"
(Image: Thor exterior Odin's Asgard tower)
It was both daunting and fun at the same time. There was a large team when I first came on (maybe 4 or 5 illustrators) but the production got pushed about 5 months and everyone but myself was let go. So for a long time it was just me and Bo Welch (the production designer) working on Odin's tower and Asgard which was a lot of early responsibility.

As I settled into my role and began resolving a lot of the design details, the production started ramping up again and I was joined by some more amazing talent. This is always great as an illustrator cause you have people that you're bouncing ideas off of and constantly being inspired by.

So it was a breath of fresh air to have a handful of creative people to share an office with again.

The whole department was incredibly fun to work and hang out with, so I really enjoyed my time there. It was also nice geeking out with the Marvel execs as they came by because I feel like we've all grown up with the same love for comics. And it was effortless to get excited about how these worlds we've come to know and love would be realized in the film.



Q: Do you work with traditional mediums or do you favor digital art?
(Image: Alice in Wonderland Courtyard sketches)
I love pen sketching on paper. I'm a big fan of ball point pens, brush pens, hitec-c pens, etc! The list goes on and on! A lot of my early ideas are established in a sketchbook as a doodle or preliminary sketch. Then I'll either redraw it on the computer, or build it out in 3d and paint in photoshop on top of it.

The digital medium has allowed for so much more flexibility as well as photorealism in such a timely fashion that the analog can't compete. In a film production setting, it's crucial to get the best result in the least amount of time, so unfortunately it's no longer practical to work solely in analog.

In my free time I like to pry myself away from the computer and pick up some gouache paints and illustration board. It's much more rewarding when you have to look, think, then place down the brush stroke, than scribble scribble, ctrl-z, ctrl-z, scribble, cut, paste, scribble, unsharp mask. :)


Q: While everything you have done has its own rewards is there one project that you're particularly proud of?
(Image: Thor Asgard courtyard painting)
I'm actually very proud of my work on THOR over any of my other past films. I feel like it gave myself (and the other artists) an opportunity to translate the original intent of Jack Kirby's Asgard in an updated fashion that was still tasteful and respectful. It seemed everyone had a take on what that vision was, all the way through post production, and it was great to see it evolve until the end result on screen. I'm proud knowing that I was part of the creation of that world, and that it was well received by the fans.




Q: Who influences your artistic style the most?
(Image: Avatar Pandora fruit)
I'm creatively influenced by so many people and so many things, but as far as style... I'm probably more influenced by the world around me.

I love photography, and trying to best understand light and how it bounces, reflects, absorbs, and blankets everything around us. I also love looking at master matte painting works and seeing how those guys resolved 'photoreal' illusions with a few brush strokes. Al Whitlock, Michael Pangrazio, Syd Dutton as well as my contemporaries: Robert Stromberg, Dylan Cole, Steve Messing, Yannick Dusso, Brian Flora, Yusei Uesugi...

There are a lot of people out there that I admire whom truly inspire me. Being lucky enough to have worked with, learned from and befriended is the icing on the cake.

You can check out more of his incredible work on Alice and other designs at pensketch.com. Also, follow him on twitter (pensketch) for updates.

Thanks for the interview Craig!

To read some of my other interviews with artists check out the full list here.

What do you think of Craig Shoji's work?

Ryan Meinerding Explains Why Thor Looks More Spaceman Than Viking

Fans have complained about the designs of the superhero movie Thor costumes for since the first pics and Ryan Meinerding explains why the costumes look so high tech.

The concept art book Thor: The Art of Thor the Movie is being released about the movie this week and Marvel has an interview with one of the Visual Development Supervisor Ryan Meinerding and a couple of pics from the book.

On the designs being less "Nordic" than the traditional comic book "Thor" costumes
The design direction that Charlie and I each started from was trying to take some sense from the iconic costumes, and then applying some sense of Norse things to them. Not in a traditional sense, but so that there's overlapping and weaving and trying to find something that felt like, but was not as readily identifiable as, Norse. I think Charlie [Wen] was the one who really found that balance with the Thor costume, and once he found that, it really [was a matter of] overlapping and changing angles with metal around the disks or whatever we needed to be on the chest plates, and finding different ways of doing that with all the different characters.

On fitting the costumes in with the past and upcoming Marvel films
There’s definitely a sense of trying to make all of these characters come together for “Avengers,” [but] I think first and foremost all of these movies have to stand on their own. I think that the tones need to be similar enough to be in the Marvel Universe, but I think we were really conscious of designing the costume for “Avengers” to come together a little bit more, as opposed to back when you’re working on the Thor movie you’re just trying to make the best movie you can.

In the end we’re people executing the ideas or the design direction that we get from Marvel and the directors. So when you look at the direction that was coming in, I think the reason they chose not to do the more traditional Viking thing was probably because it would be harder to see a Viking standing next to Iron Man than it would a man in a more high tech looking chest plate. There are some really base level conceptual directions that we are given that are probably aimed towards those ends.

There is a lot of good information about his work on Thor as well as Iron Man, so head over to Marvel.com to read the rest of the interview.

Synopsis: Directed by Kenneth Branagh, the epic adventure "Thor" spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor (Chris Helmsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Here's a partial list of the artists involved:

Production Designer
Bo Welch

Concept Artists
Charles Wen
James Carson
Vance Kovacs
Ron Mendell
Raj Rihal
Craig Shoji
Tully Summers
Simon Webber
Daphne Yap

Set Designers
Tex Kadonaga
Kevin Loo
Jeff Markwith
Anne Porter
Andrew Reeder
Rich Romig
Marco Rubeo

Storyboard Artist
Timothy Burgard

Darrin Denlinger
Thomas A. Nelson
Joel Venti
Via ComicBookMovie

Follow 'Thor's' Rainbow Bridge Concept Art To Adventure

A new piece of concept art for the upcoming Marvel superhero film Thor (2011) has been shared showing the "Rainbow Bridge" Bifrost.

According to Wikipedia "In Norse mythology, Bifröst or Bilröst is a burning rainbow bridge that reaches between Midgard [Earth] , the world, and Asgard, the realm of the gods."

This picture really shows the grandeur and scope of the world director Kenneth Brannagh is trying to build.

Here are some of the artists involved in Thor under Production Designer Robert W. "Bo" Welch III.

• James Carson (concept artist)
• Steve Jung (concept designer)
• Vance Kovacs (concept artist)
• Wes Louie (concept artist): Film Illusions Inc.
• Ron Mendell (concept artist)
• Kurtis Richmond (concept artist) Fuel: VFX
• Raj Rihal (concept artist)
• Constantine Sekeris (conceptual designer)
• Craig Shoji (concept artist)
• Tully Summers (concept artist)
• Simon Webber (concept artist)
• Daphne Yap (concept artist)
• Timothy Burgard (storyboard artist)
• Darrin Denlinger (storyboard artist)
• Thomas A. Nelson (storyboard artist)
• Joel Venti (storyboard artist)

Via: joblo.com

Two New Magnificent Captain America and Thor Concept Posters

Ryan Meinerding's Captain America battlescene makes Cap fit right into WWII.

Charlie Wen's Thor vs. Loki fight looks epic.

Marvel is releasing some concept posters at Comic-Con this weekend and we have a sneak peek thanks to Yahoo. Action packed and colorful, its a good sign of things to come. Neither of the two artists - Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen - are listed in IMDB for these films, so it makes me rethink my research path.
What do you think?

Slamming Thor Concept Art

Last week, some new images of the movie Thor (2011) hit the net and a lot of people hated the costume design.

Here are some pictures of the released concept art a while back. I'm skeptical that these images were ever used for pre-production, but, with the industry moving more towards CGI and digital effects it's possible.

Compare to the original costume design by Jack Kirby.

The movie has a ton of concept artists attached to it, so I have no idea who created them. Here's the list from IMDB: James Carson (concept artist), Vance Kovacs (concept artist), Ron Mendell (concept artist), Kurtis Richmond (concept artist Fuel: VFX), Raj Rihal (concept artist), Maury Ruiz (concept artist: Legacy Effects), Craig Shoji (concept artist), Tully Summers (concept artist), Daphne Yap (concept artist).

[Image Source: Collider.com]