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| Avatar (2008) concept art by Paul Tobin |
The costume design and clothing for James Cameron's Avatar was stunning and Mayes C. Rubeo and Deborah Lynn Scott were nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Awardin 2010. While the final designs were digital the two still needed real-world skills. "It’s the same process with an extra technical element," Scott told the Costume Designers Guild, "It’s exactly how a Costume Designer works every day, but the end result is not a physical body, but an animated body." One of the many talented artists that worked on the designs for Avatar was Paul Tobin. He shared some amazing concept art for Weta Digital that makes the designs in the film look tame by comparison.
Tobin is a professional concept artist, designer and scuplter who's worked on Hollywood projects like King Kong (2005), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Click on the images to enlarge.
"So these were done a few years back now at Weta Workshop. With the film not only out but announcing a hopeful sequel I figured it was high time to finally post them. I thought I would start with some Na'vi designs first." - Paul Tobin
"Weta Workshop was asked to help design the Na'vi culture and cultural artifacts like costume and weapons. It was an interesting process, as approved designs are usually designed and made at the workshop and then eventually end up on set. This time round designs were still created but only to be used as a reference at Weta Digital. (Some were used on the motion capture stage as well). Because of the digital process the design process continued and evolved well into post-production." - Paul Tobin
"Neytiri costume design. This had the dubious honour of being Weta's first piece of design on the film. James actually quite liked this and I think parts of it (the yellow halter) made it into the film." - Paul Tobin
"Keeping it in the family, this was a costume design for Eytukan, Neytiri's father. The big shoulders were not a 80's throw back but rather an attempt to make him imposing and the basic design was used in parts." - Paul Tobin
"This was a knife design for Tsu'tey, which could be used in a normal way, or held along the arm allowing for the point to act as a punch dagger and the leading edge to slash. When designing weapons it can be fun to try to give a stunt performers something a little unusual to help create more memorable action sequences." - Paul Tobin
"In addition to the Na'vi we also did some early design work on the human costuming as well to get the ball rolling. James favoured a very real world approach to the costume design which comes across so well in the final costuming. He would often reference the Vietnam war in terms of look for the soldiers and the level of gritty realism. For ground personnel the reflective stripes became a very practical feature that you could build a strong graphic identifier into." - Paul Tobin
"On one of James' few trips to see us in the Design Room in NZ, I presented this Op Center concept to him. I pointed out that the trousers had built-in leg zips so some of them could be wearing shorts as a option as the base is in a tropical zone. After a moments thought he turned to me and the production designer and said that there will categorically be no shorts in his film.... as is often the case in concept design even a total fail can still yield good information. There were no shorts in the making of this film...." - Paul Tobin
"All costumes needed to incorporate the emergency mask which Leri designed, which is a good example of collaborative design. On this costume I started to have some fun with designing a breathable weave made from the RDA logo pattern for the shoes. Lets face it Pandora is hot, d**n hot and who wants stinky feet!" - Paul Tobin
See more of Paul Tobin's marvelous portfolio at http://paultobinart.com/
Click on the links if you want to see more of Paul Tobin's work or Avatar artwork on my blog.
What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen Avatar what do you think of the costumes?
Official AvatarSummary
From Academy Award winning director James Cameron (Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, Titanic) comes Avatar, the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people.
Directed by James Cameron
Cinematography by Mauro Fiore
Production Design by Robert Stromberg and Rick Carter
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver
Release Dates: December 10, 2009 (London premiere), December 18, 2009 (United States)
Official Site: http://www.avatarmovie.com/
© Copyright 2009 Lightstorm Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners, 20th Century Fox. All rights reserved
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