Short Peace: Farewell to Weapons Book

Gah. I cant say enough about the last story in Otomo's latest film "A Farewell to Weapons" It is the best thing Ive ever seen.  An APC with a mobile infantry team exploring a post-apocalyptic environment, with an elaboration of all of todays current military hardware. These guys stumble upon a GONK- the movements and anti-RPG armor screens are unmatched of any other mech Ive seen animated. Argh there is so much cool detailing in this short- Im freaking out just thinking about it even though its been months since I last viewed Short Peace.
Well this is the art book for Farewell to Weapons. It has all the original designs (both drawings and kitbashed models) that appeared in the comic as well as Otomo's monograph, Kaba. And all the model sheets for everything you see in the short are in here- I had the hardest time editing it down to my usual 800x1600 book review format. Painfully hardtime.
I paid about $45 for this at Kinokuniya and its worth every penny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp-yMlAe2ZU#t=251

Thomas Salad Spinner

We did a bunch of Salad Spinner technology pitch stuff for Thomas- I just stumbled over the folder that went to Fischer-Price with this one, one posted far below, and a few others with some confidential proprietary tech features that should be kept under wraps. Ill just throw these up here for archiving, Ill have this blog for as long as blogger is around, which is a whole lot longer than how long this hard drive will last.

Hot Wheels

I cant remember if this sketch actually was pitched to Hot Wheels, might of been shot down prior to pitching because of potential costs for the product- but the thing I loved about Hot Wheels while I was a kid, and even now, is creating a cinematic view of the car, like my eye is the camera along side the driver side window, or next to the wheels, or over the hood as you do crazy stunts and Hot Wheels maneuvers!

My idea was to have an articulated arm and on one end put a tiny car mount with an adjustable camera, the camera is tethered to your mobile device which serves as the display and simple editing bay where youd create images or movies and upload them to the rest of the Hot Wheels community. You could add some stickers of flames or whatever, maybe even some simple effects. Ahh I still think this is a good idea actually- digital cameras are getting cheaper everyday, and Im sure Ive seen arms like this before- 

Race set

Found some pitch sketches a colleague of mine was pitching at his inventor meetings. Theres a mechanical feature under the hood that made it pretty unique and since its not described in this rough concept sketch- I think its pretty safe to post, but get a heap of this kind of pitch work. If theres an interest we usually take the feedback and re-pitch tighter with color etc etc.

Art of Elysium

Ahh Elysium, where do I start- well this art book is probably one of the best of 2013- the preproduction of this movie was so bad ass- I was pulling my hair out in excitement and then I dont know what happened. Blomkamp shoulda stuck to his guns cause this movie was on the verge of groundbreaking, but once it was executed the original idea, the original brilliance was unfortunatley completely lost. Odd because that wasnt the case with District 9- Id imagine the pressures of the people with the money are unimaginable- and sadly Elysium became one of my biggest disappointments of the decade. 

But Good News!!! The Art of Book documents the all the awesomeness of the Blomkamp project. An East LA flavella and futuristic, genetic Santeria following MS13 gangsters, Cybernetic SWAT teams and that crazy Safa guy from District 9 all hulked up and psychotic looking flying around in an awesome dropship with his commando team. They pulled in Syd Meads studio in who developed the off planet satellite gated community which I didnt include in any of my favorite shots above because most of them were 2 page spreads and Im always reluctant to try and capture an image on a spread. Those designs are almost entirely 3D as well, it would be really super to see the original sketches- but its some of my favorite 3D designing to date. So much cool stuff to look at in this book- gang tatoos, guns, corporate logos etc etc.

Such a refreshing take of Sci-Fi, so if youre a fan, definitely, DEFINITELY get this book.

$28 on Amazon! 

Art of Elysium

Mark Salisbury

Titan Books (August 6, 2013)

176 Pages HC

ISBN-10 1781162476

ISBN-13 978-1781162477

11 x 12 x .08