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filbarlow — Godzilla: Side View
Published: 2011-06-27 11:33:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 22148; Favourites: 434; Downloads: 0
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Description
Here is my design of Godzilla that was used in the production of the 1998 animated show.I included a human and car for scale.
Prior to the movie coming out I worked in secret, designing Godzilla ahead of the rest of the crew.
I didn't use any photographs to create the Godzilla model sheets, relying only on sketches I had done from a maquette kept under security at the Sony lot and from a 3 story high working animatronic head at Patrick Tatopoulos' hangar workshop in Culver City that I saw once. I deliberately refused photographs of Godzilla to protect myself against blame should any images be leaked.
In 1998 when production began on the animated show the movie still had not been released, so the code name we used was Heatseekers. The storyboards had to be kept at the rough stage and were based off a false model sheet that I had prepared. I did this version with no detail, just a similar body proportion and an incorrectly shaped head. Once the movie was released so was the correct model sheet and the storyboards could be put on model and cleaned up.
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Comments: 130
I'm always happy to inspire people, and I'm glad you enjoyed or efforts. Thank you so much!
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So you were the one that created the design? I must say, I am impressed and glad to see your artwork. ^^
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Thank you 
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I understand that, but still I love your representation of it. It was by far one of the leading influences on my creature designs as I was growing up. ^^
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Yeah that's really cool to hear! I've been looking at your work, keep practicing from reference, figure drawing and animals especially. Keep up the good work
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So I take it you like my work? That means quite a bit coming from a professional illustrator such as yourself. ^^
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What I see is potential, you are at a point where you are starting to form habits, now is the best time to break them and aim for new methods if you want to be amazing.
There are new habits you can start with.
1) Using structure in your underdrawings.
2) Using reference for everything so that you can retrain your subconscious to draw what's actually there.
3) Playing with design more, make mistakes deliberately to find new ideas, don't settle for something you've seen before, go beyond.
There are plenty of illustrators on DA who play it safe, if you want to be an artist you have to be challenged, scared and unsure if you should keep going. This is how I work, everyday since I was 17, and that was 32 years ago.
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Thanks for the advice. ^^ I'm not quite sure what you mean by habits though.
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By habits I meant any automatic action. Before they become too automatic it's a good time to replace them with more useful actions that will become automatic over time. hopefully this helps
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Oh, okay. And yes it does help. ^^
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Basically writing becomes automatic to the point where you no longer have to look at your letters to get the shapes right, when was the last time you had a look at how you write the letter "M"? Artists can become so automatic that they draw a face, a hand or a foot without even thinking about the shapes. At this point drawing is now closer to writing, and an artist becomes a craftsperson doing the same thing over and over. Once we loose the ability to see what is actually there in the real world or in our reference, or to question every line we draw, we no longer challenge ourselves and stop developing.
To give you a comparison, I question every line I draw, I make a big mess of lines and pick ones that go in directions I've never seen before, I look at life and draw what's there rather than what I expect to see, then absorb that lesson into my work and distort it. I deliberately make mistakes and I follow where they lead me. Then to redraw them I use structure lines to turn the character so I can draw it from every angle, based on my knowledge of what I've seen in the physical world.
I hope this helps to clarify
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Wow, I never really thought of it that way. 0_o That's impressive. Thank you very much for the tips. I will try my best to apply them to what I create.
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I hope you do, you might be surprised at the results
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I also designed fanart of Zilla based off of your designs. ^^ Check out my gallery if you'd like to see it.
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oh my gosh oh my gosh! I am such a fan of these Shows! Loved your designs!
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Wow, I loved so much the series... But you can't found it on DVD T_T. What a shame, I loved so much watching the anime on Saturday and Sunday mornings... T_T
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Yeah... I try do download them on Internet, but now, you can't even find them now !
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Thanks. But I'm French, so I was searching for the French version... But I'll take it when I will back home
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Ah I'm sorry it wasn't helpful, good luck with your search!
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It's okay 
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I actually liked the show's design a lot more than the movies. The proportions felt more dramatic. Your head is smaller than the movies, the angles are more pronounced. And also the color. The movie's (and generally America's) adherence to realism kept it from being interesting.
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I'm glad you appreciated my design. I was very fortunate to have met Patrick Tatopoulos and make sketches from marquettes and the 3 story high animatronic model (they were filming it eating a car). But being a cartoonist I wanted to push and exaggerate the design, thankfully Patrick, after a few pointers, let me go for it.
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lol I used mine up
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Holy ~ I was not expecting to find one of the original artists behind that show here. 
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Coolest version of our famed Lizard legend ever, nice.
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Thank you, obviously I had Patrick Tatopoulos' film design to springboard off. I just need to give credit where credit is due
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Very true, just keep up the excellent work. :]
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Holy crap, didnt think I'd find this here haha!
I actually really loved this version of godzilla design wise mostly. I never watched the series much b/c I was all about digimon and pokemon during the times, but I still used to get all excited when I found this showing (it's even on netflix now haha! I was watching an episode yesterday).
What I liked most about this version of him was that he made rampaging through the city and climbing buildings actually look like 'fun' (much more fun than the rampage: world tour game I used to play a lot), and I used to wish that I could do that too. XD Be a giant lizard monster and all! Heh, those were interesting days. c: And I honestly thought the head design was really unique stylization during the time since I hadnt seen much like it around.
I'm really glad that you came up w/ such a design though.
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Thanks, yeah rampaging would be fun if you don't have to pay for damages, and if no one gets hurt, maybe rampaging through an inflatable city. If you ever played Tim Schafer's Psychonauts on the original Xbox, he had a rampaging level through a city inhabited by fish people that was fun.
I had a look at your art, some lovely inventive stuff, I need to post some other monster designs soon.
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It's great to know someone who worked on such a good show is here on DeviantArt. Love the series Godzilla, it's a 'cartoonization' of the film design but it keeps itself serious without resulting goofy or 'cute' haha. Love it to bits! The series, since I discovered it (shamefully recently - around 2010) is fantastic as well, I wish they aired it around here back when it was released.
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I'm glad you like it, better now than never
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This is awesome! Thanks for sharing this and the bit of information! I always found him better in the show than the movie as a kid. The show design and looks of him inspired alot of my dinosaur and dragon drawings from my childhood.
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Cool! You would have drawn more interesting dinosaurs as a kid than I did!!
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Its cancellation began a life-long dislike of anime.
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... because Anime took it's place?
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Yup! A truly good cartoon comes once in a blue moon. Toilet paper anime are a dime a dozen.
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I like how he's got a more...expressive face than the movie CGI model.
thank you for sharing the history of this piece with us, its really fun to read about it!
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I sexied him up more than the movie version which was blockier.
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