Customer Reviews

The Art of Monsters vs. Aliens

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Length:: 0:35 Mins

This is a great art book filled with concept art, and the content is well written by Linda Sunshine.

The book is split into 5 parts, Character Design, Locations, Special F/X, The Making of Monsters vs Aliens and Out of the Picture.

The book starts off with an foreword by Stephan Colbert who voices President Hathaway. Just like many animation films, he coincidentally looks like the character he voices.

Every animation film has a specific technical or visual problem to solve. In this case, it was the tricky portrayal of size and scale. This is all in the introduction where the staff talks about this and other technical and story challenges to making the movie.

Under Character Design, we have concept sketches and digital paintings. Each character comes with writeup on how they come into being, from idea to how many times it has evolved as required by story. The characters featured are Susan aka Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach, The Missing Link, B.O.B, Insectosaurus, Gallaxahar and clones, Robots, President Hathaway, General W.R. Monger and other humans.

On Locations and Set. The art featured here shows how the set is caricatured to fit into the comedy. Everything is captioned to explain the rational. There are lots of interesting stuff to read and see. For example, there's one cross-section blueprint on the Area Fifty-Something, and just right outside the facility, there are people tunneling to China. And the humpback commercial airplane looks hilarious.

Part four addresses the more technical aspect of making the movie, like rigging, lighting and texturing. There are 12 pages in all, and I'll probably be getting the DVD when it eventually comes out for additional behind-the-scenes production process.

Finally, the book ends with a few unused concepts.

The beautiful illustrations are printed in low gloss thick paper, well bind in hardcover (with a dust jacket).

Linda Sunshine has done well by providing lots of context into the art and story, making this a very enjoyable book to read.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

It's funny- with so many great animated movies coming out over the last few years, a good number of them don't have very good art books. The Incredibles, one of my top 10 favorite animated movies ever, had an art book that was mostly locations and scenery, done mostly in one style, and had very few pages for character design. The Art of Monsters vs Aliens however, comes packed with all kinds of gorgeous art for every aspect of the film. Character designs, locations, special effects, you name it. I hadn't seen the movie since it came out, but after going through this book several times since I bought it a few months ago, I really want to see it again. While I do tend to like traditional hand drawn animation, seeing that a lot of what's in this book is done with digital paint, it's going to be easy to defend modern techniques against the uppity people who think that art done with computers lacks the heart of the ol' pencil and paper.

The Art of Monsters vs Aliens is divided into several sections: character design, locations, special F/X, The Making of Monsters vs Aliens, and then some concept art that never got used for the movie. I'm more of a character person when it comes to drawing, but every page in this book has artwork that I'd stare at and examine for minutes at a time, no matter how 'boring' it might be (like a simple space ship control room). Usually I'll spend the least amount of time with the location portions of an art book, but that section got just as much attention from me as the characters portion did. A lot of things are covered here and accompanied by very useful text that never gets boring. How they stylized the Golden Gate Bridge while trying to keep it more realistic, the mapping out of Area Fifty-Something: showing every part of the base and then some, the monster prison...I could go on about this for a while. It's that good. A couple of storyboards are featured as well.

The characters section alone is worth the price. There are some absolutely beautiful paintings of Susan done in digital paint, and the only negative thing I can say is that it's such a tease having these pictures here without any prints or posters available like Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon got. Dr. Cockroach's design stayed pretty much the same from the initial sketch to the final product, but Susan's changed a bit over time. The Missing Link had a good story too, as the first few drawings were labeled as being a little too gruesome and scary, but still fun. They mention a lot about how BOB's design seems so easy to do when you look at it, but they had a lot of difficulty animating him and having limits on what he could and couldn't do. Insectosaurus had her own problems, mostly when it came to scale and looking too small in some scenes, but they were obviously able to work it out. There are also pages for the President, a couple of military officials, extra characters, Gallaxhar and more.

All the text that's here is interesting, and it shows that DreamWorks' animators and writers put a lot of thought into making the movie. The fact that they only wanted shots done that they could replicate in real life, instead of zany camera movements, is something I admire.

I'm really surprised that this book isn't going for a lot more money like some others do once they go out of print. Maybe it's just overlooked, or maybe people don't care enough about the movie to give it a shot. Either way, fans of animation in general will get a lot out of this one. I can't stress enough how much I'd love some huge prints of the art here. The portrait of Susan, the Missing Link trying to be a charmer, Insectosaurus vs the alien robot at the bridge, etc. Get this book while it's still cheap, though it's definitely worth the original price and more. If anything, this is the book that really got me into 'Art of' books, and is my standard.

Love this book! Beautiful designs and sketches. I thought I'd be disappointed that there would not be enough designs but this was packed full, fully saturated with designs! Love it! If you are an artist or animator this is a must buy!

Monsters Vs. Aliens is already a smash hit for DreamWorks in the theaters and now you can own a piece of the hit with this gorgeous book from Newmarket press. This over-sized hardcover book takes fans behind-the-scenes with a look at every aspect of the film's development.

We start with a look at the character designs from pencil sketches to mock theater posters to digital paintings. You'll see firsthand how the various characters were developed into what we finally saw onscreen. What I love is the retro look to the designs. It's a throwback to cartooning of the 50s and 60s with a nod to influences like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat-Fink character, and 1950s Sci-fi films. Part two looks at the creation of the film's locations like "Area Fifty-Something" and the alien mothership. Again, we get loads of concept art, sketches, thumbnail frames.

Part three look's at the film's special F/X, and part four looks at the animation development. But part five might be my favorite as it looks at some of the ideas and concepts that DIDN'T make the final cut of the film. These include an alternate opening to the film featuring an alien invasion, as well as various other robot, alien, and monster designs. Very cool. The book is 192 pages and absolutely loaded with full color art. The perfect complement to the film!

If you love these "Art of" books this one is a must have. I have all of the Pixar art books and a few others and this one is one of the best! While I did like the movie, It doesn't hold a candle to the great Pixar line up of films, but it's art book is a great buy for a few reasons: (1) Huge, beautiful, full color, painted character designs. (2) Awesome retro monster movie posters introducing each character. (3) Tons and tons of concept scketches and ideas. (4) Great explainations of the characters and their developement. Basically, just a ton of cool stuff! Sometimes these books can tend to run kind of light with the material chosen to be included, but that's not the case here.

If you are an animator or you just love animated movies and the work that goes into them, you should seriously consider adding this book to your collection!

I would highly recommend this book. It is one "Art Of" book that I keep pulling off my shelf for inspiration.
Lots of character designs, backgrounds, and paintings. There is a nice balance of traditional media and digital on display.

Awesome book showing some characters development and lot of sketches !
100% recomended !

Over 400 color illustrations accompanies a survey of the film MONSTERS VS ALIENS, with five sections highlighting all aspects of the film's production from character personality and development by the DreamWorks design team to digital sets created for the movie, and special effects. Film libraries, especially those strong in contemporary animation, will find this a winning and colorful survey.

All of the Dreamworks the art of ......... are really good books and this opne is no exeption!

The reader of this book has a rare opportunity to view the production of an animation film. The book is full with great illustrations, drawn by inspired artists. Simply excellent!