Customer Reviews

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

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Length:: 0:24 Mins

This book is actually published by two publishers, Chronicle Books and Titan Books. I've seen both and they are the same except the price which depends on the country you're in. Chronicle Books is also releasing a US$120 limited edition as well but it's cheaper on Amazon. It comes with a white slipcase with 8 prints in an envelope inside the back cover.

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a pretty thick book at 272 pages. It covers art for the movie as well as the TV series. The chapters are arranged according to the 22 episodes with the last chapter containing a sneak peak into Season II.

We have character designs, ship designs, storyboards, environment design, lighting studies, some film stills and plenty of beat boards (scenes featuring major story points). The artistic style and feel here are very different from the usual Star Wars art books since this is for the animated series. The characters might be a little over stylized but that's why it's done in animation.

A great deal of illustrations are digitally painted, to a point I feel there's an overdose and makes traditional pieces stand out by contrast. The detailed pieces are great because they have a hint of textures. The less detailed paintings look like a speed painting pieces with that blotchy feel. Curse the round-point tip brush! I guess I still like to see textures created by brush bristles.

The pencil sketches and other non traditional medium pieces are delightful to look at because they are more organic and the style is a breath of fresh air compared to the digital paintings. Many of the sketches come with handwritten notes from the artists.

Film stills are very few and there are almost no 3D models. This book really focuses on the pre-production concept art.

All the drawings are captioned by the artists and production team. They talk about the concept and sometimes some production stories, such as rigging, modeling and texturing. The pencil drawings on General Grievous's original form before mechanical "improvements" are interesting to look at, and read since the artists couldn't decided whether he's should be a gorilla or cockroach.

Overall, I consider this art book is worth the money because of its satisfactory volume, and art of course.

My reservation is only to the insane amount of full coloured illustrations digitally created. It's a personal preference.

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

The style of this book captures the artwork of the Clone Wars in great detail. It shows all of the workings as it is produced for each episode, and shows the working process. But then again, the Clone Wars is moving art in itself. This book is a great find for those who want to see the ideas before they are on the screen. The visuals are just as pretty as the finished composite. It will contend with the movie versions of The Art of Star Wars and is a good buy for those who are collecting.

This book offers a unique view of the production of a large scale animation. It goes through many different stages from Maquette and lighting studies to animation concepts and environment design.

Its a good source of information for artists who like a more visual absorption style book rather than one with alot of text. It does offer some insightful comments on each page relating to the development but manages to walk a good line and remain balanced.

Good book, you don't always get to see some of the stages of character design, but that is really my only gripe.

This is a great source for the average fan. The source material and commentary are great. This is called the "art" of and not the complete background of development, so the commentary is light which the average fan will like but a wierdo fan like myself is left feeling I missed the main course. I also got it for a steal! Under $10 total, gotta love Amazon!

The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a coffee table book that looks excellent and is packed with renderings from the theatrical release and Season I of the TV series. The book also includes a quick peek at Season II. The emphasis is on concept art and you can get a real feel for the development of characters and places. My suggestion would be to take your time going through the book. Study the pictures and absorb the artwork.

Each picture in the book has a caption explaining specifically what you are looking at and what the artist's name is. Many of the pictures also come with much longer explanations giving excellent background information, e.g., a particularly interesting write-up on the influence of Ralph McQuarrie. We hear from Director Dave Filoni a good deal as he explains the initial concepts of The Clone Wars and takes us through some of the changes that took place as the project came to fruition.

If you are a fan of The Clone Wars and enjoy the visual presentation, then this book is for you

It covers a lot of good things, all episodes of season 1 are included in this book. So that's so good, with so many precious images...

I think it was fitting that a great revival (because, let's face it, the Prequels kind of killed it) of a beautiful franchise comes with a wonderful "Art Of" book. It is chock full of character, vehicle and set designs that really show the level of professionalism and fandom infused into the show by its creators. The book, along with the show itself, will transport you back to the happier time of 70's and 80's...