울라 존카터 John Carter Woola

Clay design sculpt of Woola for John Carter.  September 2008.

 

Found some more pics of my concept sculpt of Woola for the movie John Carter.  I helped design Woola for three versions of this film!  In the book is says he has ten legs.  Making 5 legs per side creates a really long caterpillar body.  It was decided to put four of those legs ventrally.  Also, he has three rows of teeth.  I thought it would be cool to have the innermost teeth a separate rotating jaw with the "teeth" of Dunkleosteus.  Ultimately the design was softened...cuz you know...Disney.

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Hello All

I thought I’d showcase some of the very early design sculpts that I created for John Carter. I've been on THREE versions of John Carter (of Mars) since February 2005, and was honored to be on the version that actually made it to the screen!

I did these in Aug to Nov of 2008 in Z3. These were design sculpts, which were executed very quickly and in a very loose style. Andrew Stanton is from the world of animation, and he could see the value of a rough without having artists spend weeks refining them to sell the idea.

Tars Tarkas was to be the type specimen of the Tharks and would establish the anatomy for the whole race. I worked in tandem with Iain McCaig; whom I worked with on the other three versions of the film. He would supply drawings and I would work it out in 3D to sell to Andrew. The first thing to get approved was the head, and second was the body. Figuring out how the second set of arms fit into the anatomy was always the trick. You did not want to have two separate torsos or pecs that would have you staring at the middle of the body instead of his eyes. When I watched the finished movie I never once was focused on the final anatomy. It was a testament to everyone's efforts.

Woola was a passion of mine. I worked on designs for him in the Conran and Favreau version so I chomped at the bit to try it again. The jumping off point was a sketch by Derek Thompson that Andrew loved. I was asked to take that design and add elements of bulldog,rhino, snapping turtle and alligator. I did a ZBrush sculpt from that direction and then sculpted a clay maquette from it. My head was still thinking of Burroughs's description: where Woola looks scary as hell (he is a bull/guard dog) but the cute aspect came purely from his acting. Andrew thought the appeal had been lost so I went back and simplified it-he loved the look of a frog- and that did the trick. In the book Woola has ten legs. In my previous incarnations there were only eight because ten legs in a row makes him look like a long caterpillar and the bulldog aspect disappeared. Putting the row of legs closer to the belly allowed ten legs and a shorter body. It also prevented elbows and knees from colliding during a walk or run cycle. I will post some of those at a later time.

After these were approved they went off to Legacy Effects and other talented artists on the show who took them further and made them sing! I moved over to help storyboard the movie. Of course the designs changed but that's just what happens in a collaborative effort. As the story, characters and animation are fleshed out so are the designs.

I'm really happy with the final movie and amazed that it is actually DONE. Iain and I sat together during the screening and it felt as though we were both living in a dream. John Carter was on the big screen FINALLY!"

This version of Woola was closer to the one that ended up in the film.  I used prehistoric amphibians as a basis for the head.  I added  large fish-catching or bear-trap like teeth to hint at the calot's aquatic origins before Mars dried up.  Also, lots of Labyrinthodont's had palatal teeth so it supported Burrough's description of three rows of teeth.

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While I’m at it, here are some Woolas from the Favreau version.
John wanted Woola to look like a nasty animal that could hunt down and kill you. John Carter’s empathy for animals is what tames him. The Zbrush model was done (again, very quickly) in 2.5 mainly as a means to build a clay sculpture from Remember multi-markers?
There is also an Orthographic of the ZBrush model that I did the clay sculpt from the first posting for. I forgot to include it.

Here are some more. In a little bit I’ll post versions from earlier films.