Dune 2.
Description
I created the language for the Harkonnen mentat's, a topographic height map for Arrakis, a HUD for the ornithopter scatter gun and in collaboration with the charming Dan Herlihy(AD), the harkonnens holographic UI. I'm a huge fan of both the book and the first film, so this was a dream project. Dan, Sam Keehan(CD) and Ashton Hertz (Prod) ran the project our side, the talented Pamela Gray and Sophie Marschner on the 3D design.
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Client
Legendary Pictures & Warner Brothers
Year
2023-24
Type
Film
Description
The Fremen attack on the Harkonnen sand harvester is defended by an ornithopter mounted scatter gun. I made a score of reticle concepts for Denis Villeneuve to choose from and then animated his favourite. I think the diagonal and rotational components add to the panicked panning of the gunner. Possibly the biggest grin I've had on my face was seeing this in IMAX.
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Description
The Harkonnen mentat language needed to be oily and insectoid. It would populate the UI and annotate the map of Arrakis which the mentats where projecting. Once I'd designed these elements I worked closely with the talented Dan Herlihy on the UI panels, which he laid out around the central hologram (see below). We wanted them to feel like spiders web with beads of water in them, and the animation style follows this logic, as if little beads of data are running along the connecting strands. When Villeneuve saw our concepts for the first time he said 'Ooh la la', and joked about getting the designs tattooed. Doesn't get better than that.
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Description
The 2D UI cards and animated UI elements were positioned around and on top of the holograms. To support the incredible Pamela Gray and Sophie Marschner's C4D work I created a black and white topological displacement map of Arrakis (further down). Referring back to the book and looking at fan attempts to map the planet, I recreated its topography using a collage of three dozen or so real world DEM tiles. In this way I worked in geographic locations mentioned in the book but not visited in the film.
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Description
Lastly here are a few concept frames I made while moonlighting before I was officially booked on the project. I created a simple C4D setup and a test Arrakis texture map, you can see the early form of the Mentat language as well as the Harkonnen trade routes. Dune being a world with strict religious rules on technology the holograms are sustained by the plugged in mentats rather than a complex computer. I thought there could be a sonic element where the hologram is echoing with the mentats who are chanting in this scene.
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