The Art of The Adventures of Tintin

by Chris Guise, Weta Workshop

The artists at Weta Digital and Weta Workshop were thrilled to get the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg to bring Hergé’s wonderful characters to the big screen in The Adventures of Tintin.

They spent five years working on this movie. This book tells the story of how the filmmakers started with the original Hergé artwork and books and ended up with what is seen on-screen. It features early concept drawings, previs sequences, models, costume designs and final stills from the film.

The book focuses on the creative process, showing the many designs that made it into the movie and others that didn’t. It highlights the attention to detail, skill and creativity of all the artists involved in the making of the movie. The story is told by the artists themselves, who talk about their inspirations, techniques and experiences. Through them we gain a true insight into the creative thinking behind this groundbreaking feature film.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Media Tie In

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Chadi Raheb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had bought this book years ago and completely forgotten about it! But I was somehow reminded of it yesterday (thanks to Marc!) and decided to skim it. Great project, eh? Tintin never gets old :)

[Elizabeth (Elzburg) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art of The Adventures of Tintin was even better than I could have ever dreamed. This is my first "Art of" book, and I kind of knew what I was getting into but I was still surprised.

I didn't even mean to start reading this when I started reading this. We were given an assignment in art class to design a poster for the school play and I really had no ideas. I remembered that these "Art of" books are full of concept art so I decided to flip through this one. Well, next thing I knew I wasn't just flipping through it, I was completely engrossed in it. I flipped to the first page and started properly reading it.

This book was a good reading experience. Right off the bat Chris Guise lets the reader know that he's not going to bombard you with text, that he's gonna let the art do most of the talking and he's going to make the best "Art of" book he can. Well I'd say he did a pretty damn good job.

The book is absolutely LOADED with amazing artwork by all the staff at WETA Workshop. It was a nonstop stream of my mind just getting blown over and over again. They made so so so many concept paintings for pretty much every single scene, and all of them are fully rendered pieces that could easily stand on their own in a gallery or something. So many of them made my jaw literally drop because of the sheer amount of detail put into them. It was honestly absolutely amazing.

Somehing else that was cool to see is that near the beginning of the book we got to see some pictures of the motion capture process which was cool since I don't really know how that works. There wasn't too too much about this though, as the big bulk of the book was definitely the concept paintings. There was also some pictures from the very very begining of the movie process when they shot some live-action footage, so that was neat.

I have never actually watched the movie "The Adventures of Tintin". I saw a bit of the scene where they're in the water and the plane comes, but just because it was on TV, that's it. They purposely don't spoil the movie though, so if that's something you're worried about, don't be.

Anyway I think I've gushed about this enough. I also have The Art of Planes and The Art of Beowulf so we'll see when I get around to reading those.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

652 - 2020

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best art-of books I've read. Usually I just skim them and look at the pictures but I actually read this one from cover to cover. You can tell that the people who worked on the movie are really super-fans of Tintin.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cool examination of the Art behind Tintin.
Many cool excerpts from artists who worked on the film.
Solid Read.

[mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.25

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

I managed to get this a bit earlier from Amazon UK. This book is also sold by Weta on their website, which is perhaps how I remember first hearing about the book.

Tintin's a motion capture CG film, directed by Steven Spielberg, and produced by Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy.

In this book, there are lots to read about the making of the film, like how they capture swimming, walking on sand, animate Snowy, etc. Captain Haddock was actually performed by Andy Serkis, the King Kong/Gollum guy.

The transformation of Herge's characters to 3D is quite stunning. They are modeled by Weta and the details are amazing. They have gotten the skin textures spot on, and sometimes it can be a bit creepy to look at the caricatured version.

Much of the art is actually on trying to find the look for the film. There are some earlier concept art where specific panels of Herge's comics are painted over with a realistic style, using the same composition. Even the shark submarine and checkered rocket were re-imagined with more photo-realism.

The environment art are on the antique market, Tintin's apartment, Haddock's ship, the ocean, the desert and many other locations. The art is very distinctly digital painting, I'm not sure if I like the style here. There's still the charm of comics that's very difficult to translate across medium.

[τλιϓλ · Rating 5 out of 5]

As one of the millions of Tintin fans, I did not give a second thought in buying the book, wonderful collection of pictures of the project, how they manage to make this scene or that, various photos to show the original painting and how it became in the movie. Each one of the crew wrote few lines to guide readers or to express some methods or to add information about certain scene and so on. I was looking forward many pictures and painting about the ships during sea battle, I loved this scene a lot.
I enjoy reading about the characters, source of the plot, general opinions about some characters, reading about the writer & painter, it was really a great thing having this book between my hands and a heartful thanking to every single one worked in both projects: movie and book. It deserves the 5 stars.

[Scottsdale Public Library]

I have been a Tintin fan since childhood, so when I heard that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were making The Adventures of Tintin, I was cautious. When it finally opened, though, and I saw it on the big screen, I was not disappointed. To my mind, Spielberg and Jackson perfectly captured the look and spirit of the books I love. And the colors! I just loved the rich coloring of the movie. I am also delighted with this book about the film's artwork, in which the artists themselves explain how they made the movie. -Jess O.

[Neville Ridley-smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains lots of concept artwork that goes beyond what was seen in the movie. The best part are the reworkings of all the original Tintin covers to see what would work in the context of an animated film. Also interesting are photos of the live-action tests that were done before they decided to go with animation. Lovely to flip through. (It's in Parramatta library if anyone's interested.)

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a brilliant read, especially if you're a big Tintin fan, or into behind the scenes editing/mocap stuff. Very cool!

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, with detailed descriptions of the making a "mo-cap" film. The artwork of the film stayed true to the Herge originals, and the movie was great fun!

[Thia Reads A Lot]

Review coming soon!