Godzilla: The Look/Appearance Speculation

[Living Corpse]

isn't Godzilla supposed to be a sea monster?

I don't understand the continual emphasis on the dinosaur and bird (?!) aspect at all.

I know. It's not a bad design by any means, yeah Godzilla is a dinosaur or something related but the feathers don't make sense considering he's also a sea monster, the feathers would work better on another monster.

[tymon]

The only feathers I ever wanna see in the Godzilla series are The Giant Condor's. Otherwise, keep em' the skreeonk out.

Even GINO had the good sense to stay way from feathers, gills, etc..

[shinmattiathekaiju]

Enough with the feathers already!

[NSZ]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

Feathers. Are. Stupid.

Besides the whole thing about Godzilla being a sea monster first, terrestrial titan second, we still have theropods that didn't have any feathers at all, ever!

[TokyoVigilante]

Godzilla's existence and present appearance is so much easier if you just look at it in mythic terms. No one questions the biology or plausibility of a Dragon because it's a skreeonk Dragon; it can look, do, and be any size that it wants too.

[Living Corpse]

The only feathers I ever wanna see in the Godzilla series are The Giant Condor's. Otherwise, keep em' the skreeonk out.

Even GINO had the good sense to stay way from feathers, gills, etc..

I actually wouldn't be against a new enemy dinosaur monster with gills or feathers showing up in a future film.

Just not on the King himself.

[Jomei]

^A dinosaurian Godzilla whos design closely resembles the original is what I've been pressing for in this thread, but if I absolutly have to, a design such as the one Jomei posted works well too.



I reaaaaaaaally want that in the movie. I honestly dont mind the raptorization, since its not nearly as bad as the other one by the same artist (it still looks kickass though)

I like this art a lot, but I think the feathery things are pushing it too far.

[Rody]

Godzilla is a retro-saurian sea monster. Feathers would look out of place.

[Megaton17]

Ugh...Birdzilla again?

Feathers do NOT belong on Godzilla. Minus the feathers, the design would be a but too bulky and almost Spacegodzilla like to me.

Here are some examples of what I'd like to see:

http://kaijusamurai.deviantart.com/art/ ... -153733086

http://rendragonclaw.deviantart.com/art ... -112509579

http://rendragonclaw.deviantart.com/art ... -188263011


...Definitely gonna get some flack for that last one...

[Living Corpse]

No snake neck please. That's for Ghidorah.

[Gyaos]

http://kaijusamurai.deviantart.com/art/ ... -153733086

Dont like the face and the spines are too big. Other than that it's good. The other two are bleh.

[Megaton17]

No snake neck please. That's for Ghidorah.

What about a theropod neck?

[Rody]

Here are some examples of what I'd like to see:

http://kaijusamurai.deviantart.com/art/ ... -153733086

I'm not surprised that this one popped up again. It's certainly one of the better redesigns out there, but I'm not sure I would want to see it in a movie. It's a little too humanoid.

http://rendragonclaw.deviantart.com/art/KaijuLord-s-Godzilla-Sketch-112509579

This one has always looked ugly to me. The sheer level of detail and variation in detail looks bad.

http://rendragonclaw.deviantart.com/art/Generation-X-Godzilla-188263011

That doesn't even look like Godzilla.

I think there are two major mistakes artists tend to make when redesigning Godzilla. One is that he's drawn too humanoid. Yes, Godzilla is portrayed by a man in a suit, but he's still a Dinosaur.
That brings us to the second problem: he's drawn too modern looking. Godzilla's iconic appearance stems from the fact that he retains the stature of old-fashioned Theropods.
Godzilla is not based off of this:


He was based off of THIS:

[GodzillaIsCool]

whats wrong with simple G'64?

http://static.hlj.com/images/xps/xps00786.jpg

I'd love to see a classic design touched up with modern day special effects.

[zilla103192]

They really need to fix the walking... but what about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQZP9At- ... re=g-all-f

[Megaton17]

I knew it was a bad idea to post that last one lol...

One idea I had was taking the GFW design and reworking it in a way similar to how Joey Orcozo redid the Heisei design (minus the bloating... and the duck face...and the pale coloring).

I've also had some basic biological questions about Godzilla:

1. How would the double row of teeth on the Heisei design function (cutting flesh, crushing bone, etc)? I've always liked this feature, but I've wondered it's purpose anatomically

2. What would be the use of a blunt/rounded tipped tail as seen in the Showa and Heisei designs? Never really got this... a crocodilian tail would make more sense...


Moving on, a design idea I had for the IDW comics could work in the film IMO:

Take the GFW Goji, give it the Tokyo S.O.S face. Give it green-black skin, similar to the skin seen on the Godzilla Matt Frank designed for LEGENDS . Add GMK Goji's eyes and Delgado Goji's tail, as well as Winston Goji's feet and hands. Right now I'm debating whether the design should have the Tokyo S.O.S or GMK dorsal spikes, though right now I'm leaning toward the GMK.

Also, what would you guys think of an UPRIGHT version of this design (I think it should be sleeker as well, looks a hell of a lot like lardzilla...)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44188739@N ... hotostream

[TokyoVigilante]

Before deciding on what design Godzilla should have, you have to figure out what the tone of the film is and how that would influence the art direction/production design of the film.

The most apt and easily demonstrable example I can think of is Batman (who gets brought up way to much around here, but whatever);

Joel Schumacher's Batman films have an extremely exaggerated and very camp sensibility. Garish colour schemes, over the top architecture, etc. and all of that is reflected in the Batsuits of those films. If you just plugged the DK suit from Nolan's films into the movie, it would look wrong because it doesn't match the world of the film. This goes for vice-versa.

Just like with Batman, there is no perfect design for Godzilla (not matter what Heisei humpers may like to harp on about); Godzilla is only a set of physical features to be tweaked and modified to fit the mood, tone, and theme of the film in question. The design has to match the tone of the film, otherwise we're only making designs that fit our own personal tastes and not anything that's necessarily practical.

That brings us to the second problem: he's drawn too modern looking. Godzilla's iconic appearance stems from the fact that he retains the stature of old-fashioned Theropods.

This is a minor misconception that comes about because of Tyrannosaurus glorification that continues to influence increasing nonsensical looking designs to this day. The only thing that's taken away from a Tyrannosaurus on Godzilla is the vague head shape. Proportionally, he has more in common with vintage Iguanadons;

[Gyaos]

http://www.kaijukits.com/library/zokei/ ... o/g00o.htm

I still love this look, though people are prolly gonna want it to have a diffrent color than red. Personally, I like the red.

[Living Corpse]

I don't mind the red as long as the fins glow blue when he charges up a heat ray.

[Jomei]

TV is right about the tone thing. I think my suggestions were under the assumption that it will be a fairly serious film, though not gravely so like the original Gojira.