‘The Galactic Alien Race Federation has overwhelmingly elected to invite Planet Earth to race for the future and join the Alien Race across the galactic universe’. So begins the inspiration behind the work of the six designers featured in “Alien Race”. A full-colour feast for the eyes, “Alien Race” contains sumptuous original artwork and all the development stages – from sketches to character studies, different techniques and media – involved in creating humans, aliens, strange and wonderful creatures and out of this world landscapes. Packed with useful and fascinating design tips, and with plenty to please the eye, this book is a must for design students, artists and lovers of unique and beautiful artwork.
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23 reviews for Alien Race: Visual Development of an Intergalactic Adventure
4.6out of 5
★★★★★
★★★★★
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★★★★★
K. Fitzsimmons –
This art book is stunning! I love that you get to see the visual development of alien races by the different artist from concept to the finish. Highly recommend this book.
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★★★★★
Arn 27 –
Le livre est de bonne qualité, le sujet est bien traité. Malheureusement le style graphique des illustrations est assez laid et caricatural et donc peu inspirant Au final impression mitigé, je pense qu’il y a mieux
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★★★★★
Adam Dickstein –
I would like to start by saying that I am by no means an authority on concept art, although I am a freelance artist. I am also by no means a professional science fiction critic, though I have been a sci-fi fan for as long as I can remember. Lastly, I may have given the book 4 stars but that’s only because I can’t give it 4 and a half.
Simply put, ‘Alien Race: A Visual Development of an Intergalactic Adventure’ is a stunning, well put together and artistically inspiring piece of creativity in book form. Designed as a collection of concept art, stories and ideas developed for a possible intellectual property, the book explores the various characters, creatures, environments and plot angles that might go into the creation of a film, animated cartoon, tv series or video game. While no such use of the material in ‘Alien Race’ actually exists as of this review (unfortunately), the artwork and concepts contained within the pages of this book could easily be from a ‘making of the movie’ book for a popular film.
Especially impressive is the way multiple artists and designers approached the same or similar concepts in the book. I also liked how they showed the ideas they did not go with, again bringing to mind the concept designs seen in the ‘art of’ or ‘making of’ books for currently developed properties like the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film or the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series for example.
So why not five stars? Well, its a personal preference really and has less to do with the quality of the book itself. I felt a couple of the ideas in the book were underdeveloped and would therefore hinder its use as a ‘real’ property. The ‘human team’, that is those participants in the ‘Alien Race’ who hail from Earth, seemed visually underwhelming in comparission to their alien counterparts. Again this is just my personal aesthetic and not a reflection of the work. Also, the Flyers, those creatures that fly in the race, seemed less diverse and astounding then their ground based cousins even though they travel threw the air which is the more exotic environment.
If there is ever an ‘Alien Race II’ I’d love to see creatures that swim or climb and perhaps some insectoid lifeforms. That said, this book is definitely a triumph in that my only complains are wanting more.
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★★★★★
Christopher Trosh –
One of the best art books out there, and I own loads. The artwork is fantastic, the processes fascinating and the dialogue works so well. One of the most in depth books I own in terms of showing the reader how characters etc are started, created and developed through to the final stage.
A must for anyone interested in concept art for any format.
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★★★★★
Giulio –
Consegna in tempo e pacco perfetto. Libro favoloso, avviso tratta immagini riguardanti una fantomatica corsa aliena con animali fantastici…inventiva e particolare stupendi…ottimo per chi come me vuole prendere spunto per disegnare esseri provenienti da alti mondi.Ottimo stile anche nel disegno.
K. Fitzsimmons –
This art book is stunning! I love that you get to see the visual development of alien races by the different artist from concept to the finish. Highly recommend this book.
Arn 27 –
Le livre est de bonne qualité, le sujet est bien traité.
Malheureusement le style graphique des illustrations est assez laid et caricatural et donc peu inspirant
Au final impression mitigé, je pense qu’il y a mieux
Adam Dickstein –
I would like to start by saying that I am by no means an authority on concept art, although I am a freelance artist. I am also by no means a professional science fiction critic, though I have been a sci-fi fan for as long as I can remember. Lastly, I may have given the book 4 stars but that’s only because I can’t give it 4 and a half.
Simply put, ‘Alien Race: A Visual Development of an Intergalactic Adventure’ is a stunning, well put together and artistically inspiring piece of creativity in book form. Designed as a collection of concept art, stories and ideas developed for a possible intellectual property, the book explores the various characters, creatures, environments and plot angles that might go into the creation of a film, animated cartoon, tv series or video game. While no such use of the material in ‘Alien Race’ actually exists as of this review (unfortunately), the artwork and concepts contained within the pages of this book could easily be from a ‘making of the movie’ book for a popular film.
Especially impressive is the way multiple artists and designers approached the same or similar concepts in the book. I also liked how they showed the ideas they did not go with, again bringing to mind the concept designs seen in the ‘art of’ or ‘making of’ books for currently developed properties like the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film or the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series for example.
So why not five stars? Well, its a personal preference really and has less to do with the quality of the book itself. I felt a couple of the ideas in the book were underdeveloped and would therefore hinder its use as a ‘real’ property. The ‘human team’, that is those participants in the ‘Alien Race’ who hail from Earth, seemed visually underwhelming in comparission to their alien counterparts. Again this is just my personal aesthetic and not a reflection of the work. Also, the Flyers, those creatures that fly in the race, seemed less diverse and astounding then their ground based cousins even though they travel threw the air which is the more exotic environment.
If there is ever an ‘Alien Race II’ I’d love to see creatures that swim or climb and perhaps some insectoid lifeforms. That said, this book is definitely a triumph in that my only complains are wanting more.
Christopher Trosh –
One of the best art books out there, and I own loads. The artwork is fantastic, the processes fascinating and the dialogue works so well. One of the most in depth books I own in terms of showing the reader how characters etc are started, created and developed through to the final stage.
A must for anyone interested in concept art for any format.
Giulio –
Consegna in tempo e pacco perfetto.
Libro favoloso, avviso tratta immagini riguardanti una fantomatica corsa aliena con animali fantastici…inventiva e particolare stupendi…ottimo per chi come me vuole prendere spunto per disegnare esseri provenienti da alti mondi.Ottimo stile anche nel disegno.