The Art of Big Hero 6

Beautiful artbook for Disney's Big Hero 6 I find this to be an interesting artbook particularly because of the environment designs. About half the book is dedicated to the environment designs which includes the city San Fransokyo, Hiro's house, the cafe, San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Fred's mansion and the portal. The San Fransokyo is like a character by itself with its blend of architecture and aesthetics from west and east. It's fun to see how the artists create a populated city inspired by San Francisco and Tokyo. Cited by art director Scott Watanabe, there are also influences from anime films such as Tekkonkinkreet, Ghost in the Shell and Akira. Indeed when I look at some of the environment sketches, they remind me of sketches from the Tekkon Kinkreet anime artbook. The vibe is certainly present. Looking at the city's environment concept art, you'll be able to spot Japanese elements such as the tapered rooftops, Koinobori (carp-shaped wind socks), a Golden Gate Bridge lookalike with Torii design elements, signboards with Japanese typography, wooden curved bridges, cherry-blossom trees, etc. There are also major characteristic San Francisco elements such as the roads with very recognisable cable cars, sloping hills, Victorian-style houses, etc. There's an emphasis on function and a sense of feeling lived-in for the environments, so buildings aren't just designed to look cool. For example, city streets or Hiro's rooms are made to look a bit more messy or wonky. The second half of the book features the character designs for the heroes, villains and side characters. Again, there's noticeable Japanese influence in the designs. Early designs for Hiro shows off costumes that look like ninjas or even Patlabor. There are more pages for Baymax because he's has a big role. Go Go's hero suit reminded me of Tron and some Japanese toy/game/anime that I can't remember. The characters in their non-hero forms are pretty standard and do not stand out, but their hero costumes look quite good. Finally the last part of the book talks briefly about the cinematography used, such as lighting, the new Disney Hyperion renderer and colour script. There's a good amount of text included in the form of introductions for each environment and character, and quotes from the staff talking about the designs. It's a book solely on the designs, with nothing being mentioned about the movie's plot. Overall a nice film companion. 4.5 out of 5 stars. (See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

Wonderful and fairly thorough compilation of ideas, sketches and narrative from the creative-sorts behind the brilliant movie. The section about the film's fictional city San Fransokyo, reveals wit, imagination and architectural speculation, of two worlds coming together. The culture/urban form of geek's paradise San Francisco, and the robotic/futuristic paradise of Tokyo combine. The book makes an informative yet accessible insight into various techniques used in the Disney art department; from preliminary research and concept sketches, to colour scripting, rendering and post-production. The book gives a bit of space for you to appreciate that all the little details (which hover almost unnoticed in the background ,although give a general impression of an immersive/convincing environment), have been meticulously and imaginatively considered by the team. it is great to see that the concept artists have their names next to the sketches, personally I enjoyed seeing who got to do what, or rather who drafted the version of a character that was eventually selected from a series of interpretations. Some might have trouble forgiving the book for using Comic Sans typeface in some areas, but it's just there because of the comic book theme! Nice colour, good printing + lots of cute images of Baymax too!

My daughter loves Big Hero Six. This book was perfect for her, as she enjoys the art work. Lovely

Big Hero 6 is my all time favourite film (so much so that I had it tattooed on me, haha) so buying this was a no-brainer. I love seeing the process behind the whole film, from the initial sketches and location scouting to the finished product. The pages were super colourful and interesting, so this would be a great gift to children who love Big Hero 6, too.

A lovely book that I bought for myself (not my children!). Has some excellent insights into why and how the concept designers designed the world of Big Hero 6 and has really great artwork throughout. Good purchase and definitely a book that you will keep coming back to.

This is a beautiful insight into the artwork that has helped develop this film. With most books of this type, and especially those centered around an animated feature, a few books don't quite hit the mark to counter the films brilliance, this though is a brilliant example, of not just a high standard of publishing and chosen images of the associated artwork, but also the shear volume and ideas that the artist have pursued, making this book very easy to enjoy, as well as see how the various concepts have been been developed through the production pipelines, with a great deal of consideration to the layout for each page. No ugly page seams dividing the artwork here. This is a purchase I do not regret, and will find hard not to open each time I watch the film, as they are both as enjoyable in their own right.

Purchased as a birthday present for my 15 year old daughter and it was her favourite present. Fascinating descriptions of the development of the characters and the drawings. Highly recommended for anyone interested in drawing and animation.

The book is beautiful but I'd like to praise the super fast delivery. I bought the book last night on impulse and it arrived today in the afternoon! Great service, thanks!

This is my first art book that I have purchased and read, so I am not a professional reviewer for these kinda books. First of all, the packaging and delivery was spot on, Thanking amazon for that as always. Now coming back to the book, I read it as soon as I received the package, as this is one of my favorite movies in the animation genre. After going through the book in a flash, one could see many images which could easily fascinate anyone with an interest in animation, character designing, concept art or any kind of artistic approach one may have. Although, being a fan of animated films and character designing or concept art myself, after going through the book thoroughly, I found it incredibly fascinating and helpful, not just as a fan, but as a student of architecture. This may derail the review from the book to the movie slightly, but this book contained some of the most amazing concept art of the city of Big Hero 6, i.e., San Fransokyo - a mix of San Francisco and Tokyo. It actually helped a lot in one of my projects in college and I really appreciate the fact that I bought this book. An amazing journey of production, this book is a must for everybody, be it a reader or not, an animator or any fan of the movie, looking for inspiration about art and stuff, I totally recommend the book to purchase.

O livro é muito bonito, tem ilustrções de todos os personagens e das artes conceituais. É realmente muito legal. Recomendo.

Cool!

Volume molto bello, ben fatto, interessante e ricco di commenti sull'intera realizzazione di questo magnifico film. Contiene una marea di sketch preliminari e studi di ambienti e personaggi; sono molto soddisfatta:)

La impresión es muy buen, tapa dura, papel de calidad, y el contenido increíble si eres de los que pueden pasar horas viendo concepts y admirando el trabajo de artistas de esta talla.