Interview: Jerad S. Marantz Talks About Designing DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, GRIMM and EDGE OF TOMORROW Concept Art

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) concept art by Jerad S. Marantz

Check out my interview with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Grimm and Edge of Tomorrow concept artist Jerad S. Marantz!

The fantasy police procedural show Grimm has been renewed for it's fourth season and is still going strong. Mike Hale of The New York Times said, "few [shows] are more purely entertaining--engaging, clever, tense, funny, well paced and featuring a remarkably appealing cast as the friends and colleagues who help Nick." Part of the fun of the show are the bizarre and terrifying creatures showcased every week. One of the artists working on the show is Jerad S. Marantz. I interviewed him about Grimm back in the first season and I'm very glad to have him back again to talk about the show along with some other projects he's worked on.

Marantz is a professional concept illustrator who's also worked on Hollywood films like Thor: The Dark World (2013), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013).

Click on the images to enlarge.



Maurice Mitchell: You've worked on Grimm for several years. What's it like working on such a long running show?
Jerad S. Marantz: Grimm is a great show to work on. I'm very excited to work on season four. I've already begun working on the first creature and I think we're off to a great start.

After three seasons the design processes has tightened up quite a bit. The way it usually works is I'll get an email from producer Steve Oster who gives me the assignment. It's a brief description of the creature and I begin to flesh it out in Photoshop. It can at times be a very organic process were I will turn in the concept, get notes, and do revisions until everybody's happy. Each design takes about a day or two to complete.

The design work is actually split up between myself and my very good friend Constantine Sekeris. We each get half of the season's monsters to tackle. The wonderful thing about working with a good friend on the show is that it really feels like a team effort. We will often send each other images of the monsters we’re working on and critique each other's work.

Each concept must be able to function as a practical make up and a visual effect. All practical make-ups go to Barney Burmans’ B2FX. He does an incredible job of bringing the designs to life.

MM: It sounds like a lot goes into each beast. Which creature design was the most fun for you to do?
JM: My favorite creature of last season was the Aswang design. Instead of doing the creature in Photoshop I decided to sculpt him in Zbrush and paint the concept. It was a great way to fully resolve the design at all angles. It was one of the creepiest episodes I think I've ever seen on the show.

MM: You've been very busy lately and worked on Edge of Tomorrow briefly. What was that experience like?
JM: Working on Edge of Tomorrow was really fun. I was on the project briefly but I got the opportunity to do a few design passes on the aliens and play around with doing some keyframe art, which I rarely get the opportunity to do. I still haven't seen the film yet but I am so happy that it's getting such great reviews.

MM: You worked on the first film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." What was it like going back to that world and picking it up years later?
JM: It was great to come back to the Apes franchise. After working on the first film and seeing what an incredible movie it was I was so excited to start working on the second one. Though I spent a lot of time on many of the different ape designs my absolute favorite was Koba. Designing Koba was one of those rare experiences where I got the design through in the first pass. Many times I work on the show there is a lot of back-and-forth in the design process. You submit an image and then you get a lot of notes. This was not the case with the Koba design. In the very first pass I got the character through and the design went straight to Weta. That's only happened two other times in my career but never on such a big blockbuster film. Coming back to the character for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was such an honor being able to take him further.

I've been a bit of a shut in these past several days and haven't had time yet to see the film. It's getting really good reviews and as a fan I can't wait. I did pick up the art of book and was really excited to see a couple of my images in there.

It's very rare that you get to be a part of such an incredible project. I can't wait to see what they do for the third film.

MM: What's coming up next for you?
JM: Well, I'm always keeping busy. A few projects I’ve worked on are coming out soon so I'll be looking forward to seeing those. I did quite a bit of work on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, some early design work for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and spent a lot of time on Guardians of the Galaxy. It was an honor to work in house with such an incredible team of artists at Marvel.

The last major project I worked on was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As a comic book fan, that was a dream come true! Obviously, I can't say much about the project other than it was an amazing team to work with and doing concept illustrations for Michael Wilkinson, the film's costume designer, was an incredible experience!

Thanks Jerad! See more of Jerad S. Marantz' portfolio, including designs for the art classes he teaches, at jeradsmarantz.blogspot.com.

Click on the links if you want to see more of Jerad S. Marantz or Grimm and Edge of Tomorrow artwork on my blog.

What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen Grimm and Edge of Tomorrow what do you think of the ?

Official Grimm Summary
A modern twist on the Grimm Brothers' tales, Detective Nick Burkhardt takes on new, increasing responsibilities fighting crime as a Grimm..Created by Stephen Carpenter, David Greenwalt, Jim Kouf
Cinematography by Clark Mathis
Starring David Giuntoli, Russell Hornsby, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz
First Airing: October 28, 2011
Official Site: http://www.nbc.com/grimm
© Copyright 2011 Universal Television, GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Open 4 Business Productions, NBCUniversal Television Distribution. All rights reserved


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