Thread by @artofzachary

Official #conceptart for the "Akula" for #AvatarTheWayOfWater. A thread 🧵.

On my first day after being hired, @DylanColeArt gave me my first assignment: "I need you to design a Pandoran shark". No pressure.⁠

My imposter syndrome had ALREADY been riding incredibly high (getting a tour of the #Avatar2 concept art gallery had already put the fear of god in me), but after he said that I nearly passed out. After picking myself up off the floor, I got to work.⁠

We went through a few dozen "blue sky" exploratory versions, and within a few days I found myself in a room with the one and only #JamesCameron. No pressure again!! 🙃

After discussing what we had, it turns out Jim was still really gravitating towards the body plan of a sketch done by @WetaWorkshop several years prior to me starting (I believe the piece was by @a_good_baker, forgive me if this is incorrect).⁠

So I began to work off of this design, refining anatomy and detailing it, figuring out the armor plating, adding the pattern and bioluminescence. We all felt the head/mouth design could have something more to it. A lot of Pandoran creatures have a "reveal":

some sort of shape change or unfurling of some extra appendage or something, and we all felt that this guy needed some of that #Avatar "secret sauce".⁠

So we pitched a bunch of wacky, bizarre mouth shapes, and ultimately landed on the triangular, bifurcated, rattlesnake-meets-great white jaw that you see in the final film.

In order to get an approval, Dylan and I may or may not have pantomimed shark jaws ripping through coral (picture each arm being one half of the bifurcated jaw) during a couple of the meetings.⁠..

You can see this, more of my #creaturedesign work, and a bunch more absolutely incredible artwork done by the #AvatarTheWayOfWater art team in "The Art of Avatar The Way of Water" art book by @TaraDBennett available wherever books are sold.⁠ Thanks so much for taking a look! 🦈