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filbarlow — Godzilla: 'Gigan'

Published: 2011-12-23 10:25:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 13629; Favourites: 273; Downloads: 0
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Description This is the "Gigan" design used in the Opening Title of the Godzilla Animated Series. (Requested by fellow DA pyatt. )

Now some facts and disclaimers that may clear up some confusion concerning this design:

It was never meant to be a representation of the original Toho movie creature. Way back in preproduction before we had scripts or even a concept to work with, and the Sony Godzilla movie was still a year away from release. I and artists from my Australian company Zoonimedia began a series of conceptual designs to audition them to join me on the series.

The artists on my team were Darren Roach, Dan Remmel, Milenko Tunjic, and Matthew Brady (who I renamed Gus, because we had two Matthews in our company, subsequently I named another creature 'El Gussano' after him because it was based off his design).

My team's brief was simple, go crazy and impress my boss Richard Raynis. I chose a few designs to redraw into the style I'd created for the show to give Richard an idea of how our process would work. We randomly named the designs with Toho monster names more as a joke than anything, (apologies to the classic film fans). This "Gigan" was one of the designs that made it into the main title.

Currently I cannot remember which artist's design this was based off, but the creature designs on this show became a very collaborative process. The careful inking off my pencils was done by Helen Maier. Helen, by the way, ended up signing away her likeness for the final look of Dr. Elsie Chapman.
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Comments: 63

Pyatt In reply to ??? [2011-12-23 16:53:47 +0000 UTC]

Very awesome! I always admired this design, and I definitely enjoy the color scheme. I gotta ask though... What's up with that... Stinger between his "leg" tentacles?

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filbarlow In reply to Pyatt [2011-12-23 22:38:13 +0000 UTC]

I recolored it, because the original blue didn't quite work for me. Yeah lol that "stinger" is a bit of a worry, but technically I see it as coming out just under it's rib cage, so it's more like stomach appendages. Those little fins at the back are closer to it's "hip" region where it's junk would actually be.

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The-Great-MM In reply to ??? [2011-12-23 16:30:52 +0000 UTC]

Oooooh! Awesome work. Shame we never saw it in the actual show.

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filbarlow In reply to The-Great-MM [2011-12-23 22:33:22 +0000 UTC]

Yeah I thought we reused it as a back-up creature in an episode in a long shot, but it may not have made it to the screen.

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OmegaZilla In reply to ??? [2011-12-23 15:11:42 +0000 UTC]

Always loved how primal the 'Godzilla: The Series' Creatures looked. Love the symmetry on this one, and those fangs look deadly. Would've loved to see this guy in an episode right away. A question, if the series wasn't cancelled, would we have seen this design in one of the episodes? What other episodes were planned?

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filbarlow In reply to OmegaZilla [2011-12-23 22:31:23 +0000 UTC]

Yeah he/she's all fangs. The series was only meant to run for 40 episodes, which was the standard for kids shows, so technically it wasn't canceled.

The Gigan design was used in the Main Title sequence of every show. It flies over the Statue Of Liberty and appears briefly at the end with all of the other monsters.

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OmegaZilla In reply to filbarlow [2011-12-24 21:14:56 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the information. Pretty interesting.
I know the creature makes an appearence in the title sequence, I was wondering if there was gonna be an episode dedicated to it.

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filbarlow In reply to OmegaZilla [2011-12-30 01:22:08 +0000 UTC]

Yeah we had more creatures than they had episodes for, this creature certainly would have been more interesting than the flying shrew, or giant hummingbird that the writers ended up making us do. :/

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OmegaZilla In reply to filbarlow [2012-01-03 21:51:58 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, this critter could've been easily switched with both, the flying shrew preferably. Hateful bugger that guy is haha.

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filbarlow In reply to OmegaZilla [2012-01-05 11:47:19 +0000 UTC]

Yeah I knew the writers were phoning it in when the scripts for those episodes were delivered to my office.

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HangmansFable [2011-12-23 12:37:13 +0000 UTC]

HOORAY!!! I love this thing

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

filbarlow In reply to HangmansFable [2011-12-23 13:47:38 +0000 UTC]

Hey! Thanks

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