#Vis dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco

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Today is the last of the unexpected artworks by Rustam Hasanov and is certainly the most mysterious in the form of this guy. Only one of the images has a file name where they are referred to as "Creature".

Now does the build remind you of anybody at all? They have Tronos colours which is fun of course but that's not all. Apart from being very scuttly in build which would make them a great climber, they share traits with a certain alien called Buster from 3Below...

Source for both images

It's more noticable when you have them side by side thanks to Alfonso Blaas who uploaded this paint over Fury Galluzzi's linework. She never had any Trollhunters artwork before that part of her website was shut down so sadly I we don't have that. Still, this was when he was part of the Trollhunters part of the franchise, more specifically as a "spider" in Merlin's Tomb. It certainly lines up!

Source

Just as a bonus of the only other non-storyboard art of Buster since the opportunity is here. This one is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco aka Fruiz.

Source

Even has six legs on the final version which certainly seems suggested above just like our red boy!

You're probably wondering why the heck spider keeps being brought up as there was never any spider! Well there wasn't in the final version no, there was however a draft version where there was one. Buster survived the process long enough for artwork to be produced and refined before he sat on the back benches. Then he'd have his official debut in 3Below as more than just an obstacle.

Source link. Includes a script too I don't feel comfortable reposting on tumblr.

As for the link to Buster, well here you go :)

Source

#Trollhunters #3Below #Tales of Arcadia #Vis dev: Rustam Hasanov #Vis dev: Alfonso Blaas #Vis dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco #Tumblr tried to wipe this post #It was extremely annoying

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Feel like weirding people out SO:

There's concept art of Morando with four arms before they were reduced to the more familiar two.

Artwork by Francisco Ruiz Velasco aka Fruiz. Source here.

#3Below #Tales of arcadia #Vis Dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco

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Troll Dads Design Path - Part 1

This thread is long overdue and has hit further problems in being posted delaying it further, apologises for that. Anyway we're here now and finally it's time to look at some troll dads.

This has been pieced together from what has been found online and acknowledges that there is further content in the artbook or somewhere online that has yet to be found. The timeline will also be as accurate as can be guessed

Might as well start with the original Trollhunters book where a much wiggly Blinky of the Lizzgump clan and the fetching lady Johannah Mmmm ARRRGH!!! looked very different to their tv designs. E. M. Gist produced the below artwork that was to be the cover though was replaced by Sean Murray's Amulet artwork fairly last minute. It often blows around the internet in bad quality and never credit so it's a pleasure to finally be able to do that.

Source

Sean Murray has two illustrations with his own take on the duo! If Blinky was more visible you'd see a skirt made out of medals he's wearing. These were part of a set of interior illustrations.

Source includes other illustrations he made for the novel

Understandably for the original Trollhunters film their designs had to be changed to be both more animation and child friendly. Rodrigo Blaas produced this version in 2010 showing Jack Sturges, Handsome Blinky and AAARRRGGHH carrying a hunk of Gunmar around, something that sticks around in the artwork for a long while.

Handsome Blinky can kindly stay away.

Source

On his website John Bell has this artwork from 2012, clearly still in the film phase, of his take on the duo. You can certainly see some themes still sticking around from the earlier days.

Source

Blinky went all sorts of directions as can be seen in this artwork by Francisco Ruiz Velasco. His four arms didn't seem to show up until he took on a more familiar shape and surprisingly he had a tail at one point!

Source

Headless Studios were also trying out different Blinky designs including a tall variant until his more rectangle shape we're more used to started to crop up more and more. There are even more of these in the artbook.

Source

As they deserve a special place being so unique these fuzzy Blinky's are by Francisco Ruiz Velasco and show a rather familiar outfit starting to appear. He still has a little tail though his feet are more feathered than solid but it only adds to his adorable charm.

Source

This one wasn't posted in the original thread, figured it'd be a nice treat for the long wait. Simon Rogers did concept art for the original film and if you look at the bottom middle and left a bit there is a squat Blinky, A tall standing but short legged AAARRRGGHH with a chunk of Gunmar and likely Jim in Trollmarket.

This seemed a good transition piece between the dads too.

Source

AAARRRGGHH seemed to hit his stride much sooner than Blinky did with most changes focusing on how much fluff, facial shape and his tattoos. These images are by Francisco Ruiz Velasco and include shorts prior to that loincloth number he'll be sporting soon. With his build heading the right direction too he's already looks like a good boy.

Source

Meanwhile at Headless Studios, AAARRRGGHH design started to cement into something more familiar to us by keeping that scruff n fluff and extending it. This is the first appearance of his arm stripes which will stick around for quite a while along with leg wraps. His tail is pure fuzz when it appears.

Source

Shown in the artbook along with an art version by Headless Studios (A version of is below too), this small statue was used in the original pitch and was created by Chris Ryniak! Poor Toby.

Source

Blinky in the meanwhile was still being fairly fast and funky though now his shape seemed to stick and it was more the specifics that were in flux. His number of eyes kept changing, glasses, fabulous eyeliner and even a camp counselor look going on.

Bar minor adjustments though he too would hit his stride. All the below are by Headless Studios.

Source

The colours remained in flux for a while though and a number plate temporarily appears on his shoulder. He does look rather fetching in pink though? The chunk of Gunmar is back and AAARRRGGHH remains stable for the time being other than being red. Both are Headless Studios again.

Source

Sergio Casas did a colour pass making the trolls makeup game the best it'll be. AAARRGGHH's arm stripes are starting to dwindle though the earring is sticking as it will until the final. This is also the last appearance of Blinky's number plate.

Source

More Headless Studios! His arm warmers make their last stand here and the more obvious loin cloth putting an appearance. The bottom middle one is likely what Betsy Bauer based the phone artwork in Wizards on. Look at that smile.

Source

Two more by Francisco Ruiz Velasco, while the top image does have vague hints of fuzzy Blinky AAARRRGGHH lacks his arm warmers for clear rune marks instead. The second image showing "Gunmar" at Killahead Bridge comes much later and AAARRGGHH having a sharper design than the softer rounded one he did previously.

Source 1 / Source 2

Jonatan Catalan Navarrete portfolio includes a poster for when it was still very much the film version and a slightly terrifying Blinky model (A textureless version is in the artbook) and the final appearance of the hunk of Gunmar.

Source

There is actually two versions of the below image by Alfonso Blaas though this is the lesser known one with gorgeous lighting, the other being an earlier blue concept used to announce the Trollhunters tv project. AAARRGGHH has his loincloth still but very much looking like who we know and love now.

Source

Due to hitting the image cap the thread has been split into two! You can find the second part here.

#Trollhunters #Tales of Arcadia #Vis Dev: E. M. Gist #Vis Dev: Sean Murray #Vis Dev: Rodrigo Blaas #Vis Dev: John Bell #Vis Dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco #Vis Dev: Simon Rogers #Vis Dev: Headless Studios #Vis Dev: Chris Ryniak #Vis Dev: Sergio Casas #Vis Dev: Jonatan Catalan Navarrete #Vis Dev: Alfonso Blaas

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Pain free but a bit under the weather on a Friday is a good excuse for mayhem despite tumblr just wiped the entire post and the backup draft when I was literally looking at it. This is attempt two.

Did you know there was an earlier version of the Beast!Jim design that had toes?

He also had fluffy elbows which is great for your Troll!Jim headcanons.

This artwork is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco also known as Fruiz! If there were any other designs or progress prior to this they are not online as far as we're aware.

We dooo have an updated version (Sans toes) that was shown during the Wizards Art Panel which unlike the RotT one is still accessible though!

[/edit] A reminder if there ever was one why threads shouldn't be made when not feeling 100% but anyway.

Alfonso Blaas has this visual development image on his Artstation which he mentions was drawn over Franciso's linework. It may well have been in between the above versions given the design. Daylight's appearance is either a reference or just coolness factor

This was also one of his works which got him a spot as a finalists for the 2021 Concept Art Awards Category: Animation Series Character too!

Source

After that comes the orthographics by Andy Murray. This one has a full head turnaround as well as a height reference.

The next one has his carvings including where the Amulet was ripped out.

After that we get the various paint overs which is a reference goldmine! First up is a blue-eyed boy.

Berserker mode.

And finally under The Green Knight's control. Great use of Angor's eye there if you wanted a closer look too.

Nabbed from twitter here and here.

Tumblr please don't wipe the post again already stopped me adding a title.

#ToAWizards #Wizards #Tales of Arcadia #Vis Dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco #Vis dev: Yingjue Chen #Vis Dev: Andy Murray #Vis Dev: Alfonso Blaas

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Luug design path

Luug is perhaps not the most obvious that there might be some earlier production art of and yet there is actually a little bit out there!

The earliest we have is this character design sheet from Fury Guzzali (The name below is correct! She's come out as Trans since then and in this house we do not deadname) showing how they were figuring out how his mouth should work and how it opens.

He's just a little guy after all.

Source

The corgi Luug with slightly different eyes also appears with these possibly Headless studios Vex, Aja and Krel so it could be theirs or hers. Been struggling to get conformation on that one. The other artists are Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Yingjue Chen and Betsy Bauer for certain.

Source

But wait you might be thinking, the final Luug doesn't quite look like that! Well you'd be correct, Betsy Bauer took the regins and polished him up into something a lot more familiar. This is fantastic reference in combination with the earlier version too.

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As an additional bonus Bolhem Bouchiba did these sketches of Luug in both corgi and his purple self looking about the time he was still closer to Fury's design. They only appear in this article and the artist doesn't have much of an internet presence so enjoy!

Source

#3Below #Tales of Arcadia #Vis dev: Fury Guzzali #Vis dev: Bolhem Bouchiba #vis dev: yingjue chen #Vis dev: Betsy Bauer #Vis dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco

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Tronos Madu Design Path

A design thread within days of posting it on twitter? It’s a miracle the account holder has been replaced with someone actually organised.

Anyway joking aside this time we’re looking at Tronos Madu! As usual some images are in guessed timeline order and it is possible there’s other concept art of him out there that have not been found at the time of posting.

On Francisco Ruiz Velasco’s Artstation account one of his uploads contains the bulk of artwork for this design post which has been put into order here for easier viewing. One of these is a glimpse at an earlier Tronos design which is somewhat different from the final version yet has his general vibes plus his head/arms seems to have carried onto his later.

There’s even the unpainted head on this version and a little tail nub!

This image is marked as final character design bar a few tweaks here and there that will happen on a later pass this is very much the Tronos we know and love!

There is even bonus character movement/body expression studies to really get a feel of how this boy might move about the world which is not something I’ve seen all that often so it’s fascinating to see them. The letters seem to imply it was either a full range of movements so who knows what else he might have been up to in these.

Stop drop and roll lightning lizard boy.

In addition to all the shiny stuff above there is also detailed reference of his face with and without the helmet from this stage of his design.

Plus an expression sheet! Non-humans are a rarity on this front so these are fabulous to see.

[Source for all the above artwork]

We're also incredibly lucky in that Fury Galluzzi has the orthographic art of Tronos on her website which is both fantastic reference and shows just how detailed these things can be!

This image has become somewhat infamous for an incident where I nearly crashed my entire computer because the original size is huge. This is a screenshot of that which tumblr being tumblr has resized to be smaller because of page width. As such I highly recommend clicking the source below or popping out the image here for a proper look at everything.

[Source]

Finally Isaac Orloff has the texture mark up complete with callouts for your reference/generally appreciating shiny needs on his website!

[Source]

As a bonus his instagram also has zoom ins for his face as seen above for that extra crunchy detail. All in all that’s how you make a Tronos!

[Source]

#3Below #Tales of Arcadia #Vis dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco #Vis dev: Fury Galluzzi #Vis dev: Isaac Orloff

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Draal - Bular - Gunmar Design Path

Today we're taking a look at the very funky design path that Draal, Bular and Gunmar went on during Trollhunters pieced together as best as possible through the power of file names, matching things and the artbook. The order of events is as accurate as I can guess as for understandable reasons I cannot see an exact timeline.

First up from one of Headless Studios' posts we can see what is very definitely a purple Draal as I've been affectionately dubbing him looking a big brutal boy with Caveman Spongebob is also a frequent comparison.

Source

He appears again on Juan Solis' Artstation (The model is miscreditted as Headless Studios in the artbook) having gained a new fancy arm blade. The file name for this? TROLLHUNTERS_bular!

Source and of note there is also a Ms. Janeth on his vimeo account.

On the official Tales of Arcadia instagram he pops up again looking a lot more familiar in his blue though lacking a nose ring. It's very possible this stage was when he was still tied to Steve as a changeling's troll form which would account for the gruffer look.

Source

By the time we get to Alfonso Blaas's paint over on the 3D ambient occlusion model and Headless lineart Draal is looking much more like the troll we know and love!

Source

So what was going on with Bular if he was purple Draal? The short answer is at one point he was Gunmar's design which had a funky journey too. He sure went places before the finalised banger we got. This art is by Headless Studios.

Source 1 / Source 2

On Francisco Ruiz Velasco's blogspot account there are few bits of Trollhunters art from back when it's a film and the filenames in the url are very interesting, the first confirms that IS Gunmar while the second suggests it is the Battle of Killahead... The other thing? He only has one eye!

Source 1 / Source 2

This suggests that at some point during this design process he lost it.The following headshot is by Headless Studios is clearly a Bular design with the glowing eye that is a defining Gunmar trait becoming more evident

Source

"Gunmar" is getting closer to the Bular we know and love at this point and now in colour. Francisco Ruiz Velasco still has the filename whereas Headless Studios is really rolling with the funky glow.

Source 1 / Source 2

After the thread was posted (And on here) I managed to track down the Annie Awards slide which has an alternate expression on the right and the front view of the above image as well. This is being added for completion and because it’s neat!

Source

Headless Studios’ version was adapted over Francisco Ruiz Velasco's design as can be seen in this image collab between him, Sergio Casas and Alfonso Blaas. Is this the point of Bular and Gunmar officially split into separate characters? Could be!

Source

Along with the extra Bular art Gunmar art was found belatedly online! Some of these are in the artbook while others are unique to this.

Unknown artist/seeking confirmation - Top left

Rustam Hasanov - All middle images, top right and possibly top left

Headless Studios - Bottom left

Unknown artist/seeking confirmation - Bottom right

Source

[Additional edit] The top right image source was discovered confirming it is indeed Rustam’s work! Given his description this is either before “Gunmar” hit his Bular stage or after their split.

Source

You sure went through a dramatic phase finding your voice Gunmar.

[/edit] He appeared to cement with no design wiggle compared to Angor Rot’s more last minute change too. With the benefit of a close up of this chunk of Killahead by Anthony Romero we can even see his carvings.

Source

Thus Bular settles into his new found role of "the son of Gunmar" as shown in this Character Development by Leo Sanchez Studio & Visual Development/Shading n ​​​​​​​Lighting by Jonatan Catalan Navarrete and paint over the 3D ambient occlusion model by Alfonso Blaas his journey now completed.

Source 1 / Source 2

[/edit] As some people might be using this thread as troll reference in general , we now have a clear shot of the skulls on Bular’s belt courtesy of Anthony Romero! 

Source

#Trollhunters #Tales of Arcadia #Vis dev: Headless studios #Modelling: Juan Solis #Vis dev: Alfonso Blaas #Vis dev: Francisco Ruiz Velasco #Vis dev: Sergio Casas #Vis dev: Rustam Hasanov #Modelling: Leo Sanchez #Vis dev: Jonatan Catalan Navarrete #Modelling: Anthony Romero