Book Review: The Art of Terminator Salvation

May 13, 2009 by Parka

The Art of Terminator Salvation is one of the several movie tie-in books released for Terminator Salvation. Few days ago, I've also reviewed Terminator Salvation: The Movie Companion.

The star of the movie is John Connor. The star of this art book is the Terminators. This 240-page hardcover volume features hundreds of color illustrations, storyboards, and intricately designed production art. Much of the concept paintings are done by production designer Martin Laing. There's also Jason Sweers, Victor Martinez, David Lowery who worked on the Terminator designs and storyboards. Unfortunately, a lot of credits don't come with names so we'll not know the exact artist.

This book has a ton of designs for the Terminators. We're talking about T-1, T-600, Aerostats, Hunter-Killers, Hydrobots, Transports, Harvesters, Moto-Terminators and even the T-70 which is only seen in the video game. There's several rejected iterations of the designs up to the final model used in the movie. These are in the form of 3D modeling, a few paintings and sketches. Included in a smaller amount are the set and location designs like the hideout, Skynet's factory, etc.

Overall, there's not much text except for the captions. Captions when provided nicely explains the thought process that goes behind the designs, like facing the challenge of differentiating these Terminators from Michael Bay's Transformers.

Strangely not included are the weapons used by the resistance fighters. I really want to know what kind of guns can be used to blow up endoskeletons. There's also not much character designs other John Connor in his few different costumes. Some of the production photos used are also a bit low in resolution but there are only a few production photos. If you want to see more production photos, you should grab Terminator Salvation: The Movie Companion.

This book is recommended for concept artists and fans of Terminator.

Thanks to Kelvin Chan for providing the book for this review.

Storyboard for John Connor's entrance.

Different costume design for John Connor. No other character costumes are mentioned.

This is the dirtied up T-1 model which first appeared in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Much of the art is created by production designer Martin Laing

A few set photos and art pieces.

T-600 with the rubber face and weather torn clothes.

T-600 out of the box.

A Hunter-killer looking for humans.

A reconnaissance robot called Aerostat.

The fifty-five feet Harvester.

Several concept of the Harvester which were rejected because they look too Transformer-ish.

The Tow Truck from the chase scene.

Rejected concepts for the Moto-Terminator.

The final Moto-Terminator.

Transport used to move human prisoners.

When man and machine become one.

Architectural sketches for the Skynet factory.

Concept designs for the Hydrobots.

Some sketches of machinery used to create the Terminators.

This is the T-70 designed for the video game.

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more books for review.

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