Dune: How Denis Villeneuve Designed the Ornithopters

Posted By yonghow on November 15th, 2021

I saw Denis Villeneuve’s positively epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel Dune a while back, and I’m still thinking about it because there’s just so much beauty, detail and complexity woven into the film that it will take many re-visits to fully appreciate them all. One of the vehicular visual highlights of the film has got to be the Ornithopter, a sleek aircraft inspired by Dragonflies. In this short making of video by IGN Denis Villeneuve talks about the creation and design of the Ornithopter. Check it out below –

Below are some concept art pieces featured in the video, and while I haven’t yet received my copy of the Dune art book, I’m pretty confident at least a few of these will be included –

Dune: How Denis Villeneuve Designed the Ornithopters

I’m eagerly awaiting the 4K UHD release of the film; and I’ll also post my review of the art book once my copy arrives. You can get a copy from the Amazon links listed below –

Buy From Amazon.com | Amazon CA | Amazon JP | Amazon UK

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Tags: concept art, Denis Villeneuve, Dune, Dune: How Denis Villeneuve Designed the Ornithopters, filmmaking, Illustration, Ornithopter, sci-fi

Posted in CG, Concept Art, Film, Filmmaking, Illustration, VFX ( Visual Effects )

6 Responses to “Dune: How Denis Villeneuve Designed the Ornithopters”

Coffee
November 15th, 2021 at 4:48 am

Dune was exceptional, easily the best blockbuster I’ve seen in years. I’m so glad they kept the thopters in the film, it’s such a vintage sci-fi concepts, and I’m glad they were able to adapt it. They looked so cool.

yonghow
November 16th, 2021 at 5:21 pm

Coffee – Much agreed, and they did such a great job adapting it ! Really looking forward to seeing the film again on 4k UHD release.

Scott
November 17th, 2021 at 6:09 am

To me, I thought the design of the ornithopters were interesting, but what really sold them was their motion.
When we see them take off for example, their wings are never perfectly symmetrical once they get beating, and they never take off straight. The main bodies tend to drift sideways and slightly rotate off-center, as though a pilot is making minuscule adjustments to account for air currents and the like.
Gorgeous, and so believable.

Also, looking forward to your review of the art book.
Frankly, I base most of my art book purchases on your reviews since my local book shops don’t ever carry these types of books!

Marc McKenzie
November 17th, 2021 at 6:17 am

Thank you for posting this!

Absolutely loved DUNE; so glad I saw it in the theater first (re-watching it on HBO Max). The Ornithopters were simply amazing, and I loved their design and how they flew. If they put out model kits or collectibles for them (like, say, the vehicles from STAR WARS or STAR TREK) you darn well better believe that I’ll pick one up!

yonghow
November 20th, 2021 at 4:10 am

Scott – That detail about taking off is something I never noticed ! But in the video above Denis did mention he tried to make them as physical realistic as possible so the artists must have done quite alot of research about that !

Thanks for the support for my blog. I’ve already purchased the book but it seems to be taking quite a while to get shipped !

Marc – With the film doing so well as it should, I’m pretty sure a high quality model kit company will release something !

Tim
February 13th, 2024 at 6:40 am

Michael Moorcock created the Ornithopter in the Elric novels.