Dune - Various Craft

Director – Denis Villeneuve
Production Designer: Patrice Vermette
I worked on this quite early in the process, from about February through April of 2018.

There were various craft called for in the story, and these images show some very early exploration of some of them. The final versions are quite different, from what I have seen – but that’s how it goes sometimes.

There were military dropships of the Harkonnen enemies, which were somewhat like dirigibles, with very prominent balloon-like hulls providing lift near the ground.

There were also Atreides transport ships, large cargo carriers of several types that deliver the entire House and all its assets and forces to the new world.

And there was the ornithopter, which was closely based on a Bell 47 helicopter – as was requested at that time. To be honest, I am glad the final craft did not look like this! The dragonfly wing idea for flight was fun to explore, though. To get the motion blur required 2 or 3 key-frames all occurring during a single frame. The entire "cycle" was 1.5 frames long.