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Concept Artist Carlos Huante Talks Prometheus Designs and More!

Author: Chris Picard | Nov-11-2012 1:47 PM

Carlos Huante was one of the lead concept artists for Ridley Scott's Prometheus and was responsible for a lot of the creature designs. Alien vs. Predator fan site AvPGalaxy member ThisBethesdaSea managed to get an exclusive interview with Carlos and have posted it up today! Read on for an excerpt and a link to the full interview!

Ultramorph Design Concept

ThisBethesdaSea – What are you most proud of in regards to your work on Prometheus?

Carlos Huante – At risk of sounding egotistical, I have to say that I honestly liked everything I did for this movie. It was a massive volume of work that I was able to focus on. There were no real ambiguous tangents from an unfocused director. Ridley has ideas and opinions and knows what he wants to do… It was all clear. So from the perspective of an artist looking at that body work I produced. I am very happy.

ThisBethesdaSea – Any regrets or feelings of ‘I wish I could’ve done something different’?

Carlos Huante - I wish I could have stayed on to supervise the follow-through with the designs. My biggest disappointment is that what I did got modified of course. Any artist would say that. But I really thought they were going to make my Deacon but for some really strange reason they went with the one from the storyboards which was NOT my character and not the design. The board artist illustrated it for the purposes of storytelling for the storyboards but not as the design. I had illustrated a couple of efforts for the open mouth which they showed in the documentary but they were for an even different version that was after the Deacon, when I thought of making the creature even more human. The design of the actual Deacon was abandoned. It was very, very strange to hear the creature group in London talking in the DVD and they’re all looking at the storyboards. I’m shaking my head as I write this.

The genesis of that character came after a conversation I had with Ridley about a design progression of the creatures to the Xenomorph of the first film. I went home and thought about it but kept on with the Gigeresque Ultramorphs. Then as I worked I thought “wouldn’t it be cool if these Aliens who are born of humans and haven’t been mixed genetically with the Engineers yet would look more human and less biomechanical“, of course this was for a different version of the script but that’s where the Deacon (or Bishop, as he was originally named) came from. He later became an Ultramorph and as the script changed slightly after I left the show, it became that thing at the end. Why it was blue? I don’t know… The illustration was blue so as to emphasize it’s whiteness in a dark blue setting and I was following some inspirational paintings that a contemporary Russian painter did of a man’s head that Arthur had sent me from Ridley. The creatures were all supposed to be albino. They were supposed to look simple, beautiful and ghostly like a Beluga whale in dark Arctic water.

You can read the entire interview over at AvPGalaxy! What do you think of the interview?

Tags: Prometheus, Movie, Artwork, Interviews, Carlos Huante

Comments (8)

SubsumeYou ›

Posted: Nov-11-2012 6:53 PM

I have not yet read this and was staring at the imagery, is it albino or pale in color, is it the pure form ultramorph?

I think, Sir Ridley Scott, should have used this for the alien assimilated Fifeld, it would have worked with the new sophistication of special effects advancement.

Anyway, when you begin work for the sequel, I hope you will gravitate towards the disturbing, the macabre, bizarre, the unsettling and don't pull any punches.

This story is not for children, we are not children....we must be lead into the dark and see what is there.....

SubsumeYou ›

Posted: Nov-11-2012 6:56 PM

Oh, man...I totally agree with the ghostly or Beluga coloration. Oh, damn...: (

SubsumeYou ›

Posted: Nov-11-2012 7:10 PM

Love the revealing interview of the industry provided by Mr. Carlos Huante. Very disappointed to learn how it actually works.

SubsumeYou ›

Posted: Nov-11-2012 7:23 PM

An ape?

SubsumeYou ›

Posted: Nov-12-2012 12:52 AM

@ SubSumeYou:

But, then, it's that 'alien' again....[soliloquy]

ted ›

Posted: Nov-15-2012 7:42 AM

What a funny article. It's strange when you hear things from the other side. I've talked to some of the guys involved in the creature effects & their story is very different... very different indeed. But I guess Carlos wouldn't get to hear that stuff. There's a reason they changed his designs so maybe he shouldn't be so critical of them in his article.

Indy John ›

Posted: Dec-07-2012 3:19 PM

I thought this was an excellent interview, A great look not only behind the scenes but how early creature decision need to be made.. I do wish the cates that Carlos worked on the film were included. It would give perspective to the timeline.

He mention a creature that RS might have wanted to use in the beginning of the movie,'' Was the whale like creature mentioned in any of the scripts?

I sort of wonder when that would have been used in the water scenes.

Custodian ›

Posted: Mar-27-2013 4:11 AM

this really happens,

I was working on a playstation game (3D character art/animation) back in the day and we had this CCC or Core Central Character that we'd designed from the ground up to be both functional and heroic, we mocked up a basic version that we were using in the game's earlier versions.

Then one of our art dept guys did some rendered visualisations for promo purposes - it was like HIS version of our central character, and not at all like the character we'd all agreed on in Design meetings. Suddenly corporate 'love' it and we have to change the ingame version to match this goofified version of our heroic character, changing the 'character' completely.

Deacon happens ... Beluga Whale version 'might' have been visually brilliant but I have the fear that it might have reminded me of that 'whimpering white abomination' that got sucked through its own asshole in Alien 4.