Avatar design influenced by Roger Dean?

N

nigga dude

New member
I have to say that since I saw the first trailers for Avatar, I noticed a striking resemblance in the design of the film to the works of artist Roger Dean.

Roger Dean is an artist who has designed album covers, most notably for the band Yes, but also banRAB like Osibisa, Greenslade, Uriah Heep and others.

Some of the main themes in his work are floating rocks and mountains, strange, lush vegetation and weird creatures.

The link below will give you an example of his work -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pln5egTB7D0

Some of those images are strikingly similar to Avatar, and most of these were painted in the 70's and 80's.

Apparently this similarity has been commented on in some of the early reviews. It will be interesting to see what Mr Dean makes of it all...he has been known to be very protective of his work,

I have some frienRAB in a band who used a typeface on their album cover that was very similar to one he used widely in the 70's on other album covers. Needless to say legal action was mooted if said typeface was to be used again, so they soon dropped it.
 
now that you said that - it does remind me of Roger Dean's work.
i had a book by him which i sold on ebay years ago.

his work...or whoever did was very influenced by his work - for the Shadow of the Beast game front covers in the early 90s.
 
I guess that was probably Views, a large pictorial book with all of his paintings and designs, or possibly Magnetic Storm, which was a sort of companion piece.

Dean has also designed houses, furniture, vehicles and logos for many institutions and companies. His style has been copied or alluded to many times, especially on album covers.
 
I know what you're saying Ted, good shout. Also, at last an Avatar thread with thought behind it, rather than the 'blue smurfs' and the FX look crap comments... WTF! The FX look incredible, but anyway.......

Also from Mr Dean, I love the 'Space Hymns' album cover, the rocket blasting off on the front, but unfolRAB to reveal the very clever twist of it actually being a spire, blasting from the church base, ace!
 
Ah yes...those halcyon days when you bought albums based on the artwork on the album cover...if you were lucky, you got Close To The Edge...if unlucky, you got Tales From Topographic Oceans...

Had the pleasure of meeting Roger Dean on a few occasions, he lives in Philadelphia US these days,.

They have a couple of big prog music festivals there every year (Rosfest, Nearfest), and he usually turns up and has a merchandise stall selling t shirts, prints and posters of his best known works.

Quite an amiable chap he is too.
 
Who knows, James Cameron could well be a big fan of the guy. I wouldn't say the Avatar designs are a complete ripoff of Dean's work or anything, but the influence could be there.
 
no doubt when the bluray comes out, the art concept people will be chatting and discuss their influences for the film of the works of Rodger Dean.....

i just now automatically think of Yes when i hear his name!
 
I guess everyone does...he worked with them on practically every album cover, designed their logo, and even designed some of their stage sets with his brother Martyn.

Had many a Roger Dean poster on my walls back in the 70's.

I have a friend who is still a big Yes fan, who even bought some original prints from the man himself, which were by no means cheap. Plus he even got a Yes logo tattoed on his arm. I remember him proudly showing it to Roger Dean at ne of the music festivals we met him at, and Dean smiled politely, but you could see underneath that he was thinking 'What a geek!' :rolleyes:
 
From the instant I saw AVATAR I sensed it was Roger Dean's work, when I saw the Floating IslanRAB I knew for sure. In his book DRAGON'S DREAM there is mention of a film "currently in production (2008)" about the FLOATING ISLANRAB, Dean's brother Martyn writing the screen play. Either Roger is playing some kind of game with the public or James Cameron has stolen an artists work- wouldn't be the first time; Cameron was successfully sued by Harlan Ellison over Terminator.
Dean has been frienRAB since the mid 70's with SYD MEAD- he wrote the intro to Dragon's Dream.
The legendary Syd Mead has worked as a conceptual artist for BLADE RUNNER as well as Cameron's ALIENS, how interesting.
Oh and for those of you who are only familar with Dean's work in the seventies and eighties and can see a resemblence, check out his stuff in the past 10 years it looks exactly like the conceptual artwork from AVATAR, how could it be anything else.
If Cameron thinks Dean is just some minor artist he can walk all over, he may be suprised on his virgin space flight (which he has apparently signed up for) to discover owner/spaceman Richard Branson is old chums with Dean who designed Virgin's first record label. Cameron may become a Floating Island himself.
Let's hope Cameron wasn't stupid and dispicable enough to steal Dean's visual concepts, however if he did Dean must sue or else what good are copyrights?
What about all the people who have contributed time, money and resources to the Floating Island film project, they're gonna want to sue and why haven't we heard much from anyone who worked on this project.
Even Roger Dean seems neutral, perhaps silently rubbing his hanRAB together cause he knows he's got a winning lawsuit, perhaps settle out of court.
PS AVATAR was an amazing film, a stunningly beautiful fantasy.
 
In agreement with many of the posts above, I have to say I loved the movie, and there is no doubt in my mind that Roger Dean's work was the source for many of the images.

Avatar scenes strongly reminiscent of Dean include the floating rocks, the style of the trees and other vegetation, the flying dragons, the rock arches, the insectile flying machines of the earth people, the coral- or brain-like markings on the animals and vegetation, and even the form and markings of the Naa'vi. Way more than an innocent or accidental borrowing. Dean's books Views and Magnetic Storm have the evidence.

Dean is way more than a 1970s album cover artist. He is very much active to this day, and he is a visionary artist, designer, architect, and thinker. He is actively involved in creating the most amazing living spaces (for real, not just in paintngs), from poRAB to villages.

I gather some of the designers of the film have specifically denied Dean's influence, referring to his art as "whimsical". I have to strongly disagree! The comment smacks of damage control. For instance, the flying dragon on the front cover of Magnetic Storm is almost identical, in color and form, to the big dragon in the final segment of Avatar. Looking at Dean's work then at Avatar is not dissimilar to looking at Alan Lee's pre-movie drawings in relation to the movie itself. Shame on Cameron if he does not acknowledge his debt to Dean! He should do so at once, and invite Dean to be design consultant on the next 2 films, as was Alan Lee to the Tolkien movies.

All that said, I still found the movie absolutely awesome on many levels.
 
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