Sometimes an artist comes along whose work goes beyond inspiration. To me, James Harren is one such artist. His incredible style, energy and artistic vision shines through on everything he does. The forms and shapes he makes speak directly to that part of my brain that makes my imagination run wild. When I discovered Ultramega, I knew instantly that I wanted to make something in tribute to it. What’s not to love about a parasitic alien life force thats locked in an eternal cosmic battle with a neverending army of equally parasitic Kaiju? Arms with mouths for hands? A mouth riddled with teeth that opens to reveal another mouth instead of a tongue? A giant larvae with 8 arms and razor sharp teeth? Yes, yes, yes and yes. 

Sometimes an artist comes along whose work goes beyond inspiration. To me, James Harren is one such artist. His incredible style, energy and artistic vision shines through on everything he does. The forms and shapes he makes speak directly to that part of my brain that makes my imagination run wild. When I discovered Ultramega, I knew instantly that I wanted to make something in tribute to it. What’s not to love about a parasitic alien life force thats locked in an eternal cosmic battle with a neverending army of equally parasitic Kaiju? Arms with mouths for hands? A mouth riddled with teeth that opens to reveal another mouth instead of a tongue? A giant larvae with 8 arms and razor sharp teeth? Yes, yes, yes and yes. 

Drawing from the original comic series “Ultramega” by James Harren, alongside a healthy dose of early nineties anime, I dreamed up KAIJU KLASH! The Ultramega falls crashing back to earth, and compelled by the alien entity within his chest, succumbs to a blood rage, battles two giant kaiju, slicing one in half, disinitegrating the other, and most of the city along with it. It was an insane amount of fun to make and every frame in every shot was lovingly scrutinized. 

Drawing from the original comic series “Ultramega” by James Harren, alongside a healthy dose of early nineties anime, I dreamed up KAIJU KLASH! The Ultramega falls crashing back to earth, and compelled by the alien entity within his chest, succumbs to a blood rage, battles two giant kaiju, slicing one in half, disinitegrating the other, and most of the city along with it. It was an insane amount of fun to make and every frame in every shot was lovingly scrutinized. 

Each shot needed to flow effortlessly into the next, in the same way a comic book keeps the readers attention, guiding them from panel to panel. 

Each shot needed to flow effortlessly into the next, in the same way a comic book keeps the readers attention, guiding them from panel to panel. 

As always, everything starts with rough sketches in my sketchbook. A loose collection of ideas and beats I want to hit along with various bits and pieces from the reference material that could be useful or impactiful. 

As always, everything starts with rough sketches in my sketchbook. A loose collection of ideas and beats I want to hit along with various bits and pieces from the reference material that could be useful or impactiful. 

I leveraged old and new techniques for this project, learning lots of new things along the way. All characters, creatures and environments were modeled or sculpted, textured, rigged and animated from scratch. I used a combination of ZBrush and Substance Painter to flesh out the characters, Cascadeur and Rokoko for a combination of mocap and hand keyed animation, Octane and C4D for the final scene assembley, and then comped using ACES in Adobe After Effects. 

I leveraged old and new techniques for this project, learning lots of new things along the way. All characters, creatures and environments were modeled or sculpted, textured, rigged and animated from scratch. I used a combination of ZBrush and Substance Painter to flesh out the characters, Cascadeur and Rokoko for a combination of mocap and hand keyed animation, Octane and C4D for the final scene assembley, and then comped using ACES in Adobe After Effects. 

Using the C4D Octane Toon shader as the base, I built a custom node shader for all the characters, most importantly the UltraMega. It includes a dynamic halftone effect paired with several noise parameters to accentuate a hand drawn look and feel. All textures were painted in Substance Painter in keeping with a bold graphic style. 

Using the C4D Octane Toon shader as the base, I built a custom node shader for all the characters, most importantly the UltraMega. It includes a dynamic halftone effect paired with several noise parameters to accentuate a hand drawn look and feel. All textures were painted in Substance Painter in keeping with a bold graphic style. 

I constantly referenced the comic for style cues and inspiration. Harren’s use of halftones and expressive lines is all throughout his work so it was important for me to try to achieve something that had a similar effect.

I constantly referenced the comic for style cues and inspiration. Harren’s use of halftones and expressive lines is all throughout his work so it was important for me to try to achieve something that had a similar effect.

Rigged and ready to go, I acted out most of the animation using mocap and a Rokoko suit. I then refined it in Cascadeur before bringing it into C4D.

Rigged and ready to go, I acted out most of the animation using mocap and a Rokoko suit. I then refined it in Cascadeur before bringing it into C4D.

The kaiju were incredibly fun and rewarding to design. Harren’s kaiju designs are some of my favorite creations I have ever seen but I wanted to create my own original creatures and have them still exist in the original Ultramega universe. 

The kaiju were incredibly fun and rewarding to design. Harren’s kaiju designs are some of my favorite creations I have ever seen but I wanted to create my own original creatures and have them still exist in the original Ultramega universe. 

Using ZBrush to quickly iterate, the kaiju came together fairly fast, with some versions not making the cut for the final. They were then painted in Substance Painter, refined with the custom halftone Toon Shader in Octane, and finally rigged and hand animated in C4D. 

Using ZBrush to quickly iterate, the kaiju came together fairly fast, with some versions not making the cut for the final. They were then painted in Substance Painter, refined with the custom halftone Toon Shader in Octane, and finally rigged and hand animated in C4D. 

After rigging in C4D I created a detailed set of controllers for keyframe animation. For the biped Kaiju, I used a combo of inverse kinematics and dynamics tags for the body, face and arm motion. 

After rigging in C4D I created a detailed set of controllers for keyframe animation. For the biped Kaiju, I used a combo of inverse kinematics and dynamics tags for the body, face and arm motion. 

The larvae kaiju had a bit more of a complex rig, as I needed the fingers and arms to be expressive.

The larvae kaiju had a bit more of a complex rig, as I needed the fingers and arms to be expressive.

Referencing heavily from the source material, the onomatopoeia plays a big role in the impact of certain shots. I love opportunites to implement more hand drawn elements into my scenes, and making these were a lot of fun. 

Referencing heavily from the source material, the onomatopoeia plays a big role in the impact of certain shots. I love opportunites to implement more hand drawn elements into my scenes, and making these were a lot of fun. 

As always I also created a number of posters to go along with the short. In this case I made some Japanese variants in keeping with the origins of the original character. 

As always I also created a number of posters to go along with the short. In this case I made some Japanese variants in keeping with the origins of the original character. 

Created + Directed by _ Kris Brady

Sound _ CYPHER

Sound Design + Mix _ John Black

Music _ Joris Van Grunsven

Created + Directed by _ Kris Brady

Sound _ CYPHER

Sound Design + Mix _ John Black

Music _ Joris Van Grunsven