Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521244
love of pirates, so it was no longer vaguely Dutch like the manga, but built over water as a fishing village and refueling station for pirate ships. Arlong Park was built by the Fish-Men from stolen carnival booths, a classic horror movie trope that can quickly switch from party atmosphere to sinister horror, just like the character Arlong. Ships are central to any pirate story, and One Piece has five hero sailing ships, a giant floating restaurant, the Baratie, as well as a slew of smaller vessels. Cape Town film studios in South Africa already had a full-size galleon and a large sloop left over from another show that we could adapt for some of our main ships. Along with three tanks, good-sized stages and a large backlot for our exterior sets, it was an obvious choice to film One Piece there. The ships had been sitting on the backlot for several years, and required extensive renovations even before we could begin to adapt them to my designs. The galleon was first remodelled into Alvida's pirate galleon, the Miss Love Duck. The very talented Art Director Catherine Gaum was my teacher and mentor on all things ship-related. For the Love Duck, she largely kept to the architecture of the galleon, but we added an MGM-style walk- down staircase from the poop deck, in reference to Alvida's extreme vanity. The other main interventions were sculpting the giant duck figurehead, and two pairs of giant duck wings that we fitted to the prow and stern. Ross Meiling's amazing fabrication department, under head sculptor Keanu Botha, gave the figurehead the perfect fierce expression, and much-needed realism. To make a pink pirate ship look real and credible required the talents of master scenic Liz van den Bergh and her team, who meticulously added layers of under-painting which they revealed in the ageing process. The result was a gritty, textured and very pink pirate ship. The production adapted the shoot schedule to accommodate changing the Love Duck into Garp's warship. The transition from 18th century wooden pirate galleon to 19th century ironclad was radical, A. THE MISS LOVE DUCK WAS THE THE FIRST DESIGN FOR THE SHOW. THE TRANSLATION FROM MANGA DRAWING TO LIVE- ACTION REALITY DEFINED OUR APPROACH TO THE VISUAL STORYTELLING. B. GARP'S WARSHIP. WE HAD ONE LARGE PIRATE GALLEON FROM WHICH WE CREATED THE MISS LOVE DUCK, AND REVAMPED AS GARP'S WARSHIP. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY JAKUB VYKOUKAL. C. THE GOING MERRY. THE SHIP HAD ALREADY BEEN BUILT, BUT REQUIRED EXTENSIVE ALTERATIONS TO FIT IN OUR WORLD. D. THE FIGUREHEAD OF THE GOING MERRY IS THE SINGLE MOST ICONIC IMAGE FROM THE MANGA. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY JAKUB VYKOUKAL. D A B C