They say time heals all wounds. I can enjoy '98 a lot more now, cause I can see it as its own thing. But way back when, when everyone was telling you you're getting Godzilla, hype and marketing and all, and then that's what's given to you? Ouch. :) That art class sounds like it would have been interesting as heck. Do you remember any big take aways from it?
It was a cool class, though it was years ago ha. We could use any medium we wanted (oil, water color, charcoal, etc.) and the premise was using science reasoning to make the fantasy art more grounded to be believable. So one assignment was create an alien landscape. We had to think about the ecology of an alien planet and how the creatures would evolve there and try not to think of our biosphere if we could help it to make it more alien (this is really hard to do). In the case of Godzilla 98 he followed the route of an iguana and see how it would mutate and then added feline features (snout and body composition) while using some of the elements from classic Godzilla. To be fair the classic Godzilla design was based on a man in suit so it made sense to go from a different angle in CGI. But alas us G fans are a fickle bunch and like our classic design lol.
I find the feline features interesting, if only because both the main Heisei styled suits and the main Millenium styled suits seem to have some catlike facial features. I think I read somewhere that the creators of the Monsterverse Godzilla design (I like the term Legendary Godzilla better, but it looks like everyone has settled on Monsterverse at this point) were inspired by bear and eagle facial features to give him a bit of a regal tone. I like '98's look though. In fact, the only Godzilla design I've never liked was from King Kong v. Godzilla. I mockingly call it "Frogzilla" cause the dude has the face of a toad. :P That art class sounds even cooler now. It'd be a great class for someone into biology, art, and science fiction. I'd have loved to see some of the pieces that had come out of it. But alas us G fans are a fickle bunch and like our classic design lol.