Sunday, October 20, 2013

Vintage Serial superheros re-imagined


Back when they were remaking Superman (the most recent time), I was working on creature designs for a movie called R.I.P.D. My boss at that time was designing for both Superman and Dark Knight Rises, so (being that he had his hands full with those two mega-shows) I was happy and lucky to get a call to do some fun monster stuff.

However, a part of me started to wonder what I might come up with if given the opportunity to design a Super-suit.

 Ever since I was a kid, my favorite Superman was George Reeves (mostly, I assume, because he was the first one I was exposed to), so I thought it might be neat to 'update' his look from the cheaply-made felt(?) suits of that era.
(By the way, People have already complained to me of my that lack of a giant 'S' on his chest already, but I always thought it a bit silly to have a giant Letter or logo on heroes, especially in light of more recent incarnations of the Dark Knight.)

I sculpted in a chiseled, angular Zbrush suit in the style of more recent films, and photoshopped George Reeves into it. When I showed this to a friend, he receommeded that I do a whole series of these, and my next choice was 1949's Robert Lowery and Johnny Duncan from the 'Batman and Robin' serial.

I, some time ago, had a dream that I was designing a 'Robin' suit for a film (yes, I sometimes even am thinking up ideas even in my sleep) and made a quick color sketch when I awoke. That idea inspired the ROBIN suit shown here (which I tried to make as badass as possible, since the character's rarely given a chance to shine), while trying to subtly keep in his trademark colors.



Actually, I learned a lot during my research (I had no idea that there was a ‘Captain America’ serial!) trying to find some old-time Superheros of the era, and I have included a few that I ran across in this blog posting.

 

Enjoy,

Michael