Helicarrier development

Before working on the Mk 7 suit with the Visual Development team, I was initially brought into the Art Department to work on the Helicarrier. While ultimately the Production Designer James Chinlund's direction was pursued by Nathan Schroeder to the version you see on screen, I was tasked with providing some alternative approaches. Below is a sampling of some initial sketches pursuing a combination of naval and stealth-inspired forms. In a more radical departure from the concept of 'Heli-' carrier I was exploring some form of vertical jet engine clusters to lift the massive hull rather than the traditional ducted fans.

Remember Avengers?

Yeah. Been awhile. And Avengers is old news.
But as anyone who... ahem...'follows'... my blog, it's not something that focuses on timeliness.

Better late than never, eh?

I do have a big dump to put up, as I spent a little time on almost every aspect of the movie, including the Helicarrier, Quinjet, Aliens and Alien craft.

So, prompted by special request, I'm putting up a selection of my work on Avengers.
So lets begin with a few bits of what you've come to expect from me and the one design of mine that made it into the film untouched... the MK 7. 

Below are the initial 3 sketches I did early on before we knew what the Mk 7 should be. The first was actually a revision of a design I had been thinking of initially for Iron Man 2 before ultimately choosing another project. It was a lighter, more streamlined version of what had come before, trying to integrate a flowing theme wrapping around the "RT" on the chest and mirroring that fast line through the body. This was more of the evolutionary design, and ultimately was approved pretty much immediately as a starting point for the Mk 7.

The next design was playing around with the stance  of the suit toward more of a brawler attitude, somewhat beefier and less aircraft-like.

Lastly was a more extreme departure, trying to create a very different silhouette, sort of the Stark Industries answer to a more heavily militarized suit like War Machine, but drawing from Air Force form language instead of Army.

Further discussion of the function of the suit in the script lead to the idea of having a more armored suit that over the course of battle would shed its ammo packs and additional armor. Styling elements from the first and third concepts were integrated and the design was revised as below...

The final design would incorporate a thruster backpack for the pivotal final battle, which wrapped around the "lats" and "serratus" areas under the arm to form flush mounted adjustable intake vanes. Much of the approach was based on the mantra of the "wearable Ferrari" so a lot of attention was spent on creating flowing lines from chest though the torso, pelvis, arms and legs. 

Final design detailing was painted over turnarounds of the Mk 4 suit, to keep proportions consistent and realistic.

Lastly elevations were painted at an extreme level of detail to make sure lines would resolve all the way around the surface, giving our modeler Josh Herman a solid foundation to build from. Even still a lot was resolved in the modeling process.

The final model below, digitally sculpted by Josh Herman, reflects a very tight collaborative process to create the final form. 

io9 "Best of the Week"...

I just peeked into io9.com, one of my favorite sites, and was surprised to see one of my old concept paintings from Jon Favreau's version of John Carter of Mars up as the header picture for the Best of the Week. Nice to see that this unmade dream still lives on...

R.I.P. - John Michael Riva

Mourning my first mentor in the film business, and the man who gave me my big break. Working with Mike was like a window into an Art Department of years past, when making a movie was just a shared good time and everyone was high on the joy of the creative process. Nothing since has matched the sheer fun of making Zathura, when the future of the studio wasn't riding on our shoulders and it seemed only we knew what a gem we were putting together. It felt like everyone in the Art Department was eager to be at work and reluctant to leave, even after Mike called out "Okay kids, pencils down!" promptly at 6:00. And it wasn't just because of the 20 year old scotch he'd have just cracked open to share. That energy came from Riva, a knowing grin that we weren't curing cancer, that if we didn't have a good time making the movie, no one would have a good time watching it either. It's a secret that seems to be lost to the business these days, when everything seems to get more and more squeezed.

Mike protected his crew. He knew the value of having a life and balance, and made sure we all kept ours. Mike's art department was a family, with all of the highs and lows, the love and disfunction, but one thing you knew with Mike, was that it was never just business with him. He cared. About the work, and about everyone who shared that work with him. And those that knew him knew that sometimes he cared maybe a bit too much, for good and for ill. It was always personal to Mike. But that's what I'll miss. Everything is "just business, nothing personal" these days. And it'll get just a bit more so without Mike Riva.

Avengers interview on Comic Book Movie

I got interviewed about the design of the new MK7 suit for Avengers. You can check out the interview HERE.

Cowboys & Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens opened this weekend to somewhat disappointing box office, at least as far as I'm concerned - I personally thought it was great. Strong character work and acting, great dialog and lots of fun. Jon Favreau keeps pulling it off, and if anyone could have made a stronger film given the basic premise promised by the title, I don't know who. Let's face it, it could have been the summer's biggest joke. Instead, the material was taken seriously and treated lovingly, and we got a fine film I'm proud to have contributed to. So congratulations to Jon, writers Alex Kurtzman & Bob Orci and Production Designer Scott Chambliss for a great movie!

Anyway, I'll be posting some of my concept work for the alien "speeder" vehicle in the coming days. For now, here's the image that I was told caught Spielberg's eye and led to the speeder design as we see it in the film.

Avengers Assemble!!

Most of you have probably seen this already as it was one of the most highly publicized images to come out of this year's Comic Con, but here's the Avengers Poster that Marvel released in seven parts to eager fans. Click HERE for the full poster in a larger size.



Illustrated by my good friends and colleagues Ryan Meinerding, Charlie Wen and Andy Park from their costume designs for the movie, it includes the first appearance of the Mk 7 Iron Man suit I designed for Avengers. Thanks, Ryan, for doing it better justice than I ever would!!

Looking forward to posting my own design sketches of the Mk 7 when the movie comes out. And watch out for this one in 2012, people. I don't usually make predictions on movies I've worked on, but if it's half as good as Joss Whedon's script we were working from, it's going to kick some serious ass!! And Joss is directing it himself, so how likely is it he'll screw that up? 2012 is going to be massive.