How do they do this?!?

[dillonturman]

I've always been a fan of movie posters and haven't really gotten around to demystifying them myself however I have much gathered that they obviously draw, and color most of them in illustrator/photoshop. Is that the case with this one or is it just composition after composition with intense non-deconstructive lighting? HELP please

[dillonturman]

The intensity of the cape is basically what I am smitten by by the way. Was that done in Photoshop/Illustrator?

[Repairman]

It could well be a conventional illustration given it's lack of detail (not a criticism btw). It could also be digital comp of two low res pix that someone has up-rezzed and applied a PS paintbrush to. Sooooooo many variables!

[dillonturman]

Hmmm.... Tis all greek to me!

[eraanexact]

The retoucher who I apprenticed with did movie posters for several years. The movie studios provide the photography, often shot by great photographers in their own right, and he would composite the image in photoshop. That cape, for example, is probably a comp of the best wrinkles from several photographs that are later embellished with some illustration and/or dramatic color correction to make everything pop. It could also be CGI, but it's fairly easy to just photograph fabric and comp a cape together in post.

Movie posters, like most ad work in general, tend to be more hyper-real than, say fashion and beauty retouching. They have to be, the whole point is to grab your attention so that the studios make their money back in hopefully the first weekend of release.

The agency that made the superman returns poster is called the Cimarron Group.
http://www.cimarrongroup.com/print/t...rldwide?page=6

[mushmush]

It actually looks like an Alex Ross Superman. Alex Ross is a super-realistic comic book Artist.

[kav]

Originally Posted by eraanexact

It could also be CGI, but it's fairly easy to just photograph fabric and comp a cape together in post.

That would be easy to model. You could do most of it via extruded splines+ possibly a bit of sculpting to finish it off. It's pretty basic. You can almost do it in photoshop extended in that manner at this point. The wrinkles don't behave all that naturally with the border. It was probably comped or adjusted there. Out of curiosity, how did you find that agency? I'm not familiar with all of them here, and it would be cool to know how you found the name. With something like this, it's difficult to tell what was done in what as there are many ways to approach it. It could just be an illustration, although it could have been tough to draw. The angle itself can be tricky in terms of not making the anatomy look funky while maintaining that sense of scale. Even the cape could be illustrated given the low level of detail(probably easier to do than the rest). It's just time consuming as hell.

[Repairman]

It reminds me of Philip Castle airbrushing. Hard to tell at low rez but the image has a host of brush texturing that doesn't sit with 3d work. It could just be a heavily worked photo of 2 stills from the film of course.

[kav]

I considered that too, but 3d work can be used as a canvas or guideline like that. It just depends if the shop has convenient access to such a thing. This isn't something that's completely crazy or unheard of to fabricate, so it comes down to desired look and conveniently available tools and budget.