From Heroes to Villains

One of the fascinating transformations of a character from a comic book to a movie screen is the superhero called "Iron Man." As the director, Jon Favreau, of the 2008 "Iron Man" film partnered up with Stan Winston Studio to create the armor of the superhero, the process was started by drawings and images. The image then became photoshopped into a 2-D and 3-D colored model, which is then sent to a clay maker to create a visual model of what the helmet portion could appear as in film. Before the armor suit was created, the crew in Winston’s Studio created a two-ft. model of the superhero to study from while creating a suit made to fit a person. Altogether the suit consisted of 450 individual metal parts.  

Sadly, as the suit was not meant to fly in reality, the movie was mixed with computer-generated imagery.

As their have been a numerous amount of Batman films created, the villain that terrified me as a child was Tim Burton’s version of “The Penguin” in the 1992 film “Batman Returns,” played by Danny DeVito. Given a huge makeover compared to "The Penguin" from the comic books, make-up artist Stan Winston made prosthetics so that DeVito’s face would transform into a bird-like quality, which included the creepy pointy nose. The look also included flipper hands, crooked rotting teeth, pale white skin, dark circles around the eyes, and a fat suit.

 In order for "The Penguin" to give the effect of gruesome teeth, DeVito had to combine mouthwash, as well as, red and green food coloring in his mouth. The full makeup on DeVito took about two hours and DeVito took so much passion in the role, as he was known on set to stay in character during takes.

Whether the audience might consider her a hero or a villain, my favorite character was also Tim Burton’s version of "Catwoman" played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Compared to Anne Hathaway’s costume as "Catwoman" in the latest Batman film, I tend to believe Pfeiffer’s costume was more realistic for the role that showed great detail between Catwoman’s rage and sex appeal that included a dangerous whip.

The costume was created by rubber material that also showed a trail of what appeared as staples around the edges of the body. The co-costume designer, Mary Vogt, stated, “One thing with the black rubber, it almost looks liquid on the body. And she looks like she’s wearing black glass and its incredibly beautiful.” On set, more than sixty Catsuits were designed at a cost of a thousand dollars each.

Although most of Marvel's superhero films are computer-generated, some of the thoughts throughout a character still consist of going back to the drawing boards and creating the make-up and costumes by hand.

Sources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlmK9n_l6k8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcoO5jxaX4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPDjwdxBRQw&feature=related
**Click photo's for sources