The third in our series of self-initiated projects is Firestorm, a half-imagined Superhero movie (there are several existing superheroes that name, but our project isn't based on any of them in partcular… we just liked the name!). With Helen Maybanks behind the camera once more, our subject for this shoot was actor Brian Law, and to help create his look we enlisted Lily Simmonds for the day to work on Brian's hair and make-up.
To begin with, Lily created a striking gold flash across Brian's eyes, blended out into black at the edges. Brian posed in various outfits, but we all liked this leather jacket look best, as it has a touch of Wolverine about it which is perfect for our superhero aesthetic. He also has a great confident/smouldering look in this particular shot, making it the obvious choice for the first poster.
The first thing I did was create the title treatment, which utilises Photoshop's 3D tools. This was new territory for me – although I had created 3D-ish effects for typography in the past, I had never ventured into Photoshop's 3D workspace before. I was a bit lost, so I followed along with a great online tutorial from Texture Labs, who have all kinds of great (and free) resources for designers. I wanted a bold and muscular look, so I used a typeface called Refrigerator Deluxe which has a nice angular look to it. After creating the basic 3D, textures and lighting effects were layered on top to give it depth and atmosphere. The setting was then created using various stock resources – a street scene, several abstract textures, and finally the glowing embers to finish it off (and to hint at our hero's superpowers).
I then created this second poster as a companion piece. If the first poster is our hero looking strong and confident, this one is him in turmoil – mistrusted and misunderstood by us mere mortals, struggling with the responsibility of his superpowers, and most likely anticipating a showdown with an equally powerful supervillain. Here we have an inferno in the background, which is emanating from (or perhaps penetrating?) his chest – either way, he's not enjoying it. At this point in the shoot, Brian had shed his outfit and Lily had applied burns and scarring to his torso, so I was very much expanding on those themes of conflict in the design. This one was finshed off with a city skyline and military vehicles to give it a sense of drama and scale, and finally the glowing embers and title treatment from the first poster to tie them together nicely.
This project was really fun to work on – it demonstrates how a great central image can be bolstered and enhanced with cheap/free stock assets to craete something slick and cinematic. I also learned a lot about Photoshop's 3D tools thanks to Texture Labs, which I will certainly be returning to!