Project 1: Kickoff
What is this again?
A few weeks ago, I made a commitment to do one personal project a month. Here it is. Project number one. If you’ve yet to read my prior post on the why and how of this “Personal Project Project”, now is the time do so. Before I dive into this, I would like to thank those of you that have been giving me the encouragement, support, motivation and direction for this project. I appreciate it and I won’t let you down.
This month’s project
After speaking with some colleagues and friends about me taking on this monthly project, one of the first things I asked them was “What do you think I should do for my first project?” Most of them responded with “What is your dream project?” I didn’t even have to think about it. I had the answer loaded and ready to fire off. I’ve always wanted to do work for a Batman story. Whether a Comic, a Title Sequence, a poster, a website — anything Batman related would be considered a dream project. Granted, I have many interests and passions — and even a few “dream projects”, something for Batman tops them all. Another inspiration for doing this project comes from the Title Sequence of Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). I was 8 years old when I first saw the movie in theatres and it remains timeless and definitely one of my favorite Titles ever.
This month’s project will be to conceptualize and design a Title Sequence for a Batman movie yet to be made. I have not yet decided whether or not this hypothetical movie will be live action or animated but there you have it. A Title Sequence for Batman. I hope I do the character justice.
The Deliverables
By the end of the project I will be delivering one finalized board along with WIP/Status Updates along the way. I will also post process images, reference, mood board and any other relevant work.
My initial thought process
Off-the-bat I will be creating a mind map. This is actually a technique I’ve never used before but thanks to extensive comic book library and a collection of all of the Batman movies (yes, even the Joel Schumacher films) I have a very solid basis for exploration through the mind map. Upon completion of the mind map I will begin visual research and create a moodboard with the references gathered. There should be absolutely no lack of reference for this project.
Upon completing the research stage I will begin hashing out some concepts in written form, just to get the idea “on paper”. When I’m sold on a concept, I’ll begin sketching out roughs — as with most work I do, I’ll be spending a lot of time here before even hitting digital concepts. At that point, it should be full steam ahead where I can jam out some nice frames.
What do I want to avoid?
One of the first things I want to avoid is a direct copy of the title sequences for popular superhero movies like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy et. al. Also, since the due date is a month out, I’d like to avoid extremely long render times and complex 3D work. While I’m certainly up for the challenge, I think that in this case, there are multiple routes that can be taken aside from 3D.
What story arc do I want to base this on?
Being a huge Batman fan, I’ve read many comics, seen all of the movies, watched a bunch of the animated shows so I feel that I know enough about him as a character to know that he’s more than just a superhero that beats the snot out of villains on a regular basis. Since I am essentially choosing a Batman story to turn into a movie, I want to focus on Batman as “The World’s Greatest Detective”, which is something that is very often overlooked by Hollywood. I very well may want to focus on Batman’s “family” — Alfred, the Robins (yes, there are several), Batgirl and the rest. Speaking of the “Bat Family” — I recently finished reading the entire Batman and Robin New52 series (written by Peter J. Tomasi and drawn by Patrick Gleason) and absolutely loved it. I had not read anything involving Damian Wayne up until that point. I definitely love the character and because of it, would love to possibly do something based off of the story arcs from the volume. I also feel that there is something to be explored within Gotham City itself. I’ve always imagined Gotham City as New York in the 1980’s, only ten times more violent and twice as filthy.
What’s Next?
Tonight I will start my research phase, which will help determine exactly what I will be doing. At the moment, my direction feels very broad — because it certainly is. I will be narrowing down which story I’ll be basing this project off of. The next update will be mostly conceptual work with the high chance of it being mostly more for you to read rather than imagery to view. Expect my first progress update post on Sunday.
Update (10/5/15): This weekend turned out to be busier than I had expected. I did not get anywhere near as much done as I had expected. I also realized that Sundays are not the best days to schedule status updates since I like to spend my weekends with my wife and son. I’m moving status updates to Monday nights since I think they might work better. Expect something tonight, however little it may be.
How can you help?
I encourage anyone who follows this journey to please — leave me public feedback on the work.If you are uncomfortable leaving public feedback, please shoot me a private message or email. Any feedback you give will be greatly appreciated.
