Interview - Marvel From Comics to the Big Screen , a Aaron Sims’s interview

By Mulder, Los Angeles, 21 october 2016

The Incredible Hulk (2009)

Q: Which Marvel Comics have been your source of inspiration to create your concept art for this movie ?

Aaron Sims : This was an incredible experience working with Marvel because they gave us complete access to the entire catalog of Hulk comics to reference and study. We studied all of the various iterations of The Incredible Hulk, young & old, red & grey, and an incredible evolution of different hairstyles. Our design phase began prior to the casting of Edward Norton, which gave us a bit of freedom to recreate this character organically as originally conceived in the comics. We ultimately adapted the final designs to compliment some small features of the actor portraying him, but the Director wanted to keep things iconic and everlasting. For us, we simply wanted to blend the most iconic features of The Hulk over the decades and keep things honest and relatable for all fans, young and old, of the franchise.

Q: What do you like in this character?

Aaron Sims: Being a monster maker my entire career, this one out of all the characters I’ve created or designed was unique in terms of the Jekyll & Hyde dichotomy. Most of the time, I’m designing a creature or character that simply has one consistent persona or style. The dynamic of exploring the human beneath the surface of this creature was both a challenge and a joy. Throughout the design phase, I wanted to honor both sides of the character (Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk) simultaneously.

Q: What was the most difficult challenge you encountered?

Aaron Sims: We literally created hundreds of variations of this character before finally honing in on the final look and feel. The biggest challenge was identifying which characteristics and features would work best to tell this story and give him the qualities that would be best portrayed in the action on-screen. Ultimately, the biggest defining feature was the hair. We created at least 50 or 60 different hairstyles and the Director ultimately decided to opt for slightly longer, more disheveled hair (than what had previously been seen on Lou Ferrigno, for example), which we felt gave the character more of a modern realism. Then of course, the variations of emotion and humanity of the facial structure was key to making the Hulk both fearsome and relatable.

Q: What can you tell us about your collaboration with Louis Leterrier?

Aaron Sims : Louis is an extremely talented and creative director who thinks about detail just as much as any designer, which I appreciated. He cared so much about the craft and process of character design, which proved to be instrumental in our collaboration. Being able to speak the same language of design as the Director makes things much easier to understand and execute on their vision.

Q: What do you think about the Hulk’s avengers movie version?

Aaron Sims: I think it’s very well done, embraces a slightly different type of Hulk while still honoring the original comics. It definitely works well in the Avengers as part of an ensemble cast of characters and Mark Ruffalo brings a unique dimension and humanity that I enjoyed.

The Amazing Spiderman (2012) / The Amazing Spider-man 2 (2014)

Q: Which Marvel Comics have been your source of inspiration to create your concept art for these 2 movies?

Aaron Sims: We focused singularly on ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ series, which features a thinner, younger character than we saw in the Sam Raimi adaptation. Our version had slightly exaggerated features, a larger head, bigger eyes, which of course inspired the dimensions of the suit and abilities.

Q: What do you like in Spider-man?

Aaron Sims : We enjoyed the freedom to play with the unusual proportions of this character, which are a bit unconventional for a typical Superhero. Thin and lanky, with big eyes was more a product of the awkward Peter Parker youth in this particular series. Working closely with the Costume Designer, Kym Barrett, was instrumental in merging her and Director Marc Webb’s vision with the initial designs.

Q: What can you tell us about your collaboration with Marc Webb on these two movies?

Aaron Sims : We worked mainly with Kym Barrett on the design of Spiderman’s costume, but worked much closer with Marc for the creation of The Lizard. He wanted to honor the original comic but update the realism of a walking bi-ped reptile humanoid. We kind of phased out the original trench coat to give him a more menacing physique and monstrous physique, which I think worked out quite well.

Q: What do you think about the new Spider-man version for the new movie next year?

Aaron Sims : I absolutely loved the new take that was a featured cameo in the latest Captain America: Civil War film. It takes the character one step further from where we left off to a more unique, young, and fun and irreverent time in the Spiderman anthology… I look forward to seeing more in the new film.

X-MEN: First Class (2013)

Q : Which Marvel Comics have been your source of inspiration to create your concept art for these 2 movies?

Aaron Sims : We did some initial research in the original comics but mainly relied on the Director’s vision and the incredibly detailed and well-written script that dictated their actions and intentions throughout the film. For us, it was more about designing around their powers and abilities as mutants while still keeping them grounded in reality. Some of the original character designs we created were for for Riptide, Emma Frost, Angel, and Havoc. What we saw manifested on screen was accurate to our original concepts and thankfully were adopted and embraced by the filmmakers and Visual Effects Supervisor so it was a relatively seamless fulfilling collaboration.

With All our thanks to Aaron Sims for answering to our questions and a special Thank to Chase

Special recognition' highlighting all the artists that worked on these amazing images & projects

Pics: Aaron Sims Creative

Website: http://asc-vfx.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaronsimscreative/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronsimscreative/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn12Sq3F4wgqEqYtkyVyJ5Q