The Creativity of Art Center Dept. Chair Is a Star in Weekend’s “Captain America” Release

 

As Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson prepare to take the big screen in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” premiering in theatres this weekend, the sneak peak in the trailer of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier taking a nose dive with a spectacular crash has eager fans on edge.

Pasadena Now had a sneak peak with the artist who redesigned the helicarrier from “The Avengers for The Winter Soldier.”  Tim Flattery happens to be the chair of the Entertainment Design Department at Art Center College of Design as well as a highly sought-after concept artist.

“I’m excited because it’s getting good reviews. It’s always fun to be able to design something and work on something and then see it on the screen,” Flattery said.

So how did the helicarriers and quinjets and other action scenes come to life in the heroic action movie?

“It started with rough sketches and then I did 3-D modeling of it. Then I would do renders of the model and then paint over those,” Flattery said.

In the film business for 28 years, Flattery has created special effects and larger than life designs for Hunger Games, Tron, Batman, MIB, Spiderman, Xmen, Star Trek and many more.

But he did not arrive as a top of the line concept designer over night. When he began the business, Flattery said the idea of concept design hardly existed, so pushing his way into films took five years of persistence.

“I kept knocking on doors and showing my portfolio to anybody that would see it and I finally got my first movie — and that led to the second movie,” Flattery said.

Concept artists create the visuals seen in films, video games, animation, commercials, TV shows and theme parks, from environments and architecture to characters and vehicles. Designing novel objects, characters and worlds requires imagination, understanding of how such things are built, and the ability to conceptualize within the parameters of a story.

With the help of the Internet, Flattery said that more people know about concept design and want to do it. The competition for his students at Art Center is constantly on the rise with many talented artists.

Several big name entertainment companies recently visited Art Center to view students’ work on display at an Intern Show including legendary visual futurist and Art Center alumnus Syd Mead who spoke about the difficult job force the students would soon enter.

“The whole thing about graduating is that you’re not really guaranteed success. Over 2,000 years ago Socrates wrote, ‘Luck is opportunity meeting preparation.’ And that’s what these students are doing. It is luck, but you have to be ready when the opportunity comes,” Mead said.

So what does it take to be ready for the opportunity? Flattery said the courses are intensive to be able to equip the students to be ready for the industry.

“You have to have a large scope and what I mean by that is you have to be capable of executing and designing environments, characters, creatures, architecture, and we have to be able to design within story. So it’s kind of a huge, daunting education to be able to get efficient at all those areas,” Flattery said.

Tim Delaney worked as an imagineer visual artist for Disney theme parks around the world for 34 years, visualizing the story of the theme parks and designing the space in Anaheim, Orlando, Paris, and Hong Kong. As a graduate of Art Center he comes back to support the students at the Intern Show.

“What I learned from Art Center was the ability to communicate visually ideas. The basics all stay the same. It’s all about coming up with an idea, creating a story, selling that, getting a great team and getting it built,” Delaney said.

Being able to sell an idea can lead to a team spending $90 million to build the idea. Delaney said the skill to visually communicate an idea is invaluable. But the way he peers into the creative process is not on the nice finished products that all display nearly equally skillful execution of technique.

“Do you know what I’m primarily interested in looking at? I love looking at people’s sketchbooks. You know why? Because when people work on sketchbooks, they do work for themselves. That’s where accidents happen. See, the creativity is not necessarily all about plan. It’s all about happy accidents,” Delaney said.

Many of the budding entertainment design artists at Art Center are looking to gaming industry rather than the competitive motion pictures or theme parks.

Seventh semester student Fernando Olmedo wants to start his own video game company once he graduates in the Fall.

“I grew up with video games and when I was younger, it was really wonderful stories about heroes saving worlds and saving people and princesses. Nowadays as it’s evolved with the growing demographic, it’s evolved into a more serious kind of film, and in my opinion it’s not always the best. So what I’d like to do is actually bring it back to the old days of how video games would inspire a child,” Olmedo said.

While Olmedo is nervous to join the industry, he said that the institution gave him the tools and the power to be able to run with his ideas and have confidence in his artistic ability. The Intern Show gave him a space to showcase his ideas.

“We don’t know exactly where they’re from or what they’re looking for. So it’s kind of scary to kind of put yourself out there,” Olmedo said.

While the entertainment job industry is highly competitive and slightly unstable for many, recent Art Center grads are beginning to make their mark. Edmund Liang who graduated in Spring of 2013, was recently voted one of the 25 most influential designers. Other recent grads were concept artists for “Rise of the Guardians”), 343 Microsoft, Halo, and Sony games.

“The opportunity to work with the up and coming talent and have a hand in preparing them for the industry is something I love. They inspire me,” Flattery said. He planned to be the first in line to see “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”