Spider-Man is finally coming to life on the big screen, thanks in part to the power of Painter 7 from procreate. The application was used by designer Warren Manser to create the Web swinger. His work with Painter 7 has also been seen in Pearl Harbor, A.I., and the Matrix.
Painter 7 is a US$499 cross-platform (including Mac OS X) application that offers advanced Natural-Media painting and image editing capabilities. Designed to work as a standalone product or as a complement to Adobe Photoshop, Painter 7 offers a watercolor technology that recreates the medium of natural watercolor with more flexibility and control than ever before, LeGrow said. The app also offers a Liquid Ink layer that mimics the viscosity of a thick, gluey medium like ink or paint. And since it’s Mac OS X compatible, it offers full support for the new Aqua interface.
Manser, an illustrator, used the procreate product to help design characters and the familiar red-and-blue webbed costume in the upcoming Sony Pictures Entertainment movie, Spider-Man. He used Painter 7 and Adobe Photoshop to generate illustrations and concepts that were used to pre-visualize costumes and characters in the film.
Painter 7 helped Warren Manser create the look of traditional media while letting him manipulate artwork digitally. He began most illustrations with simple line drawings that were imported into Painter 7 running on a Power Mac G4 and completed using a Wacom Intuos tablet.
“Flexibility is a big advantage of digital over traditional media,” Manser said. “Artwork for movies needs to be fast and it needs to be able to evolve with the creative process. Painter 7 lets me make changes on the fly and solve unique problems as they appear.”
Using features such as the Digital Airbrush and Sable Chisel tip brush, he gave character costumes a certain look and feel. The choice of tool in Painter 7 often helped determine the final look of the character.
“With so many tools at my disposal, I found it practically impossible to run out of combinations and techniques to help me resolve and develop concepts,” Manser said. “What’s truly exciting to me about Painter is the undiscovered parts. With so many brushes and libraries of brushes, you can play as long as you want.”