the Incredibles

There are a few things when they were creating the Incredibles that I think are really clever:

1. Working from Collages

2. Basic shapes to create the characters

3. Interesting silhouettes in design. 

When I went to the Pixar Expo in Amsterdam a year ago, I found out that the designers of the Incredibles worked a lot in collage techniques when creating lots and lots of characters for the film, especially when creating the superheroes' designs. They mostly worked with coloured panels or ripped pieces from magazines. The collages were inspired by the looks of posters from the 50's. When making these different kind of collages, you stumble upon designs or colour combinations you normally would not have thought of. What I really like about these designs and "posters" is that the creators added them in the film, one way or another, either it being the title or credit sequence, or through posters/comic book covers that are shown in the film.

When creating the family (and probably other heroes) they tried to incorporate their powers into their designs. Meaning they wanted to enhance the kind of power they have by the figure of the body. A few examples; Dash having the power of speed had to be tiny. Small legs to move fast. The combination of his slick haircut adds the sense of speed. Especially when you look at the shapes that combine his head: round shape for his general face and the triangle for his hair. (look at image for reference). Violet on the other hand has a timid personality, being very shy and wanting to be able to disappear. Whoa, she can for real! The timid posture she has in the beginning of the film and her skinny physique enhance her power of invisibility, with in contrast the power of creating a force field.

Robert Parr, Mr Incredible, has super strength, so his physique and design is quite obvious. Big guy, big shoulders and lots of muscle mass.

Pixar has a great sense for poses and silhouettes. When combining the two you can go far with your designs. One character that I used the hate when I was little but have come to love is Mirage. She is a clever piece of design. She has the ultra skinny body and the sly eyes, fitting here cunning personality she puts up in the beginning of the film, combined with her round face shape, which (when we look back at the image above) should generally suggest a person is friendly, trustworthy even perhaps. When the movie develops we get to see her true colours and realise she isn't that bad after all, probably caught up in an abusive relationship. The combination of here head and body is misleading, but works perfectly. Another character I adore is Edna. She is the epitome of what everybody needs to be. She is funny and quirky, but sure is stubborn as well. She has a tiny and square physique, making it more difficult to convey emotions, but here body language is everything. For such a small posture, she has great silhouettes when posed in the right way.

Not entirely sure how to feel about the possible sequel coming up though? I mean, this film was perf.