Stunning SUPERMAN RETURNS Deleted Scene Concept Art by Ben Procter

See concept art for the deleted scene of Superman returning to Krypton in Superman Returns.

Man of Steel opens in a few days, but I wanted to take a look back at the last Superman film: Superman Returns (2006) directed by Bryan Singer.

Ben Procter is a professional concept\storyboard artist who's worked on films such as The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Avatar (2009) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). He shared some concept art from the movie and described the designs on his site.

This artwork is absolutely gorgeous, and it captures the stunning beauty of the crystalline shapes.

Check out the rest of the pictures after the jump and click to enlarge.  All comments are from Proctor's website



"At the beginning of Superman Returns, Superman arrives at the remnants of Krypton to explore his origins. Or so it was planned! Unfortunately for me and many other artisans, this intro sequence was finished but didn't make the theatrical cut. I worked on a number of keyframe illustrations depicting Superman's crystal spacecraft exploring the shattered remains of his home planet. In the stalactite flythru keyframe, you can see the Ed Natividad ship design which became the basis of my 3D design, shown in the arrival frame."





"Shown here is the final 3D ship exterior I developed. My initial tests were a bit more organically crystalline, but ultimately Guy pushed it in a cool, Art Deco-inspired direction with lots of stacked parallel elements. This project was my first experience with SSS (sub-surface scattering] shading, and I was very impressed with the rich crystalline look it can help provide."



"Next I was assigned to the crystal ship interior, which was to be a built set. Shown here are some earlier renderings of the design in progress, from rough floorplan and volume layouts to explorations of different details and lighting schemes, Superman's sleeping pod went through the biggest changes, starting out as a perfect sphere and ending up a more organic crystalline mass which would split into 3 sections for entry and egress. Yes, die hard fans, I know that green is the color of poisonous Kryptonite,..I was just following orders!"



"To sell and explain the ship interior design, I was asked to come up with some presentation sheets showing the layout and function of various details, including a holographic interstellar navigation display. Look, diehard fans.. I actually used 'real' Kryptonian lettering; maybe now you can forgive me for the Kryptonite thing."

"In the end, the ship interior color palette was darker and more mysterious than I had initially imagined, because of the need to keep Superman's identity secret until he steps up to the control area of the ship and a Blade Runner-esque windowshade effect lets the sun in, finally revealing his face. The sequence includes cool closeups of the control panel crystals extruding up in a far more complex way than was ever seen in the classic movies, the crystals swiftly growing into place on a microscopic level."








Watch the deleted scene here.

See more of Ben Proctor's portfolio, including concept art from another deleted scene where Clark sees his birth ship at http://www.benprocter.com.

Click on the links if you want to see more of Ben Procter's work and Superman Returns.

Official Synopsis
He's back. A hero for our millennium. And not a moment too soon, because during the five years (much longer in movie-fan years!) Superman sought his home planet, things changed on his adopted planet. Nations moved on without him. Lois Lane now has a son, a fiance and a Pulitzer for "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." And Lex Luthor has a plan that will destroy millions - no, billions - of lives. Filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men) gives the world the Superman it needs, honoring the legend everyone loves while taking it in a powerful new direction. Brandon Routh proves a perfect choice to wear the hero's cape, leading a top cast that includes Kate Bosworth as Lois and Kevin Spacey as Lex. And the thrills - from a sky-grapple with a tumbling jumbo jet to a continent-convulsing showdown - redefine Wow. "I'm always around," Superman tells Lois. You'll be glad he is.

Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring:  Brandon Routh,  Kate Bosworth,  James Marsden,  Frank Langella,  Eva Marie Saint,  Parker Posey,  Kal Penn,  Sam Huntington,  Kevin Spacey

Release date:  June 28, 2006

Official site: LINK

2006 Copyright Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, DC Comics, Peters Entertainment, Bad Hat Harry Productions. All rights reserved.

QUESTION?
***
http://filmsketchr.blogspot.com/search/label/
Tags:

Comments