The Marvels Title Design

Upon watching The Marvels, our team immediately resonated with the idea of this film feeling like a rock-n-roll space opera. We were drawn to the retro influences throughout The Marvels and decided to base our title sequence in those vintage vibes.

Since The Marvels is such a fun and colorful film, we wanted our title sequence to capture the spirit of the movie through illustrations. To celebrate the space opera vibe of the film, we created an illustrated style that is reminiscent of book covers and movie posters of the '70s. These illustrations depict key moments and characters seen throughout the film.

From the beginning of our early design phase, we had a clear color scheme in mind inspired by the vibrant colors of the film. We focused on blues, purples , pinks, and oranges, all falling in line with the '70s vintage idea. When we started the illustration process for the title sequence, we wanted to blend these colors with cosmic treatments, resembling space, galaxies and nebulas. We ran color tests to explore these possibilities within our initial edit and mimic the '70s aesthetic from our concept.

Early on in the process we knew that dynamic transitions from shot to shot would be integral to keeping the excitement and momentum of the sequence rolling. As we were drawing our illustrations and mapping out our animations, we explored how each frame could move and transition into one another. This exploration process gave us the space and opportunity to come up with transitions that were both unique and felt naturally flowing.

To further emphasize the retro aesthetic, our team began exploring various typefaces to utilize throughout the sequence. We landed on two typefaces which perfectly aligned with the '70s feel and complemented each other visually - Marvin Visions and ITC Busorama. We elected to color these typefaces with a vivid shade of yellow as a callback to classic '70s movie titles and poster text. Marvin Visions was also used to make the main title at the end of the sequence.

To create this sequence, our illustrators began drawing each of the illustrations in Adobe Photoshop, referencing storyboards and our specific color palette. As the illustrations were coming together, we began conducting motion tests with animated textures that we felt added depth and character to these drawings. We used textures from Cinema 4D’s native noise maps while also creating our own custom grunge maps in Adobe After Effects using the Boris Fx Sapphire Plugin suite.

The final main title for The Marvels was also based on the illustrative styles of our references with additional depth, dimension and unique textures.

Similar to the main title, we used this same mapping technique for many of the elements throughout the sequence, notably, Captain Marvel’s ship. We created all of the illustrated textures in Photoshop and Illustrator. Then, we UV mapped them to the ship in Cinema 4D. We also created a second material to map over the ship that would give it more illustrative shading when it was rotating.

Our team also collaborated with Marvel Studios to animate and composite a large scale map hologram into a critical scene with Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel.

Our team designed several split screens during key moments throughout the film. The core of the film is three heroines working together and exploring how their powers are connected. Our split screen transitions were a visual way of showing moments of their powers becoming intertwined.

For every Marvel Studios film and series, our team updates and customizes the opening Marvel Studios fanfare. For The Marvels, we replaced several clips to add more footage of Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel. There were 16 clips replaced in total, evenly distributed throughout the animation. Towards the end, we do a full takeover of the floor clips so each piece of footage is of The Marvels. At the very end, we replaced the Black Panther explosion in the letters of “Marvel” to feature a Captain Marvel clip instead.

It was an honor to collaborate with Marvel Studios on so many brilliant aspects of The Marvels, including the illustrative end title sequence. Our title sequence takes the audience on a non-stop roller coaster ride through the infinite cosmos, revealing stunning imagery composed in unexpected ways!