Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541330
MOTIONPICTUREC O S T U M E R S .O R G 29 printed on with 3D ink, so those colors have to go with the color on the base. Sometimes the color underneath needs to be a lile brighter, so there's a lile contrast between that and ink. We had to do tests on all that, so it was a very, very involved process. We had a lot of time to do research, because the strikes were happening, we had ample time to just kind of get it right, and we needed to get it right, because a lot was riding on this film. 3D ink is using screening and ink in tiny, lile paerns. They have these paerns that are really tight and they're textural. So, this actually looks like a weave, like a fabric, but it's not a flat twill. Because of what I do, I'm oen in the room at the big production meetings, and we're talking about what happens in this scene when the damage happens: is he blasted from the front or is he blasted from the side? When the kaiju hits him with the flames, does the suit burn? Or does the suit not burn? Is it a super suit, or is it something his mom made? So, we have all these discussions, and I'm in the room with James talking about all this stuff. I do this other thing where I go into a meeting and I would take the sketch of the sketch costume, and then I will go back and I will paint on it. There's the dirt and the dust. You like this level? You want to go more? Do you want more of a direction to it because it can't just be just dirt that looks dumb. And so, I'll paint on this transparent sketch and James can read this, and he knows that I can deliver what I'm showing. Then sometimes he's dirty, and then a layer happens where he gets smoke on him. So, then I add another sheet with the smoke so we have a visual reference that I can show him before I do it on the costume. ULTRAMAN DA: Oen on these shows, I work with the Paern Maker & Fier because those are not just clothes. They're elevated. Things are padded and things are structured. Then on the outside, they look like something else. But there's a lot of work that goes into making it. There's a lot of glue, and there's a lot of this, a lot of filling in, just taking those clothes to the next step. I worked with Rob Rier, who was the Paern Maker & Fier for the Justice Gang. I worked with him on those, then Ultraman, specifically the Ultraman headpiece. The Ultraman fabrics were designed and chosen for what the costume needed to be. For me, it didn't really maer, because it was a stationary thing and it was covered, except for here, which is loose. Everything else is structured. I think there were probably 15 or 20 fabrics made to use for the Ultraman costume. Maybe seven were used for the whole costume. But they had a wide variety of things that looked like solid print but actually were sheer with the same print on it in the same color. So, you could put sheer panels that were breathable, that you'd never be able to tell. KM: Oh, Ultraman has hundreds and hundreds of pieces. That made Superman's suit look like a piece of cake. That costume, because it had molded rubber pieces, it had leather wrapped pieces, it had foam pieces that had fabric wrapped around them, and all of it sewn in and sewn together. That costume came together prey much the day before filming as well, because there's so many different fabrics and just a lot of indecision about what it was supposed to be. And paerning for that, though, I actually wrapped the form and drew my style lines because there were so many distinct lines with where there is the rubber trim, and where's this foam piece, and there's so many lines on it. So basically, what I did was draw it on the stand, so when it was done, it looked like the costume was completely done. And then, just very carefully started cuing it apart and developing each paern piece from each piece I took off. But I think that costume was well over, probably 300 pieces of paern, well over 300. KRYPTO GS: So, one day I walked in and there's a 3D-printed life size dog on my table. And so, I am making the cape for that dog, and I'm draping on that dog, just like I would drape on a scan of an actor. And it's really the same thing as draping a cape. I mean, you can flat paern a cape, but with a dog gravity is working against you. What I mean is you can have a majestic cape if you stand upright, but if you're on all fours, that fabric is in your way, and suddenly you're in a A 3-D-printed life size dog model was used to create the cape pattern for Krypto in Superman (2025). © 2025 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT