Black Panther

MARVEL STUDIOS

BLACK PANTHER 1+2
TECH DESIGN +
TITLE SEQUENCE

A defining moment in John’s career (and his tenure at Perception), the collaboration on Black Panther started with a consultation about the future of tech, and expanded into 18 months of prototypes, visual effects, 2 animated sequences, and much more.

THIS CONTENT IS INTENTIONALLY LIMITED TO THE WORK CREATED FOR BLACK PANTHER 1.

Check back for updates on "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever".

Please contact me for more information about secure practices used with the most secretive clients in film, technology and more.

AN OVERVIEW OF WAKANDA

Wakandan tech concepts extended to include various gadgets and UIs, Black Panther suit-effects, a ‘History of Wakanda’ prologue sequence, and the closing title sequence.

A Montage of contributions to Black Panther

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An overview of the tech-audit that kicked of 18 months of collaboration.

A DREAM BRIEF

It all started with a request from Marvel Studios to spitball ideas with Director Ryan Coogler. To start the conversation, John and his team prepared an audit of relevant technologies and phenomenon. Even at this early stage, John proposed a critical innovation: replacing light-based holograms with “Vibranium Sand”.

A NEW PARADIGM:
VIBRANIUM SAND

Very early on in the process, John & his team established the paradigm of Vibranium Sand as an interactive medium. Rather than utilizing glowing blue holograms (as seen in countless other blockbusters), vibranium sand could levitate in the air, creating a flexible yet tactile medium.

FANTASY
GROUNDED IN REALITY

A critical part of John’s process is to support fictional tech with practical connections to science and engineering. Based on John’s past experience with ultrasonic transducer arrays (for mid-air haptics), he discovered that the University of Tokyo was experimenting with the same hardware, using soundwaves to levitate styrofoam particles.

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Phenomena of science & engineering is a perpetual source of inspiration.

The University of Tokyo's experiments lay the groundwork for what could become 'Vibranium Sand'.

"When a room of executives need to agree on creative, a supporting logic makes everything less subjective, and easier to align on."

Sometimes, your designs aren't enough. You need to design the process, design the relationship, and design the expectations.

OUR 'WAKANDA
INNOVATION LAB'

John’s team (at Perception) was an all-star cast, brining clever solutions, beautiful design, and technical wizardry to the wide range of challenges. Extra special thanks to the brilliant director Ryan Coogler who guided and supported us, and Marvel’s amazing VFX-Sup Geoff Baumann who championed our work (and unconventional process).

John's specific title on this project was PRINCIPAL / CHIEF CREATIVE DIRECTOR.

Throughout the process John led all creative while occasionally being hands-on with Design, 2D & 3D Animation, and editing.