In addition to all the fun, STGCC also celebrated the occasion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)'s 10th anniversary, which has seen a great impact on worldwide pop culture. The MCU franchise began in 2008 with the release of Iron Man, and has since grown to encompass 19 more movies and several TV series.
Meeting eager fans inside the halls of Marina Bay Sands was Ryan Meinerding, Marvel Studios' Head of Visual Development, whose credits include Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, the Avengers movies and Black Panther. He has been with the studio since the early days of Iron Man, starting out as an illustrator before making his way up to his current position.
Meinerding described his job as "visualising what the characters in the comics can be for the films", which involves designing the look and feel of characters based on comic references, and collaborating with costume designers and visual effects team for the final finishing touch of the film's visuals.
"Occasionally, it's about learning about what the long plans are for Marvel and just doing some illustrations to help them figure it out. Like, if we're gonna do Doctor Strange for the first time, what illustrations could sum up what that movie could be before anyone else works on it," Meinerding said, adding that his favourite superheroes to work on are Captain America and Spider-Man.
Some Meinerding's Marvel artwork.
While his lips were sealed regarding all of the MCU's exciting projects on the horizon, such as the upcoming Captain Marvel, an untitled Avengers movie, and other projects, he gave us an inside look into the creation of the cinematic universe we've come to know and love for the past decade.
How do you think the MCU has changed over the past decade?
I'd like to think there's depth in the journey. Like, how Captain America changed over the course of his journey through the MCU, and Tony Stark changing. From a concept point of view, it gets more and more interesting each time we do a character again, and again, and again because their story changes. They go to a new place. They learn a new lesson. They become a more realised character. I'd like to think it's changed in that there's a greater depth. The characters in the film, and the visuals that we're trying to create, are trying to represent that depth, which is a great thing to try and do.
It must be difficult to fit all these visually different superheroes into one universe
We used to be really worried about how they would all fit together in the first Avengers movie. In our illustrations, it was a big deal to put them in and make them look like they go together. What we found was one of the fun parts about the MCU is when they don't go together so well. Like, when Doctor Strange met Tony Stark for the first time. Their costumes are completely different. Strange alchemy happens when you put all these characters together -- their personality and how they play off of each other and also, to me, their visuals and how they complement and contrast each other.
Your work seems to come with quite a lot of creative freedom. Is that an easy or difficult thing to grasp?
It's always easier when we have something to base it on. The first time we work on a character for their own movie is usually the hardest thing, because there's so many different ways to interpret the visuals from the comic. But once you've figured out that first look, and you have a notion of what they look like now and where we can take them, then you have that first look to base the next one on. It's definitely harder the first time.
Any tips for all the budding artists out there?
Our job as concept artists is really to inspire people, to make directors, producers and the whole production excited about the visuals before they're actually made. The only way I found to be able to do this is to inspire myself. I have to be inspired by what I'm working on.
You also have to continually want to get better and better. That really only happens if you stay passionate and inspired by what you're working on. Find what you're really inspired to work on and just keep pushing into that and be excited every day to get drawing, because it's a pretty amazing thing to be drawing for a living.
