Case Study: Maleficent Movie Poster

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Maleficent Movie Poster - Movie Poster Design

OBJECTIVE

Project Parameter

Summary: The project was to create an illustration poster to promote the movie Maleficent from Disney. The poster told a brief story using relevant typeface and imagery that signify the fantasy theme. Moreover, the outcome achieved an interesting composition, cohesive color scheme, and a clear visual hierarchy that emphasized Maleficent as the main character of the poster.

Goal: The major goal was to produce a high-quality illustrated movie poster. The illustration could be printed as decoration and promotion or could be exported as a digital file for websites.

Duration: The project was proposed to be done within four weeks, but it was fulfilled and completed in roughly four to five days.

Size: The poster was required to be tabloid, but the vectorized version could be enlarged for any required printing sizes.

Design Process

Exploration

To begin the case study, it was necessary to clearly define the design process, the plot summary, and the target audience.

Design Process

The design process included many cycling steps: research, sketching, visualization, feedback, vectorization, development, retouching, and finalization (Figure 1).

Plot Summary

Maleficent was a fairy and a protector of her peaceful, idyllic Moors. She fell in love with a man who later became King Stefan. Unfortunately, Stefan betrayed and cut her wings leaving her behind injured with a broken heart. The desperate fairy turned into a cold-hearted wizard who transformed her region into a deathly dungeon. On the day Princess Aurora was born, Maleficent made a curse that Aurora would touch a spinning wheel and suffer from an endless sleep when she would turn sixteen. Despite being a villain, Maleficent grew a bond with Aurora and tried to protect her from the death curse that she had made. Eventually, Maleficent regained her wings, won the fight with King Stefan, and returned her dark Moors back to the glorious era. Aurora overcame the curse and became the queen, who consolidated both worlds in peace.

Target Audience

The movie targeted teenagers, Disney’s fans, and fantasy-themed movie lovers. Therefore, the poster must not look too deathly and must utilize various magical elements to attract the target audience.

Figure 1 - The Design Process progressed in a cycling manner

Discovery & Ideation

Research

The research included two major parts: Inspiration and Imagery Research.

Inspiration: The initial research was to look for inspired illustrated posters (Figure 2) and to study their design choices that could then be utilized in my design.

Figure 2 - Inspired illustrated posters - left to right: Dredd, Spider-Man Into The Spider-verse, World War Z, Wonder Woman.

Imagery Research: The second step of Research was to find many reference images, which could be implemented into the design. The images included different angles of the main characters (Maleficent, Princess Aurora, and the three little fairies), the background (the castle and the environment), and other subjects (the spinning wheels and the thorns) (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - The purpose of Imagery Research was to study the element and find relevant contents for the poster.

Sketching

My sketch (Figure 4) based on reference images that helped me visualize the compositions and determine what elements should be included. The sketch was rough and not detailed-oriented, for I mostly focused on the scale and composition.

Figure 4 - The rough sketch was conducted to explore composition for the poster.

Visualization

After the sketch was roughly created, the Visualization step further refined the ideation. If the Sketching was about composition, Visualization (Figure 5) brought the color into the game. This step improved the color harmony and significantly reduced the required time for the whole project.

Figure 5 - From the composition of the Sketch, Visualization brough the color into the game.

Vectorization

The Visualization based a guideline to facilitate Vectorization step because everything had already been clearly defined in its place. The Vectorization (Figure 6) mostly emphasized on tracing the elements, picking the right colors, and adding appropriate effects.

Figure 6 - Based on composition and color from the previous steps, Vectorization began building the elements in vectors.

Feedback

Getting feedback from peers and professionals helped improve the project. Feedback was done multiple times in between the steps for better development.

Solution

Development

This step refined all the elements by adding more layers, gradients, and effects to improve aesthetics and depth. The interpretations below were also implemented into each element that explained my design decisions.

The Characters

Maleficent (Figure 7) dominated a large space in the poster suggesting her main role. Her vibrant red lips and directing eyes made a strong impact that grabbed the viewer’s attention. Her collar emitted a green light which conveyed her magical power. From Maleficent’s cape, the thorns embraced and protected Princess Aurora. I focused on portraying her detail, such as the skin color, the glossiness of her outfit, and the green glow on her figure.

Figure 7 - Maleficent dominates a large space of the poster due to her main role.

Princess Aurora (Figure 8) was the main supporting role, so I made her scale smaller compared to Maleficent. Her golden laurel wreath was elaborated, for it symbolized her royal blood. The blue outer glow was added to make her stand out from the dark background.

Figure 8 - Princess Aurora is the main supporting character, so she makes appearance in the poster.

The three little fairies (Figure 9), Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, were the supporting characters. The trio was flying around Aurora to imply their role as the protectors of Princess Aurora. The little glowing dust radiating from their wings demonstrated their magical power, which related to the fantasy theme.

Figure 9 - Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather show their worried facial expression because of Maleficent.

The Background

In the background, the forest (Figure 10) portrayed the distance between two kingdoms by using linear perspective (farther trees have smaller scale) and atmospheric perspective (farther trees appear more desaturated). The silhouette of King Stefan’s castle erecting from the skyline; the shape and form of the castle derived directly from the movie’s still cut to assure the accuracy. The billowing cloudy sky was layered with different shades of blue to create depth and add a gloomy appearance.

Figure 10 - The background looked realistic for the usage of linear persepective and atmospheric perspective.

Spinning wheels

The spinning wheel (Figure 11) was one of the most well-known symbols of the movie. There were wheels scattered on the foreground, but the spinning wheel with the needle pointing directly to Princess Aurora was the main illustration. I applied more
detail, lighting effect, and a yellow glow to catch the viewer’s attention.

Figure 11 - The main symbolism of the movie relates to the death wish of Maleficent.

Typeface

I chose the typeface “a song for Jennifer bold” (Figure 12), for its serif and jagged edges that suggested the story’s old timeline. The outer glowing effect and two horns on letter A were added to resemble Maleficent collar’s green light and her helmet, respectively. The typeface was also curved for a more interesting appearance

Figure 12 - The typeface “a song for Jennifer bold” is used for its relation to the storyline.

Outcome

Retouch/Finalization

After establishing a basic illustration, the Retouch step (Figure 13) added some minor modifications. Some layers of the skins and hairs were adjusted to improve the form and shape. Gradients were also applied to some elements for better depth. The colors were also readjusted to match the overall color scheme.

Figure 13 - Maleficent’s skin colors were adjusted, and color gradients were applied to some elements, such as forest and castle, for better color harmony.

Challenges

The main challenge of this project was to illustrate some complicated detail. Many elements, such as thorns, Aurora’s hair and laurel wreath, had complex structure. If they had not been done correctly, the outcome would have a messy, unsatisfying appearance. However, I took some additional research to understand their structure and portrayed them in a simplified manner. The simplified version of illustration turned out very effective with basic form but still attained elaborate detail.

Outcome

The finalized poster (Figure 14) achieved a balanced, professional appearance. All the elements were integrated into an asymmetrical composition. The eye movement followed a clear visual hierarchy starting from Maleficent, to Princess Aurora, the fairy trio, the title, the spinning wheel, and then up to the castle. The color palette was well-harmonized with a cool tone suggested from the Research. Some magical elements, such as the glow and fairy dust, were implemented to illustrate the fantasy theme.

Figure 14 - The final poster was a success and achieved a professional appearance.

Conclusion

Reflection

I fulfilled this project with a successful outcome (Figure 15) for both of its professional aesthetics and implemented storyline. This project was an awesome experience that improved my technical as well as interpretation skill. It also gave me an opportunity to learn the process of making original artwork from different reference images. Besides, I managed to pull through the challenges and complete the project within a short amount of time. The project made me realize that illustration is the kind of work that I want to do in the future. I like to create more original illustrated posters that tell a story and inspire other people.