(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] When Batman appeared on TV screens
in the 1960s,
- It's Batman!
- [Narrator] his costume looked pretty similar
to the comic book.
But in 2022's version,
the leotard became 3D-printed, black body armor,
complete with a functional arm gadget and insignia.
Batman has come a long way,
from spandex and nylon to practical flying wingsuits.
And over the years, the mix of practical effects and CGI
has created costumes
that feel more real and believable to the audience.
In comic books, heroes often wear tight-fitting clothing
to show off their superhuman muscles and strength.
But when superheroes began showing up
on the big screen in the 1940s,
those were tough shoes, or suits,
for actors to fill in real life.
Those body types weren't realistic
and neither were the materials.
At the time, the most common fabrics for costumes
were wool, felt, and nylon,
nothing skintight like the comic books required,
so the outfits were loose and ill-fitting,
up until the invention of Lycra, or spandex.
1978's "Superman" showcased what would become
one of the most popular superhero outfits,
designed by Oscar-winning costume designer Yvonne Blake.
- [Man] Whoa!
- Excuse me.
- That's a bad outfit!
- [Narrator] She kept the trademark red underwear
from the comic books.
Underneath, Christopher Reeve wore plastic protection,
something normally worn by boxers.
But spandex can actually flatten out muscles,
removing definition, so Reeves had to pack on
over 30 pounds of muscle to appear stronger in the costume.
That all changed in the '80s
when robots took over our screens.
C-3PO's design in "Star Wars,"
combined with the physique of Marvel comic superheroes,
soon paved the way for this armored superhero costume.
RoboCop's 1987 armored suit weighed 80 pounds.
To make something so bulky actually wearable,
the designers started with a flexible undersuit
and covered it with a harness,
to which they attached a fiberglass exoskeleton.
The interior and the black sections
were a mix of high-impact plastics and foam rubber,
which made the suit so hot,
actor Peter Weller sweated out three pounds a day.
The designers eventually installed
an AC unit inside the outfit.
This was also one of the first times
that hero suits were somewhat functional.
The team had to build seven different versions
to show damage from different fight scenes,
including one made of special fireproof fiberglass
worn by a stuntman.
(gentle upbeat music)
Similar hard exteriors
were also used to bulk up comic superheroes.
Tim Burton upgraded Batman to armor in 1989,
swapping the spandex and trunks
with sculpted rubber muscles.
- It was a brilliant suit.
I remember seeing that suit on location.
It was a new idea and a new technique.
- [Narrator] The new idea: using black foam rubber latex
to make Batman's signature protective cowl.
Formed as one piece for a seamless look,
the cowl was connected to the cape, upper bust, and neck.
This meant that actor Michael Keaton
couldn't actually turn his neck in the costume.
Instead, to turn his head,
he had to swivel his entire upper body.
The complete outfit weighed just under 90 pounds,
with the cape alone weighing 40 pounds.
And the extra weight, in addition to the stiff cowl,
made fight scenes stiff and awkward.
One superhero who needed his full range of movement?
Spider-Man.
His live-action debut in 1977's "Amazing Spider-Man" series
was a basic head-to-toe spandex suit.
But 2002's "Spider-Man" would start a new tradition
of combining both practical
and digital versions of the costume.
Designers spent four months
testing different versions of the costume
to get the right fit and shape for Tobey Maguire,
with the heightened illusion of muscles
through rubber web lining and shading.
At the time, VFX designers struggled to animate faces,
but since Spider-Man wore a mask,
he was a perfect candidate for incorporating a CG costume.
For scenes that were just too dangerous
for stunt actors to shoot in costume,
they would be recreated digitally.
This final scene was completely CG,
but it was the most time-consuming shot,
taking 18 months to create.
CG shots still had room for improvement
and were not yet as convincing as the real thing,
so when director Christopher Nolan took on "Batman Begins,"
he opted to shoot things in camera as much as possible
and only use CGI to enhance scenes.
"Batman Begins" found ways to update Tim Burton's batsuit
with greater detail practically.
The "Dark Knight" trilogy leaned toward designing
an indestructible suit of armor.
Designers drew inspiration from military technology
and materials to make it appear fireproof and bulletproof.
The team also redesigned the armor in the sequel,
molding out more than 100 smaller plates in clay
before casting them in urethane.
These plates were then placed onto a mesh underlayer,
which created even more flexibility.
The neck was also now adjusted for greater movement.
The head section of the cowl
was finally separated from the neck so it could twist more.
The neck and jaw sections were scaled down
and designed as smaller panels
connected to the armor panels.
These practical advancements paved the way
for even more integration between CG and practical suits.
Like in 2008's "Iron-Man," which used a practical costume
for his first clunky cave suit.
The 90-pound version was made with epoxy armor shells,
urethane, leather, and aluminum.
But a rising new technology would make it easier
to build lighter and more precise armor.
3D printing changed how costumes were constructed.
Complicated pieces were made quicker, cheaper,
and more precise.
Like this blue mesh that was printed
to give depth to Superman's more modern chrome muscle suit.
The Star-Lord helmet in "Guardians of the Galaxy"
could be accurately fitted with a 3D scan
as well as include features inside
such as hidden fans for better ventilation
and red lenses that light up without affecting vision.
Instead of spending hours molding a suit,
designers could quickly scan an actor
and create a suit with perfect measurements.
2017's "Wonder Woman" wanted to stay true
to her modern-day costume,
which premiered a year prior in "Batman v Superman."
Dozens of materials were tested
to make the armor lighter and more flexible
before adding a special metal plating finish.
Special effects team FBFX also developed a new technique
that allowed actual metal plating to be used
without affecting the suit's flexibility.
But it wasn't just practical costumes
getting an update at this time.
CG costumes were looking much more realistic
thanks to motion-capture technology.
Perfecting this led to the incredible realism
of the digital time suits in "Avengers: Endgame."
This scene was actually filmed right after the prequel,
so the final suits weren't even designed yet.
But the technology really shined
for characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man.
Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland wore these suits on set
to track their movements,
and FX artists later replaced them with digital versions.
For 2021's "No Way Home,"
Tom wore what's known as a fractal suit,
an upgrade that fine-tuned and tracked the movement
even more than regular mo-cap tracking suits.
With all of these advancements,
costume designers could now combine CGI,
3D printing, and practical methods
to bring an even more realistic Batman
to the screen in 2022.
Robert's batsuit kept the armored look from "Dark Knight,"
and it was made of 3D-printed pieces of armor.
The head and neck of the cowl were separate.
To create the seamless effect,
the neckpiece was made up of vertebrae-like pieces
that eventually tucked under the chest armor
and the top of the cape.
- What's nice about our batsuit
is that Robert has a lot of head freedom.
We were always trying to tweak the tension on it.
- But there's all this clever kind of work underneath
with the elastic bands
that hold them to parts of the chest,
so that when they move,
they all come back into the right position.
- [Narrator] For the muscle suit,
the focus was on making it as functional as possible.
- Every part of the suit was practical.
The gauntlets, the gun, all the armor and everything,
and even down to the insignia,
the idea that it would be a knife.
- [Narrator] And this practicality paid off
in larger stunt scenes,
like when Batman leaps off the building.
- That's actually a real winged suit he's wearing.
- We had ones that you could actually fly in.
- [Narrator] The team worked with parachute gliders
to develop this version of the suit.
- It's a little bit of visual effects, trickery
to help it along the way, but all of the process, we did it,
and there were real steps
as to how he could turn his cape into the winged suit.
- [Narrator] Over the decades, each of these advancements
has led to more and more believable superhero costumes
and changed how they were brought to the screen,
making them not just captivating to comic book fans,
but to global mainstream audiences.
(upbeat music)