How Classic Paintings, 3D Printing Brought RoboCop to Life

After a 21-year absence, RoboCop returns to the big screen on Wednesday night in the U.S., but this isn't the somewhat clunky, albeit adored version with Buckaroo Banzai inside the seldom removed helmet and never-removed cyborg body. This is a total franchise reboot by director José Padilha.

The basics are the same: a good cop named Alex Murphy is almost killed and a corporation uses his body as the basis for making the next great leap in law enforcement: a cyborg cop. But now RoboCop, played by Joel Kinnaman, has a motorcycle, a stun gun to go with his regular gun, and a super-sleek new look.

Where did that look—not to mention the overall design of the movie—come from? Production designer Martin Whist was on the scene early on. He's worked on fan-favorite flicks like Super 8, Cabin in the Woods, and Cloverfield. So he certainly knows his mayhem. But he admits he's no technology expert. So how did he approach the design of the world in 2028, where robots walk the streets (in foreign countries, at least)?

"The design approach was to be, let's say, conceivable for people," said Whist in an interview with PCMag. Since the film only takes place 14 years from today, he didn't want to get too far-fetched with the technological leaps. "It wasn't in our interest to 'out imagine' someone's notion of what the future would be for technology. What's actually happening in research is enough."

What kind of research? Materials science, robotics, brain-to-hardware interfaces, 3D user interfaces—all of them are out there and testing right now. Even the current trend in wearable tech sets a precedent. "My feeling is, as we progress, as we advance, the devices become less apparent, smaller and less physical, but more robust and sturdy in terms of capabilities," said Whist. "The duality is between seeing less, but more happens."

He wanted the evolution of technology to be apparent even during the time frame of the movie. In the opening, there's a scene in an older police station, where you see computers of the future—but they're still obviously desktop computers and monitors. As the film advances, we visit the insides of the villainous OmniCorp that creates RoboCop and other robots. Here, the "PCs" are more like a little bar with a 3D holographic screen and projected keyboard on a desk surface. It's the Leap Motion of the future on steroids.

Francis Bacon Helps the Design

Francis Bacon Helps the Design
The Irish painter Francis Bacon was known for his abstract images of isolated figures in turmoil. Early on in the creation of the look of RoboCop, director José Padilha send a few images of Bacon's work to Whist. They used the look as the "underlying visual metaphor" of the film, Whist said.

In fact, in one scene, Whist made sure that there was a triptych of Bacon paintings behind the character of Raymond Sellars, the CEO of OmniCorp, played by Michael Keaton.

The offices of OmniCorp's CEO with painting by Francis Bacon, inspirational to the filmmakers.

RoboCop spends his downtime in a lab where doctors like the one played by Gary Oldman keep an eye on him. "The lab," said Whist, "is somewhat a 3D version of a Bacon, where ... the architecture itself is very, very austere, straight, rectolinear, 90 degrees, as if it emulates Bacon's lines. He creates boxes and perimeters and containment devices in his pictures for the more biomorphic imagery—the sometimes grotesque, tough imagery of a human form."

When RoboCop is docked in the lab, he's trapped in the device, just like the figures in Bacon paintings. Whist thinks that spills over into the mental and emotional state of RoboCop as a man trapped within a suit under the control of a corporation.

The Suit Design Process and 3D

The Suit Design Process and 3D
Whist worked with an extensive team of people—researchers and illustrators and designers galore. They looked into modern-day robotics and vehicles, and of course reference imagery beyond Francis Bacon. He listed Formula One racecars, stealth bombers, time-trial cycles, and the movie Alien as references.

Whist got to redesign the legendary ED-209 robots, a big part of the original RoboCop films. Now these bipedal tanks are even more mobile and aggressive, and rendered in CGI rather than the originals' somewhat hokey-looking stop-motion. New to the remake however is the EM-208, a foot-soldier bot that is featured in the film's trailer. For the look of those, Whist says he was inspired by none other than legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett.

When it came to the look of RoboCop himself, Whist knew he had to look to the source material: the original movie directed by Paul Verhoeven. While some fans of that version might be stunned at the black, Whist made sure there's a full homage to actor Peter Weller's original look—when RoboCop comes out of his coma, he looks like he did in the 1987 film. But the remake shows the progression of time as they perfect the robotics and cybernetics involved.

Together, Whist and Legacy Effects made sure the suit was just right, using 3D images to nip and tuck things that wouldn't work on a human body.

"Most of our work is done in 3D," said Whist. They burned through 2D pictures quickly to get to the 3D modeling, especially when it came to the suit. The full design then went to Legacy to build. The company is the go-to special effects house for such things: it built the suits for Iron Man, Pacific Rim, and handles effects on hundreds of commercials and features. One Legacy partner, John Rosengrant, got an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for Real Steel.

These days, the next step is 3D printing. "It's changed our world," said Whist. "It's mostly done through printing, that's why it's so important to get the 3D files absolutely perfect. There isn't another interpretation—no sculpting process or making casts anymore—we output the 3D files."

In at least one preview video of Legacy's work, an Envisiontec Perfactor 3D printer can be seen.

But Legacy not only built the device, it was on set to make sure it functioned properly, to help Kinnaman and stunt people suit up and remove it, as well as tracking the damage it endured for continuity.

Actor Joel Kinnaman tries on the RoboCop outfit.

In a recent interview, Michael Keaton jokingly called the new RoboCop costume a "sissy suit" when compared to his outfit from 1989's Batman. Unlike that rubberized armor, Kinnaman had duds he could actually remove parts of to go to the bathroom, plus he could turn his head. Best of all, it had an air-conditioning element to keep him cool. All thanks to Legacy Effects.