See designs for the futuristic vehicles of 1985 in Back to the Future 2 concept art.

Tim Flattery is a professional concept artist and has worked on films like X-Men, Real Steel and Spider-Man 2 since 1988.

Check out more images from Flattery after the jump and click to enlarge.


"One of my first movies and first big studio productions. I had so much fun doing these vehicles. Thought I would include some of the early sketches as well."

Wikipedia Description
Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 American science fiction comedy film and the second installment of the Back to the Future trilogy. As with all three films, it was directed by Robert Zemeckis, scripted by Bob Gale, and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson. Parts II and III were filmed back-to-back—with some scenes filmed concurrently—and released six months apart. All of the films in the series are set with 1985 as present time, in continuance of the original story.

After repairing the damage to history by making his parents fall in love in 1955, Marty McFly returns to 1985. While there, his friend Dr. Emmett Brown has him travel to 2015 to prevent his future son from getting involved with Biff Tannen's grandson, Griff. However, Biff travels to 1955 and completely alters history. Marty and Doc travel to 1955 to stop Biff so they can restore the original timeline.

Check out the rest of Tim Flattery's awesome portfolio at www.timflattery.com.

See all the Tim Flattery's illustrations on my blog, more work from Back to the Future and read my interview with him here.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Produced by Neil Canton, Bob Gale
Screenplay by Bob Gale
Story by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson

What do you think of the illustrations?
 
@ Copyright 1985 Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, U-Drive Productions. All rights reserved



F is for Flattery, Tim
This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 26 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and featuring one favorite arts or properties. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here. Check the Facebook page and follow on Twitterusing the hashtag #AtoZChallenge.

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Normally, I only post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but this is a very special post.

Andrew Probert has been a designer for over twenty years, but his most famous work was on Star Trek: The Next Generation. A legend in the concept design world, Andrew G. Probert has an artistic career working on some of science-fiction's greatest Hollywood productions.

His Hollywood career began as a designer for Glen Larson's Battlestar: Galactica. He was a major contributor on the planned Star Trek television sequel Star Trek: Phase II and the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture as concept designer/illustrator.

Probert's career has spanned numerous influential television shows like Airwolf and Street Hawk and films like Back to the Future and *batteries not included (1987). He's also the creator of the iTunes app "Concept 101: The Worlds of Andrew Probert."

He was kind enough to answer a few questions for my blog. He talks about his inspiration for Battlestar Galactica, how his being a Trekker influenced his designs of the Enterprise and his approach to "digital" drawing.

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a production illustrator?
While attending Art Center College of Design, as an I.D. [Industrial Design] student, a bunch of us heard there were some amazing sketches down at Long Beach State college, I think it was, and we went down there to check 'em out.  They were pre-production sketches produced mostly by Joe Johnston for Star Wars (the first film).  That was when I wanted to do that, right then & there.

Q: Do you usually start with a lot of sketches before you draw, or do you just start and see what happens?
I always start with as much information I can get, regarding what it is I'm asked to Illustrate or Design.  With that in my head, I usually get into my 'form-follows-function' mode and start sketching the item based on it's practical usage, operating mode, entry/exit methods, etc... everything an Industrial Designer does when looking for a Design solution.

Q: What was your most surprising inspiration for the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica?

My Cylon sketches started with Ralph McQuarrie's (RIP) preproduction paintings & sketches but I moved away from those when I hit up the idea of the Cylons being one group of many "Ancient Astronauts" that are supposed to have visited Earth during Mankind's early years.

I then came upon the idea that maybe the Cylon's helmet & armor influenced the look of Greek armor & helmets in particular so I developed that idea and it worked.

Q: You've done a lot of concept art, but you've also done storyboarding. Do you have a preference between them?
Even though I have a strong understanding of the cinematic story-telling process and the dos & don'ts of where to place the camera, maintain screen direction & all, I feel I'm more valuable in providing designs of hardware, props, and sets because of my Industrial Design training.  I'm able to surmise how these 'products' might be manufactured and how, in my opinion, they would best be formed to satisfy the duties for which they'd be constructed.

Q: What went through your mind when you were redesigning the USS Enterprise for Star Trek: The Next Generation?

There was a lot of angst among the Star Trek fans about how we were going to "replace" their beloved original version of Star Trek.  Being a Trekker myself, I could understand their concerns which I was dedicated to address the best ways I could.

My first task was to design the bridge and I took as many details as I could, from Kirk's original bridge, and incorporated them into what Gene has asked me to come up with.  When Herman Zimmerman came on board as Production Designer, he asked me to consult on the remaining sets in order to provide continuity with the look of the new bridge as well as provide as much familiarity as I could get into those other spaces, the transporter room layout & details, for instance, as possible.

At the same time, I moved into providing designs for the ship's exterior which was accepted & approved by the Producers rather quickly.  As for design thinking, I wanted the ship to look like a very advanced version of Kirk's ship including the hull's general coloring while grabbing bits & pieces of newer Starships along the way.

Although painted kind of a pearl gray, the original miniature picked up a lot of blue from the SFX blue-screen background, making it look blue-ish on television so I called out colors to emulate that coloring.  Then for some unknown reason, however, the FX team optically neutralized the coloring down to grey.

Q: While working on Back to the Future, how much of Ron Cobb's work remained in the final design of the DeLorean?

Probably 80% is still Ron's. I provided all the remaining detailing and a couple of small changes on the car.

Q: What do you think is your greatest achievement so far?
My four beautiful children... all with families of their own now.

Q: Do you prefer digital or traditional art tools?
I'm still clumsy when "painting" on a computer.  Therefore, the only 'digital' painting I do is using the digits found at the ends of my arms.

Q: You recently acted in the fan film Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II as Commodore Probert. How did you get involved and what was it like working on it?

Image: Andrew Probert (left) Gil Gerard (center) with James Cawley (right)
I met James Cawley at a convention and we hit upon the idea of my doing a cameo in his next show.  Well, I got a script and (fighting my notoriously bad retention skills) memorized my few lines.

When I showed up on set, however, several of my lines were handed to another actor, which really threw me to the point of not remembering anything.

I then ended up making kind of mess of my scenes and can only hope now that they edit me into some perceived cinematic glory.

Q: Are you still producing art personally or professionally? If so where can we see it next?
I do offer Art Prints on my website but along with that, I have, for a while now, been creating hand-painted Renderings for the calendar:  'Star Trek - Ships of the Line' every year or so.  That's probably the most consistent showplace for my new pieces.

I am, on rare occasions, commissioned to provide a painting for someone looking for original Art.  Last year I was invited to speak to the I.D. department of the University of Cincinnati and, of course, I'm still invited to speak at conventions, every so often, but since I haven't been involved in any current productions for awhile, my talks are pretty much retrospectives.  Having said that, I'm developing kind of a Hardware Design Workshop to supplement those slideshows. 

I just recently completed a series of Concept Designs for 'The Blue Man Group', working with another Artist/Designer Eric Wilkerson, creating new,... hmm, let's say 'props' for a show that is to debut in Las Vegas later this year or maybe in 2013.

And, lastly, I've just started creating a new website which I'm hoping will encourage me to post more materials and maybe even more art prints in the bargain.

Q: Thank you so much for your time.
You're very welcome.

You can see more of Andrew Probert's portfolio and work at http://www.probertdesigns.com.

Check out more of my interviews with amazing artists on my List of Interviews page.

What do you think of Andrew Probert's work?
Related Posts 

• Drive In And See Andrew Probert's 'Streethawk' Motorcycle Designs 
• Great Scott! Storyboards of Marty And Doc's First DeLorean Test From 'Back to the Future'! 
• Star Trek's Early Ferengi Designs Actually Look Cool

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One of the most pivotal scenes in Back to the Future (1985) was the first test of the DeLorean using Doc Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) pet dog Einstein. Andrew Probert () did storyboards for the film and posted the scene on his site.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the scene has some great visuals, from the license plate spinning in the street to Marty McFly's (Michael J. Fox) hair being blown back by the re-entry. Plus, there's a nice description of what the script calls the "Time-Slice."

I love Doc Brown's hair in these images. I don't know if it was before or after he was cast, but it's great. Probert describes the storyboards this way.

This is the sequence where Doc Brown runs his final test on the DeLorian [sic] Time Machine.

 

Amazingly cool stuff. Here's the original scene for a comparison.

Feast on these and other cool storyboards and concept art at Andrew Probert's site http://probertdesigns.com/.

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So, Nike released their first generation of the Nike Air Mags that were featured in the film Back to the Future II (1989) and, after reading an interview with Bob Gale, I went hunting for concept art.

Once you actually compare the final product with the designs, it kind of falls flat.

While the shoes are incredibly authentic reproductions of the movie shoes, it would have been nice if they'd designed them as Tinker had originally drawn, with accents and much bolder styling. Maybe next year. Still hyper-cool though.

The Nike "Air Mags," (or McFlys) named after the logo on the back, were originally supposed to be "Slamball Shoes." There was a scene were Marty plays a futuristic game of racquetball called Slamball, but it was cut because of the cost of building a huge racquetball court.

Sneaker News had a post on the eBay sale of the original prop Michael J. Fox wore in the film. That seller had a photocopy of the original design drawing by Nike's legendary shoe designer Tinker Hatfield (the designer of all of the Air Jordans).

Nike had some concept art as well, but it's not very clear.

Were these shoes supposed to have wheels? Maybe they could sue the "Heelies?"

Here we see Marty hanging upside down in his magnetic shoes.

The whole thing is for a great cause.

Nike announced that 1500 pairs of these shoes will be auctioned on eBay, nikemag.eBay.com, for a starting bid of $3,300 with all net proceeds going directly to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The auction ends on September 18 and 150 pairs will be posted on eBay per day for 10 days.

"We wanted to translate the excitement people have for the 'greatest shoe never made' and for the Back to the Future into positive action,” said Mark Parker, CEO of Nike. "But the long term objective is to raise awareness so the Foundation can achieve their goal of eradicating Parkinson’s disease."

Some of the illustrators on the original film were David Jonas and Martin A. Kline.

Would you wear a pair of these amazing shoes?

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