“Power Rangers The Movie – 30th Anniversary Animated Fan Film” Is Out Now
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers got the same animated treatment as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman or even Spider-Man? Well artist Dom Estephane did just that. He took the challenge upon himself to create this amazing animated project in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Might Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
“Draw what you drew as a kid to find your passion and excitement for drawing again.” Estephane credits this quote to helping with getting over writers block. He says ever since he was a kid, he never stopped drawing his favor comic book heroes, but did stop drawing the Power Rangers due to him getting older. Estephane says that after being inspired by other animated IPs such as TMNT, Batman, Spider-Man and Transformers, he really wanted to see the Power Rangers be used in animation. He credits Boom Studio Comics for really making this idea come to life.
The graffiti/sketchbook aesthetic really makes this Power Rangers project really stand out amongst other Power Rangers projects because this isn’t something we’ve really seen before. This art style is heavily inspired by TMNT Mutant Mayhem and Estephane says “seeing the Ninja Turtles sound and look like Teenagers really struck a chord with me – what if that but for the ‘Teenagers with Attitude’. Not to mention the Art Direction for that movie was awesome.“
Seeing drawings, stickers, and other forms of graffiti where you shouldn’t was a big inspiration for giving the project a Photo Realistic background. Estephane says “the characters are hand drawn in a loose style on paper (even colouring outside the lines), cut out and “stuck” on top to create that contrast, seeing scribbles where they shouldn’t be.“
When its comes to character design and emphasizing that these are teenagers, Estephane had this to say:
To visually get the idea across that these are Teenagers running around punching Purple bad guys I designed them to be a bit lanky and lean (with the exception of the White Ranger, Tommy) – I also made their helmets proportionately bigger to give a slight bobble head look to imply they’re yet to grow into their role as Rangers and they’re just kids wearing an Adults attire.
Learning from previous experience, Estephane say that “the helmets can be a pain to draw and draw correctly.” He continues by adding “for this go around I sculpted and modelled their helmets in Nomad Sculpt and Cozy Blanket on the iPad respectively, then applied a NPR shader in Blender to blend in (no pun intended) seamlessly with the 2D drawn bodies.“
What makes this project even more phenomenol is that he did all of the animation solo. “I tried to keep the scope small – I thought it’d be cool to see Ivan fight the Rangers on the ground, without their Zords or Ooze fusing with his ‘beautiful creation’,” adds Estephane.
Not only does the project feature amazing animation, it also features an amazing soundtrack recorded and produced by none other than Kehinde “ATO worldwide” Martin.
The Power Rangers The Movie – 30th Anniversary Animated Fan Film is out now and is available to watch on Youtube.
