Inside The Design And Construction of Titans’ Nightwing Suit
In November 2019, Titans‘ Costume Designer Laura Jean Shannon and her creative team unveiled Nightwing’s suit at Warner Brothers Super Suit Workshop Open House event.
The unveiling was a big deal for fans of Titans. They had waited two seasons for Dick Grayson to finally become Nightwing, and wear his trademark blue and black suit. But if you think the costume designer just takes the design directly from the comics and builds a suit, then think again.
A whole creative team was involved in the design and construction of this super-suit. The process started with in-depth research of 37 years of Nightwing suit comic book art before a final design was drawn up and used as the blueprint for the super-suit constructed by Creative Character Engineering.
As the process revealed, the Nightwing suit needed to reflect the storyline of Titans. The familiar suit might look similar to the one in the comics, but it also reflects Grayson’s character arc on the TV show. According to Shannon:
“Each one of our shows has a very different voice. Titans has a different voice in the writing and it has a different voice in the storytelling, which then is the impetus for us giving it a different visual voice. So, whatever choices that we bring to the table, the jumping-off point is always the actual story itself.
…[We] take the DNA of that character [from the comics] and infuse it into our interpretation that works for our storyline, works for our show, works in the overall aesthetic of what we do in Titans specifically, and ground it for the audience for our show.”
The New Suit Reflects A New Dick Grayson
As expected with any superhero, Nightwing’s costume is a reflection of who Dick Grayson has become, and what he’s left behind.
When he burned his old Robin suit in season one, Grayson symbolically left his old identity as Batman’s sidekick behind. In the journey that followed, Grayson had to discover just who he was without Batman, and what kind of superhero he wanted to be.
Directionless, he attempted to find his own path after separating from the controlling influence of Batman. But he soon found a new purpose shepherding a group of misfits and former sidekicks into a team called the Titans; a new family forced together by the lack of sufficient adult role models. Grayson, who believes Batman weaponized his childhood, had to shake off those same traits and become an appropriate role model for the Titans.
Donning the new Nightwing suit at the end of season two reflected the culmination of Grayson’s transition from former sidekick into the leader of the Titans.
The Nightwing suit is, quite literally, a representation of Grayson’s transition in its form and function. The sleek design and mobility of Titan’s new Nightwing suit tell us a lot about Grayson’s evolution from sidekick to an independent, confident leader.
“He’s become much more confident in his fighting ability,” said Titans‘ visual administrator Jenny Davis-Chen in an interview with DC Comics. “So, the priority for him for this suit was increased mobility—being able to move more, being able to have that range of motion in comparison to his Robin suit, which was much more armored up.”
Researching Comic Art
That sleek shape was already present in the design in the comics. Nonetheless, Davis-Chen’s job was to research every iteration of the Nightwing suit in the comics and help choose visual references for both Shannon and Costume Design Artist, Gina DeDomenico Flanagan.
“Dick’s story has passed through the hands of so many amazing writers,” said Davis-Chen. “The priority for us is always to really honor the source material and what each of the different writers and artists had to offer with this character. In particular, we were looking at Dennis O’Neil’s Blüdhaven arc in the late ‘90s in terms of the overall color story for him with the black and the blue. For the actual crest on his chest, we were really referencing the post-Flashpoint, red and black suit in terms of the shape of the bird looking upward, sort of towards the sky.”
The Nightwing suit in Titans has the general design of the suit introduced in the Bludhaven story line on the left. But for the crest, the design team were inspired by his crest in the post-Flashpoint costume on the right.
Developing the Concept Design
Once Davis-Chen finished her analysis of the Nightwing suit in the comics, she passed on her visual references to DeDomenico Flanagan. Then, DeDomenico Flanagan met with Shannon, who discussed how she saw the character.
“She tells me every little thing that she’s been dreaming up in her fabulous artistic mind and it is my job to place it on paper,” said DeDomenico Flanagan. “… We begin with merely: What’s the pose like? What embodies the character? As a result, the pose tells us loads about how the character is feeling, and the attitude–the angle says every little thing concerning the character.”
The next challenge involved making the costume look good on a real human being. According to DeDomenico Flanagan, costumes “float” on characters’ bodies in comics and so fitting them to the actor while maintaining a look similar to the comic is an involved process itself.
The design, therefore, had to look right on actor Brenton Thwaites. This was achieved by creating a 3D model that combined a physical scan of Thwaites with DeDomenico’s concept art of the Nightwing suit. This model allowed DeDomenico to make any tweaks to the costume to fit Thwaites properly. From there, Creative Character Engineering took the final 3D model and built the suit.
Building The Nightwing Suit
After the concept design was finalized, Creative Character Engineering did the practical build. The process is different for each character but Creative Character Engineering’s Lesley Bercerra said they “decided to go a little old school, and do traditional hand sculpting, like the way the original Batman suit was made … We also did some really beautiful things with 3D modeling certain armor areas, integrating it into the sculpture, so that you have this kind of high tech but old school sleek feeling.”
They also used 3D printing to create Nightwing’s “hero boomerang”, masks, and pieces of armor.
Super suits are made from a two-part mold with a soft interior and tough exterior that holds the shape. They then choose what type of material to make the suit. “Once we’ve actually generated those molds, we have to generate a different type of model for each tiny little piece that goes on to the suit,” said Andrew Clements, the owner of Creative Character Engineering. They treat each part of the suit as “their own little model, so we’ve got to keep track.” Once each piece is right they “run them out” for assembly.
The final stage in the construction of Titan’s Nightwing suit was airbrushing and adding shadow and detail. The finish was meticulous, and the entire process took two weeks to complete. All the hard work paid off. The Nightwing suit looks great and was well worth the wait.
Sources: Den of Geek
