My name is James Berta Soto.

I'm a movie poster artist.

I've been designing posters for over 30 years.

Today we're gonna break down every poster in the Marvel cinematic universe.

The strongest visual here is the perspective.

So because of the low angle view, it allows you to bring in multiple characters.

There's also all these flying characters in the sky.

The low angle allows the eye to go straight up to the glow of lighting.

The main character's all the secondary auction is occurring in the darkness.

Here the red is kind of offset by the blue.

Here's an example of the Avengers comic book series, and you see this very dramatic under view perspective that's used to hold all these characters together.

If you notice here you have these smaller characters that are very reminiscent of all these secondary characters here, actually identical in scale.

You have the main actor looking outward in the same direction you have.

Thor actually duplicated, almost ribeye them.

They're kind of with his flying cape.

What's important with the comic book architecture is that you get a sense of full narrative in one frame or a full experience in one frame, which is similar to the language of movie poster, are first thing that catches your eye Here is to face off of the two characters.

You have this dramatic profile this had toe had combat that's occurring between thes two main characters.

You notice there's no environment here there, really pushing the Civil War aspect of the promise of collision, but also a unifying aspect.

So if you noticed this red and blue connection here and the blue year on Captain America and the red uniform is tight end, you also have this very strong circle device.

Here and again, split color in the background reinforces the contrast of these two worlds coming together.

Ah, face off is very common in action movie poster design.

This is an example of two movie posters, and they both have the face off the two profiles coming had toe had.

But here the logo is connected to the icon in the distance, which kind of makes it more new and kind of gives it like a fresh take.

On this very traditional setup.

You can trace this back to boxing poster advertising.

As you can see, the main Spider Man superhero figure dominating the poster there with the help of Iron Man, the two superheroes kind of split to the left of the poster.

It's a Spiderman shadow, and then you have a very obvious environment cliche landscape of New York City.

And I think what the most obvious here is the lack of cohesion through color.

And also there's nothing pleasing to the eye.

Everything is fighting for attention.

So you noticed the scale relationship is very obvious.

The use of lighting is very straightforward.

The environment here of New York City kind of mixed in with the Washington Monument, which is a little confusing to the eye.

You're not sure where that's coming from, and even the scale difference is just so obviously spice together.

Compared to this lead actor, the size difference is very crude.

Seems like these worlds colliding or kind of creating confusion and chaos.

This is an example of traditional had in the sky approach to movie poster advertising, and the order here, I think, is stronger than Spider Man.

But this really takes pads in this guy to the next level, kind of in a way that is unworkable.

Here you have a very traditional glue in the orange color palette.

You have this very strong vertical doorway that's introducing a new character into the Marvel universe.

That's a secondary take.

You have the character symbol layered into the doorway, and we also have the traditional action hero Ting of Light that's coming up behind the logo and this female character that's portrayed in a very powerful, iconic stance That's very reminiscent of any superhero, which is very interesting to see brought into the Marvel universe.

And if you noticed as a cat walking in the darkness this side of the poster, which kind of is a nod to the story and to the fans.

And I think the doorway reminds me of the Crow poster.

So from a compositional perspective, you have this vertical doorway, and here it's kind of almost mirrors that other poster.

What makes these posters work is the use of black space creating this introduction of something new and unexpected that's coming our way.

He's literally coming at you, a shot from this low angle of this explosion of clouds and fire around him, reinforcing his power.

You also have this very dramatic smoke and cloud effect that's golden together the secondary cast.

And then you have this very obvious introduction of the villain, which sets the stage for the tension of these three worlds colliding.

But Marvel did not invent this strategy.

If you look at this example in the touchable Sze, you have Al Capone dominating the poster.

This looming figure in the distance kind of pushed back is very similar to the Captain America poster, where the villainous set into the distance.

The villain sets the stage for the drama of the story.

This is the first time that Marble is showing the power of its brat.

Here we have the biggest star of the Avengers, Robert Downey Jr.

Taking center stage on the poster.

We have the four shortening of the hand front and center, creating the perspective and then that offsets is very dramatic, radiating perspective that brings your eye into the distance and creates a universe that these characters are portrayed in.

You also have a very grounded sense of reality.

None of the characters are moving beyond the floor, and this is the first time that we're seeing the multiple characters from the Marvel universe encompassing one space and also literally being brought together into one universe, you get the sense of this blue color that's used to offset the background for the main characters.

Also, the logo seems very large in this case, I think, really pushing the fact that this is the first time that the characters are coming together in one story, and then each character is looking off frame.

Do you get this very dramatic world that we're not seeing that I think is promised to the to the spectator and also promised to the experience of this larger than live entertainment that's coming their way?

And here we have that central holding device that really uses a lure, the multiple worlds coming together.

The multiple characters coming together is being held together by the color palette, this fiery universe against the blue sky.

The strong central device of the main lead characters creates a symmetry that allows the structure of the poster work well, and a big aspect is also the size of the poster.

Everything is looming up behind the title.

I mean, I'm guessing that they're gonna have to start going out into different perspectives or different graphic devices that they're gonna allow more characters to come in.

In this case, they're literally coming out from every square inch of the poster.

Eventually, they're gonna run how to space.

We can see that this graphic device that being incorporated in the background as a holding element but also creates this futuristic environment for the action that's front and center.

We have this strong pyramid device here looming over the logo.

Also, you have this very symmetrical universe that holds the city brings it into the present day in a similar way that this pyramid kind of reinforces the title treatment.

That kind of mirrors creating this kind of wing like shape behind the lead character almost forms and ex from a distance that's unifying everything in using these graphic architectural devices.

The design of this poster has a very structure organize formation that occurs as new and exciting.

And this is a prime example of the holding element in a very successful way.

This brings together all the characters offset by this circular device is the most common attention grabber.

This symmetrical high design composite is used to guide the eye and at the same time step back and just enjoy the symmetry and the color on beauty of this this configuration.

What's important with this poster is just diagonal holding device that's new.

You have all the secondary cast members being used behind the grid of this diagonal device that is separated by lines of light that allows the layering to occur within the multiple characters.

The strong diagonal type is very unexpected, but also, I think gives it a modern contemporary feel.

What we're seeing now is you have this back to back set up of the story, both characters and how they're linked.

You also have the scale here, offset by the foreground characters here, and you have these little tiny airplanes in the distance to kind of play off the scale.

You also have this very dramatic glow in the logo that kind of sets the stage for the story.

This is kind of where the SciFi glow originated from, and I think that this glow has evolved into like the language of the science fiction movie poster advertising.

You're more in a New York environment here in an urban world, you kind of have this like dark blue, brooding, foggy night that's occurring So this blue color here plays off of this cop Hi story narrative in this case, the hero has a criminal past in this criminal world is displayed through the use of blew through the use of this very traditional environment.

For the action audience, you have the main new action hero front and center and this small kind of connection to the scale of the end.

So this toning and this color palette and this set up is very reminiscent of traditional heist movie advertising.

So if you noticed there's very diagonal powerful ship in the distance and airplane kind of coming behind the character and next your eye to Compton America.

If you look at the title treatment, it is very reminiscent of military stencil type that you would see on ammunition boxes and weapons and the aircraft.

The action that's occurring front and center is these characters from like a low angle perspective, it's a very traditional Hollywood cell where you have the characters walking towards you.

What's occurring here is a major shift in the way the female lead is portrayed.

Here.

You have her in front of the hero in a powerful stance, with her weapon drawn similar to the hero, the eye contact going off frame.

All the action is leading towards the world that we're not seeing.

And then this evolution of color dominate the poster.

This use of green and purple and yellow combination against the gold typography gives it like a fresh perspective on the Marvel universe.

Also, they're very serious.

But there's a sense of comic attitude with thes expression of these characters brings in a little contemporary edge, bringing up this new terrain of these not sure what to call those characters like wacky.

The newness seems to come from the unique qualities of these characters.

They're not what you expect from your superhero.

They using the ring and the device fire as the holding element.

This is an example of color being used to create a bigger excitement level.

And also you noticed that some of the characters were smiling.

There's a sense of more fun, more action.

There's this heartwarming baby Groot on his shoulder.

He's holding the cassette player in his hand while he's shooting the weapon with the other hand.

The female protagonist is front and center in a very powerful stance, equal to the male lead, and everything is exploding from this center severe of this iconic holding element.

This is very early in the Marvel cinematic universe.

They did a very safe composite, with the multiple characters being held together by the lighting effects.

The use of black and this poster creates a dramatic effect.

So if you look at the three characters in this fade to darkness creates a cinematic quality, you also have the block.

That kind of allows the highlights in the eyes the highlights in the main power of the superhero.

So this is the movie poster for Spawn, and it's a very good example of the use of black space.

It's very early example of superhero comic universe kind of evolving into the mainstream.

So this use of dramatic lighting is kind of a way of allowing the eye to travel and kind of rest and different parts of the poster.

This new element that's introduced in this poster is this orange yellow explosion introducing the villain that's gonna kind of take Iron Man one to the next level.

The symmetry here is very obvious and very traditional.

Nothing is really holding these together except for the blocks, but I would say this explosive action that's promised here with the villain is the only element that differentiates this from the first poster.

So let's compare them side to side.

One thing that's obvious is the scale has come down to incorporate Maur elements.

The color schemes in both posters are very similar, except for in this second Iron Man, the Yellow Fire.

That's kind of promising.

All the excitement in the action of this poster is offset by the blue world here and here you have the code blue, second to the yellow and red combination here that connects to the title treatment.

Here you have a more toned down title treatment, but the glow in the action in the Yellow Fire really dominates here.

The most obvious introduction here is the romance.

You see.

There's a romantic lead clutching the hero of this very dramatic expression on Robert Downey Jr Will beat up Here is ripped uniform is super power in his hand and also the hand grasping the lead female character, also presented as a very soft romantic.

So this character is dependent on the hero.

It's not the most empowering pose.

You also have this very dramatic angle and then you have the warm lighting.

I think the school life promises hope and promise is romance and promises staging for the conflict that's occurring with the villain in the distance way have Chris Hemsworth, front and center.

We have not lied Portman in this subordinate pose.

And then you also have the introduction of this stylistic approach to the logo, which has these metallic jewels that plays off the detail in the hammer.

The color scheme that's used here.

It's much more muted, very reminiscent of this kind of like Lord of the Rings fantasy storytelling a CE you can see we have the superhero front and center hitting the hammer on the far off, setting this ray of light, creating a foreground with this explosion of the floor behind them.

And then, as you go up into the poster, you see the division of these four panels in this device that's used to feature the cast.

Also again, you have the use of black that's bringing it all together.

Chris Hemsworth is featured in darkness with a little bit of room light, but he's not featured in a large way.

I don't think he was a major star at the time that this franchise was introduced, but the perspective of the shot kind of leads you up to the secondary characters at the top of the poster.

As you can see, the character is literally stepping out into the Marvel universe.

One thing that's very notable here is the environment.

This kaleidoscope universe that this character is stepping into also plays a big part in the character.

You get this ring of fire that's creating the action and the movement of the cave coming through a portal being introduced as the next superhero in the franchise.

If you look at Marvel posters over time, you can see that a very traditional Heads lockup has turned into this unexpected visual universe that brings in this promise of big entertainment a bigger story, more characters Maur environment, more color, more fun, the evolution into this large universe.