Watch a 1984 Mac spin out Guardians of the Galaxy hero

By

starlordpaint

While we wait for this weekend’s highly-anticipated Marvel movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy, we thought it’d be fun to pass along this sweet speed-painting from filmmaker Matthew Pearce.

It shows an illustration of Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, created on a 1984 Macintosh using MacPaint. Now that’s some serious special effect magic, right there.

Check out the video below.

As you can see, Pearce perfectly captures the boxy retro mouse of this 1984 model Macintosh (“128K case with 512K insides”) to draw Star-Lord in his fancy mask. Quite a good job, but how crazy-hard is it to create this level of detail with MacPaint?

“It takes a lot of practice,” Pearce told Cult of Mac in an email. “You need to think in terms of basic shapes instead of finished pieces. You’ll notice I use the line tool for the majority of the work since it’s nearly impossible to free draw with the pen unless you are in ‘fat bits’ mode.”

It can take him two to three practice runs to get the piece ready for video. Even with that training, though, it can take one to two hours to finish the piece you see in the video.

A life-long comic reader and movie fan, Pearce likes super heroes and old Macs, but says he really likes to share vintage tech in a fun, entertaining way. His next video will be a behind the scenes, how-to sort of thing.

“I’m going to show tips for shooting CRT screens so you reduce scan lines (by adjusting frame rate and shutter angle),” he said, “tips for using MacPaint, and how I composited the shots.

So, what’s next for this comic-book digital artist?

“I have an idea for doing one set in the Bat Cave with Batman designing the Batmobile,” he said, “but that might be a little too ambitious.”

This isn’t the first time Pearce has digitally penned a famous Marvel face, either. Check out his take on Tony Stark himself, complete with a glass of Jameson — on the rocks, of course.

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