Rocketeer Design Diary

As a concept designer recruited at the start of pre-production on the Rocketeer, I spent weeks visualizing ideas for props, sets, and graphics, along with storyboards and effects sequences. The majority of the effort was dedicated to one crucial priority; the design of the rocket pack. It had to look convincing and powerful enough to propel the Rocketeer across the sky at high speed, with an innovative, aviation-prototype style that worked with the design language, and technology of the period.

The inventive art deco-style rocket pack depicted by Dave Stevens in The Rocketeer graphic novel became the starting point for developing an initial full=size, 3D prototype. After a few screen tests, it was evident that the design lacked the credible look of aviation equipment of the late ’30s, and it didn’t appear powerful or sophisticated enough to launch a person across the sky at jet speed. What worked in comic-style illustration didn’t translate to a convincing experience onscreen.

Weeks of design iterations and concept drawings followed, exploring a range of options. Several concepts were developed into prototype packs, built, reviewed, and eventually discarded. The area around my desk in the art department was wallpapered with dozens of concepts I had generated. Ultimately, the elusive design concept for the X3 began to take form, as the best elements were sorted out and assembled into a unified style.

The final X3 seen in the film was a fusion of visual ideas from Director Joe Johnston, legendary sci-fi designer Ron Cobb, and myself. The series of prints assembled here document my participation with the visual styling and development process, in the creation of what is certainly one of the most revered, iconic, and credible fictional flying inventions created for a film.

It was a career highlight to play a part in the production of this engaging film adventure that continues to find an appreciative audience thirty years since its screen debut. Everyone did their utmost to pay fitting tribute to the imaginative vision of Dave Stevens’ “The Rocketeer.”

-Edward Eyth