Of the many weird and wonderful superheroes to grace the pages of comic books, Atlas the Mighty probably passed you buy. He appeared in a single comic, IW Publications' Daring Adventures #18 in 1964, after being picked up from a bankrupt publisher.
Despite the super-human powers given to him by the Greek god of the same name, and a wild costume even for the golden age of comics, Atlas, AKA Jim Randall, failed to reach the lofty heights attained by the likes of Hawkeye and Daredevil, which emerged in the same year.
But one creator is giving him the second chance he (maybe) deserved – and he's put a lot into it. The filmmaker and YouTuber Austin McConnell has spent four years working to bring Atlas to life in a 90-minute 3D animated movie. That involved having to learn pretty much the entire animation pipeline, Austin explains in the video below.
Austin was looking for lesser-known golden-age superheroes that had entered the public domain to create a low-budget live-action "Superzeroes" cinematic universe as an alternative to the many polished superhero franchises. Atlas grabbed his attention because of his extreme obscurity and his ridiculous costume.
Austin decided that, relatively speaking, animation would be a more practical medium to tell the character's story. 'Relatively', because at the time he had only had a basic knowledge of animation from adding quick CG effects for YouTube videos.
“I had to learn the ins and outs of 3D animation, clothing simulation, hair simulation, motion tracking,” he says in an interview with Cartoon Brew. “I bought a mocap suit and had to learn how to set all that up. I had to do real-time facial tracking.”
Despite the steep learning curve, Austin went on to do most of the animation himself, working six or seven hours a day in his basement and hiring people for specific tasks as needed. He mainly used Reallusion’s iClone (see our guide to the best animation software), with After Effects, Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve for editing, effects and creating art assets.
A Kickstarter campaign raised $45,100, most of which was used to hire voice actors and buying gear. The CG artist Kalex3D helped redesign Atlas's costume and model characters and later stepped in to animate some parts of the film after McConnell suffered a stroke in 2024.
His limited experience in animation led Austin to lean into other aspects, like pacing editing. At one point, he had to make a decision to stop aiming for perfection and embrace the "original spirit" of the project as a low-budget movie with heart. Workarounds included having a character drink off camera to avoid having to animate the movement.
"It was really important for me, knowing my limitations in terms of animation skills, that the other parts supplemented that,” he told Cartoon Brew. “Mine is kind of the inverse of the traditional indie animation problem. I bring a better sensibility in terms of editing, audio production quality, and pacing, and the animation is sort of tacked on afterward.”
Austin found that the rough, choppiness of his approach worked for the movie's narrative. He was determined not to use AI in order to keep a homegrown feel, and the movie benefits from that.
There's been some debate about whether opposition to AI is the reason the bizarre Chinese blockbuster Niu Lai has done so well. Atlas isn't as raw looking as that – and it's actually a good movie – but its less polished animation suits its character. After all, Atlas was a bargain basement comic book hero rescued from a defunct publisher, not a glossy, Marvel character like Daredevil, or even Deadpool.
"No one is going to think this is AI-generated because there are scenes where it’s like, ‘Yeah, this was one dude making this on his home computer’," Austin says. "That’s the spirit in which it was made, and we try to play that to our advantage.”
He's already developed more stories in the same universe, including a second animated film slated for later this year.
“If people want to see more from these characters and these stories, I’m happy to make more. If nobody is really that interested, I’m happy to move on to something else,” he says.
Atlas: The Animated Movie goes live on Austin's YouTube channel today (8 September) There will be a screening at Moxie Cinema in Springfield, Missouri, on 12 September.
Inspired? See our guide to the best laptops for animation.
