Thursday, December 24, 2009

My First 3D Model: Luminous Media Inc. 1994-95

My Very First 3D Model built in 1994 using 3D Studio R4 DOS w/ Metaballs.
The Finished Logo for the Company

The Final Sketch for building the "Luminous Device"

Concepts for the various lamp parts[ First Round]


My First 3D Model

After working in Television Animation for almost 3 years at Hearst Animation, I moved into the now emerging technology of 3D illustrated video games. MYST, just hit the market and it was a runaway success, and this inspired many to move into digital artwork.

I had the pleasure of working with John R. Thomas years prior on a fabulous high end restaurant design in Beverly Hills called Cafe Morpheus/Asylum, and he being trained in Architecture wanted to start up a Video Game Development company, so I joined in to help start it up with him.

Now, back in 1994 the 3D programs available for a PC[ or a Mac] were limited, I picked Strata 3D because Rand Miller used it on Myst, and I being a Mac "Kool Aid" drinker at the time, stood my ground and fought to do this on only a Mac. Well being the owner was a Auto-cad guy, and he wanted to export over the models from CAD to 3D, he chose a PC program, namely 3D Studio DOS R4 for the PC so he could do CAD on the same box. So, not only NOT a Mac, but DOS! Well, 15 years latter , I am very glad that I was forced to work on a PC and I owe a debt of gratitude to John for that.

My very first model was of a "Maiden" character for the game we were developing, which was designed by friend and colleague Nick Pugh, and I used the DOS 3DSr4 with a "Meta-balls" plug-in along with "Mesh-Paint from the Yost Group to paint the face. It took about a week to model with the valuable training from Stephen Kramer.

I also designed the "Luminous Device" as our logo ICON. The machine was inspired by artist Daniel Berg[ http://www.danielberglundlighting.com/sitefiles/table%20lamps/table%20lamps.html ], who built the lighting for the Asylum Bar that I had worked on years earlier, so I sketched it out and Stephen Kramer built it out. The type was an homage to Mr Chows in Beverly Hills and was hand lettered by the talented Dan Hanrahan.

What a great team and a great time in my life as I moved forward into the world of 3D.


Cheers, THOM

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