Project Review: The Immortals 2011: 3D Type for Motion Graphics

Here is a Motion Graphics 3D card I built with a blood painted "300" for the trailer reference.

 Here is the quad-view of the mesh with the Turbo-Smooth shut off to see the base mesh.

 I built out the font that ended up finishing to match a print look that was provided to me, though that was a 3D fake done with Photoshop bevel-and-Emboss, so I emulated the actual 3D sculpt above.

 A font look I did when they were still experimenting.

 The final 3D card layout that became a full alphabet below.

 I made some adjusting to the font to sharpen it up as the first pass was a softer bevel with rounded corners and a convex bevel with a nice highlight section.

 The quad view of the full delivery of an alphabet in 3D ready to go.

 Here is a quick render shot of the type sent as a final delivery with a simple shader to test the surfaces via the reflections, an old car designer technique we learned a ACCD.

Project Review

The Immortals 2011

3D Type for Motion Graphics

Client: Relativity Media via Greenhaus Graphics
Creative Direction: Helen Greene
Project Date: May 2010 to January 2011.

I had a very busy late last week, so I did not get to post part one for this, so I've combine two post today.

I regularly build out 3D assets for a few Motion Graphics clients to use in their trailers, and I did a series of 3D single-Point-beveled hand modeled fonts, for GreenhausGFX for this purpose for the film last year, The Immortals.

It started with a few cards for the Motion Graphics team, so I build the type all subdivision, as a full quad model, so that when it is taken into Maya or C4D as an Export, they can add the mesh subdivision modifier on their end, to have a very lite file size during animation, without compromising the level of detail with smooth modifiers as needed for close ups , and fly-thrus.

You will see a few fonts were tried up front and once the final was picked, I ended up doing the full alphabet for the film.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Chicago One-Sheet 2002

Finished One-Sheet

Final 3D Neon "C"

Draft version of a thicker "C"

Alphabet[ 80%] in Neon for 3rd party artwork

Early concept for AD. Jeff Barnett of Neon attached to side of building.

Early Concept for AD. Steven Stewart of thick neon.

CHICAGO

Client: Miramax Films via BLT and Associates. Art Director(s): Jeff Barnett, Steven Stewart. Project Date: Fall 2001

One of my earliest projects in Theatrical print was the simple Neon "C" for the finished One Sheet design. There was only a bit of experimentation, but it was decided to be a Neon logo for the first.

It did finish but it is the "little" C on the page. I was able to create about 80% of the alphabet for various newspapers to write out "BOSTON" [ in neon] loves Chicago, etc.

Cheers, THOM

Pro-Bono Holiday Work

Christmas Story Visitation.

Shepherd quake...

The King.

The Miracle.

Hebrew class alphabet poster design as a single point beveled text with paint drips-[SPB].

A painted flatter version of the above poster for Hebrew classes.

Pro-Bono
Holiday Works.

I do not work for free, and I encourage every artist I know to consider SPEC for what it is, theft. Pro Bono or charity work however, is unpaid service for a non-paying charity like a church or synagogue or school. This I encourage ALL artists to get involved in.

Above I have two projects for my Jewish and Christian friends and colleagues that I have done some work for over the last few years. I illustrated the Christmas Story for a friends Sunday School class, and I did a rainbow painted Aleph[ letter A] for a colleagues Hebrew Class.

It was fun, fast, and simple projects that I did not charge for and I recommended if you do have talent to give some away Pro-Bono, but never give free work to someone who themselves are making a profit on the work, but refuse to value your contribution by paying you.

Cheers, THOM

Personal Work Heritage High School Drafting PART II Engineering Drafting

 A Page from the full set of Engineering Drafting Pack I did in High School.

 A scanned close up from the above page with one element drawn orthographically using a grid under the velum.

 A second scan of the above page showing the dimensioned and sectioned item.

 For this exercise I had to generate the ortho view from just the two other views supplied.

 This taught us to draw an item that was not parallel or perpendicular to the drawing plane.

[ at an angle]

 Here are two Engineering exercise done at Heritage High for Engineering Drafting I and II

Personal Work

Heritage High School Drafting PART II

Engineering Drafting

Today for my Tuesday 2D post, I am posting my second in a series of foundational work I did back in High School, and with this post, I begin with the work I did for the Engineering Drafting Classes that I was in.

As someone who has spent the last twenty years in dimensional design, I can say that my training began way before I ever set foot in Collage, as I was being taught in my High School some of the foundations of my career.

What I learned in Drafting was simply how to begin to see a three dimensional object inside my head, so I could draw it, or draft it out on paper. We did many exercises where we were given just a few views of an object, and had to create added views using the information we could take from the first two. This was my first experience to actually have to think through a design of an object, something I perfected at Art Center later in life. but was taught first in High School.

I am still amazed how many 3D artists I meet who still cannot grasp this basic stuff, they were never taught it, so as a consequence they do not fully think three dimensionally. When I did finally get to Design School the first semester we hit this stuff[ again for me], so I was able to assist my fellow students in this, so I was a bit ahead from this teaching.

We also were trained in doing a hand lettered alphabet that I use every day as I still print all caps in the architectural style I also learned from Mr Fey, and Tom Q Vaxy of course!

You can view PART I , covering the Architectural Design Class I had here.

Look for more parts in the future.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Kangaroo Jack 2003[ a.k.a.-Down and Under]:3D Logos + Illustrations for Key Art.

The main 3D 'Ben Hur' monolithic logo I did a decade back at BLT for Kangaroo Jack[ name changed].

Here is the geometry view of the 3D logo showing a bit of how I Art Directed the build in 3D.

 This view is exploded out to show the base 'simple' type, along with the detailed rock parts.

 I left the details off the far side as they are not seen, and I can always add them latter if I moved the camera.

 

 Here you can really see the overlay I built into the striations in the rock itself.

 

 The " I just got arrested Info board" I built in 3D for the character sheets for Kangaroo Jack Key Art.

 Here you can see the felt board channel details as well as the type and clips for the neck hangers as poly's.

 Project Review

Kangaroo Jack 2003[ a.k.a.-Down and Under]

3D Logos + Illustrations for Key Art.

Client: Warner Brothers Pictures via BLT and Associates.
Art Director: Jeff Barnett.
Project Date: Summer 2001.

Sorry for the delayed posting I got a very serious twelve day FLU , but I am back so HAPPY NEW YEAR Folks!

Today I kick off the first posting for this new year with the 3D illustrations for the main Logo and a prop I did for the film Kangaroo Jack[ aka Down and Under], a Comedy with  Jerry O'Connell.

They wanted a rock built 3D logo for the film than mimic the red rock found on Australia so I hand built the parts of the cliff, and scanned in the rock textures from the unit and created a tile able texture for the logo. I have built a few logos this way including a pass on Alexander here, and Evolution here.

I also did an "arrest board" so they could hang it around the necks of the main characters for the character One shees so I did it in layersd with a full alphabet.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: 3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment PART I

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- This is the final finished design for posters and Key Art for Netflix. I really enjoyed doing the filigree inset panels in the title. They have a Victorian and Old world tone to them.

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- I often render and Ambient / Dirt render pass in 3D to add realistic lighting and accumulation of grit in the intersections and cracks in the geometry to ass some not so polished loos. I did that for this project to reflect Santa's real age.

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- a Z-Depth Mask render is very useful and easy to use in Photoshop.

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- This is a Color-Picker render I add if requested. This is object based so the Creative Director can have pre-selected masks based by object. This Smart 3D as I call it is why 3D renders save massive masking times and are accurate to the anti-aliased pixel  level.

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- A Viewport Clay Shader Screen Capture grab leaves out textures and color information to focus on just the surface, here is a Camera view of the wireframe build out of this title.

 

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment-Another View-port Clay Shader Screen Capture front view from the camera without the frame gate on to see the lighting spotlights on the wireframe build out of this title.

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- This Clay Shader Screen Capture overhead view shows camera postilion and lighting.

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment-This Clay Shader Screen Capture is a close up on the Left side of the title showing the extrusion depth.

 

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- A lower close up angle on the shaded wireframe screen grab really shows the weight of the letters in 3D.

 

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- A rendered screen grab with the filigree texture map seen in the sample sphere, as well as the custom build etching texture map used as a bump / specular map that was taken from the film reference.

 

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment- Here is one of four complete 3D rendered typefaces I did for the film. Two regular, and two bold, one set in italics for each font weight.

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment-Here is a close up on the file which was rendered out for a 16K wide massive file. You will notice on the second row down I did a set with no internal filigree. This is what they used in the Sequel.

 

 

 

3D Key Art The Christmas Chronicles: 3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment-Here is another  close up on the file which was rendered out for a 16K wide massive file. This shows international letters needed so they could construct most titles needed at the time.

 

 

Project Review

 3D Key Art  The Christmas Chronicles:

3D Logo and typeface Finished Title Treatment
PART I 
 

Client:  Netflix via Cold Open
Creative Direction: Gardner DeFranceaux
Project Date:  September 2018.

     Back in the Fall of 2018 I was put on the Netflix Holiday Film The Christmas Chronicles. I worked on the project for a few weeks developing a variety of title treatments, that were proof of concept. Today's post is covering just the final finished 3D Logo used for the main titles as well as the entire alphabet for the film credits. I will post a Part II covering my Proof of Concept iteration work in the near future.

     I really have loved doing freelance for 16 years for the Cold Open agency, and I always get really fun 3D illustrations and 3D Logo concepts from the fantastic team there. I am a huge Kurt Russell fan, so doing this fun title was a pleasure to participle in. I do a lot of 3D Logos, and I definitely enjoy fancy ornate ones like what was needed for this film. Big blocked out san-serif metal 3D Logos are a staple in Key Art, especially for Superhero Film type of work and action titles. But this had a flair to match the film and the nostalgic era that Christmas design looks back at in American Film.

 

     The main Key Art design was to get a title locked in. Gold, copper, and filigree engraving were taken from the film production design, especially from Santa's sled. The filigree itself was a direct lift from the main prop used in the film on Santa's sled in the metal. The overall warmth was all matched to the film palette.

    I took a number of screen grabs in a flat Clay Shader to show the sculpture forms I made for the ornate title, as well as a screen grab of the Final Render shader using the filigree engravings from his sled. A Behind the Art post is for those wanting to see the process and actual geometry in a build.

     Many thanks go out to Gardner there at Cold Open for bringing me on for these project based roles. Please do take a trip over to the site at the link to see the impressive work they do! The Typeface I created for the first film was used for The Christmas Chronicles 2 as well.

     I am currently full time doing freelance as I hunt for a full-time place to work at, so if you need a bid for a 3D Illustration or 3D Logo, or a 3D Model feel free to contact me for a quote. I am open to Hourly gig's, Work Retainers, Part-time, and of course a Full Time opportunity [ Open to relocation ] would be best. I have worked remote since 2009, so I am ready and experienced to help you.

                                 Cheers, THOM