Project Review: The Phantom 2040-PART XXXIII-More Handhelds

Rebbecca Madison's secret Bracelet Compartment watch.

A standard Commset Phone used in the show.

When interfacing a PC or a VR device they used these gloves to move around the space and navigate.

A Prison tracking bracelet.

A small disc that would produce a Holographic Bouquet of Flowers.

Phantom 2040-PART XXXIII
More Hand-held Prop Designs

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

In this 33rd post on the Phantom 2040 TV Animation series I worked on in the early 90's , here I continue with some of the many hand-held props I designed.
If the script referenced a prop, it was put on a list, then it was determined if it was referenced in a long shot or close up so the details could be done accordingly. Some shows had well over fifty separate prop designs but most would fall about twenty or so designs per each of the fifty-two episodes, so I designed hundreds of props for the series as a whole.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Men in Black II

A direct lift from the film when the elevator is shot up by the robotic gun. This was a backdrop for a fun comp.

A bubble wall comp for the two character posters.

A 3D version of the old MIB logo from the designing of the murals in the headquarters.

He main TV monitor that the "twins" used in the film.

The doorway that the Tommy Lee Jones character gets his memory back in by going into this room.

Silver over black anodized Aluminum 3D logo.

The reverse contrast in the same 3D Logo.

MIB 2
March 2002

Client:Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Art Director: Ronnie Blumenberg.
Project Date: March 2002.

Eight years ago while working in house in Hollywood CA at BLT and Associated I had this fun project come into the studio. It was a quick job over a day or two for the sequel to the popular "MIB" or Men in Black Film, aptly named MIB2. I was tasked with mostly virtual stylized set pieces as the poster concepts were stylized versions of some various locations iconic to the film, so I recreated them very quickly. I also did a few Logos as shown, though they ended up using a plain black on white2D approach.

To have a full week on a job like this usually does not happen in the world of Theatrical Advertising, but no matter, what I did get was fun and always a challenge to complete in a few short days.

Cheers, THOM

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone from the Studio of Thom Schillinger.

Project Review: Cyan Worlds URU- PART V

An early concept sketch with a giant belly fin and back stinger.

This concept had a balloon like body with a fluttering fin running all the way around the fish.

This concept was a turtle like creature with "Schrooms" on the back.

A stumpy fish with huge side fins and a small line dorsal on top.

This cupped fin concept design was based off another design I did for another creature.

This is the refined version I presented of the cup finned creature with a new Manta head.

Once direction changed this is the 3D shrimp version I built.

Cyan Worlds URU: Part V

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Direction: Rand Miller
Project Date: Winter 2000

In this fifth Post on the Production Design work I did in the Winter of 2000 up in Spokane WA for Cyan Worlds, the makers of the popular Myst Video Game, I have posted above the development of the "Schroomie" character I did for a world in URU, the online version of the Myst worlds.

What you will see are the quick proportional sketches that give the overall form of the creature. These are done with little details and mainly block out the "first-read" shapes you would see with the creature. Also, since this is a real time 3D world I consider that when I design, so the creatures can be made to fit the medium as you are limited in details that translate over to the limits of the game engine.

As with many projects you can get far into it and then you are told to change direction, this started out in a very open direction and eventually narrowed to a "Shrimp" like creature as you see in the 3D mock up I ended up with. A fun exploration in both 2D and 3D.

You can view PART I here.

You can view PART II here

You can view PART III here.

You can view PART IV here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Van Helsing 2004 PART I

My Finished 3D Logo for the One Sheet Pay Off.

The Teaser piece with the metal Stake and Type which was modified for the pay off.

A very early design for a curved base logo.

A Nice simple reflection of a 3D Metal Logo.

I'm always asked to do a back-lit volumetric version for a scary movie.

A 3D Logo design I did for Art Director Hunger Lam.

A fun script type font from Art Director Hunger Lam is brilliant;I made it into a 3D metal Logo for him to use in his comps.

We finished two 3D Logos and this was picked as the final.

This was the runner up fo0r the finish for the 3D Logo for the film.

Here is a series of 3D Metal Stakes for the Vampire Killer Van Helsing. The third from the Left was finished for the Posters.

Project Review
Van Helsing 2004
PART I

Client: Universal Studios
Art Director: Hunger Lam
Project Date: Fall 2002.

While I was working in-house at BLT and Associates in Hollywood CA back in 2002, we did a lot of Logo and Vampire Stake exploration for the new Universal Film Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman as the main character.

I did a bunch of 3D Logos finally finishing with one of them used for both the teaser and finish One sheets. I also finished the metal stake with a H in it used to Pre promote the film as well. This was an early use of the Simbiont Procedural Textures used to get the old rusty iron materials I built. Fun stuff.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Dark Justice PART III

G-Money was the "Godfather" main Bad guy character.

Chill is G-Moneys main Henchman.

Jewel was the Hero.

The Ah-Ha girls were triplets in G-Moneys club.

Medina was the Evil Mistress.

Project Review: Dark Justice PART III Character Development

Client: Brandon Smith via Hope Ranch Productions
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: 1999

In this third post on Dark Justice, the animated cable show I did Production Design work for in the early 90's , we look at a the main characters I designed for the series.

An Art Deco futuristic world that had an overall sexy tone, hence all the ladies wearing lingerie in every scene as the primary outfits.


You can view PART II the vehicle designs I did here.

You can view PART I for the Set Design work here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Warehouse 13- 3D Illustration

The first round was a 10 row deep 3D Illustration of the Warehouse background

The Room tripled in depth the next round, and went to a cooler color palette.

The final Image was near 60 Rows deep and they requested the wide camera view shown.

Warehouse 13
3D Illustration

Client: SyFy Channel via The Big Picture Group [ BPG].
Art Director: Steph Sebbag.
Project Date May 2010.

Back in May of this year, I was given the task of creating a virtual warehouse image to match the look from the SYFY website with the principal photography for the show Warehouse 13, but the angle and size of the what they had photographed was too small to use, and a re shoot was too expensive, so we proposed a 3D Illustration to solve the challenge.

This is a perfect fit for a virtual set extension,or in this case, a full 3D virtual set which is what we ended up doing. I stated with about 10 rows of shelves and set up the comp, but the client wanted it deeper so we tripled it to 30 rows. By the time I finished this work ,the final set was 200MB vs the 12MB first set since we ended with 60+ rows of shelves. It took a while to render to say the least with 12 million faces.

I also did a small test animation for the website portion of the campaign for Warehouse 13, to have an interactive portion using this room as the base. I rendered out a 10 second test move through the space and delivered the 3D Scene files as FBX exports for them as part of the delivery.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: The Phantom 2040-PART XXXII-Wide Layouts

A Wide shot of the Gym from Show 117 with Overlay.

An UP angle in the same Gym from the next scene.

Phantom 2040-PART XXXII
Wide Background Layout Design

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

In this 32nd post on the Phantom 2040 TV Animation series I worked on in the early 90's , here I have posted some wide backgrounds I did as a freelancer for my own project. It was a situation where I could assign freelance projects to myself as Art Director and 1099 my employer for the side work, since I do not do OT without pay.

This hits upon a theme I POUND into my art and design friends, is to NEVER work for free. [Pro Bono is not Spec;I will do that]

In a 40 Hr week if I could not finish all tasks needed I assigned the remainder to freelancers[ including myself] as needed.

These were both from Show 117 in the first season and both were fish eye curvilinear perspective shots as they were very wide camera moves, and the curved lens helped the look we wanted to achieve. Also when you design for yourself ,it goes very fast, so I was four times the speed of most other freelancers I used, so consequentially it ended up a lower cost for met to do them.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: DUNE Entertainment Logo 2008

Step I: The vector file is prepped for a SPB and it is beveled with no caps.

Step II: The bevel is welded all the way around each letter by hand to form the Single Point in the center of the text.

Step III: The areas needed a sharp corner are defined with a chamfer on them
[ see the "N"].

Step IV: I pull the font behind the sand-dune at the base of the Big D and finish the text.

Step V: Here is an overhead shot of the finished scene set up for a fast pull back across a desert.

Step VI: Here is a closer view showing the staggered text on the sand floor surface.

Here is the seated final frame of the animation.

Here is a test render of the final frame after the desert is dissolved away showing the lighting in the Big "D"

Project Review
DUNE Entertainment Logo build.

Client: Dune Entertainment via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Steven Viola.
Project Date: Winter 2008.

When I was in-house at The Cimarron Group we received many requests to do Film Company Animated Logos, and in my 3D department I provided assets for these projects to Print ans AV departments for the variety of needs.

For the Dune Entertainment Logo, I needed to build a Single Point Bevel version of the text where the big "D" was broken open with a sand dune built into the font base. Once the text was build I modeled out a desert surface using a displacement with a cellular map on a plane object to create the fractal random peaks that would match the logo shapes. I did a test animation and off it went to the AV team headed up by Steven Viola to finish out for the client.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: The Race to Atlantis PART XXII

Our comic relief is visiting us one final time.

As he leaves us he heads towards the huge city of Atlantis.

Once he reaches the castle a huge energy is emitted and it is revealed that our host...

Was King Poseidon himself all along!
The End

RACE TO ATLANTIS PART XII

Client: Rhythm and Hues.
Art Director: na.
Project Date Summer 1996.

In this final post of twelve on my work on the 3D ride-film storyboards for the Atlantis Ride Film at Rhythm and Hues, we finish the ride and are seated at the base of ATLANTIS. We have our final interaction with the comic relief who has been with us on this entire ride, and we get to see the revealing of King Poseidon!

You can view PART I here

You can view PART II here

You can view PART III here

You can view PART IV here

You can view PART V here

You can review PART VI here

You can view PART VII here

You can view PART VIII here.

You can view PART IX here.

You can view PART X here.

You can view PART XI here.

Cheers, THOM