Friday, December 31, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Thank you to everyone out there who supported my efforts this past year.



Happy New Year to you all!

Thom Schillinger
3D Conceptual Designer

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Project Review: The Phantom 2040 PART XXXIX-Layout Grids

A B.I.O.T Storage facility roughed in storyboard layout grid.


A Birds Eye exterior shot with a strong fish eye lens done for the Layout dept.


VainGloria had a concert in space and this was the stadium blocking layout I did fo4r the Storyboard Artists to follow.


The Lowest level of the city was the "Old City" and here is a typical tall and thin stylized layout.


At the top of the Mile High building of MAXIMUM INC. Rebbecca's office was at the very tip,an here is the blocked layout for the space.


Phantom 2040-PART XXXIX
Background Layout Quick Grids

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

In this 39th post on the Phantom 2040 TV Animation series I worked on in the early 90's , here I have posted more layout grids I used to make a more accurate perspective to follow for the final layouts done at Sei Young Animation Studios in South Korea.

Perspective Grids, as I have stated prior make for better designs as your 3D space is laid out for you to follow, and your mind can focus on the design proportions, not accuracy of the camera. This was the only way we could get out layouts done at the right angles for our extensive use of fish eye lens on worms eye and birds eye shots.

Cheers, THOM

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Personal Project: Hot VW's Magazine Logos

I used an 80mm camera so the foreshortening would be at a minimum.


The basic Max Set Up for a 3D Logo.


A fun 3/4 view looking up at the Logo.


I played around with a Carbon Fiber face material on the Logo here.

A basic black Logo.

A red logo using the VW pattern from the seats as a bump map on the face object.


Personal Project
Hot VW's 3D Logo

As a VW fan and having owned a good dozen old VW's I thought I'd take a quick pass at the Hot VW's Logo which is illustrated to emulate a 3D metal Automotive Logo as seen on every car out there. I found the Illustrator file on the Hot VW's website, and brought it into 3DS max 2010 to adjust and prepare for the Logo build. I had some textures made from the Herbie project so I used some of those in this exercise.

The set up is in Final Render with a Box light above and a spot light below. It has the Log in the center of a reflection sphere so I can control what is going on in the chrome parts of the file. FUN stuff.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Project Review:The Pantom 2040-PART XXXVIII-Hyper-Cycles

Kit Walkers Hyper-cycle as seen when in disguise from being The Phantom.


Jenna's Hyper Scooter, a smaller cheaper version of a Cycle.


An alternate view of Jenna's Hyper-Scooter.


A development sketch 3/4 low rear view with wings out on a hyper-Cycle.


An early development sketch of a hyper-cycle with a bit more wrapped design over the arms and legs.


Phantom 2040-PART XXXVIII
Hypercycle designs.

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

In this 38th post on the Phantom 2040 TV Animation series I worked on in the early 90's , here I have posted a variety of flying motorcycle designs I did for the show that were called hyper-cycles due to a small hand sized space hyper-drive system allowing them enough energy to hover and fly.

I did a variety of hyper-cycles for various characters including the Phantom/Kit Walker, the Enforcers, and Kits college buddy's Jenna. I also show some development sketches as well , showing a small bit of the process behind it.

Cheers, THOM

Monday, December 27, 2010

Behind the Art : Herbie VW Speedo Buildout

A Camera view of the 3D file I made for the texture map.


The finished texture adjusted with drop shadows etc. from Photoshop.


A screen shot of the 3D speedo body ready to Boolean out the holes.


An exploded view showing all the 3D parts that are in the Speedometer 3D Model used in the trailers.

A finished render from the trailers we did.



Behind the Art
1963 VW Herbie Speedometer
build out for the Theatrical Trailers.

I have posted on the Herbie VW model I built for the trailers for the Lindsay Lohan film back in 2004 while running a 3D department at The Cimarron Group and here qwe can llok at the build out of the Speedo for that project.

We had some ideas where we needed to get real close to the speedometer and being a VW affectionate myself this was a pure joy to work on with this level of detail.

Above you can see the process I had in building out the separate parts for the VDO Speedo found in a 1964 VW, and I built out the texture map for the face in 3D first since it was all custom fonts and needed the hand built approach to get it right vs a photo.

WAY TOO MUCH FUN!

Cheers, THOM

You can view my prior posts for Herbie here, and here.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Project Review: Cafe Morpheus Asylum-PART III

The big "Blade Runner" ceiling fan for the upstairs area.


The Custom made Bar Stools for the dining counter in the large dining hall.


These Lamps had 12 separate lights with a ceiling fan and were near 16 feet tall.


The smaller Post mount and Wall Sconce versions of the lights that were made for the main hall and bath areas.


The Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Lamps that were handmade for the Mezzanine area.

Cafe Morpheus Asylum Restaurant
PART III

Client: John R. Thomas.
Art Director: John R. Thomas.
Project Date: Summer 1993.

In this third posting for Cafe Morpheus Asylum the Restaurant I illustrated for John R. Thomas in Beverly Hills CA. back in the very early 90's, I focus in this post on the blueprint Designs for the custom made ceiling fans, lighting, and bar stools that were all made entirely from scratch.

The first drawing is for the huge 8 foot ceiling fan ala "Blade Runner" with a roof lighting system so faux moonlight would stream into the smoke filled Mezzanine with the slow rotation of the giant industrial fan. The fan itself, we found it in a junkyard, a vintage fan that weighed about 600 pounds so we cast the parts from plastic and faux finished them as the weight was a liability to use the original.

The second drawing breakdown is for the custom post mount bar stools that used a VW deck-Lid sprint to give some nice "steampunk" Industrial feeling to the seats as well as function to give a bit of spring to the backs.

The bent tube lamps were all build out of solid copper and brass parts and finished with a great patina aging them to look like the originals from 100 years back.

I also designed two Frank Lloyd Wright styled lamps for the upstairs "Blade Runner" room area as well. One was a direct lift from a table lamp from his Prairie collection, and the other was a unique design with a parallelogram hinge system so the lamp could move up and down via the wall mount and remain level at all times. This one was build from Aluminum and steel and anodized with an art glass shade as well.

Cheers, THOM

You can view PART I here, and PART II here.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Twilight II 2009 New Moon[ PART II]

A quick Dreamcatcher model for a Poster Idea done for Calvin Sumler.


A series of looks for a crest design we were given to make in 3D.


An ALL CAPS version of the New Moon Logo done with the 3D scratches.

A lowercase version of NEW MOON done with fewer scratches with a warm material.

An Aged Gold version of the Logo.


A Dirt Material was used on most Logos to get the aged feel in the cracks and nooks and crannies.


A monochromatic version of a cement material for the Logo done for Joseph Stamper the Art Director.

An all lowercase version of the logo clean without any 3D scratches done for Joseph Stamper as well.


Twilight Logos PART II
TWILIGHT NEW MOON
3D Logos and Illustrations for Print Advertising

Client: Summit entertainment via The Cimarron Group.
Art Directors(s): Calvin Sumler, Joseph Stamper, and Chris A. Hawkins.
Project Date: Summer 2008.

I had the privilege of working on four Twilight ad campaigns so far and here I post PART II covering some Logos and 3D Illustrations I did for the second film Twilight New Moon.

I revisited the single point beveled logos based on the logo from the book, as well and the "g" was modified a bit with more curl in the tail so we had the main logo and the episode title "NEW MOON" done in a variety of materials and in all uppercase all lowercase etc. I also did a few Illustrations, one of the Dreamcatcher and one of some crests for the new addition of another clan.

You can view PARTI for the first film here.

Cheers, THOM

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Project Review:The Phantom 2040-PART XXXVII-Grids

A Perspective Grid Layout Guide I created for a Gliding PAN shot.


A Perspective Grid Layout Guide I created for a standard triple wide PAN shot.


A Perspective Grid Layout Guide I created for the curved space station for Sean-One in a wide PAN shot.


An overhead view with extensive curved perspective. The animators use the grid to plot moves as well.


A Perspective Grid Layout Guide I created for a Zoom and PAN shot.

Phantom 2040-PART XXXVII
Perspective Grid Sketching

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

In this 37th post on the Phantom 2040 TV Animation series I worked on in the early 90's , here I have posted a variety of underlay grids I create to block out the background layout designs.

I have taught Curvilinear Perspective and having a bit of curve to the drawings gives it an effect like a fish eye lens rather than using a 3 point "faked" perspective which will severely distort the images when you use extreme angles in your views. I taught the teams in France, and South Korea , and Vancouver in using Ship Curves and French Curves to Illustrate these fish eye views.

Above are some small layout grids I blocked for main sequences from the show since our vendor merely Xeroxed up the boards and painted them directly without a layout sketch, so we needed to have very accurate storyboards to ensure our low budget show would have a good look to it. I think we did it. Animators also used the grids to properly foreshorten the characters in these scenes as well.

Cheers, THOM

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Project Review: Universal StudiosT2-The Ride

The 3D Illustration Comped over the Photography for the Finisher to use.

Screen Grabs from 3DS max showing the basic set up and models for this 3D Retouching Exercise.


The T2 with the 3D Eyes added into the shot with the eyes at Camera now.


Screen Grabs from 3DS max showing the set up for the Eyes with some Hidden Geometry for shadows and reflections.



Terminator 2 The Ride 2004
3D Photo Retouching and Design.

Client: Universal Studios Hollywood via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Mary Ellen Schrock.
Project Date: Spring 2004.

While I had a running 3D Department at The Cimarron Group for six years, one of my regular internal clients was our Corporate division up on the 4th floor, which had at the time a retainer with Universal Studios, so we addressed any Marketing needs for the Theme Parks.

This post covers two separate jobs for the T-2 Attraction. One was a Liquid Metal Illustration for a few items so I took the background image and created a reflection map enviornment in Photoshop to reflect in the chome arms I built in 3D. THe finish render was a 2D Illustration blended into the Photo.

I also had to rebuild the eyes from the Terminator and turn them to Camera. Also the Photography was a very low resolution so I had to render these at 5K in width for a final piece of Marketing Artwork. Subject matter for an Industrial Designer is second to none for me on this fun project. It was a great experience to help out.

Cheers, THOM

Monday, December 20, 2010

Project Review: The Phantom 2040 PART XXXVI- Industrial Design-Trains and Props

A Cross Country Heavy Iron Freight Train I designed for The Phantom 2040 Series.


The Tube train ran underground and in the tubes that wrap the tall buildings in the city.


A Set of B.I.O.T. Tech Arm and Leg Enhancers for the Enforver Sagan Cruz.


When Aunt Heloise was Hospitalized I designed A medical Device she wore in the Show as she recovered.


Kit Walkers [ The Phantom] VR Helmet for his training by Guran.

Phantom 2040-PART XXXVI
Industrial Design Train and Prop Sketches

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

In this 36th post on the Phantom 2040 TV Animation series I worked on in the early 90's , here I have posted a variety of industrial design items I had to create for the series "The Phantom 2040".

I had to design about five variations of speed trains that would run inside and over the top of the vine like freeway and train tracks that wrapped around the city. I also have some product designs I did for a variety of props needed from medical to military use. Always something new for each of the 56 episodes I worked on, and so much fun to design.

Cheers, THOM