Project Review: The Phantom 2040 PART 54

I was inspired by dual hull boats for this flying vehicle design I did for The Phantom.

A concept vehicle using the wrapping and interlocking shaped in the design from the show visual theme book.

A second concept for a Tube Train which ran in the vine-like freeways that wrap the city.

A hypercruiser concept piece from Phantom 2040 from 1992.

A Concept sketch for a vehicle used in the series The Phantom 2040

Phantom 2040-PART LIV [54th]

Transportation Design Layouts

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

In this 54th post on "The Phantom 2040" television Animation Series I have put up some more of the concept vehicles I designed for the series. The city was inhabited so I designed about 30 or so vehicles for the 52 episodes that aired on ABC.

As the Conceptual Design/Art Director for this Animated Series, I was responsible for the look, and as an Art Center Trans major doing the vehicles was the icing on the cake of a great experience I was fortunate enough to have here in Hollywood back almost 17 years back now.

As to the sketches you will notice I put lines around the forms to help the animators understand the shapes better. Complex forms can be understood in dimension with some profile lines cut through the forms as a guide.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: The Scorpion King

The finished Teaser One sheet that was done by Alon Amir at BLT and Associates with my 3D wall Illustration used.

Here is a detailed render of the wall used in the final teaser poster for The Scorpion King in 2002.

I built a 3D scorpion Icon and this was an AV back-lit concept frame I did.

Here is the gold hammered finished Scorpion King Icon I made for some Print Advertising w pitches.

Here is the rusted metal finish on the Scorpion King Icon I made.

I emulated a "crest form the film that was seen in the opening sequence and I built it out to be used for some teaser Ideas as well.

The scorpion itself was a quick model I built that is seen in this wireframe render. I built this prior to doing Subdivision Quad modeling so the parts are all high resolution to begin with. Today I would do this all Sub-D.

The Scorpion King 2002

Client: Universal Pictures via BLT and Associates.
Art Director: Alon Amir.
Project Date: Fall 2001.

Here is another early 3D illustration job I did, about ten years back for BLT and Associates for the Theatrical Release of The Scorpion King, a spin of film from the Mummy franchise. The Rock, Dwayne Johnson starred as the Scorpion king and I was charged with doing a few logo marks, some iconic props and what finished was the 3D virtual Photo shoot of the city wall for the teaser posters and banner advertising assets.

I started with the 3D scorpion you see above, and that was used for a variety of Print and AV concept presentations we sent over to Universal for review. I also did some virtual illustration in that they wanted a full city wall surrounding the city to be used in the poster, and it did not exist, so I built out an entry gate and a large wall. This eventually ended up finishing so I rendered it out at 5000 pixels wide for the One Sheets and Billboards as a final. A fun project to have been able to work on.

Cheers, THOM

Rapid VIS[visualization]: Fast Sketching PART I

A quick sketch of a Robot "boy" I did for our family drawing lessons.

A robot with an "unhappyface" on his chest as a second read graphic.

A balding butler with a wineglass character design as a Rapid Vis two minute design.

Ned is a contractor over at the "Home Despot" that was a two minute sketch design exercise.

A Rapid Vis sketch that is just over one minute with almost no under-drawing and the lines are laid down as finals the first time as if drawn with ink. It forces you to commit to your design fast.

A baby dinosaur that is part T-Rex, part Velociraptor, and part Brontosaurus.

Rapid Vis [Visualization]
Fast Sketching PART I

This is the first part in a new series on "Rapid Vis" techniques. Rapid Visualization, or Rapid Vis is the process of really fast sketching a unique design in just 1 to 3 minutes. It is a great exercise that I learned while attending Art Center, in that you had to come up with the concept and execute it in sometimes less than one minute.

I have taught drawing and sketching at various levels including discussions with High School Art classes as well as when I worked at Disney Interactive I had a Perspective sketching workshop I regularly ran for the various teams there interested, so it comes natural for me to teach Art and Design and what you see above are some recent examples from my drawing lessons I am doing with my 5 year old daughter. She will both copy side by side, as well as trace my designs to learn.

The above examples represent a few sketches I have done for the family drawing lessons I have here at the home studio. Some have an under-drawing and can be seen in the sketch itself, and some are a single line committed sketch technique like what can be seen in the above dinosaurs. Those are a bit tougher as you drop a line on the page as if it is ink. no erasing, so it is more of a challenge for me to do these sketches, but they really exercise your designer inside the most.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Sucker Punch

The finished poster from over at www.impawards.com the premiere movie poster site here

A huge Sucker Punch Movie Billboard render at 18,000 pixels wide done with multiple light sources with all logos in a single file render.

Here is a behind the Art view at the three main steps I used to create the type.

A straight on view of the final logo with Simbiont Procedural scratching and photographic dirt and grime used with the Cebas Final Render Shaders.

This was the final view and lighting for the Payoff Poster for the film Sucker Punch.

An earlier concept type treatment where it was extruded about double deep.

Rendered for the red lit comp done for the character Rocket from Sucker Punch.

Rendered for the yellow lit comp done for the character Blondie from Sucker Punch.

Rendered for the green-yellow lit comp done for the character Amber from Sucker Punch.

Rendered for the cool lit comp done for the character Sweet Pea from Sucker Punch.

Ask and you shall receive! Here is the requested "Baby Doll" Logo I did. Enjoy...

Sucker Punch 2011

Client: Warner Brothers Pictures via Mojo LLC.
Creative Direction: Andrew Percival. 
Art Director(s): Alessandro Cornia. 
Project Date: November and December 2010.

This is my very first theatrical finish for Mojohouse LLC , for work I did last year around the holidays for Sucker Punch, which came out today in theaters. This was a fun conceptual film to help create artwork on. I had worked with Alessandro 9 years prior, over at BLT and Associates in Hollywood, and I enjoyed working with him in the past. I also worked very close with the studio Creative Director, Andrew Percival on the property for about two months on various aspects of the advertising.

I built out all the 3D text using a quad modeling method to soften the shapes up more, and round all edges down, to take away the CG sharp look. Once the look was approved by the client I did all the variations for the other names and applications. I added in procedural scratching, as well as photographic dirt and grime to the chrome material to get the look just right as directed by the Creative Director at Mojo.

Also on this job, I was able to light each type treatment on a per piece basis, and reflect the comp itself into the type, so lighting and colors were key to each use. I did many names in a basic chrome with a blue-sky background, and then I did specific to comp ones, in red, green, and blue etc.

I also did a big wide 30 sheet render with all names in a single file so the perspective would match and, this comp was lit by multiple colored lighted backgrounds from the flat artwork, and still look somewhat real. That image alone was a 19,000 pixel wide render and they needed the assets at a huge scale. A normal 30 sheet uses a 5000 pixel wide render so this was extra big.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Tomb Raider 2 The Cradle of Life Part I

A stone version of the iconic Tomb Raider dual layer 3D Logo.

A jagged edge on a new font treatment for the main Title logo for Tomb Raider 2.

We almost finished this Logo for thew poster, I even rendered it at 5K size for finishing and we had a finish made, but were passed at the end.

The circle concept was used for an Icon for the sphere that they find in the film.

An underwater ruins backdrop for a poster concept with Laura Croft in the foreground in Full Scuba.

A second concept piece for a backdrop to a big head shot poster concept.

A sphere floating above a series of fingers of rock.

A caged sphere concept.

Project Review
Tomb Raider 2 The Cradle of Life
Part I

Client: Paramount Pictures.
Art Director(s):Rick Lynch, Warren Nung, Zack Ris, Marcus Almaraz
Project Date: Summer 2002.

Working in-house at BLT and Associates as the 3D designer responsible for all 3D assets for print and AV[ audio-video] I was put onto the Tomb Raider 2 project very early on, and spent a good four months doing logos, and 3D environments since the film was yet to be shot yet, so I did concept designs for the teaser poster ideas from print.

A fun project where I had to first duplicate the look of the 3D logo done for the first film. That simple brushed metal with chrome on top of a gold holding device is the most referenced 3D logo I have experienced.

There also was also a magic sphere in the film that we conceptualized in a few ways that can be seen along with the underwater ruins that were done. A really fun project.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Novel Comics Gumboman

Recently I built a Cajun Swamphouse [ buy it on Turbosquid!] that was influenced by this story Gumboman from Novel Comics.

Gumboman himself!

A Swamp truck from the project.

A yummy bowl of Gumbo!

The Alligator triplets.

A Color Key I did of the Gator Boys.

The Banjo Twins.

A Demonic Urinal. Imagine that coming your way, Yikes!

Half Man and Half Crawfish!

The Who-Doo Queen.

An old Gumbo shack I did back almost a decade ago as a test in the first 3DS max in 1995.

GUMBO MAN

Client: Novel Comics.
Creative Director: Bryan Thompson.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date: 1994-96.

Back in the mid nineties when I was full time at Hearst Animation Productions working on The Phantom 2040, and The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, I met and worked with Bryan Thompson who worked at Hearst with me. He wrote a great treatment for his original story GumboMan, and after reading it I wanted to do some visuals for the story.

After leaving Hearst I helped Bryan out with visuals for the project with some preliminary character concept sketchs and some various vehicles to support the project that you see above. Brian has a company called Novel Comics that he does all his story work out of as a freelance writer in Hollywood CA.

A very fun project that took place in the swamp, and I return to the swamp house theme in my 3D as seen above with the model I sell of the Cajun Swamphouse on TurboSquid[ link on sidebar>>].

Project Review: Lord of the Rings

A Sample of some 3D type I did back in 2001 for the first film.

I used a Simbiont Procedural map for a displacement to get the severe pitting here on this plate type.

A two line variation with a simple extrusion and light bevel.

A graphic view interior set piece I built for a comp idea.

A made a poster width gate shot for a few comp ideas that was filled with a CGI army.

An alternate view of the gate for another poster idea.

Lord of the Rings

Client: New Line Cinema via BLT and Associates.
Art Director: Rick Lynch, and Alon Amir.
Project Date(s):Fall 2001 and Fall 2003.

I did a small amount of 3D Illustration work for two of the three film ad campaigns for the Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, back in both the fall of 2001, and of 2003.

Early on I did a few 3D extruded logos in various materials. Back in 2001 I had not developed the technique to effectively do a single point bevel so this type did not get that treatment which it was made for.

For the Return of the King, I did more set pieces with the castle wall you see above, and a few interiors as well. A day or two of work at most, but fun stuff to work on.

Cheers, THOM