Project Review Launch City Part XII[Twelve] Launch City Redesign: Hotel Ten

This is the main interface for Launch City[ CD_ROM and Online] and the Hotel is front and center[ covered by the video board]

A ground level shot showing the whole building unobstructed. These original renders were small by today's standards, and is only 640 pixels wide.

A shot at the entryway, ready to use for our advertisers.

An overhead render with some gobo lights projecting the then current Launch.com logo.

Here are the wireframe/Ambient render showing the build from 13 years back.

A closer render showing a bit of the amphitheater and park right off the side.

 A closer render of the upper floor area with the roof top billboard.

The entryway wire frame render of Hotel Ten.
 

An overhead shows that I hid most of the city as it did not show in the shots and the renders were extensive as this scene had a million faces which back in 2000 was very heavy in scene size.

 Project Review
Launch City Part XII[Twelve]

Launch City Redesign: 
Hotel Ten

Client: Launch Media Inc.
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: 1999

This is my 12th posting on the redesign work I did back in Y2K on LAUNCH city for Launch.com. Once I had filled in and designed all main buildings I had a lot of filler space to fill between the 10 or so sponsored spaces , and today I look a bit close at one of these virtual buildings, called Hotel Ten.

Living in So-Cal you have to deal with  horrible traffic,and when I worked at Launch it was a 51 mile commute one way and in LA traffic terms in 2000, that was a 2 hour commute. So I often got caught up on the 10 Freeway just south of downtown LA, and there is a great old building right next to the freeway, and that became the main inspiration for this Hotel Ten as I called it.

The theory was we wanted to create a series of fun generic spaces we could sell off to advertisers as virtual real estate, a space in the city. We offered to virtually demolish a structure and re-build a new space if needed, or retrofit the exiting spaces as this one was created for. I then rendered out a set of shots of the building that we presented to clients. This was front and center of the load screen so the space had a higher rate than a background one.


I have many posts covering the various locations that we sold off as virtual real estate to advertisers, with all the links below to my prior postings, and look for more posts in the future as well.

Cheers, THOM

To view PART I on Launch City you can go here.

To view PART II -The Hang PART II, go here.

To view PART III for the Train Station "Twitch" look here.

To view PART-IV- The Dockside Diner, then look here.

To view PART V- Intel sponsored Pentium 4 spaces, you can click here.

To view PART VI [ the sub!] go here. 

To view PART VII-The Vault, go here.

To view PART VIII-Target-Jukebox Twitch, go here. 

To view PART IX-The main City build, go here.

To view PART X-The Streamliner Train Car, you can go here.

To view PART XI-The Gothic Vault Listening Room is here.

Project Review Monsters vs. Aliens: 3D Logo Designs 2008-Part III.

 A fun Furry Monster Logo over a green glowing Alien Logo with a nice shiney 'vs done back in 2008 for MVA.

 For this version of the 3D Logo I created for Monsters vs' Aliens back in 2008, I used a scalloped glass effect on the bottom font with a slight back taper to the face with a rounded monster font above.

 

 We did a few looks that were 'crisper' and more in line with a Sci-Fiction film feel with no serifs in the fonts and a bit more "techno" as they directed us.

 A Nostalgic feel to the font for monsters with a clean modern Alien below.

 Furry over Metal was a strong theme in the various 3D Looks I was tasked with, they liked the pairing of materials.

 A skin texture on the Monster font with a holding device with some glow on it over metal with the green alien glow lighting out from the little "vs".

Another Sci-Fi look in all metals here for MVA.

Project Review
Monsters vs. Aliens.
3D Logo Designs 2008 Part III.

Clients Dreamworks via The Cimarron Group.  
Art Directors(s): Chris A. Hawkins.,Calvin Sumler, and Joseph Stamper.  
Project Date: Fall 2007.

This is PART III covering my 3D Design work I did for the Theatrical Advertising done on Dreamworks 3D animated feature, Monsters vs. Aliens from back in the Late Fall of 2008, and Winter of 2009 while I was the in-house 3D Design Director at The Cimarron Group.

Today I have posted another set of half a dozen 3D Logo looks I created for the Print Departments presentation for the film. I was given a series of vector files from the Art Direction team and some direction.

I was also given a whole lot of open room to interpolate the 2D into the 3D world, so for a few designs I would do three or four versions since a 2D line has endless possibilities beyond a mere extrusion, though they tend to just want something that simple we still show a full range in the presentation to get a good feel for the clients taste.

I did about fifty logos in 2007, and the project went away for two years, so I will have more posts in the future covering these fun little 'toon' styled designs.

You can view my prior posts for PART I here, covering the Theatrical Trailer and Logo, and a series of Print designs like today is posted here for PART II.

You can also see the final 3D Animation of the Title at the front of my MGFX reel work in the right column link.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Men Who Stare at Goats 2009: 3D Logo Concepts-New Earth Army

 A simple clean render of the Men Who Stare at Goats , "New Earth Army" Icon with a bit of after glow in the metal highlights as a post FX.

A cement version of the New Earth Army Logo with aging and a bit of bleached feel to the whole piece.

A heavy aged version here with the Final Render Dirt shader samples set very high and extending out 100%

 Here is the simple scene with the badge sitting on a plane object

An exploded view at this angle shows the various layers stacked up to create the final badge.

A full poster shot of the logo closer with some Lens FX on it as well.

A severe up angle very dark. I left the lower 2/3rd's for the photography OL.

 A shot from the front turned slightly to the right.

Project Review

Men Who Stare at Goats 2009

3D Logo Concepts-New Earth Army

Client:Overture Films via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Chris A. Hawkins, and Joseph Stamper.
Project Date: Summer 2009.

Back in the Summer of 09' I was still running an in-house 3D Design Department at The Cimarron Group out of Hollywood, California, and I was put on a project with a fast half day turn around, which is typical of this industry, they need it now,so little to no time is the standard operation enviornment.

I was given a symbol from the film, Men Who Stare at Goats for the Mind Control group called, The New Earth Army via a screen grab from the film, so I copied the Old font and created a wall badge similar to what I had done before on a few project as seen here, and here.

A very simple build as I needed the half day deadline mostly for the render-time and lighting set up , the actual model itself was a series of 3D beveled plates stacked on one another, and fast to make.

I did a few angles but they went for the front shots in various stages of aging for the presentations. I used the great procedural shaders with the dirt effects in all the cracks, as this ages 3D renderd quite well and is a fast process, as long as you have the CPU or GPU's to handle the render itself, as all procedurals are created at rendertime and take longer, but never pixelate.

A fun fast 3D Logo job typical of most of my day to day work here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review Launch City Part XI[Eleven] Launch City Redesign: The Vibe[vibreaker] Music Room

 The First round design was a conglomeration with Retro parts mixed in with vintage Iron Victorian frames holding PC's and digital equipment.

 Here is an ambient render from the Launch City redesign with the camera pulled back to reveal the Tech Tree sitting in the center of this Gothic Attic.

 Each workstation had various apparatus that was needed including payment, music, storage, volume etc that flanked the screen.

 A close up shot of the little details that make up a single piece in the scene. I have block off plates in the switch panels to mix it up a bit and make it feel  more built from what was at hand, rather than full custom.

 The final revised version was a whole lot more Gothic for the room, with a very simple iMac-ish single bubble design PC sitting on an old Gothic Table.

 The ambient render shows the basic parts built out for this scene for Launch.com

 This Close-up shows workstations in the background area of the final Vibreaker virtual set.

 Project Review
Launch City Part XI[Eleven]

Launch City Redesign: 
The Vibe [Vibreaker ] Music Room

Client: Launch Media Inc.
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: 1999

This is my 11th posting on the redesign work I did back in Y2K on LAUNCH city for Launch.com, and we look toady at the Vibe, or what became the VibeBreaker Gothic Cathedral center stage in the city.

Launch was known for it's at the time revolutionary Music portal to play internet radio that learns and plays what you like based on your selections, so they wanted a location in Launch City where they could introduce the player App within the CD ROM-zine, so we picked this location.

Originally  went full Gothic as I was hired from for my Theme Park Experience and they wanted to fully "Theme" every location virtually in the city, and the Gothic Cathedral was a perfect location for this. I built out an interior set of the upper room and outfitted it with a steam-punk PC music compute tower in the center of the room. For the screen close up I utilized Old School and New tech with toggle switch panels for the 60's CD ROM players from the 90's etc.

As time went on, they simplified the interface to be 100% on screen so all PC parts were scrubbed from the room, and it was a bit bland, so I embellished the Gothic details out to a much higher level  for the final, with more trim in the windows and frames, as well as adding in Gothic furnishings to hold the modern tube screen interface we would zoom into.

I have many posts covering the various locations that we sold off as virtual real estate to advertisers, with all the links below to my prior postings.

Cheers, THOM

To view PART I on Launch City you can go here.

To view PART II -The Hang PART II, go here.

To view PART III for the Train Station "Twitch" look here.

To view PART-IV- The Dockside Diner, then look here.

To view PART V- Intel sponsored Pentium 4 spaces, you can click here.

To view PART VI [ the sub!] go here. 

To view PART VII-The Vault, go here.

To view PART VIII-Target-Jukebox Twitch, go here. 

To view PART IX-The main City build, go here.

To view PART X-The Streamliner Train Car, you can go here.

Project Review DESPICABLE ME 2010 3D Logo Design Explorations PART III

A nice soft font that I tapered and bent once I built it out. A small bit of curve goes a long way on a 'toon' font. 

A Single Point Bevel type treatment with a aqua green reflective foil material . We went warm for the shadows and glow off the back in a complementarity color.

This was fun, a procedural organic texture on a warped and hand bend and turned toon font. 

I likes the Idea of the 'e" in Me having a mathematics feel to it as the main character is a  scientist and they wanted to play on that theme a bit in the logo as well.

A double line logo with a devil cut into the the 'e'. Up-lit for the lower line, and top lit for the upper line of text, all colored with gradient textures applied.

Project Review
DESPICABLE ME 2010
3D Logo Design Explorations
PART III

Client: Illumination Entertainment via The Cimarron Group.
Art Directors: Rob Russell, Calvin Sumler, Chris A. Hawkins, Joseph Stamper, and Adrienne Burk.
Project Date Spring 2009.
This is my third post covering the work I did on Despicable Me back in 2009 for the first film. I helped create a series of almost three dozen 3D Logo looks I helped develop for our final presentation to the studio. Today in the third posting I have put up a series of more of he happier designs that were less sinister.

"Toon" logos require not just a good font picked by the Creative or Art Directors, but in execution in the 3D world, you must add more softness, and a slight bit of randomness in the 3D build itself, which means a straight bevel or extrude will not suffice, but hand modeling in needed. A slight curve, or bend on the end of a sharp shape does wonders to "toon" it up.

We went with the bright and  happy candy feel as seen in the softer shapes and brighter colors. Also these were all rendered in a bright white environment to overshoot the light effects and get a bit of blowout in the renders. The environment brightness and light direction[ dramatic and heavy angled, or soft focused and centered ]sets the tone. It fights the font shape, or works with it, as this is where you dial in each look in 3D in the mood of the room you view it in. Think a Gallery viewing with a nice pin light in a darkened room, vs' seeing the same thing just sitting in a store.

You can view PART I here with a huge posting of logos.
You can view PART II with more darker logos here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review Launch City Part X[Ten] Launch City Redesign: Retro Streamliner Train Design

Here is the final screen render from 2000 that I designed and built out in 3D directly that showcases the streamliner styled polished metal train car.

An alternate shot with the Launch.com Streamlined Train moving out with a second line bringing up the rear.

A full city shot from Issue #44 with the simpler trains in the city elevated on up on the center and left side of the panorama.

A Polygon render showing the build out of the Train car at a 3/4 side view.

An elevated shot of the nose of this streamlined train car.

A 3/4 back view of the Train from Launch City [1999-2000]

A side view showing the 'submarine' windows as the VW 21-23 window folks call them up on top as mini personal skylights.

This shot shows the rolled belly pan typical on all early Silver Stream and Airstream trailers.

 Project Review
Launch City Part X[Ten]

Launch City Redesign: Retro 'Streamliner' Train Design

Client: Launch Media Inc.
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: 1999

This is my 10th posting on the redesign work I did back in Y2K on LAUNCH city for Launch.com, and for today we look a bit in depth at the elevated trains that ran thru the virtual city.

Originally I did a very low poly simple train car that is seen int he center and right side of the city panoramic, and once we were done with all the sold virtual real estate spaces, we started to address the connections outside each location, and so I enhanced the design of the train car anticipating added space to sell off.

I built this quickly as I had about 3-4 Hrs total to do it, and this was prior to me learning 'SDS'=[Sub Division Surface] modeling, so this is an old school higher poly modeling style I did for fast deadlines.

As a Transportation Design Grad from ACCD[ FA 91'], I love old streamlined style, so this was a dream little design job for me to build out. I also am a huge Vintage Airstream fan so I had the shape language in my brain to get on it fast for this one day project space build out.

I have many posts covering the various locations that we sold off as virtual real estate to advertisers, with all the links below to my prior postings.

Cheers, THOM

To view PART I on Launch City you can go here.

To view PART II go here.

To view PART III for the Train Station "Twitch" look here.

To view PART-IV look here.

To view PART V- you can click here.

To view PART VI [ the sub!] go here. 

To view PART VII-The Vault, go here.

To view PART VIII-Target-Jukebox Twitch, go here. 

To view PART IX-The main City build, go here.

Project Review: Despicable Me: 3D Logo Design Explorations PART II

This was a fun little alternate on a version I had already prepped, so I added in these soft rounded joints thru out the font to simulate sheet metal sections for the first film Despicable Me.

 

I used the Car-Paint Shader with some large metal-flake on this version. NOTE: The reason the "M' in me is pushed over a bit, is one of the minion characters was to be added in later leaning on the type.

 

 I did a few meal plate versions, this one too had the "M" being pushed over by the character to added latter on.

A big metal heavy bevel version with the Lightining in the type.
 

A "Heavy Metal" type of look with a large single point beveled Gothic-ish font in aged pewter.

A Red glass version of the logo with the Lightning theme in a few characters in the name for Despicable Me.

Project Review
DESPICABLE ME 2010
3D Logo Design Explorations
PART II

Client: Illumination Entertainment via The Cimarron Group.
Art Directors: Rob Russell, Calvin Sumler, Chris A. Hawkins, Joseph Stamper, and Adrienne Burk.
Project Date Spring 2009.

Today I have posted some additional 3D Logo looks I developed for our presentation for the first film Despicable Me back in 2009 while I was still the in-house 3D Design Director at The Cimarron Group. And today we look at some more "Darker" versions.

We went with the bright and  happy candy feel for most, but we also went a bit darker and sinister as the film is a dark comedy even though it is for kids. Presented on black, with heavy dramatic lighting, and rich reds, back glows, and various metals.

You can view PART I here with a huge posting of logos, and look for a few more posts in the weeks to come as well.

Cheers, THOM