Project Review: Max Payne: Blue-Ray-DVD 3D Illustrations for MGFX- Home Entertainment

 The final shot of the two cases I rendered out for the film Max Payne

One DVD, and one Blue-ray[ Pre-Built Assets from my library]

 Here is the screen grab render, if you look closely you can see the disc inside the blue ray case as it is a translucent case.

 I did a full city shot for the background on the Max Payne release and rendered it out with a stylized look to match the film treatment a bit.

 The Screen-Grab render shows the modeling that is involved in a shot like this. Most were Pre-Made buildings from my library here as well.

 I also did this close up shot of a ledge with modeled bricks and cement ledge stones for the close up. The DVD case would animate from around the bend in the building and come to the front.

 Here is the low poly view of the ledge build. Modeled out the bricks with a bit of random displacement and mesh-paint to ruff them up a bit.

 The Subdivided shot of the Ploy-Mesh smoothing out the geometry for the final MGFX 3D Animation.

 One of the internal 3D Cards I did. a concave beveled face[ indented] with a procedural rusted texture .

  

A view of the simple scene showing the face has a slight concavity.

Project Review

Max Payne: Blue-Ray-DVD

3D Illustrations for MGFX- Home Entertainment 2008

Client: 20th Century FOX Home Entertainment via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date: June 2008.

In 08' I was running the 3D Design Division at Cimarron, and I would bid on internal 3D Jobs for the various other divisions, and for the AV-Home Entertainment group I was asked to create some grunged up city shots for the Blue-ray DVD release of Max Payne.

I re-used the buildings I hand made for various other  gigs, so I could get this to them very quickly, and created a few backgrounds of the city. One was a full city off a balcony, and the other was a close up on a ledge. 

I also did some 3D Type for the internal cards for the HD TV spots as well. A fun one day job that finished with the various end frames with the 3D DVD and Blue Ray cases which I pre made as I did a good amount of these end cards seen on most "Now Available on Blue Ray DVD" commercials.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: One Sheet Key Art 3D Illustration for Night at the Museum 1 -PART IV

Here is the final Background 3D Render used in the finish for Night at the Museum 1.

 The 3D Scene is straight forward, a virtual replication of a hallway used in the sets from the film.

I provide a Z-Depth channel allowing the Art DFIrector to do effects based on distacne from camera as this gives 256 levels of depth for them to blur, desaturated etc.

 The Middle ground final render of the Dino Tail build all Quad Subdivision.

Here is the base Polygon Mesh model with subdivision removed.

Here we see the final subdivided mesh[ 2 levels]

 The final render for the foreground archway model. This came in at the last day a change the client made in finishing.

  The Archway was a basic block model with modeling grout and blocks.

The final 3D Logo I built for the MGFX and the Print work.

 A Screenshot shows the rough layout provided, a screen shot so I could match the angle, and the final poster on the RIGHT.

Project Review
One Sheet Key Art 3D Illustration for
Night at the Museum 1
PART IV

Client: Twentieth Century FOX via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director(s): Calvin Sumler, Chris A. Hawkins, Joseph Stamper.
Project Date(s): Summer 2006, 2008.

This is my fourth posting covering the 3D Design, 3D Illustration, and 3D Animation work I performed for the Theatrical Advertising campaign for Night at The Museum[ Parts I and II], and today I am covering the three final renders I did for the One-sheet finish on the first film.

I was asked to take a shot from the film of a hallway, and build out a virtual version that was longer and wider, as they wanted to put a large portion of the cast on the poster so they needed a lot more room, so off I went to create the shot.

As the project progressed they added three more renders, for the first one I built out a Dino Skeleton Tail to put into the Middle Ground of the scene, for the second one, they then decided to create an archway as a foreground device, to stage the poster a bit better so I created this render as well as the third and final render for the poster.And finally I did a 3D Logo.

These were big renders at 4500 x 6650 and took a long time to render, so at the time I had a 10 blade render-farm available so I did a distributed single frame render and threw 12 PC's total on it to get it done over nite.

You can view PART I here, covering the two film posters I worked on.
You can view PART II here, the Golden Tablet Motion Graphics 3D Animation I did for the trailers.
You can view PART III here, covering the Dino Head build.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: STARZ 3D Logo and Motion Graphics Cards for new series 2008.

This is what the client chose as the final, a simple soft look to the materials with color bouce from the pink letters.

I did an all glass version of the logo and card here with clear glass.

 I also played around with pink glass as well.

 A version with pink glass up top and the Starz Red below on the thicker extruded logo.

 A did some alternate angles on he glass with pink neon inside versions as seen here with this low angled version.

 A birds Eye down shot on the above scene.

 A low front view of glass and neon with a lot of color bounce in this version sot he entire shot is pinker.

 The basic front view shot of the clear-glass with pink neon tubes inside the 3D type for this Starz 3D Motion Graphics style card.

Project Review

Starz 3D Logos and Motion Graphics Cards

for new series 2009.

Client: STARZ via RoseWorks.
Art Direction: Myself and Chris Arnold.
Project Date: October 2008. 

While I was in-house at The Cimarron Group, I did a few Motion Graphics Cards in 3D for Rose Works, an Entertainment Company ran by Chris Arnold that had offices in the building, and for todays post I am covering some work I did for a Starz Broadcast Cable job.

I was asked to help create some 3D cards for a new series on Stars that was to be marketed towards women, so the idea was to add a soft feminine feel to the cards for the announcements. I did a series of cards with lite soft ;links as well as rose glass and some glass on whites for a subtle look to the 3D.

A fun quick gig that took a few hours to deliver the style frames on then I produced the final cards.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Virtual Photo shoot-2009 Honda Accord Launch PART III

Here is the last of the dozen colors for the Honda Accord rendered out in a darker Metallic beige with the wire frames showing thru for reference.

The base Quad Poly Mesh model provided to our production from Honda.

Once disassembled, renamed, smoothed, and grouped, I then apply textures and as seen here add on the Polygon Subdivision[ Turbo smooth] to the Mesh.

The virtual set is similar to an actual automotive set with a 3 three wall cyclorama background with the rounded corners to blend the light up from floor to wall, as well as using a panel above for the lighting.

This side view Polygon[cut-away] view shows the set and reflective panel surrounding the car with just the front open to the outside world.

Here is a screen grab of the 3DSmax scene showing the reflective panel is texture mapped so I can have greater control over the actual bright reflection on the car itself.

Project Review
Virtual Photo shoot
2009 Honda Accord Launch
PART III

Client: Goutam Mitra
Art Director: Myself
Lighting Consultant: Jerry Garns.
Project Date: Fall 2008

In Late 2008 I was tasked with helping launch the newly styled 2009 Honda Accord, and in PART III today I have some Behind-the-Art 3D Images showing the build, as well as some of the key factors in laying out a Automotive Virtual Stage set-Up.

First and foremost is that in order to get a more photo real render you must use a GI, or a Global Illumination renderer to achieve this. There are many out there and ultimately they all will allow the designer to achieve a good look, however the ease of use, and especially the speed in which it renders is a very important key for commercial productions. It is one thing to have an open ended time frame and budget, but in production there must be compromises to get the job in under budget and on time every time. I prefer Cebas' Final Render

I have built out a few cars myself, but thankfully Honda provided an excellent 3D asset when you do work for them, and this is what we were given.

During the project I had a special locked down server at work to keep the 3D scenes and 3D renders off the main network, so only I using a password could access these assets. When a new car is launched confidentiallity is a big piece of the production process and must be accounted for in pipelines and any modifications for privacy.

I had the privilege of meeting up with a fellow ACCD grad who specialized in Automotive photography Jerry Garns, and this help he gave to the team translated perfectly over into the GI virtual automotive world.


You can view PART I here,
You can view the 3D Logo work here.
You can view PART II just below in sequence to this post, or click here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review Virtual Photo shoot 2009 Honda Accord Launch PART II

 My lighting test of the 2009 Honda Accord Coupe done in black paint.

The Coupe is here rendered out in a lighter mist blue type of color.

A deep rich blue metallic is rendered out for this lighting shot of the Honda.

A Warm Champagne type of color was tested in the lighting model too.

A Dark Metallic Grey paint scheme in this Virtual Automotive 3D Render.

A Green-Lime metallic paint variation on the 2009 Accord Coupe.

 As a Hot Rod fan, I love candy metallics, so I did a candy tangerine color choice too.This was the base scene I used for the Mitsubishi project here.

The final was done in red and can be seen in PART I here.

 Honda had a candy root-beer color than season so I threw that on the coupe too, LOVE that color.

 A lighter grey paint scheme was done as well.

I also did a white paint job which required a lot of relighting as the white bounced the illumination quite a bit.

Project Review
Virtual Photo shoot
2009 Honda Accord Launch
PART II

Client: Goutam Mitra
Art Director: Myself
Lighting Consultant: Jerry Garns.
Project Date: Fall 2008

In Late 2008 I was tasked with helping launch the newly styled 2009 Honda Accord. Previously I had worked to pitch Honda a year earlier as well as doing 3D Illustration for the Lotus Elise account at Cimarron, and today I post the second in a series on this job.

Today I have posted some of the lighting set ups I created ahead of time for the various colors we might need for the project. Each paint color requires adjustment in lighting just as in the real world, so for example, a white car and a black one have very different lighting and intensities due to the paint color and how it reacts to the environment and lighting, and this is also true in a Virtual Photo-Shoot as well. Each scene is dialed in over a few pre-passes until a look is good to go in an acceptable time-frame for production.

I built out the various shaders and materials and rendered these out in Cebas' Final Render Product. I also used these Pre-Lit scenes for other automotive projects since once I had the set ups ready to go I simply replace the car into the scene in which the paint choice is closest in color and brightness, and render away.

You can view PART I here, and the 3D Logo work here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Keyes Automotive Group: 3D Logo Exploration 2007

A brushed soft warm metal version for the European Division at Keyes Automotive Group from back in 2007

 A Double stacked gold 3D logo done from Keyes European.

A gold top layer in this 3D Logo with a outlined Chrome back-plate over a dark rich red color. We tried a few colored accents, but did most on black since color is a very emotional responsive choice for many clients.

 Now flipped material wise I did Soft blurred chrome over gold[ no colored background] for this pass at the 3D Logos I did in 07' for Keyes Automotive Groups Identity pitch.

 For the Mercedes Division I did Gold on gold with a soft color bleed effect.

This final was a brushed metal with a gradient applied to the material as well as lit a bit differently to get the soft blend on the face with a dramatic up-lit feel.

Project Review

Keyes Automotive Group

3D Logo Exploration 2007

Client: Keyes Automotive Group via The Cimarron Group.
Art Direction: Myself.
Project Date: January 2007.

I ran a 3D Design Department in-house at The Cimaron Group[ R.I.P.] from 2003, to late 2009, and I was put on quite a few pitches to gain new clients, and with todays posting, I cover the quick half day gig I worked on for our pitch to the The Keyes Automotive Group, one of the largest dealers in the San Fernando Valley out in Southern California.

I first created the vector file for the existing logo itself, to create this in 3D. We did two divisions of the company to showcase a few looks, The European Division, and Mercedes Benz. The idea was simple, to create 3D virtual logos that looked like automotive badge lettering that is usually in a metal and sometimes multiple plates thick found on almost every car. So, I created a few looks using various metal shaders in chrome, gold and brushed aluminum for the pitch.

I rendered out the six looks and delivered to the Corporate Advertising Division for presentation materials, where in this case they were doing a Power point presentation so digital files were all that were required, though we discus the Motion Graphics pass and what we would be doing if it was accepted the pitch did not move forward.

This was a  fun quick little gig for the Cimarron corporate adverting team, and was glad to help with a 3D logo.

Cheers, THOM