HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014!

Happy New Year 2014 to you All!

Regular Blogging will resume next week! 

A few Links from my TABS section to the lower right!

Concept Design:
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Sketching

Theme Park:
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Theme%20Park%20Design.

Storyboards 2D:
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Storyboards

Phantom 2040[ All Concept Art-Character Design, Props Backgrounds, Color Keys]
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Phantom%202040

Automotive:
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Automotive%20Rendering

Steampunk:
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Steampunk

Architecture 3D:
http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/search/label/Architecture.

Thom Schillinger

3D Conceptual Designer

Merry Christmas 2013!

Merry Christmas

2013

From 3D Conceptual Designer

Thom Schillinger

There will be just lite blogging thru New Years!

Project Review: Bold Films-3D Logo design exploration 2008- PART I

Here is the final PSD image I did in creating the 3D Logo for Bold Films back in 2008.

 

This is the first pass in the multi-pass render which had the lens specifically rendered out as gloss black with no heat affecting the materials.

 

I also rendered the next pass with an increse in heat as well as changing out the material on the lens to something that is heated up and utilized sub-surface scattering to get the heat to bleed a bit on the edges.

 

A polygon shot of the final frame for the 3D Logo I did for BOLD films.

 A close up the detailed camera lens model I had in my 3D Library from an earlier project "The Experiment" as seen here.

 In this birds-eye exploded view render you can see the various 3D element s I created for the design for this film company 3D Logo.

A shot close up on the 3D rigged iris that is still for sale online here.

Project Review

Bold Films-3D Logo design exploration 2008

PART I

Client: Bold Films via The Home Entertainment Division of the Cimarron Group.
Art Direction: n/a
Project Date:October 31st, 2008.

I always had a fun project to work on when I was in house doing 3D Design, 3D Animation, and 3D Illustration for the Cimarron Group, and today I am going a bit behind the art on a 3D logo I created for the team in Home Entertainment to present.

The concept was simple: incorporate a camera lens into the name 'BOLD' for the film company, and this was a quick exercise, as I had already built out the parts for a few other projects so I put together the parts set it up and ran a multi-pass render.

I recommended the muti-pass is it gives the Art Directors full control over the level of 'heat' that was wanted on the logo, so I rendering it cool ,and HOT. The render passes were combined in Photoshop and with the aid of the ever present alpha channel in 3D renders it was a very quick process to complete.

The camera aperture iris is a stock model I eventually posted on Turbosquid for Cimarron, and is still for sale today though sadly Cimarron shuddered it's door earlier this year. I also sell my own models now all subdivision too here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Behind the Candelabra[Liberace] 2008 PART II The Crystal Logos.

 I did some solid crystal version of the logo for the posters using caustics to get all the light play onto the dark background plate.

 A quick alt with the light dispersion turned on to get the prismatic effect thru the glass. It was deemed a bit too colorful for use.

 

 The first pass at the main focus logo, a gold hollow letter-form filled with various sized Diamonds.

 

 The main focus with the camera 'dutched' a bit with various Diamonds caught in the air utilizing some Depth of Field effects with the camera.

 

 A Ruby red satin bed as the backdrop in this alt. I love the way the colors in the background and the gold letters reflect and reflect thru the various flying diamonds.

 

 A simple white satin version done as well as the final image for the Liberace project called Behind the Candelabra.

 

 The wireframe render showing the build including the satin cloth backdrop.

 

 This polygon render closeup shows the various hand placed gems inside the letter forms for the comps done for the film Behind the Candelabra.

Project Review

Behind the Candelabra[Liberace] 2008

PART II The Crystal Logos.

Client: HBO Films via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Joseph Stamper.
Project Date: November 2008.

In the late Fall of 2008 did a pitch for the new Liberace Film being considered, "Behind the Candelabra", and today in PART II I cover the 3D Logos I created for the various comps.

I was asked to do the 3D Logos in glass or crystal with Diamonds to showcase the extravagance associated with the man, so I proceeded to do a series of variations on that theme.

I have done logos in jewels before as I did for the Theatrical Trailers for the film, Mean Girls here, as well as plenty of Solid crystal ones as seen for CNN here, AstroBoy here, Beastly here, Nine here, Monsters vs' Aliens here, STARZ here, United Artists here, Green Hornet here, and Twilight here, so I was off to building the comps.

What I was asked to do as the primary logo was to fill a hollow logo made from gold with various sized diamonds and lay it on some satin cloth. I did a few views as well as a few colors to choose from.

As a back up I did two sold crystal ones as well.

You can view the Grand Baldwin Virtual piano I made in PART I here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World- 3D Illustrations for Key Art 2003

 There were a few comps on deck looking down so I did a series of birds eye shots on the cannon model I made for Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World back in 03'

The polygon shot from above showing the simple build[Pre-Quads for me]

 

A rear view of the cannon was rendered out for a few comps as well.

The poly view of the back of the Cannon.

 

We did some detailed shots of the firing mechanism so I put a good level of detail into the hammer and spring flintlock like tech. So Fun to make!

 

The wireframe.

A Side view of the Master and Commander Cannon from the virtual Photoshoot.

A lower 3/4 front view of the 3D Model.

A true birds-eye looking down on deck with the cannon

 An exploded parts view showing the various pieces and construction for the 3D model.

Project Review

Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World

3D Illustrations for Key Art 2003

Client:Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. via BLT Communications.
Art Director: myself.
Project Date: May 2003.

When I was in-house in Hollywood running the 3D Design Department at BLT Communication back in 2003, I was regularly utilized in building out virtual props for various Theatrical, Home Entertainment,and Video Game key art, and today I am covering a 3D Cannon I made for the Film Master and Commander: Far Side of the World back in 2003.

BLT used me like a photographer, in that I would shoot virtual shots of various props for comp presentations for key art.

I was a one man show for these illustrations, so I would research, build, texture, light, and finally shoot off a series of 3D Images that the various Art Directors could use in the comps they were pitching for the finish. 

I usually had a day or less for these type of things, as the need came up that day, so I had to work very fast. As an artist you always want more time, but in the world of advertising that is not the way it works, where as in film and television production, you get a great deal of time per image.

The cannon you see above was a typical small gig I had on a daily basis, fun and new each day.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: NINE-2009 PART II-More 3D Logos

In my first post for the film Nine, you will see parts from this logo there, here is an alt floating at a worms eye view with some volumetric lighting added in post. 

 I did a series of glass versions for a few type treatments given to me by the great team of Art Directors, and this one sitting on a gloss black backdrop allowed the caustics reflections and refractions to be highlighted.

 An aged smooth concrete/metal like texture with a strong warm to cool lighting color environment. We tried all lower-case for a few passes for the film title in 3D for Nine.

 Another 3D Glass logo that I built out as hollow to get the brighter edges and internal caustics. I lit this one with a more warm set of lights and reflection maps.

 An Old Subway tile feel to this 3D film Logo. I used a procedural shader for this one and the mapping wraps well.

 

 A Single Point Beveled type treatment in severely water damaged concrete. A combo of procedurals and bitmaps for this 3D Logo design pass.

 In Part I you will see posted this metal grate logo over a matching window with volumetric lights shooting out, and they liked it enough to render just the 3D virtual iron-work by itself. I went with a more aged copper in the shader for this pass though.

 

 A blocked out version of the 3D Nine Logo for the film,  built out from a vector pass with a good amount of noise on it to feel like a paint stamp.

The same file in a flatter plate with some simple scaffolds behind it similar to this more detailed version I posted in PART I

Project Review
NINE-2009 PART II More 3D Logos

Client: The Weinstein Company via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director(s): Calvin Sumler ,Chris A, Hawkins, and Joseph Stamper.
Project Date: Spring 2009.

The successful Broadway Play "Nine" was made into a feature film and today I am posting another set of 3D Logo concepts I built for the Theatrical Print Advertising campaign while I was still the in-house 3D Design Director at The Cimarron Group.

This was a very fun project for many reasons , but mainly because of the team itself. I cannot emphasize enough how important to creativity the team attitude and work environment is to create great work, and with this team, I was stoked.

I did many variations with a wide range of materials and found objects, and was given a full week to build out the various designs that we came up with.

Sadly for me, the client went to pure 2D flat white logo for the finish, but it still was a fun ride going through the motions.

You can view my first post PART I here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: ICE AGE 2:The Meltdown-Motion Graphics work Part II

The main final FOX Marque I did for Ice Age 2 was sans the snow with the smaller cracks in the ice material .

 Here was the same version with the snow caps added back in.

A greener version with a smoother surface was another pass I did for Ice Age 2.

This one had a rough pumice type of Procedural texture applied to the ice to make it more rustic.

This one used a hammered look with sharp edged cup like bumps over the ice materials.

 Here is the final model I built for Ice Age of the TV FOX Marque.

 An overhead shot showing the simple Ice Age FOX Marque scene in 3D.

 I always give the teams I work with a Z-depth mask so they can select the pixels based on distance from camera to save them post production time and costs for adjusting full animated Motion Graphics sequences.

Project Review
ICE AGE 2:The Meltdown
Motion Graphics work
Part II

Client: 20the Century FOX via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: myself.
Project Date: Summer 2006.

Today I am posting the second piece in the Motion Graphics 3D work I did for the film Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, from back in January of 2006, while I was in-house running the 3D Design Department at The Cimarron Group.

Today I am covering the FOX Marque 3D Ice version I built out for the project to match the cards I posted last week, that can be seen here. As with the text, I also built out a few variations as Ice materials for type can be tricky as it has serious legibility issues with the transparent and translucent areas on the 3D asset that can interfere with readability.

I experimented with various internal blurs and specular levels in the shaders to achieve a look that would work. I also did some with and some without some show on top of the ice parts as well.

A fun addition to the cards, to build out the FOX marque which I have done four times so far.

You can view my Ice Age 2: first post wit the cards for MGFX here.

If you wan to see my Ice Age 3 work you can go here.

Cheers, THOM

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Much to be thankful for, enjoy the Holiday!

Cheers, THOM

Project Review 2008 Honda pitch- 3D Shaders: Sketch and Graphic [Toon] PART IV

A sketch shader was used with an aged paper background for this 'Sketchbook" look I did in 3D using Cebas' Final Toon.

 The first pass was a bit dark and the lines were a darker value of the base color keeping the scene monochromatic.

 I adjusted the lines to a brighter color while still retaining the red in there for the next round.

 I went fully white for the lines in this Ink-n-Paint look. Note the reflections on the ground as I used a FR_Raytrace Map in the 'toon' reflection channel.

 A version with thinner black outlines for the last one.

 A small render test more realistic but styilized none the less. 

I learned better car lighting right after this stage of the project and can be seen here.

 The basic set up with the geometry from the Camera view. Harder shadows work best for toonz'.[IMAO]

 

 A Screen shot overhead showing the base scene set-up.

Project Review
2008 Honda pitch- 3D Shaders: Sketch and Graphic
[Toon]
PART IV

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

In his fourth post for the work I did back at The Cimarron Group securing Honda as a client, today I have posted some shader experimentation work I did for the project to achieve a graphic 2D look using the 3D models.

During the project pitch I was asked to create these various looks for a Honda spot to pitch to the company and we went with a Graphic 2D look using 'Cartoon Shaders' in 3D to achieve this look. I had prior experience in 2D Animation, so I had a few things I addressed for the look including the line fill and shadow, as well as the the sketch styles.

These were eventually animated and cut into a few 30 and 15 second TV spots to sell them on the look. One big advantage is that the production time for this look is very reasonable in cost as the shader frames are one 50th the render time.

A fun shader project that though did not go to finish, I did gain valuable experience in setting up a 'toon' scene for production in a MGFX pipeline.

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.
You can view PART III here.

Cheers, THOM