Project Review: 300 Rise of an Empire 2013-PART II

 The final rendered image as delivered for the Comp Presentations.

The Ambient Occlusion Dirt Shader pass[ 2nd render]used in the final as an overlay.

The Z-Depth Channel pass: Distance based editing on a pixel by pixel basis.

The low poly base geometry I built for the comp.

A 3/4 side shot of the center of the virtual set I made.

Close up on the rack full of shields.

The back cabin with the decking all modeled with rivets and planking crowed on all surfaces for good reflection and shader falloff.

 The low poly base mesh in this overall view shows that I made only what was needed, a technique I learned early on in my career doing set design.

Project Review

300 Rise of an Empire 2013 PART II

Client: Warner Bros via Gravillis Inc.
Art Directors:Team.
Project Date: March 2013.

I was asked to help out with the One Sheet creative development process on the second 300 film; 300 Rise of an Empire back in 2012 , and another client also came to me with a need so the next year in March of 2013, I created a detailed back half of the ship deck for a One Sheet presentation they were making for the payoff posters.

I was given a rough shot of the actors to match lighting and angle, and a single shot from the backstage from the film of the set itself. I had just a day to do this, as most deadlines are very fast in Theatrical Entertainment, so I build as much as I could get in the design with some simplification to meet the deadline.

Overall I matched the look and feel and the client took delivery of the multi-layered PSD file with an ambient pass, as well as alpha channel, and a Z-Depth pass for distance based editing to drop the ship into the fog as it went back into scene.

A fun one day gig.

If you want to see the medium resolution ships I built the prior year for another client[ so I was already familiar with the vessel] you can review that here. I also did a small online part for the first one here as well.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Sol-Simple Solar LLC: Facility 3D Architectural Rendering 2013

Here is the first set-up for this Architectural Exterior render with all the elevations built to scale and placed in 3D ready to build out.

 The Ambient rendered version of the final design. I love old architecture specifically from this time period so I had a grand time making all the various parts, and reused a few items I had built out f prior as well.

 The final-toon Toon-Shader Illustration render is my favorite with aged parchment paper as the background and my Sumi stamp signature in the lower Left Corner.

 A close up shows how the modeled bricks render with the toon shader.

 Here are the cinder blocks and brick in the ambient and the dirt shader finds those cracks and enhances them very well.

 A Exploded view shows the basic parts and build for the image, grouped and named for easy finding and adjusting a workflow tool I've used since my Disney daze.

 A close shot on the exploded view with trim and door and window details.

 A view of the side with barn doors re-purposed from this.

A vintage photo of the building when it was still a Ford Dealer and repair.

Project Review

Sol-Simple Solar LLC

Facility 3D Architectural Rendering 2013

Client: Sol-Dimple Solar LLC.
Creative Direction: Don Dicky[ Owner]
Project Date: December 2013.

Late last year I was asked to help create an architectural rendering for a proposed Building renovation, that would also be printed up as a poster. The client is an old friend from High School out in Texas now, working in the Solar Industry, and as a fellow Ford Motor Company Fan, he purchased the very first Ford Dealer in Texas and is renovating it for his Solar Company.

So, I got the photos and basic dimensions and the direction that Don wanted to go on,  and proceeded to build it out in 3D. As with most Architectural and Furniture work I build a vector file of the elevations to scale before I go full dimensional as shown above.

Once I had that done, I stated building out all the various components in 3D, all as Quad Subdivision surfaces for better detailing. I do not map bricks, I build them, gives me more control with lighting and shaders.So, once it was all finished up we did a few revision rounds and added in lighting and some foliage as well as the vintage Ford and Gas Pumps out front.

A super fun little project that was eventually rendered out big at 9000 pixels wide for a full sized 20" x 30" poster in the Toon shader look. I even redid my signature in 3D for this as well,and a semester of Sumi Painting at ACCD heavily influenced my Japanese character'esue vertical reading name ID.

A d super fun project for me to be apart of. 

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Robocop [2014 Remake]-PART III RoboSuit Placeholder Mock-Up 2012

The main full body shot of the placeholder Robo Suit I made to assist the presentation for a teaser poster back in 2012 for the remake of RoboCop.

 

This Poly shot is the subdivided final 3D build showing the red lighting fx as well.

 

The low poly base quad model I made of the suit for the above shot.

 A closer fully rendered 3D shot at a bit of a 3/4 angle.

The geometry for this 3D Render.

The base Poly Mesh for the placeholder Robosuit.

An even closer shot. They stripped in the actors face in the shots , though they were all dark so they dropped into shadow quite a bit. You will note the lower collar design pays homage to the original one, as I grew up in the 80's as well as went to school in Detroit the place that Robocop was filmed.

 The subdivided polygon quad model of this close-up.

A base non-subdivided shot of the 3D model I built that day.

Project Review

Robocop [2014 Remake]

PART III

RoboSuit Placeholder Mock-Up 2012

Client: Columbia Pictures via Cold Open.
Art Direction: Jeff Barnett
Project Date July 2012.

Two years ago I worked on the film advertising for Robocop, and this final PART III , I am covering the 3D robo-suit mock up placeholder I built for the teaser poster presentations.

A placeholder is an image to hold the place until a final is available, and since we had no scrap reference on the design I built something for them to use until it was available.

I was directed by Jeff Barnett on this, and they had close to zero photo scrap reference on the look of the final suit, so I was basically told to wing it, aside from a few things. What we did know is that the suit was more Batman like, Carbon Fiber Ballistic military grade armor of some sore. They ditched the blue steel look for the original films, as well as the blue light FX were to be red in this exercize.

I went to work. Now bear in mind, I had just one 8 hour day to design, build and render out a set of shots with little reference, so I had to work very quickly. If I had a few days to do this the results would differ accordingly, and the reason this must be mentioned, is that many 3D pieces I look at need to be seen in context to the limitations[ or lack there of] of time to finish, as most pieces do not reflect what time limit was put into the artwork, and I had a single 8 hour day.

I had experience with robot design in the past with the various B.I.O.T.s I did for the TV Series I was Art Director on, The Phantom 2040, so I had to go back to a set of shapes and anatomy study work I did for that project and pulled out my reference pack from back then for this work.

I rendered various views and delivered as estimated. A super fun fast paced design challenge for me, though it did not finish it helped with the presentation ideas.

You can review PART I here.
You can view PART II here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Robocop [2014 Remake] PART II 3D Logo exploration 2012

 A Single Point Beveled type treatment with a small line of neon balancing on the pointed edge done in a flatter weaved Carbon Fiber Shader I made for Robocop.

 This 3D Logo used the same 3D File I hand built above, and swapped out the flat ballistic Carbon with a weave over steel.

 A second RoboCop vector file was supplied for this next design for Jeff with a floating neon lite line object up top over a flat black face with a shiny black bevel and extrusion.

Here is the above model without the neon and the texture was replaced with a brighter metal with a lite blur and a back reflection to smooth things out a bit.

 I also took just the neon from the above file, and did this simple alternate version with some blurred and reflected neon type.
 

  A final simple bright metal 3D Logo version for Jeff using  a motion blur and some shine and glow added in post.

Project Review

Robocop [2014 Remake]

PART II

3D Logo exploration 2012

Client: Columbia Pictures via Cold Open.
Art Direction: Jeff Barnett
Project Date July 2012.

Two years ago I worked on the film advertising for Robocop, and this is PART II covering the 3D titles I was asked to help with for the various One-Sheet presentations back for the Teaser Posters.
You can review PART I here.

These are all from Jeff Barnett whom I had the pleasure of working with very early in my poster work back at BLT in 2001, so we worked well together, which is a big part of all creative work, the relationship with the directors in charge helps with the entire process.

We went with polished metal, and Flat Carbon fiber for the main looks as I did for the other 3D logos as far as direction, it was the same.

I will be posting more 3D work of a place-holder Robo-suit I made for some comp ideas in the next few weeks, as the suit design was TOP secret and I had to make one up for the comps.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Gasland 2-3D Illustrations 2013.

The fist pass of my 3D Illustration design for Gasland II, had a deep extrusion to the USA map with the Oil rig up top. Colors were locked early.

 I lowered the extrusion by 60% going forward, and for this one I did the 'tree-root' cracks all emanating from the rig.

 

 I then took the spine object I used to Boolean the top plate and did the base extrusion with lower cracks coming up the surface.

 One of my personal favorites is the sharp edged cracked version with some shards falling over, the most organic looking one IMO.

 This is the same scene as above with the camera changed in FOV, as well as moving to a more birds eye view up top.

 For various other comps the client had me render out just the Oil Rig model at a few angles to use as well, as seen above.

Project Review

Gasland II[2]

3D Illustrations 2013.

Client: HBO Pictures via Cold Open.
Art Direction: Noah Witlin and Jeff Barnett.
Project Date: April 25th, 2013.

Just over a year back I was given a quick little 3D Illustration gig for some posters for the sequel to the HBO film Gasland, called Gasland 2 from a regular client Cold Open. 

The concept was basic, in that they wanted to show a cracked up USA map extruded out with an Oil well atop. I did a few 'cracking' concepts with lower cracks, upper ones, and ones that were more glass like as well as tree root styled ones to achieve the various looks they wanted.

They wanted bright colors and a very graphic feel to the renders so I went with primary colors for the finals as directed by the Design team at the agency Cold Open.

A fast half day+ gig delivered, however the finish was not granted so these exercises show what could have been, always a big part of concept work, as 90% of what I do never see the light of day, and this is typical.

Cheers, THOM