Project Review: 3D Title Design for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Australian Ballet 2023

  

 The first finished Key Art Image in Wide format graciously provided to me by Carnival Studios.

 

 

My render of the first concept as a Center Bevel in Gold final design.

 

I always render a second pass with an Ambient occlusion pass using a Cebas Final Render Dirt Shader to accentuate the crevices and intersections to give movement to the form materials.

 

 

 

The wireframe is shown here with 2 levels of Sub-D or mesh-smooth added to smooth out the letter forms as seen especially in any curved areas

 

 

 

Here is the base mesh as hand built with the equalization of polygons over the title for a better render. This is a also used for mocking up MGFX animations as a lower rez model is much easier to work with and saves time and money for the client..

 

 

 

A 3/4 angels screen grab show the deep bevel giving rich highlights and shadows.

 

 

  

The second design which was picked for final Key Art use, has the Pillowed face with soft rounded faces and edges.

 

 

 The Sub-D subdivided mesh with 2 levels for detail was sufficient for the final.

 

 

The low poly base mesh shows I used a very early stage of the Center Bevel model and flattened out the face with just a slight lift in the center to add in the desired crown so the reflections and shadows would roll off with nice gradients and no sharpness.

 

 

  This low 3/4 angel screen grab shows the pillow effect with a soft continuous surface from depth extrusion to face.

 

 A second finished Key Art Poster graciously provided to me by Carnival Studios.

Project Review

3D Title Design for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Australian Ballet 2023

Client:  Australian Ballet via Carnival Studios
Project Date:  June 2023.
Direction: Demi Hopkins.

      I was called in by Creative Director, Demi Hopkins to build out a 3D Title treatment for the Australian Ballet for a show called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I have worked on and off in a freelance capacity for Carnival Studios for over a decade, and this time a few concepts for the Key Art for the Ballet were needed. I am thankful that Demi graciously allowed me to post on this title treatment for the Australian Ballet.

       I am typically given an Adobe Illustrator vector file as that is the quickest way to start my 3D Build. I can easily work from a bitmap and use a vectorizing program like Vector Magic to create an outline that I then clean up in my 3D program 3DS max. This will increase costs slightly though. I do rework all vectors before building out to equalize the vertex points to I can have a good clean mesh and even spread of polygons for the form to then reflect smoother curves.

 

       I have been doing 3D Titles used for Key Art for just over 20 years now, and these were all built in Autodesk's 3DS Max as Quads with Sub-D [ Mesh-smooth] applied so that they would work with Motion Graphic needs as well. These assets they can be up-rezzed as high as your processors can handle and a director can get David Fincher'esque close ups and fly in's as needed.

      I first built the design out in a popular Center Bevel Design, or Single Point Bevel, which has all bevels meet in the center of the font shapes. It is a very clean look and you get the most bang for your buck with edge lighting especially in in MGFX animation..

     To do this right, it is a hand built model. The nice part is if you save it in stages you can you earlier version of it for flat faced designs, as I did with the Pillow soft face design with the second one, which was ultimately picked and finished for this Ballet.

       For this Pillow faced design you want to have crown on the surface form on the face or front of the font so you can control the reflections better than a mathematically perfect flat surface which is what you get with a straight extrusion.

     It is much faster to build it flat, but the reflections, especially on high reflective materials like Chrome and Gold will not look great and the light will not attenuate over the surface giving the gradient lighting most clients desire. 

     This is what I learned in advanced surfacing as a Transportation Design major at Art Center, as with a car you need crown in surfaces otherwise a true flat shape will not look good in any material that is highly reflective. [ Example; and Older Jeep CJ door has little to no crown so the reflections go all over the place. With a Key Art title, legibility is your key to success.

     I have worked remote since 2009, and have done smaller jobs like this as my side gig so just on my evenings and weekends. At the time I did this a was a full-time employee as a Design Group Manager for a dozen 3D Visualization Artists at GM. It was understood upon my hire and negotiated to my superiors that I would do side work off hours as long as I did not compete with their core business of OEM Manufacturers of Automobiles, which I honored. 

     I am now back to full time freelance as I await the US Job market to pick back up, so big or small I would love to assist you.

                                 Cheers, THOM