Project Review: 3D Glass Logo Concepts for Key Art for the film Glass from M. Night Shyamalan in 2019

This 3D Logo I did for Key Art concepts for the film Glass, from M Night Shyamalan was my favorite one personally in the group.

 
 

 This Screen Grab shows the boolean objects I used to make the cracks. I designed the cracks based on a real bullet hole image I found and I hand drew and vectorized the file to make the cutter object.

 

This Screen Grab shows the Cebas: Final Render Rectangular Lights I used to accentuate the edges for legibility since glass materials can be tricky to light for Key Art use.

 

 This flat Clay shader in the screen grab shows base surface at the camera viewpoint. Surface in a 3D Model is what makes the lights and material work. Very important to have a nice model.

 

This 3/4 angle shows the thickness as well as where I hand moved some pieces out, and removed some entirely.

 

 

 

This Screen Grab for the Film Glass, shows everything in the cracks are radiating from the center hole in the letter "A".

 

 This last Screen Grab is a close up on the 3D Logo model letter A the start of the destruction to the logo.

 

 

 

 This 3D Rendered Logo used the same type as above, and shows a solid 3D file with a procedural texture of surface scratches. It's a much faster render with less face count, and a different look.

 

 

 

This last render on that same font above is a simple sharp beveled edge render. Clean.

 

 

 

This next design I also cut it using the shatter cutter I had in concept one above.

This render is a Center Bevel , or Single Point Bevel with both front and back bevels using a mirror modifier. This gives a lot of internal reflections rather that a plain flat extruded style.

 

  This same type face set for me I  also created a soft rounded edge design which is liquid like and  gets nice smooth highlights. To do this I built it out as a Quad model and add in Sub-D to soften and melt the edges. you get no sharp hard chisel reflections.

 

 This last type layout also need to get shattered. I loved doing these as you can see. The second film Split in the trilogy was my inspiration for bringing that look back as an echo to the prior film Poster use of shattered glass.

Project Review

3D Glass Logo Concepts for Key Art for the film Glass from M. Night Shyamalan in 2019

Client:  Universal Pictures via BOND
Project Date:  May 2018.
Direction: Patrick Dillon.

        This next posted project for Patrick Dillon @ BOND was to build out 3D Logos for the final film in his trilogy of films from Unbreakable, to Split, and finally Glass, from M. Night Shyamalan. It was a real treat for me, as M Night is one of my favorite directors, and I loved the two prior films of Unbreakable and Split, so I really wanted to do this freelance.

     I began doing glass logos and illustrations in 3D back in 2001 while at BLT Communications on the James Bond Die Another Day Film. I first did 3D Glass Logos for 007, then I built out his signature Walther PPK firearm as a full X-ray model with all interior parts. The theory at the time was to use it in a Motion Graphics piece. That never came to fruition at the time however.

      Coincidentally a visiting Director at the agency, Todd Phillips saw the piece I did, and I got to sit down with him and discuss using that glass look for his current project Starsky and Hutch in my office at the workstation to show the 3D X-ray model I built. He had a great concept with an 8-Track player in the car that would shift over to glass for a Title credits sequence. Though that did not finish either, it was a great talk with a really great director as well. An experience I will remember.

 

      For each of the Glass title concepts I was given type set up for me by various Art Directors and Designers on the project. They provide the vector outline file, then I am off to build. As a 3D Visualization Artist, I see many ways to take an outline and make it a solid and dimensional. Some are sharp edged, some rounder, and some are destroyed as you see in this post. One single file can have a multitude of dimensional solution, and the posted images above show this.

 

      Glass itself as a 3D material, is very difficult to get legibility to work as a Title Logo, as it is entirely dependent on the environment. It reads in both dark and light, but darker environments with strong highlights is better. Also studio lighting with liquid reflections from light boxes and wands works best in CGI as in a studio.

 

        I did concepts where the logo was shattered apart and made from glass, and not just a static design to me but 'a frame in time' that crossed from 3D Illustration into a 3D Logo. I have a Screen grab showing the cutting object that I made a hand drawn vector with a little gap and thickness since in 3D, CG glass likes that space so reflections and refraction don't take forever to render.

 

     As a Behind the Art aspect to this post, I dropped a slew of screen grabs showing the base mesh and surface details without lighting or textures in a flat Clay material in 3DSmax. If you look closely you can see once the object was cut via a boolean, I slightly moved and rotated the shards a bit to indicate the motion fame caught in time. It also give the render a more realistic feel as all face planes are not parallel.

      Need my help on a project? My Linkedin Profile button on the right column has all my contact details in there along with in my experience section here, with links back to samples on this blog. 

    That Google search widget window up top in the Blog page is helpful for finding work going back to 2009.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

                                 Cheers, THOM