Project Review: 3D Title Concept Key Art Designs for Army of the Dead 2019 -PART I

 The final Key Art Title I built as a 3D Illustration for Army of the Dead for BOND. This design was my favorite of the 7-8 designs I did for the project. This was most definitely the most complex of all the designs I did as well. To achieve the motion blur on the falling chips I set up the render as a 3 frame animation moving the chips down and rendered out the center frame only to get the right amount of motion blur.

 The Ambient Occlusion/ Dirt Pass is a second render pass I provide my clients as you can use it in post to add depth and details to the 3D final rendering. Multiple use of overlays can really add weathering and with added noise effects to the pass you can achieve some great alternates with a single render pass for the Key Art teams to 3D Paint on the file.

This third pass shown is a standard 3D Depth mask based on pixel distance, a Z-Depth pass. It is great for distance based editing , like fog effect, saturation and de-saturation changes based on closeness to camera, and rack focus effects can also be achieved in Motion Graphics work with just a single rendered multi-pass file like I deliver or Depth of Field aka "DOF" in a still image.

  

Here is the 3D Camera POV shaded in a clay material for this Screen Grab showing the reflection dome hidden from camera behind the design so it does not render, however it is seen in the reflective surfaces so you can control the color and mood via whatever sky or background used.

Super close on the details of the 3D Model with the Dice 'Eyes" with diamond pupils inside the skull eye sockets as well as all the fun details up close in the Clay shader Screen Grab here showcase in my build.

 

This Screen Grab is tipped a bit to show the 3D layering going away from camera. Was hoping for a 3D fly through if it was picked, lots to fly around in this design. You can also see I bent the title and curved it back a bit on the sides. This alleviates the extrusion looking so much deeper on the far ends of the title with the camera distortion effect you get with a 3D Camera.

 This second design I present today is a one-line title with a really fun carved skull center to the 3D Logo. I subdivided the skull so I could use a bitmap to displace the 3D Mesh Geometry and due to the intricate details in the design the mesh was over a million faces to get the curves just right for this level of use. Sub-D is advantageous as if you do need to go closer you merely add more polygons, but you'll need a good high end PC to render it out as it gets mesh heavy.

 

 

The Ambient/ Dirt pass really fills in the cut out filigree in the skill so you can get it to pop out much better in post after the color pass. Try Overlay and Multiply in Photoshop with these passes they work the best IMO

 

The Z-Depth shows the spade on the skull forehead was the closest to the 3D Camera as seen in the lightest color displayed here. A leveling pass in Photoshop can isolate that element for glints and use it for any lighting movement in a MGFX use.

 

 

The clay pass of the final locked camera for the render on this second 3D Illustration design I provided to BOND.

This Screen Grab is a lower angle showing how I rotated the skull down in the Poker Chip 'Halo" object to give the eyes a more sinister look. You will see actors tip their heads forward to accentuate the eyes peering out from under the eyebrow, Think of Pennywise in IT.

 

This last Screen Grab is much closer to the skull design element in center and I did a wireframe overlay to show the million face object needed to get the 3D carvings to be smooth enough for the title view as described below.

Project Review

3D Title Concept Key Art Designs for Army of the Dead 2019

PART I

Client:  Netflix via BOND
Project Date:  October 2019.
Direction: Patrick Dillon.

      I was contacted by Patrick Dillon at BOND to build out a few Key Art Titles for Zack Snyder's film, Army of the Dead that was being produced by Netflix.

 

        Today I cover PART I for the 3D Titles with two Key Art pieces that I really enjoyed building. High concept beyond extruded typefaces which are a lot of fun in themselves, but these had some nice 3D element with Skulls being used along with multiple props as well which is a rare gig to come along. I have built a number of concepts using skulls in the designs that I had built for various projects including the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, so I was ready to go on the designs.

 

      The film takes place in Las Vegas, thus in the first concept presented you see the Casino Chips in the comp, and the direction was given to me to add in a variety of elements including the sword / dagger as well. Working out the composition in 3D along with the color look and feel with bright colors,  gleaming gold and a lot of shine.

 

      For the second design the skull was also used with added intricate carving into it with detailed filigree patterns and presented it in a White Gold or Sterling Silver material. I reused the 3D Poker Chip I made for Comp 1 behind the skull as a nice halo on the skull and framing device. The font was supplied to me to use as usual by BOND, and was extruded to be heavy and bold book-ending the skull design in center.

 

     For the post today, again I also threw in some screen grabs showing the base mesh and surface details without lighting or textures in a flat Clay material in 3DSmax. 3D Models are the first step in any good 3D illustration and built out details always are there to catch lighting. Less flat objects look deeper as they are actually deeper. It takes longer to build but the payoff is huge. A Bump Map texture fake can never replicate what a modeled out object will provide a 3D Designer.

     The work did not make it to finish for the final Key Art, yet I was able to create some memorable pieces for the client and myself. It expands my 3D concept knowledge each time I use an element in a piece of work, as each surface is a lighting challenge as well as all 3D composition taken into consideration not just the 2D X and Y tangents and composition but the added third dimension of depth in the Z direction. [ 3D Geek talk! ]

     I will be posting more Army of the Dead Key Art 3D Logos I did for BOND in the future.

    I work project to project, be it a half day to weeks or longer.  My Linked in Profile button on the right column has all my contact details in there along with in my experience section here, with links back to sampleon my blog. That Google search widget window up top in the Blog page itself, is helpful for that.

 

                                 Cheers, THOM