Project Review: Aquaman Key Art Concepts and Finish April-July 2018

 

Aquaman 3D Key Art- My first concept design using the green and orange color palette. This one has the ribbed Icon with glass letters and an orange brushed metal DC badge. This was my favorite.

 

Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab showing the lighting set up. To get exact highlight placements it is really quick to put individual lights for the letters, as well as a global light set up as I have the Cebas Final Render rectangular lights for long light box like highlights above and below.

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader showing surface from the camera. This is the subdivided mesh with 4 iterations so a very mesh dense object to get the ribbing smooth.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader showing surface on the Poly Base Mesh with no Sub-D added.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader 3/4 front low angle, here you can see the displacement needed the 4 levels to get them smooth enough for render-time.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader from behind shows the Icon is 2 sided since it was glass and needed better internal refraction's with more geometry.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a second render with the type kerned in closer using all the same settings as above, with the highlight lights moved in to each letter.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab with viewport materials and no edged faces. this lets me see the smoothing on the Icon to see if I needed more geometry before rendering, which was long.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader showing surface for this tighter design.

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab with map and materials called out.

 

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- This brighter version is what they picked and I made the finish on the logo used.

 

 

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader showing the surface and lighting I used to get the even highlights from the top.

 

 

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader showing the big reflection sphere I used here to match the MGFX treatment.

 

 

 

Aquaman 3D Key Art- a Screen Grab in Clay shader showing a large off camera light box I used for reflections into the glass Icon. Letters were metal so this was to get more contrast in the icon as in a lighter space it needed that differentiation.

 

 

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- some early glass concepts for the icon. At this stage I was still on black with the dark feel of other DC films.

 

 

 

 Aquaman 3D Key Art- I loved this one very subtle highlights with higher contrast. I built this scene for Superman Returns years earlier in 2006 so I had the glass dialed in already.

 

 

 

Aquaman 3D Key Art- This became the finished material just did a night to day swap on the environment.

Project Review
Aquaman Key Art

Concepts and Finish April-July 2018
 

Client: Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc + DC Comics via BOND
Creative Direction: Patrick Dillon. 
Project Date:  April- June 2018.

     Today I can post the work I did for Patrick at BOND for DC's Aquaman. I love superhero films, and I have had the pleasure to work on many of them over my career. 

     Aquaman was introduced into the DC film universe with a cameo in Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice back in 2016, so I was looking forward to working on Key Art Titles for the film in 2018. The character dates back to 1941 right before we officially entered WWII and appeared in the 50's and 60's, so he has been around a while. I am Gen-X so I grew up with both the comics, and the Saturday morning Cartoons. I remember the distinctive orange and green, being complimentary colors looking nice in his suit so you will see my paying respect to this color combo with my earlier concepts I have.

 

   I also posted Behind the Art images with some wire frames and Clay shader screen grabs showing the concept and final finish build out. I also show the displacement map I created for the custom designed ribbed texture in the glass Icon I developed in the early stages that was not picked for the final. It the film the gateway entrance uses this shape as well as the tips of the trident.

 
    I built out the Icon first, then the type was laid out for me by designers and Art Directors at L&R, and delivered in both a compact format and spread out and kerned very wide, which is what they ended up with. The 3D models I build all can be reused and rendered out at many different angles, finishes, and using displacement the geometry was built to be quads so I could add a real 3D texture to the work, or keep it smooth as glass.

 

    The first postings above are of the Key Art concepts, and this is where I had some creative room to build out what I saw as a nice dark and moody render of the logo on black. I was playing off of Jack Snyder's influence in this iteration of the DC universe in both Batman and Superman films, as both had a much darker look than where this film moved to. For this project, glass was an integral part of the designs in both versions. It played off water as a transparent texture.

     I did go to a bright look that is much whiter and smooth for the final that was picked. I did get the finish on the Key Art, and they used my 3D Logos and Icon for both the first and second films, along with all 3rd party marketing as well as at the films premiere with a 9000 pixel icon render that was almost 17 feet tall on Hollywood boulevard at the Chinese Theater.

     A cool side note is they reused the Logo and Icon for the sequel too. Often like in the X-Men films, each film gets a new Icon and title look as I did work on a number of them myself.

 

     I am back full time doing freelance as I hunt for a full-time place to work at, so if you need a bid for a 3D Illustration or 3D Logo, or a 3D Model feel free to contact me for a quote. I am open to Hourly gig's, Work Retainers, Part-time, and Full Time opportunities [ Open to relocation ] would be best. I have worked remote since 2009, so I am ready to help you.

                                 Cheers, THOM