Art Center Project: Sumi Painting and Papermaking

One of my first Sumi Paintings on Paper I made while at Art Center.

A Final Sumi Paintings on Paper I made while at Art Center.
Red block signature says Toh-Mass[ Thomas]

One of the Miniature Shoji Screens up close.

The Set of three Shoji's I made for my Final grade.

Art Center Project
Sumi Painting and Papermaking

While attending Art Center College of design in Pasadena in the Transportation department in the early 90's we were sometimes required to take a full academic term with no studio classes to fill in our credits to make sure we could get the Bachelor of Science degree which is unique to ID as the fine art majors at Art Center receive a BFA.

What was interesting is that they offered both Japanese Paper making and Japanese Sumi painting as an Academic class and it was not considered a design studio class but if fell under Art History. I have always had a fondness for Japanese culture and design so I took both classes back to back.

What you see above is both my handmade paper we made, as well as examples of my Sumi painting. My final project were the little desktop Shoji screens and I did receive a A in both classes. One of most fun and interesting classes in my 5 years at A.C.C.D.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review:Knowing-Living One Sheet Concepts

The Final One Sheet contained my 3D Logo and 3D Earth Render.
[It's always cheaper than a stock image to use a 3D Earth Image]

The final 3D Logo was a simple matte finished 3D beveled logo.

A Single Point Bevel with a hot and cold lighting scheme.

Here the Logo was done in a warm HOT glass material.

A darker low light concept for a logo hidden in a darker comp.

Though the type was locked in for us before we started, we did play with replacing the crescent moon with a full "O" as seen here.

Here is the Earth in four stages from normal, to all clouds gone, to dry and heated, to a fire ball.

A street scene that was filled with people rioting in the lower third done in various states for a Living One Sheet.

Lady Liberty done in a few different states of dismay.

Knowing
Living One Sheet Concepts

Client: Summit Entertainment
Art Director: Calvin Sumler,Joseph Stamper, and Chris A. Hawkins.
Project Date: October 2008.

We had done a few projects for Summit Entertainment while I was in-house at The Cimarron Group, most notably the Twilight series, so we were given this Nicholas Cage project called Knowing, a Sci-Fi film about the end of the world via a Sun flare so big it literally cooks us, so the visual concepts for selling this fun property were fully explored.

What started out as a Logo exploration of doing a set typeface in basic gray or stone and then doing various hotter metals and hot glass, then translated into concepts for animated posters, or what is referred to as "Living One Sheets".

I also did a few scenes that required a multiple pass at the render that the Art Director then painted in between. This is so much faster then a single CG scene, and allows the designer full control as they can take the before image and paint in ash or heat in the areas they want, and do multiple variations. These multiple images were also good for a Living One Sheet too.

A living one sheet or movie poster is a video poster basically that can be printed on multiple layers of a lenticular film so it moves when you walk around the poster giving it "life", hence the name. It is also played on a HD monitor in a mounted portrait position as well, at an obvious higher cost.

I did a few concepts with a before, during, and after effect, of what would happen if the Sun did flare up and cook the earth like we were selling. I did the earth image, a basic street scene, and paying homage to Rod Serling and the original Planet of the Apes we did the same treatment to Lady Liberty, The Statue of Liberty.

The living one sheets were not finished though the concepts were fun to explore and design. I did finish both the text and the earth image for the final poster one sheet, and the advantage to using the 3D earth image is that it is owned by us with no fees associated with using stock photography, so in the end the client pays less, and owns the image made, all the while having absolute control over the lighting angle and any other detail needed, that is a Smart 3D Image.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Pontiac Sunfire Gilligan's Island

The spot opens on the spinning Captains Wheel, and we find ourselves on Gilligan's Island!

The Sunfire scoots across the sand past the wrecked Minnow and wakes up the Skipper and his little buddy.

The Pontiac then makes it's way into the area with the bamboo huts.

Ginger and Maryanne look out at the car as well as The Professor...

They dance thinking they are RESCUED, and then chase the car.

The car drives through the jungle and drives out to sea on the water...

The spot ends with the car on a nearby beach with the iconic island in the background reflecting in the car as the beauty shot.

Pontiac Sunfire Storyboards
"Gilligan's Island" 1996

Client: DQ Films.
Art Director: Justin Klarenbeck
Project Date: Fall 1996.

After leaving ZEN Entertainment, I went back to freelancing for a while. In the past I had done work for Dreamquest Images in Simi Valley that was absorbed by Disney and they spun off a Design firm in Santa Monica called DQ Films, and I did both Storyboards, and visual effects [ VFX] for various car commercials.

For the Pontiac project they were taking existing footage from the late 60's early 70's television show Gilligan's Island, and having the Sunfire drive though the scenes from the show. We had to source the footage first and apply it to the script. We were obviously limited as there was only so much footage of the show, but with the A+ team in VFX, they were able to integrate the Sunfire perfectly.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: 3D Illustration and 3D Logos for Alexander[2004] PART I

This is the final finished 3D Logo I built for the Posters for Alexander in 2004.

The first Poster that my 3D Illustrated Logo was finished for.

The Second Poster that used the Logo.

One of the first batch of 3D logos that were given to my by Art Director Calvin Sumler to recreate in a 3D font.

Another 3D logo from Art Director Calvin Sumler I then recreated in a 3D font in stone.

A metal version of the logo done for Art Director Calvin Sumler.

I love this font that Art Director Calvin Sumler gave to me to add dimensionality to.

A Bronze-Gold metal hand made logo.

A nice concrete material was put to use on this font for Art Director Calvin Sumler for presentation.

Though not a finalist, this thin font was very interesting to build out and has a very unique feel with the hand designed letters from Art Director Calvin Sumler.

Always asked to do the "BEN HUR" iconic large logo for big pictures like this.

This Icon was used for a few ideas including a teaser poster with no type just an icon with a ghosted image of Colin Farrell.

I did a few versions of the snake wrapping the letter A and this one was my favorite.

A built out a 3D Icon that was based on architectural details found during the time of Alexander and made it into an icon for the posters. This version was a verdigris copper and brass eagle that was aged and distressed.

Project Review
3D Illustration and 3D Logos for
ALEXANDER[2004]
PART I

Client:Warner Brothers Pictures via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Calvin Sumler.
Project Date: Winter 2004-Spring 2004

Early on when I had just started the new 3D Department over at The Cimarron Group in late 2003, I was put on the Alexander project in the Poster Department for the Theatrical release.

I started in the usual way with just some extruded logos, but I proposed to spend a bit more time to get the hand modeled Single point bevel type. I had finished the TROY logo over at BLT just before I came over to Cimarron, so I used that logo as an example and they said to go ahead.

Single point bevels are a hand modeled typeface done so they chisel to a sharp edge in the center of the type with no noticeable flat spot, apart from ones needed in the font design. My first try at this technique was time consuming at 15 to 30 minutes per letter back at BLT, but while on Alexander I tried some of the quad modeling techniques I had developed while building the Lotus Elise and the start of Herbie, the 1963 VW bug for the new Lohan film. I was able to cut the time down to less than 5 minutes per letter which made the budget a lot more feasible for the Advertising fast turnaround needed. So from this project on, I was asked when needed to recreate this look again.

I also build a variety of props and Icons including the two snakes eating each other into a circle, as well as the eagle banner icon that they used behind a few logos a in the presentation. All in all this was a very enjoyable project to work on, and I got the finish for the logo on the poster as well with the talented Art Director Calvin Sumler.

Look for a PART II in the future.

Cheers, THOM

Proeject Review: User Interface Design-Sketchs 1994

A Conceptual Design of a video interface with a cubic spin controller on the right.

A Concept I did for a Timeline Scroller Interface with a sideboard and main video unit.

A white plastic cleaner 1990's design look for a reading interface I designed.

A Round room with image boxes surrounding the viewer with a side scroll interface.

The "Myst" version with a fully detailed out room with stuff on the tables books etc. Interface was every item in the room.

UI Design
User Interface Concept Sketches

Client:n/a.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date: Summer 1994.

Back in the Summer of 1994 I had a fast 3 Hr project to design some interface looks for an interactive CD ROM video game concept for a Apple Design Development Company in Santa Monica.

They wanted the sketches to have the Fish Eye look I do quite often in my sketches, and at that time 3D did not have the fish eye camera yet so we sketched this project.[ Also max was DOS 2,0 at the time!]

I do not remember all the details of the project, just that they loved the MYST product so this was to be built as a Photo-real 3D scene when done. It was approved, but this was before I did 3D myself so it was handed off to a Apple Strata 3D user from ACCD I was working with on it.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: A Perfect Getaway

A sliced away logo that was "skinned".

Taking photography from the film and putting a water layer over the top with refraction distortions.

A sliced sliding logo underwater done for Art Director Joseph Stamper.

I added a 3D water surface with reflections for Art Director Chris A. Hawkins.

A Old Travel Postcard Logo done for Art Director Joseph Stamper.

A trail of blood drops for a graphic Hitchcock styled graphic piece.

A bloody knife silhouette.

A PERFECT GETAWAY

Client:Universal Pictures via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Joseph Stamper and Chris A. Hawkins.
Project Date: Fall 2008.

While still in-house at The Cimarron Group in Hollywood I did 3D Animation and 3D Illustration for the various Departments, and above you can see I did some Logos and Illustrations for the Print Departments pitch for A Perfect Getaway.

The movie is a thriller directed by David Twohy, so we had some dark concepts with logos that were cut and sliced. I also skinned a logo showing the "meat" inside as well, all playing off the theme of the film.

I also did some stylized illustrations of blood drips making a path, as well as a knife and such. For one comp I did reflections and refractions through the water of the two main characters Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich, as they both reflect on the water surface and the area they are at from under the water.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review:The Phantom 2040 PART XLV-BIOT Development

One of the first BIOT's I designed was this Female Maid[ note the skirt].

A BIOT Attack leader overlay I did, very early on as well.

The Attack Leader became the Police Enforcer Rough here.

An Early Female Squad Leader sketch.

A more developed Female BIOT.

A re-post of the FINAL design Male.

A re-post of the FINAL design Female.

Phantom 2040-PART XLV

B.I.O.T. Robot Design Development

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

In this 45th post on, Hearst Animations, "The Phantom 2040", we delve into some of the early develpment sketches I did for the robots in the series called BIOT's.

As Art Director, I based the "tall and thin" artistic theme that would work well on Peter Chungs characters we had designed that were 12 heads tall and gaunt or super thin, so I applied the proportions to the robots.

The designs that were given to me were standard cylinders and blocky shapes, whereas the theme of Art Nouveau and wrapping and interlocking shapes was needed, as well as the "tall and thin" look, so I did the designs as an overlay over another persons initial sketch.

I had alot of fun on this as Robots are always fun to draw for a ACCD Trans major,and being both male and female robots, they needed to look different enough so I used the bikini top theme with a little "side boob" hanging out to show that the BIOT's were indeed femlae. I also used a higher cut bottom on them than the males as well. In 1993 the "thong" was just getting popular and I probably would have given them some "floss" too. :o)

I eventually refined the sketches and the finals were a bit more refined but you can see the History in the development here.

Enjoy!

Cheers, THOM