Project Review R.I.P.D-3D Virtual Set The White Jail Gravillis Inc. PART II

The first R.I.P.D. shot I did was closer to what was in the film, but was not dramatic enough.

The second round I went about 600% deeper and taller since we see more ceiling area. Duplicated the cameras etc all the way back.

 The We came back even closer in this comp.

At the same distance I adjusted the catwalk design to a X shape with the cross-path with a solid floor.

 A pulled back shot with the new catwalk was what we ended with, until...

 The alt with a fuly solid tile floor version was requested. Then I was done with the Jailhouse.

 A screen-shot view of the first set I built. I basically copied these sections 6X to get the larger versions.

Project Review

R.I.P.D-3D Virtual Set
The White Jailhouse

Gravillis Inc. PART II

Client: Universal Pictures via Gravillis Inc.
Art Direction: Vince Tran.
Project Date: Sept 2012.

This is my third post for work I did for the Theatrical Advertising for the film R.I.P.D, as well as my second posting for R.I.P.D work that was performed for the Agency Gravillis Inc.

I was contacted by Vince again to work on this next room. The room is from the film and is the supernatural jailhouse, and they wanted to modify it to the proper angle and proportion for the comped Movie Poster idea, so I proceeded to build out the various elements found in the set from the film shot I was provided to me.

3D Illustration is perfect for doing these kinds of modifications , and especially true for a background made of of fine details like jail bars and screens as the old standard 2D approach of piecing it together in Photoshop gets difficult the more complex the items you must clone and bend to fit as this background had. 

Also the film still was less than HD resolution so it would have been a very blurred "Frankenstein" comp if it was done in 2D, so they chose to go 3D so we had full control over the side depth and all over details angles and scale for a variety of ideas.

In 3D you build once and render many times,and this is where the saving is to be found.

You can view the Gravillis Inc's R.I.P.D work for PART I here, the bank vault room.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: National Treasure- Motion Graphics 3D Card Development 2004.

The final design full frame shot of the Illuiminati styled crest I created for the Motion Graphics for National Treasure.

 I did a series of half a dozen angles on the crest which is why this is a perfect job for 3D GFX.

 An extreme down shot on the top of the "All seeing Eye" in the crest design I did.

 Now an extreme up angle wit it fading into the black fog.

 Close in on the central Pyramid design motif.

A bit of Masonic Symbology in there too.

A version was tried w/o the gobo in a more subdued palette, but we rejected it as a bit too plain.

The geometry was simple bevles and booleans, no quads at this stage, though today I'd do it all quads.

 The "Gobo" Light text image that was projected and animated across the surface during the 3D camera move for the MGFX 3D card.

Project Review

National Treasure

Motion Graphics 3D Card Development 2004.

Client: Buena Vista Pictures via The Cimarron Group.
Art Direction Collaboration: Myself and Paolo Ledesma.
Project Date: Summer 2004.

The first Summer I worked in-house at The Cimarron Group back in 04' I worked quite a bit with the Motion Graphics team providing RAW 3D frames for various TV and Theatrical spots for trailers.

I was put on the National Treasure gig for a few days to help create a backdrop with a Illuminati type of crest. They referenced the crest I did for Minority Report from the days when I was back at BLT, and so I developed a fun crest design that we used fir a few MGFX spots.

Once the look was established, I cut type into the background and animated it coming out from the walls for various shots, and we also just used simple moves on the back-plate with a foreground text treatment as well. You can see this asset about half way into my reel linked to the RIGHT side, or here.

A fun little design gig.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: R.I.P.D-Bank Vault Room 3D Virtual Set extension for Gravillis Inc PART I

 The Main shot as a RAW un-comped 3D render as delivered for R.I.P.D as a set extension render.

 The screen shot shows the alignment with the back-plate[ note the lack of lens curve in the view port vs the renders above and below]

 I give an Ambient render so as they retouch it in post they can add some lighting details with overaly work.

 I provide a Z-Depth mask so they can pick objects based on distance for Tilt-shift or other Camera FX.

 An overhead shot of the desks I built out for the foreground.

 A view up close on the metal 50's desk I reproduced in 3D.

Project Review

R.I.P.D-Bank Vault Room

3D Virtual Set extension.
Gravillis Inc. PART I

Client: Universal Pictures via Gravillis Inc.
Art Direction: Vince Tran.
Project Date: Sept 2012.

This is my second post for work I did for the Theatrical Advertising for the film R.I.P.D, but my first for the Agency Gravillis Inc. in which this was my first job with them.

I was contacted by Vince to help them do a set extension for a shot they wanted for a poser concept, so I was provided with a clean back-plate and a few extra shots of the desk design I needed to build out for the custom shot.

The back-plate as all photography, has lens curve to it, so I always use the Final Render[FR] extra Plug-In cameras for these shots, since I can align the curve in my render to the curve in the back-plate lens.

All regular 3D renders and view ports show straight lines, so trying to align to a curved shot is very difficult, so over the years I have developed a pipeline for this with FR. If you look at the screen grab above you will see the straight walls as seen in the program, yet you can see the curve in the renders as they all use a Distortion Curved Lens in FR.

Also I was able to adjust the room to compensate for perspective differences with the talent that sat on the desk up front.

I did half a dozen rooms for them for R.I.P.D, and will be posting them over the coming weeks, so come on back!



Cheers, THOM

Project Review: R.I.P.D.-3D Seven-Shooter Virtual Film Prop Replica for Key Art 2011.

 The first shot delivered for R.I.P.D to Cold Open was this side shot of the iconic forearm used in the film.

 I was asked to make it 30% longer so I adjusted it in 3D, and re-rendered it out.

 Here is a screen capture showing the alignment that I do to line up the virtual prop with the photography provided to me.

 This is the base Low-Poly mesh I made for the virtual film prop for RIPD.

 Here is the shot with Subdivision added with 2 levels of detail[ 3DSmax=Turbosmooth]

 An alternate comp with Jeff Bridges silhouetted with the gun up front. I rendered bright so they could take it back to a lower level. Too dark they have no room to go back up, so I did it this way.

 I did two shots with the gun opened up revealing the Long bullets as well as the blue glow for the "special shot' in the Center.

  A view similar to up top with the longer barrel and cylinder.

Project Review

R.I.P.D.

3D Seven-Shooter Virtual Film Prop Replica for Key Art 2011.
Cold Open PART I

Client: Universal Pictures via Cold Open.
Art Direction: Gardner DeFranceaux.
Project Date: December 2011.

A few years back I was hired to create a Virtual Prop replica for some Key Art work for the Agency Cold Open. They were doing Comps and needed a futuristic Gun Prop replicated for the then in production film R.I.P.D, and I gladly jumped on it.

I received a few shots of the prop and proceeded to create this fun little prop in 3D as a subdivision model. Once it was built out I was given some direction as well as some photography to line up this virtual firearm with so I rendered out just over half a dozen images for their presentations.

In advertising selling is everything, and with virtual props like this I can adjust the model itself to make it "Larger than Life", or in this case a bit longer. They wanted the Cylinder and Barrel about 30% longer, and if this was photography it would require a few good hours of time to 'Frankenstein' it together, but with a 3D asset like this, I merely took off the subdivision, went to the base simple mesh and pulled the points out to the desired length and re- smoothed and re-rendered it. A whole lot faster and cost effective to adjust as Virtual Photography of a virtual film prop.

I will have more R.I.P.D. posting in the weeks to come as I worked on this campaign for a few agencys. 

                       Cheers, THOM

Project Review Fight Lab 3D Logo Exploration for THQ Game Studio 2009 PART II

The fist was essential and in almost every design we did and all the preliminary work, and with this concept I put a little THQ shout-out in the hyphen.

 Fist Bumping the Log between it.

The lite version of the fist w/o the holding device so it was more of an lit edge feel[ of my fist] with a double barbed wire cutting down the middle.

 I did a few concepts where I replace letter parts with the wrapped 3D barbed wire and with this over and under type treatment I did just that.

 The logo in the outlined fist with heavy negative space usage.

 The barbed wire ring with crossed fists

A more 3D logo with the ring tilted back and the log on a separate plane.

 Here a 'mini-fist' is used for the hyphen.

Barbed wire won the day, but I did a few with the chain link a staple in MMA look and feel graphics[ the cage]

A multi-layer type set up with a heavy fist and mini THQ hidden as a  second read in the separation bar.

 A shot straight on that I posted in PART I at a low angle. I used a bit less wires in back as well.

Project Review

Fight Lab 3D Logo Exploration

for THQ Game Studio 2009

PART II

Client: THQ via Wellbrand Inc. via The Cimarron Group.
Art Direction: Goutam Mitra.
Project Date: May 2009.

   This is my second posting for the 3D logo concept work I did back in 2009 for THQ for a new division they were considering called 'Fight Lab', and today I have the rest of the initial designs done in 3D as a continuation from PART I here.

As a 3D Designer, I can start in 2D[ traditional sketching or digital], since 2D is 66% of a 3D education, but when I go right into 3D and design in there, I am designing in virtual 3D volumes in the 3D space rather than from one view as all 2D is done, so my Industrial Design training kicks in as I think thru the top, bottom, and many other considerations as I design it out.

This is a continuation of the direction from PART I, and I did as many variations once the elements were built out in 3D, and this is where 3D shines, as I can scale, bend, twist, and taper any of the elements and create a new look quickly, so the client has a full set of choices to pick from.

Part III will be posted in a bit, stay tuned.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Elysium 2012: 3D spacestation for Theatrical Print.

A very early render of the space station a bit cropped in for Elysium advertising Comps from back in 1012.

A full view move underneath the station with a strong edge highlight[ from the comp lighting]

A backlit show showing the thickness of the outer ring

A bit off moonlight on the rim of this Elysium Space station.

 A lower angle front lit comp render.

A very low almost bottom view of the space ring.

This shows the basic polygon build with the subdivision[ turbo-smooth] removed. 

The center details were all based on a single painting I had.

A view of the total ring along with a shot of it subdivided in the corner done for Elysium.

Project Review

Elysium 2012

3D space-station for Theatrical Print.

Client: Sony Pictures Entertainment via Cold Open.
Art Direction: Cold Open Team.
Project Date: February 14-16th, 2012.

Last year I was asked to replicate a space station from a small 2D painting[ concept art] provided to me from the film Elysium from a regular client of mine Cold Open out of Venice CA. The design in the final was different, but early in like this you build what they have.

I regularly will recreate a prop or vehicle from a film that they need at a specific angle or lighting situation for a Movie Poster Comp, and these requests are done usually before the CGI [Computer Generated Image ]for the film has been done, so the asset does not exist, or at least the Agency does not have access to it.

They call me to build one out so they can effectively sell the comp ideas with artwork. I built this out and rendered the object at various angles and lighting angles for the comps. I am given a thumbnail sketch of an angle and light placement for some,and for others I just shoot a variety of angles with some various virtual camera lenses to get the look down.

A one day gig with a bit of spill over a few days later for some added shots. This is where 3D illustration shines, as you build once and render as many angles as they want to buy, so in 2D each angle would be a new unique illustration and require the same amount of time for each shot.

With 3D Illustration on the other hand, once the time is in for the fist one, you simply move the camera and lights to the desired next angle and render it out, so the cost is a fast setup and a new render time, which is always less than a totally new illustration.

Cheers, THOM