Branding Project

Some inspiration and an influence into what I’m looking for.

http://picsdigger.com/keyword/animal%20logos/

Orignal sketch sheet

Logo design

This image is the start of the pipeline process to an end design logo and introduction sequence which will feature in the final animation, this sketch was done a while back on work experience at squint opera, just a quick doodle on the train, as I had the initial idea incorporating monsters in my project this sketch came to me randomly. Kept as it may have come in use in the future and has served its purpose for branding this project. Thinking back on the branding over past projects, the majority of them have been done with a 2d influence so therefore, I set out to take the next level and bring a 3D quality to it. Using Maya, Photoshop, Zbrush and AfterEffects.

Logo definition

Firstly the design wasn’t very clear in Photoshop I singled out the area’s I didn’t want to feature as part of the logo and simply stored two alpha images, these came in handy later on down the pipeline. By creating these it’s made things easier having a solid silhouette structure to help out with outlines of a model so for example if stuck with the original image and its difficult to identify the scope of the sketch in 3d then they can play a part in the process.  

Low res Maya modelling.

Once the design edits have been imported into Maya the modelling process began. I knew from the start I’d be using Zbrush although with little knowledge of the programme just word of mouth and watching tutorials the great effect that can be achieved, this is a nice tool for adding detail on lower resolution Maya models so this was the purpose for my next step, create low res model import into Zbrush and add details.

Zbrush

I spent many hours going through Zbrush tutorials picking up as much as I could so many sculpturing techniques where picked up not only this, other uses for Zbrush where established additionally.

In this image is the original model along with a high res model taken from Zbrush. You can see the detail and difference between the two.

Uv Layout

Normal map

http://www.pixologic.com/home.php

As I was explaining before about Zbrush’s unique features one that I discovered on the Pixologic website and various other websites was the ability to create assets such as baking out textures, laying out UV’s efficiently and creating normal maps with high levels of detail in which work with. Now this process hasn’t only been about what I can achieve with the this small model for my logo but a stepping stone for much larger pieces of work like the characters I’ll be designing and modelling texture ect in this project.

Shadow

Image based lighting test

The only thing left to do with this model was to texture it. Using Zbrush was the initial idea although in this case I had a texture in mind referring back to the influence at the foundation of the post a shiny realistic looking metallic metal was what I used. Now prepared for the next step I went in search for fonts to conclude my title curiosity of http://www.dafont.com/. A quick render of the side view was generated just to capture the text, background and logo elements side by side and how they complimented each other.

Here are the final results as of yet composed in after effects, the quality isn’t the greatest due to conversion to allow my video to upload into YouTube. I have all the assets needed to create any changes I wish. I’m thinking about some implementations to the text and the logo head animation, so don’t regard these as the final compositions but you can see the general idea now.