Branding and Final Character Design

Development of Logo and Branding

Firstly, I started to develop the logo that represents myself. I named myself Glasswood, after one of the places I have developed in my early work. So when I started to think of early designs, I wanted something with the theme of geometry. So I did some early designs in illustrator. 

Above are the two designs I created. I decided originally to make a tree shape to be related to the wood part of the name. Out of the two designs, the left was more appealing, it was simple and could be coloured to look 3D. After testing a few colour palettes I decided with 3 different shades of green and brown.

I also tried a white and a black outline to the logo, while it started to look reasonably well, it didn't look professional. After looking at the white outline, I decided to have no outline and have pure blocks of colour. 

Looking at the design above, its simple and easily recognisable. Its slightly shaded to give a hint of a 3D. I was happy with this design, but after a few months, I developed my techniques in illustrator and redesigned the logo. Keeping the original design in mind, I wanted something simple, connected and related to the name, Glasswood. As well as being geometric. I decided to have a half and half logo, one half a tree, referring to the wood and half a wine glass referring to the glass part of the name. Additionally, I wanted it give it more definition, so I added gradients to the blocks of colour. 

This is my final design, it follows my brief I gave myself, each side is easily recognisable. 

Now, to the development of the logo for my movie, originally called Paladin but later changed to Paragon. So I wanted a shield to be included in the logo, so I had few early designs. 

The first design, the left one, I went for a sci-fi look, but it looked too rectangular, but I like the shield being the centerpiece. So I started a different design, this one I added a half moon below the shield to give it that holy look, associated with paladin but it didn't fit the new name Paragon. However I liked the detail inside the shield, but it seems boring around the shield, it doesn't stand out. 

 After the two designs, I started to develop more detail into the design. I added a sword to symbolise power and attack. I added and tried a different shield design and detail inside. The new design for the shield was better, being curved at the bottom. I also liked the sword being plunged behind the shield. The next design, I tried to implement all these designs into a sci-fi theme but it didn't fit. So I decided to stick with a traditional style. 

This the final draft for the logo, only a few changes have occurred towards to the final design. This is design is elegant, it also symbolise power but also protection, with the sword and shield. The wings symbolise freedom, Paragon fight to protect the freedom of the common man. Next, I decided on the colours. I went for a red cross on the shield and a different shades of grey with blue highlights. The finished design is smooth, it has definition 

Finished Room

Developing a 3D Room

In the development of my room, I have had to research and test many different modelling, texture and lighting techniques to make it look realistic to my theme. My ideas and models have changed over the development of this room, but the feel of the room was the way i intended. Firstly this is what my room look liked at the half way point of the development. 

Not much. After I decided what additional assets I wanted, I started to plan out the colours and texture. I wanted an intimate room, but a mysterious feel to it. I decided on changing this current room. I removed the wooden border, shown above, and start design a wooden panel that could be placed around the room. The windows need a framework for inside the frame, also a door needed to be added. After these were made, I still needed more. the room looked bare and lacked personality. So I also made a desk, with a desk chair, dotted the walls with paintings, a diploma, a hat stand and a large marble vase. 

During the whole process of developing this room, I encountered many problems, which i will go into more detail. Firstly, modelling, I have had various problems with this. I wanted to add a series of wooden panels around the lower half of my walls to add detail and keep to the realism of the era. Using the sweep tool, I able to use a detailed border design, while being able to texture it. Below is an image of an early texture test of one of the panels.


One of the problem I encountered during the modelling of the room and applying textures. The problem was when I was applying textures to the walls, the textures would be different sizes and shapes according to the faces that they were displayed on. This happened from the boolean created when I made the windows and the door. This was quickly researched and when i found out that the boolean modifier is not right way to do this, i quickly changed the room and the solution was to create boxes and using the top and bottom segments to bridge from one box to another, and top only for the door way.

When I was applying textures to my floor and walls, or anything that was a big, flat surface, I played around the with specularity and bump maps. I wanted to create a realistic floor one that would reflect a small amount of light and have the definition, so it doesn't look just flat. After a few trials, I found out that having specularity on roughly 10% it didn't overdo it and added a nice effect. The images below show the difference it made. The top one was with the specularity map on 100% and the one at the bottom was the adjusted 10%.

After I decided what style of coat/hat stand I wanted, a problem quickly arose. How to get the legs and the hooks a equal distance and angle. After a quick search online, I found out how to use the array tool in 3DS max to change the angle which the hooks would be apart, all that was left was to align them to the centre. Add the left hand side there is a render of the final model.

Another modelling problem, just what I needed. Well this problem occurred when when i made the large window, and wasn't realised until I textured and rendered a test shot. I don't know what happened exactly, but after a few tweaking, I deleted the middle connections as it was 2 of the small windows joined together with 3 rectangles and deleted some faces, added a bridge modifier and problem solved.   

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I had a few texture problems also, mainly to do with the bump and displacement maps. Firstly, the render crashed each time as the displacement map was set too high. After a quick change, this was quickly resolved, however, when the models were rendered, there still some bugs and some looked too unrealistic.

On the right hand side is 2 images of a textured and rendered desk, same textures but different values in bump and displacement maps. The first is set on 15% to 20% Bump and Displacement, as you can see, Parts of the wood stick out at weird angles and looks very rough, which is different to the reference image. So to keep the 3D look but remove that roughness, I lowered the maps to 5%, which keep a small amount of the detail. I think the final model came out well, however I still had problems with the top of the desk.

On the top of the desk I want a leather center with a wooden border around the edge. However, after several different techniques, such as multi sub object, adding a box in a hollowed out section, UVW unwrap, I came to the conclusion that it won't going to work. I either had to remodel, and somehow incorporate that design or get some professional help. However, I left it with a normal wooden texture.



Since my room is set in the 1920s and electric lights were used in rural towns and villages, I had to modelling candles. I wanted to create a realistic model of a candle, including the texture and the light it projects. Firstly, I researched how other people had made candles, most of the time people used 3D modelling software normally used in the industry, including, Maya, Zbrush, Sculptris and Mudbox. I used Mudbox. Exporting a cylinder shape as an .obj file and importing it into Mudbox. When it loaded I when into several sub-divisions and used the sculpture to create the hole left by the the burning wick and the melting wax down the side of the candle.


After I was happy with the finished model, I imported it back into 3DS Max. Then started to create a wax texture. I used Arch and Design, however there was no template for wax, I played about the reflectivity and glossiness to get that realistic wax look. 

After I was happy with the colour and the shine, I needed a flame and a light source. The flame was created using a plane and a image of a candle light, then using the cutout and lume glow modifier. I as able to create a realistic looking flame. After I finished it, I copied it and placed it 90 degrees from the center to create a cross, making it viewable from any position. However it didn't provide light to the scene. After a few searches online, and having no luck with finding as tips as to making a realistic candle light, I used trial and error to get the final product. The light is a free light, using online research to determine what colour the flame is, the kelvin, and the brightness it should be. I placed the light in the center of the 2 planes however the planes stop the light and cast shadows. Going into the object properties and turned off the 'Cast Shadows' and 'Recieve shadows'. After that I was left with this finished product.


After the candles were added to the scene, along with the daylight system, I started to find key areas for the candles to light up, as I wanted to give the room that imitate feel, which helped with the warm colours. After a few tries, it came clear that it didn't look right. So after a modelling a candlestick that attaches to the wall, I added these new lights along with a few of the free standing ones. The result was amazing, the candles attached to the wall, showed the details of the wall, additionally they helped light the paintings dotted around the room. I adjusted the lighting intensity of the candles to give a better coverage so the room doesn't have large areas of dark shadows. 

Finally, to give my room that last bit of atmosphere and time, I needed an background image to outside the window. First, I tried a plane with a photograph material, but it didn't look right and didn't cover every angle in the room. So I looked online and found a quick and easy way to make an image be the back ground of my scene. I simply added a photograph of a nice sunset that fit with the colour, time and position of my lighting. Then I used the environment settings to apply the map to the scene and it worked superbly. 

My 3D model of a bomb, with textures, lighting and a countdown clock texture. Also we a animation camera.

Matte Painting VFX

In this scene, the actors are getting shot at by the flying spaceships overhead. Using stock effects I was able to show the dust/dirt hits from the gunshots. Additionally I added a fence with signs on to make the set look more unique and important. I added several effects, which, in the end didn't turn out so well, such as rain, sky replacement and a full camera track across the shot.

Ways in which I would improve this shot would be, one, add a variety of didn't dirt hits to make it look realistic. Two, add more back ground objects and maybe replacement the whole back plate on the top half with a matte painting to further extend the scene. 

Final Scene VFX

Using the same foreground and background from the opening scene, to show it's still the same place, I have added an explosion to show the size and force of the explosion caused at the end of the film. Firstly I created an electrical looking blast, added a fast blur towards to end to show the speed towards the end. Additionally I added a steady camera shake at beginning to towards the end I increased the intensity of the shake to show the power of the blast. In the last few seconds i added a steady transition into noise, to show the camera breaking up from the blast. The blast was given a glow effect and several changes before this version. One change was the addition of one blast within the larger blast to show a lingering after blast. This inner blast was given a lighter colour to show the blast had more power in the middle in the outer blast.

Opening VFX Scene

In this test, I used a small Photoshop animation on top of a 3D model and 5 high resolution images. The first being the sky in the background and the other four being the treeline, copied and pasted in a effect of a larger forest depicted in the film. Additionally, the overall shot is seen through a binocular shaped hole, to give the effect of looking through some high tech, futuristic binoculars. It get the sequence, to fit in with the rest of the clips, I darkened both the sky and Trees, later, I will colour correct it with rest of the clips, whilst giving a bluish tint to show it's early morning and its cold, hence the clothing of the actors.

Cropping in Final Cut

Composition - Making Bad Pictures Look Good

Composition is the arrangement of the visual elements in an image. A good composition will lead the viewers eye around the image. 

The rule of thirds, primarily used in landscape, splits the images in thirds vertically and horizontally. The aim was to put key elements on the parts where the lines intersect, so it draws the attention of the eye. In the images below I have cropped them so that six follow the rule of thirds and two don't. 

VFX - Lift Sparks

Sin City Effect - But Blue

Video Codec - Making Big Things, Smaller

A video codecs are used by software to compress audio and video files. Compression is often lossy, meaning reduced quality for reduced size. However people have tried and tested various ways to get smaller files but still have that high quality. 

There are various different codecs that are commonly used today, such as:

AVI, H.264, MPEG, WMV, MP4, AVCHD and MOV 

I tested some of these codecs along with 2 image sequence codecs, PNG and JPEG. Below are the results.

From this information, you can see PNG and JPEG offer excellent quality, however the files sizes are large. MPEG4 has a low file size but the quality suffer extremely, resulting in pixelation. AVI has a smaller file size then PNG and JPEG but the quality is low res. MPEG2 and H.264 have the perfect combination of small file size, rendering time and quality, with H.264 being better for file size at the cost of more rendering time.