Robot's Day Out
For this fun and historic project, the overall project goal was to build a title sequence for a Robot's Day Out featuring hand built 3D models and animation based on 1960's tin toys.
Pre-visualization
The first thing to do was to start generating ideas for the primary title sequence, so I drew out a couple thumbnails and began researching Japanese tin toy robots to create the perfect 1960's robot. After researching, I came to love the idea of a Robot and a robot dog going through out their day as if they were humans and immediately got to work drawing character concepts and building the models.
I then took these designs into Maya to start physically building out the robots built by these concepts and other references of real toy robots for scale.
Production
And thus, Tinmothy and Robo were born! At this stage, I finished the initial models, gave each their own unique and preliminary animations, and gave some basic metallic texturing to get the ball rolling.
After some peer review, I finished updating the robot model's textures to include brushed steel, eyes, and a thermostat icon to bring the robot to life more. I updated the robo dog model's eyes to include transparency and glossy effects for a realistic look. Then, it was on to match making lights, atmosphere, and compositing with hand-shot footage and planning out the story board of the title sequence.
Renders and Drafts
The first test run was very successful as a solid vision was extremely present at this stage, with the animation, graphic creation, and compositing integration was nearly finished. I began experimenting with basic transitions, text animators, and other effects to try to take the project to the next level.
Final Result
To give the project a professional look and evident theme, I applied several robot/ Scy-fi effects including outer glows, text animators, star effects, and lots of 3D and 2D graphics. I also was able to add in a full music score including a self created music track as well as free sourced sound effects to make the video more believable and realistic.
Your World Your Way
The overall goal for this project was to design a thirty second video title sequence for a new show based on wacky and unique homes featuring the specific catch phrase "Your World, Your way".
To begin the project, the project requirements specified to create a series of thumbnails, a mood board, and a compositional drawing or storyboard to get started. I designed mine around the idea of an earth and house rotating that would be easily animatable.
Pre-visualization
I selected thumbnail #8 based on my perception as well as the comments of my peers that this was the best design choice for my vision and matched the project goal. The initial designs featured the world with a house moving across the surface with an arrow.
The next step was to translate the design from Illustrator and into Maya and create a 3D version of the logo with a full texture and animatable features. Then, take the design and create lights and a background to export and render out the project and post it for peer review.
Production
The first image was the first pass of the initial 3D design without much texturing or UV mapping yet to get a good sense of where each part would go and to configure the animation first. The second image shows the fully textured Earth sphere, the gold lettering, house texture, and the bright arrow.
Renders and Drafts
The animation I came up with featured the words and lettering making a spin cycle like the sphere while the Earth's continents have a Pangea effect separation. The house just follows along the arrow line to show the international capabilities of the show's premise. I made a few test runs of the logo's animation as well as displaying some early parts of the texturing and animating process.
The next major aspect of the project was to physically build the title sequence and incorporate hand-shot footage. I took about three to four videos to ensure I had materials to work with and began compositing the 3D logo from Maya and into After Effects. I also added in a music score I created in band lab to pull all the elements together.
Final Result
This is the final version after a lot of peer review where the scene felt a little too empty at times, so I added a couple of new elements such as the motion tracked text on the store, a snow falling effect, as well as compositing the sign on the digital map screen.
