Motorcycle Design / Orthographic Turnarounds For 3D Modeling: THE BLACK TEMPLE

Orthographic Turnaround Blueprints Redesign by Arthur Nichols

3D Modeling of The Black Temple Motorcycle

Sometimes a job just turns out amazingly well.  It sure did here, and this is only one small part of an overall huge project!

The Black Temple - a 3D-animated feature film being developed by Cameron Chrichton of Sub Zero Media Productions - is a heavy metal fantasy.  A psychedelic quest of barbarians, she-demons and monsters.  Based loosely on Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, the aging warrior Seven is introspective & philosophical, yet verging on the brink of insanity.

Cameron is a talented Animation Director & Visual Effects Artist in Melbourne, Australia.  In addition to directing video game cinematics for EA, BioWare, Atari, THQ and Activision, he recently worked on visual effects for the movie Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance.  

Hey, not too many people get to brag about how they got to set Nicolas Cage's head on fire for several months!  This is but one of the many fun visual effects that Cameron did for that film.

As Cameron is developing The Black Temple into a feature film, he's doing it in a way that flies in the face of  how things are usually done.  He's funding the film himself, and through online donations, which is the burgeoning new trend in entertainment funding.  It's going to be a long and difficult journey, but so far it's achieving excellent results!

Cameron hired me to storyboard the entire film, which is a phenomenal undertaking!  An exciting responsibility.  I love the idea of seeing a film completed that I alone would have storyboarded.  As we geared up to get started on the storyboards, we hit a slight snag... 

Here's a good way how to talk yourself out of a paying gig you had right in your hot little hands just a few moments before: 

After Cameron and myself had our first big conversation about how to approach the storytelling, I kept asking questions about how to improve this aspect of the story, and I suggested something for that aspect... and after a while, I had talked myself out of my storyboarding job!  He blames me for postponing the storyboarding aspect of the film, because I apparently helped put better ideas into his head that he had to include into his story.

Geez, I should have kept my mouth shut.  But that's okay!  Cameron told me this is only a temporary delay until the screenplay is rewritten.  In the meantime, he assigned me to work on redesigning, and then drawing up the orthographic turnaround blueprints for The Black Temple's main character's motorcycle.

The process of creating an asset such as a futuristic motorcycle that is used in an apocalyptic fantasy isn't as straightforward as you might think.  As it turns out, there are many hands involved, many 'cooks in the kitchen', as it were.  It's like a creative relay race, one person contributing something and then handing it off to the next person.

Here, I'll take you through the process of how Seven's Chopper was made...

STEP ONE - CONCEPT ART:

Nick Martinelli, a Senior level Art Director/Visual Development Artist who works out of Bangalore, India did these terrific designs.  They set a great visual tone that fits wonderfully into the world of The Black Temple.

Concept Illustration by Nick Martinelli

Concept  Illustration by Nick Martinelli

STEP TWO - ORTHOGRAPHIC TURNAROUNDS BLUEPRINT DESIGNS: 

Mr. Martinelli didn't have time to do orthographic turnarounds of his designs, so they can be made into 3D models, so it was assigned to me.  The task was to take all of the really cool elements of  Nick's designs, and adjust those designs into a practical motorcycle that would function believably within the animated film.

But as it turns out, when you're trying to build a model of a motorcycle in 3D, you find out that a cool design doesn't always result in a 'real world' working vehicle.  We had to make sure everything worked in a practical sense.  For example, if you look at the concept designs, you might realize that one cannot really steer a motorcycle with the steering mechanism welded into the unmovable gas tank.  We realized that even though it's a cool concept to have a 'side-car gas tank' as you see in the design, there was no place for the character who drives the motorcycle to place his right leg.

So, what to do?  We replace the impractical (yet still very cool) elements with more workable parts.  We also had discussions as to the other things that needed to be tweaked.  We did a lot of  adjustments here and there, rearranging things and finding a finished design that would look as real and as convincing as possible.

As we went along, I added the dragon design element and did a lot of research on motorcycle engines and contemporary wheel mechanisms to help give a more practical, believable look to everything.

I completed the orthographic turnarounds for the 3D modeler to build his model, being as detailed as I could.

Here are the orthographic turnarounds I did:   

Orthographic Turnaround Blueprints Redesign by Arthur Nichols

STEP THREE - 3D MODELING:

The orthographic blueprints were sent to Sankalp Chandra, in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.  With what you see below, Cameron Crichton thought everything was looking cool, but he felt that the motorcycle was looking too much like an action figure toy.  He wanted a final product that had as much realism as possible.

3D Model by Sankalp Chandra

3D Model by Sankalp Chandra

STEP FOUR - FINAL MODEL TEXTURING:

The final model had the pipes placed in the back, the dragon shell was removed, and some other things were arranged and adjusted for ergonomic reasons.  Treads were added to the tires to round out the overall character of the bike, and the final texturing is simply terrific.  

3D Model by Sankalp Chandra

Changes like this happens with every job.  This is the process.  It's worth all the back-and-forth frustrations when you end up with results like this! 

Character Design / Orthographic Turnarounds For 3D Modeling: THE BOOK OF ESTHER 3D-Animated Feature

Oh well, nice try...

Greengrass Studios contacted me one day, telling me they had a shot at becoming the primary production company for a 3D-animated feature film based upon The Book Of Esther.  They felt very good about their chances, so they hired me to produce a character design for the main character of Esther.

I had literally a day to come up with the character design, and then to produce a color presentation piece, which you see above.  The Greengrass guys were very pleased with what I did.  I offered to do a set of orthographic turnarounds to show what the 3D model would look like (see below), which I completed soon after.

As with many of these pitches, nothing happened.  In this case, apparently the people who owned the rights to this particular adaptation just couldn't ultimately come up with the capital to get the project off the ground.  We all waited and waited, and there were adjustments here and there to scheduling and budget in hopes of wedging all the elements into the right place at the right time, but to no avail.

These things happen.  You just have to do your best, and hope that all the stars and the moons align properly to allow the project to become real.  When it doesn't, you get a good night's sleep, and move on to the next 18 projects you're working toward.

If it had become a 'go' project, that would have taken me out of the freelance arena for at least six months.  That would have been nice.  The goal of any long-term freelancer is to land those bigger and more permanent jobs.

Hey, regular paychecks are a good thing!

Previs / Prop Design / Orthographic Turnarounds For 3D Modeling: BOZ THE GREEN BEAR NEXT DOOR DVDs

While working at Reel FX Creative Studios, I did storyboards, character design & prop design for BOZ, The Green Bear Next Door for Exclaim! Entertainment, who specializes in the creation, production, and distribution of character-based children's properties.  My prop designs were used in all the Boz DVDs; Thank You God For Colors And Shapes, Adventures in Imagination, Thank You God for B-O-Zs and 1-2-3s, A WowieBOZowee Christmas, Thank You God For Bananas Bubbles And Busy Bodies, and Thank You God For Friends And Helpers.

I'll talk about my storyboarding & character design experience in another post.  My prop designs for Boz were the first time I had been given a direct lesson in how to cater the designs to a preschool-level aesthetic.  Reel FX's spectacular production designer Robert St. Pierre was creating the most beautiful previsualization for the 3D modelers to work from.  While he was doing this, he needed someone to do some prop designs, so I was assigned.

What I learned about doing prop design for children's animation, is that not everything has to be perfectly symmetrical, or realistic-looking.  In fact, it's desirable if you take a recognizable shape, and kind of 'goof' it up a bit & play with the standard design so as to give the object a bit more of a 'cartoony' character that would fit into the 3D-cartoony world of Boz quite well.

Softer edges on things to make them look less harsh, sometimes simplifying what would otherwise be something with a bit more sophistication... it was a matter of making sure there weren't any harsh contrasts that would stand out like a sore thumb.

Conversely, if the overall style were to have been sharply-cornered like Dexter's Laboratory, then any props would need to be attuned to that standard.  It's just a matter of making sure things are consistent looking throughout the design of the whole show, whatever show you happen to be working on at the time.

Robert St. Pierre is a very good teacher.  He has such a brilliant mind, and you can see it in his work.  After I completed this assignment, I knew I was so much better in my work than I was before.

3D Animation Storyboards / Orthographic Turnarounds for 3D Modeling: HASBRO STAR WARS TOYS

When I worked for Reel FX Creative Studios, I storyboarded for countless toy product commercials, mostly for Hasbro.  One of the jobs I had was to storyboard was a simple 3-5 second 'bumper' for the Star Wars toy commercials.  The approved concept I came up with was of the soldier droids from Star Wars: Phantom Menace, moving along an assmebly line with the Star Wars logo integrated into the back wall.  Just something visually cool to do for the beginning or the end of the commercials.

I was able to convey the concept in one single pan-shot frame storyboard, notated to specification.  In addition, I was given a previs design done by one of the Star Wars production designers, and assigned to produce orthographic turnarounds of it for 3D modeling, which you see below the bumper frame.  I had to take the previs design, and then extrapolate from the single representation to work up accurate views from all sides (except from the bottom, this time).

Even when I get paid to do my work, often a job goes nowhere and is abandoned.  That happened with this assignment.  I got to see a 3D test of the orthographics I worked on, and it was beautiful!  When we found out this was a no-go, there was a collective exclamation that came from all who worked on this project.

I can't repeat what a lot of us said here in this blog.  That would be just rude.

But it was fun to do!

Orthographic Turnarounds For 3D Modeling: WILLIAM JOYCE'S DINOSAUR BOB

Sometimes you get to be near giants.  You either get to work with them, work for them, or just witness them as they walk past you as you stand there in awe of them.

William Joyce is one of those people.  As I paraphrase and lift directly from wikipedia, I can tell you he's written and illustrated so many wonderful books like George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and his Adventures with the Family Lazardo, and Rolie Polie Olie. 

He did conceptual characters for Pixar's Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Robots (for which he was both producer and production designer).  He's currently working with Blue Sky Studios on a feature based on his award winning book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.  Joyce is writer, producer and production designer on the film.

In 2007, Disney released Meet the Robinsons, a movie based on his book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, and he designed the opening title sequence for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.  He is currently in agreement with DreamWorks Animation to provide the source material for a 2012 film called The Guardians of Childhood, based on an upcoming series of picture books.

Joyce is also currently co-founding a Shreveport, LA animation and visual effects studio with Reel FX Creative Studios co-founder, Brandon Oldenburg, called MOONBOT Studios.

When I was working at Reel FX, I got the opportunity to produce thorough orthographic turnarounds of Joyce's character Dinosaur Bob for 3D modeling.  Reel FX and William Joyce had been in a long-standing collaboration to develop entertainment properties.  Tests were being made for how Dinosaur Bob would look in 3D.  I was asked to not only do turnarounds of the exterior of the character, but to literally build him from within.  So I did passes on his exterior, the muscles that overlaid the bones, and then the bones themselves.  

I purposely drew these turnarounds with lines, and not graytones, because the specific directions of the linework gave the 3D modeler Ramahan Faulk precise direction on the dimensions of the character's face & features.  Brandon Oldenburg was originally worried that I wasn't working in a 'painterly' fashion in my orthographic turnarounds, but Ramahan told Brandon that those lines gave him exactly what he needed to build an accurate 3D model, because my linework was a great guide for his 3D sculpting.  The direction of the linework demonstrated very well the shape and contour of the character.

If I were given more time, I would have done some gray-tone modeling in Photoshop.

Before I began all the under-layers, I did a front-and-side pass on the exterior as accurately as I could, which was then sent to William Joyce for approval.  He sent back his size and proportion correction notes on top of what I had drawn, which allowed me to proceed to the finished pieces.

One day I'll tell you about how I got to storyboard an animated short film for William Joyce called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which is currently being completed over at MOONBOT Studios in Louisiana.

I may never rise to the giant level of William Joyce.  But I got to stand near him several times, which has made me a whole lot better at what I do.  I'm just happy he didn't step on me... =P

Character Design / Orthographic Turnarounds For 3D Modeling: BLUE STOP ARTHRITIS OINTMENT

Working for Green Grass Studios, I was called upon to design a mascot character for Blue Stop arthritis pain relief ointment.

After a whole lot of variations on the design, we settled on this one.  The big boots were used from a previous design version I did.  I did the orthographic turnarounds, and I think the 3D modeling results turned out pretty darned well.  I'm guessing they left the mustache & goatee off his face, as he maybe looked too much like Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies.

Penciled, then scanned and colored in Photoshop.