Introduction
My professors at the Federal University of Pernambuco approached me to develop a theatrical intro for our brand new public movie theater. This was the most challenging project I had so far. I wanted to push my 3D skills to the limit and I learned a lot about physically based GPU rendering and compositing in the process.
The Brief
The given baseline was to design it in a very energetic and cinematic way. It also needed to be in 4k, and the sound design (wip) needs to be remixed as Surround 5.1.
Art Direction
After a little research and ideation, I developed the concept of a reverse phantom ride inside a camera lens. The camera machinery and imagery adds meaning to the monogram of the logo, which may be based on the outer ring of a lens, or lens flare. Light from different sources played an important role in the stage of idea development.
Moodboard
Some of the references of lighting, textures and materials.
Initial Styleframes
Some of the first styleframes developed. The design changed a few times as I learned more about rendering.
Playblast
Photo Parallax
Professor Paulo Cunha gave the idea of animating a few stills from iconic regional movies. I had to research on how to make it work and I found these tutorials on how to make the parallax effect using depth maps and simply using cutout animation. I realized that using cutout animation would be far more laborious than using maps, for I would have to repaint the background elements, so I roughly hand painted the maps over each picture in order to manipulate it using After Effects. The white information is nearest to the camera, while the dark information is farthest.
Depth Maps
Final Frames
Conclusion
There were many technical issues in the process of producing this intro. From color banding to random glitches and blank frames. This is still a work in progress that will have its sound designed soon, and will soon be seen in a 36ft screen.