Week 6 - The Sci-Fi logo in finalized and the exterior 'space' is filled...

This week, I decided to create the logo that will be applied as a texture from the material library as an imported PNG - so, in other words, a logo I have created as a hybrid which will work in all three situations Si will find himself 'house-working' in (a plate that's been washed up in the drainer, the bottom soleplate of the iron, and the surface of the table that he will be cleaning ever so vigorously!)

I had seen many incarnations of the Sci-Fi channel logo as portrayed by the shows various airings throughout the dozen or so countries' that air in in their own language, evidently. But I had always noticed that it displays a graphic that symbolises the planet Jupiter, with its many rings of suspended debris around its equator.


I found this image, which spoofs the 'Alien Invasion!' posters that are seen in many Hollywood extraterrestrial films by the same token.
I was immediately drawn, however, more to the small tag on the lower right-hand corner of the image which showed the logo as a small tag, perhaps as a nod to the more traditional advertisements of the 1950's, when 'Close Encounters' and 'War 0f the Worlds' was beginning to mystify the nation with UFO and ET stories...

^I also found this logo from the channel in the mid 90's - I knew that I could combine both into something that would apply with the theme I have for my Idents, but also retain the sense of artistic flair and perhaps aspects of the surroundings which Si is in - choices of tones in the textures and so on^


Having cropped the area I needed, I firstly used the 'Magic Wand' tool to selected the lettering and the logo, but I realized that even with the selected contrast for the wand to pick up, I wasn't getting the correct areas I then. So I then used the refine edge tool to alter radius of the altered pixels, contrast of the immediate background layer tone, as well as smoothness and feathering of pixels adjacent to each other (this was the default setting)


This image shows the marked difference when contrast and contract/expand adjustments are made - the highlights around the selected areas really stood out, but I was to unfortunately learn that in the updated CS4, unlike CS3 before it, the program does not allow these settings to directly affect the image as it appears, so I had to begin a new layer style as a substitute!


The layer style meant that I could add in shadows, both drop and inner, as well as gradient/pattern overlays, giving me perhaps greater scope for customization then I would have had previous

The image on the left shows the application of a few of these blending options checked, with the inner shadow being edited here also

The shadow colour was chosen due to the current background colour of searing orange tones and trying to make sure the icon would be evident whichever surface its applied to - hence the alteration of the angle of the shadow and slight decrease on opacity

The colour burn is a diamond style also greatly emphasised the titles as shown here


^I decided to make use of a new feature of CS4 - a selective colour layer which meant that using the CMYK colour model, I was able to alter the percentile values of the tones of red, blues and so forth. Shown here is the red channel with the final alterations I made to present the logo in its final appearance (the figures broke down to cyan and black at 100%, magenta and yellow at 25%)^


I now needed to return to Max and create a plate that Si would wash up in the first Ident, and then the camera would focus in on the plate with this logo printed on there for all to see

For the plate, I created a cylinder with barely any height to it, and applied to 'bend' modifier at an angle of 75 points on the 'X' axis so that it would appear as in the image to the left

After importing the Sci-Fi logo texture into the material library, I was then able to apply it in its rough state to get an approximation as to what it would appear like
The image shows how well it applied itself with the UVW map, 'box' mapping and the U and V tiling increased by a few hundredth points


^The plate and logo rendered - the ghosting that is shown is related to the 'blur' and subsequent 'blur offset' that I applied in the 'co-ordinates' window of the material itself (I feel it adds subtle atmosphere to the logo!)^

^An update from the previous week when I was trying to get the 'view-of-earth-from-the-moon' image to show properly through the window - here it is with much improved lighting and it is slightly more plausible now that I have adjusted the depth of field away from the window^


I wanted to avoid adding a solid 'roof', as I knew that because I'd deliberately made the walls so shallow in height and width, another solid polygonal object above will restrict not only movement and further object orientation, but majorly affect camera paths and the ability to move freely.
I therefore planned to create apply a box with the dimensions shown here, placing it a few real-world feet above the walls


After finding the exact texture I was after for the effect of an opening into the Galaxy above Si's humble abode, I applied it to the box, the side facing downwards into the rooms. Applying a UVW map as the 'Planer' style (which, as demonstrated, works best with wide flat surfaces!)
All that was left to do was adjust tilings and align it to the 'Z' axis...


That's that exterior features pretty much covered - I shall continue with Si and the furniture for now and by the end of the Month, I plan to finish all static media/textures and will begin audio recordings and the directing of animation - a big aim, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Si can achieve with just two little droopy arms and half-a-dozen small tentacles as feet!!