Step-By-Step Graphics 3D article, part 3, appendix
"Depth without getting in too deep"

More background on this 3D series
A couple of people have asked me what 3D program I use seeing as I don't mention it in any of the articles. I use StudioPro mainly. I intentionally referred to it throughout these three pieces as "the 3D program" simply because I didn't want to draw attention to that particular application. I guess I envisioned that whenever they read "the 3D program" the audience would automatically substitute the name of their own favourite 3D application. Indeed, I don't think any of the things I talk about in the pieces are StudioPro specific, with the exception of the Metaball blob of water in the Oxy commercial screen shot. As with a lot of my stuff it is the technique that is the important thing not the application used to get it, though naturally some applications are better than others for certain techniques.

On lighting... a deferral
One topic which I only glanced briefly on in this series was lighting. That touch suggests a lack of importance for the topic that I don't feel. After modeling and composition it is the most important component of 3D work as far as I am concerned. I felt that anything I wrote about it didn't do it justice and, in the end, I nixed all but the brief introductory comments in the first article about the three different types of lighting. At the close of the project I mentioned this imbalance to Talitha, the editor and threw out the idea of a fourth article, published much, much later that dealt with lighting techniques in 3D programs. There's no specific deadline on that one so it may take a while (remember, I first floated the idea of an article on 3D for Step-By-Step back about 6 years ago!)

Getting real
In amongst all the "gee whiz" of 3D explored in the article I hope that people detect that the decision to involve a 3D program in any project is a carefully considered one. The decision is not taken lightly even though on many occasions 3D programs can be real life-savers. Well, illustration savers.

My sources
So many pieces of artwork were used for this series and they each came with their own little story, I thought I would jot down a few of them.

1. Part 3 opener: Chairs
   Client: Rogers cable television Agency: FCB Canada
   

   

   Notes:This job highlighted one of the perils of today's graphic environment. The job went out as a file. When I next saw it in a flier there was type all over it. The client (not FCB) had added a whole pile of copy that obscured large parts of the artwork. Of course, as the illustrator, I wouldn't be happy until ALL the copy was gone and just the illustration remained! Illustrators aren't really very rational creatures as a breed.

2. Humpty Dumpty chip bags
   Client: The Movie Network Agency: Two Door
   

   

   Notes: I am glad I did this in a 3D program because we have just revised it yet again with some different product and a different quantity. Twice actually. There's a Graphic of the Month on this one at the following link GotM007_Nov97.htmll

3. Draped Photosuite II pack
   Client: Photosuite Agency: Two Door
   

   

   Notes: This was last minute. Doing it in a 3D program was the ONLY way I could have met their deadline. The image was to be small and therefore people were suggesting it could be rough but I think that would have looked tacky. A small image is even more demanding as far as I am concerned in that in a smaller area the final image still has to suggest a draped box.

4. Satellite
   Client: Client Agency:Two Door
   

   

   Notes: There aren't too many photographs of satellites deployed in orbit. I wanted something that looked pretty realistic so I built my own. In this way I was able to construct the type of craft that looked like it was a satellite, as well.

5. Airline window
   Client:Sears Agency: Ostby & Pente
   

   

   Notes: Once again, the window image was actually die cut in the final. The scenic came from a Bryce file I created. If you want to learn more about how this project was done, we have a Graphic of the Month page devoted to it. Go see it at GotM001_May97.html

6. Coors Talking Can and Cap Event
   Client: Coors Agency: FCB Canada
   

   

   Notes: This project, art directed by Jim Whitney was quite large. I had to do several versions of the same image and, if I remember rightly I had about a week to do it. There were 2 metre high POS pieces for beer stores, posters, brochure covers. In each case it was a different size, format and layout. I had master versions of each of the components and whenever a request for a new piece came along I just slapped it together using the components that they wanted in the image. The image used here in the article never actually appeared anywhere. This was a version that I created to be framed in one of our hallways and it features all of the elements created in their full size (nothing cropped off). The only thing missing were the helicopters, but I didn't include them because they were just scans of photographs whereas everything in the image you see here was painted.

7. The fly
   Client: Sick Kids Hospital Agency: Ranscombe
   

   

   Notes: For quite some time I have enjoyed reading these Toronto Sick Kids Hospital Ads. They are great; full of informative, witty and humorous copy with one huge graphic and whole bunch of smaller supporting graphics. Once I even asked one of the Lino Bureau staff (our output service bureau) to call me whenever another of these ads came in for output just so that I could go down and read it. One day I got a call from Boris, the Senior Art Director over at Ranscombe to help them with some retouching. It was for one of the Sick Kids ads and I was thrilled to work on it. The procedure that I followed is outlined in a Graphic of the Month. This link will take you there GotM018_Oct98.html

8. The piece worked out well and it has been neat to see it printed in all three, urr, make that four major newspapers occasionally during the past few weeks. One thing that astonished me was the amount that I had to lighten the image to get it to look good in any newspaper.

9. Cranberry juice containers
   Client: Ocean Spray Agency: FCB Canada
   

   

   Notes: When I said short timeline in the article I don't think I went on to mention that it was a same day thing. The pieces of artwork were being produced solely for a focus group so, while they didn't have to be perfect, they certainly should resemble photography sufficiently that they wouldn't draw attention to themselves.

10. Federal Express crate pile
    Client: FedEx Agency: FCB Canada
    

    

    Notes: Not much to say about this one. Pretty uneventful project. Enjoyable though.

11. Geneva airport poster
    Client: Dupont Agency: Medicus
    

    

    Notes: I created the image here just solely so that I could see what the poster might have looked like. In reality it may have been in a pokey little old poorly lit tunnel. Well... perhaps not. Still the 3D program certainly does give the image a bit of gloss. There are photographs of the piece in situ but I have yet to see them. The real story here was how the artwork was created and, as luck would have it there is a Graphic of the Month on this one too at GotM9806.html . It will probably be a long time before we get to work on a project that is physically larger than this one.

12. Rock concert stage
    Client: Canadian Acoustics Agency: None
    

    

    Notes: The editor at Canadian Acoustics asked me to produce an image on rock concert noise and I jumped at the chance. I aimed to create an image that suggests a huge impending sound. The only place you have seen speaker stacks like that is in the first Back To The Future movie. If we looked at the amps closely enough we'd probably see that all the dials go to eleven. It's just a little fantasy. I want to be the one to pick up any one of those guitars and wail away on it, lost in a wall of sound. I saw Brian May do that once during a Queen concert and I'll never forget it. I think images like this are a direct result of that 10 minute lead guitar solo.

    Later, I used this same image in a goofy concert sequence where a Contac C capsule is playing one of the guitars. It was just a foolish little thing I did as a joke for the agency on the Contac C commercial. I think that too is on our RoboShop animation reel.