We’ve finished the first version of the Frederator Studios production tag. We render everything in passes to allow us more control over the final image, so I’ll break down what goes into a piece like this.
Let’s look at frame 40.
This is the background we plan on using for the production tag. The purple nebula on the left of the image is the same purple used on the graphic version of the Fredbot you see on the Frederator main page.
Lisa Illowsky created the starfield background using Maya’s PaintFX.
We’ve got the animation pretty much nailed down here. The Fredbot flies in and comes in for a landing and stands on the text. We swapped the text to read “Frederator Studios” instead of “Frederator Incorporated”, as per Fred’s notes.
The effect of the flight trail is in here as well. There are two emitters: one which lays out the trail, and then another “burn out” emitter that gives the puff when the trail stops (right before the Fredbot lands). The effects will be rendered in a separate pass to allow for more control during the composite.
Next up, textures and lighting.
So after listening to the audio track a bunch of times, I started to think about the amount of text, readability, and what the heck I was going to do with that rivet sound.
In the text only tag that is being used now, you can’t read anything until the piece is half over. There are no words on the screen at all. I wanted to get the text on sooner, as well as incorporate the robot somehow. I also wanted to give a feeling of depth.
In our first blocking pass, we’ve got the text appearing with the rivet sounds. This gets the text on much sooner, allowing you to read “Frederator” almost a full second sooner than before. We also have the Fredbot in there, swooping in from the distance.
The background is going to be a space type environment. I was thinking “What would look good in CG, at a [Read more…]
Remember this? If you’ve seen any Frederator shows on Nickelodeon, then you’ve no doubt seen it more than a few times.
Fred asked us to come up with a CG production tag. He also mentioned he’d like to use the same audio if possible. This is actually a pretty tough project. The text has to read clearly, it has to be memorable, and it has to happen really quickly.
I started to think about other production tags that stick out in my mind.
I want to do something that shows depth, will look nice in HD, has the Fredbot, and uses the same audio as the other production tag.
Keep watching to see what we’re coming up with!
