| This is one of the rare projects
where everything came together to create something spectacular.
I was working with a new salesman who was responsible for branding
an existing software product with a new name and logo. The product
is designed to help companies achieve and maintain environmental
regulatory compliance.
I quickly created the logo. It only took a few tries to find something
the client would approve. It was very simple, but it fit the product
and blended well with the company's existing color scheme (bright
red and black)
Then we moved on to creating the product sheet for a trade show.
After a few hours of brainstorming, we coined the phrase: “Regulatory
Compliance is No Game.” Together we got the idea of using
the “Get out of Jail” and “Go Directly to Jail”
cards. Right then and there, it all came together in my mind. I
could see a Monopoly board with the spaces renamed with topics about
environmental regulatory issues.
I started to work and took the whole thing through design, texturing,
modeling, layout and writing the text in a little more than a week
(some of that time was dependant on approval time from the client).
I created the texture for the board in Adobe Photoshop, using stock
clip art. I created the cartoon character art from stock figures
in Poser (I morphed the Barney character into the cop, using free
guns, hats, and other props from Renderosity). I converted the cartoon
figures into line art in Photoshop to create the textures for the
Jail cards. I couldn’t find dice models that I liked, so I
quickly modeled my own (simple cubes using bump maps for the pips).
Finally, I put it all together in Strata 3D and rendered the high-resolution
images suitable for printing.
The results were spectacular! This is one of those pieces that
just catch people’s attention when they see it. The client
was so thrilled that he actually made a mock up of the game board
to use at trade shows.
Click to
view
full-size cover
|
My biggest thrill, however, came from the recognition it
received from other professional 3D artists. I had posted
the images in my gallery at Renderosity.com
and was contacted in about a week with a request to include
the image in 3D World magazine’s
“Exhibition” section (a gallery featuring the
best professional and student work, as selected by the magazine
editors and staff at Renderosity).
|
Among 3D artists, this publication is arguably the most prestigious
magazine in the UK, North America, and Europe. Additionally, this
was an even bigger thrill because this is my favorite industry magazine,
which I’ve been reading every month for more than six years.
Both ComplianceSentry images were submitted, but they ran the second
one in 3D World #62, March 2005 issue,
page 15.
Tools: Photoshop, Quark XPress, Adobe Illustrator,
Macromedia Freehand, Poser, Strata 3D |
