This is the first of two station ID tags created at Hatch Studios Ltd. for Astral’s “Z-Tele” channel.

The premise here was to create an impactful sequence that would fit into Z-Tele’s programming themes and styles. I developed a sub-story in which we follow a macroscopic machine powering up. The electrical current acts as the catalyst to move us through this vivid environment up until the end, when we reveal to the viewer that the machine was actually the inside of the Z-Tele logo.

A dynamic camera move was essential here, especially to give the impression of a continually-igniting machine in which we just barely miss being hit by fire, sparks, pistons, and much more.

It should be mentioned that we had a great time working on this cinematic, partly due to the wonderful guys at Astral who loved this as much as we did.

Because this was a heavy effects-driven sequence, we used a variety of tools to get this done. I’d insisted in using fire, gasses and particles alongside our typical mechanical instruments. I also went for a steam-punk style in which we use older-tech mechanisms such as gauges, pipes, valves, capacitors, etc. The color palette also had to suit this and therefore a lot of bronze, copper, gold and chrome materials were used, as well as rich, cinematic color grading.

The props were modeled with 3dsmax, the fire / smoke with FumeFX and the particle effects with Krakatoa as well as Particle Flow. Additional smoke and mist passes were created during the compositing stage. Rendering with VRay 1.5 SP2.