HISTORY CHANNEL: DARK MARVELS (MAIN TITLES + GFX PACKAGE)
For this project, we teamed up with Weimar Pictures to offer Creative Direction and a stylized approach to the graphics package for the entire show. We built creative executions for assets like the main titles sequence, the show logo, image mortises, lower 3rds, backgrounds, and more.
The main idea of the title sequence is to take the viewer through the corners of the human brain — a sort of 'Mind Prison' where dark thoughts are locked away. Inspired by the mind of a sinister inventor, we begin with a camera flying through a labyrinth of gears, machinery, and imagery of 'dark thoughts' while teasing the diabolical inventions that have shaped our world from devious torture devices to terrifying weapons of war, and everything in between.
Production Company: Weimar Pictures
Co-Executive Producer: Robert Uncles
Co-Executive Producer: Thomas Uncles
GFX Company: Weimar Pictures + Kinesis
Creative Director: Kennon Fleisher
Lead 3D Artist: Dennis Kang
SHOW LOGO EXPLORATIONS:
Designing the title for 'Dark Marvels' was rooted in trying to create a contrast between worlds. We wanted to blend a nostalgic feeling with a twist of something new. Our primary aim was to create a duality between the look of an old Stephen King novel with the structure and precision of a laboratory manual. We hoped to capture the show's dark tone without veering into outright horror. The result feels mysterious, intriguing, and timeless; which we felt would invite viewers into a world where science and sinister collide.
MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE IDEATION:
We utilized Unreal Engine to quickly ideate on what the main title sequence could look like and so that we could show animation tests to our client as quickly as possible. This was an extremely powerful workflow for quickly portraying the idea we had.
Ultimately, we opted to create the majority of the main title sequence shots with Cinema 4D, but the final Hitchcock Zoom shot was generated in Unreal Engine.
