SYFY
is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel features supernatural, fantasy, paranormal, wrestling, reality, drama, horror and science fiction programming.
As of February 2015, approximately 94.8 million American households (81.4 percent of households with television) receive Syfy.
Reality
- Ghost Hunters (2004-present)
- Face Off (2011-present)
- Paranormal Witness (2011-present)
- Heroes of Cosplay (2013)
- Wizard Wars (2014-present)
- Troy: Street Magic (2015) from UK channel E4
Upcoming programs
- Hunters (premieres April 18, 2016)
- Incorporated (premieres 2016)
- Channel Zero
- Wynonna Earp (premieres April 1, 2016)
- Van Helsing (premieres Fall 2016)
Different horror monster shapes morph out of the purple material and then stamp in the SYFY logo in the purple shape.
Syfy Christmas Ident 2014/2015:
Christmas ident
July 28th 2015:
Star Trek Zone Ident - Syfy UK from Sam Harvey on Vimeo.
After acquiring three of the main Star Trek franchises, Syfy UK set about creating a visual identity to brand the stack of programming. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Start Trek: Deep Space Nine all fell under the umbrella of Star Trek Zone and the holodeck concept was devised to represent the themes of Star Trek as a whole. This device also permeated into promo endboards and bumpers around the show promotions.
The concept was developed in house with the help of Goldenwolf to visually bring the idea alive.
Post Production: Goldenwolf
After looking at these channel indents for SYFY the overall visual effect they seem to be creating is quite weird with the involvement of strange creatures or shapes etc this fits in with the theme of the programmes and films they will show falling under the horror fantasy and syfy category which are all usually more strange and weird genres compared to other genres.It also shows slightly more technical appearance with the use of CGI and 3D elements used a lot again relating to its genre and name of SYFY with the stereotypes for the genre of sic fi being more futuristic and advanced technology.
Another thing i noticed was that the colour purple seems to be their branding colour as they use this colour for the SYFY words quite a bit or they to involve this colour in the indents in some way.
Another thing is how they use minimalistic colours with usually a white blanche scene and just a splash of colour.Itv be channel indents 2014 :
Cartoon Network - Summer Ident FULL from eamonn o neill on Vimeo.
BBC3 Ident from Ludovik Boden on Vimeo.
Cinema 4D Workshop:
I attended a workshop in cinema 4D to get a brief idea of how i would go about creating an ident in order to then animate it or adapt these skills to my work
Creating an object from the pen tool (a wine glass):
Channel 4 Ident shape creation:
I used this template of lines i made in illustrator to move into after effects to make a 3D shape out of.
I connected all of these line shapes together to combine them and edit them all at once and then i extruded the shape to make it 3D.
I combined my shape with the extrude and then made it editable.
I added a bevel so that the edges of my shape were not unnaturally sharp and harsh
Here i was selecting segments of the shape in order to separate them so i can colour them individually to make the channel four colours that are split across channel 4's logo.
I then added the colours into the correct shapes.
I then experimented with floor reflection.
SYFY:
http://www.syfy.co.uk
One of the day schedules for the channel showing some examples of the kind of things they show:
NEWS:
Syfy 'Terribly Goody' from Martin Allan on Vimeo.
syfy channel id promotion / doho from doho on Vimeo.
SyFy's 31 Days of Halloween from FusionCIS-dynamic fx specialists on Vimeo.
When Syfy approached Colourmovie to create its “31 Days of Halloween” brand, Colourmovie devised a creative balance between macabre Halloween images and the sophistication of Syfy's brand. Inspired by Romantic Gothic and Victorian Gothic literature, Colormovie combined this with a modern and functional branding system to create a distinctive style for the network. To realize its imaginative vision for this project, Colourmovie turned to Fusion CI Studios and its dynamic effects expertise.
Fusion generated ink-in-water style smoky elements trailing behind animated characters, integrating the scenes. Fusion also created a large library of generic full HD frame “smoke” elements for Colourmovie to use as comp layers.
NETWORK: Syfy
DYNAMIC SIMULATION EFFECTS: Fusion CI Studios
VFX SUPERVISOR: Mark Stasiuk
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Lauren Millar
VFX ASSISTANT: Angel Moreno
FX ARTISTS: Matthew Benson, Deborah Zahler, Mike Wallner
The making of this ident:
Syfy "31 Days of Halloween" Case Study from Colourmovie on Vimeo.
here i show a selection of Sci Fi film posters posted Paste Magazine's "25 best sic fi movies" to use as gathering information on visual styles of the sic fi genre. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2015/02/the-best-sci-fi-movies-streaming-on-netflix-2015.html?p=2
Th evast majority of all sic fi posters i have looked at involve some kind of technology element or robotic form, a mutated creature or reference to some kind of science extraordinary experiments or a futuristic waste land.
Sydney Opera House:
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_identity_for_sydney_opera_house_by_interbrand_and_collider.php#.VtA4Zr65wi8
This link shows a video for the making of the Sydney opera house rebranding identity animation. It is a good example of the thought processes and stages they have used to come up with a logo etc and theme for the brand. This relate to my work well at this point too as they are creating a similar piece of work in terms of indents for the opera house.
Visual Materials:
bio mechanical, Organic, hard and shiny, or soft and gooey, light beams, void of colours dull grey and brown waste lands, bright space colours.
Manchester art gallery visit:
Shiro Kurumata revolving cabinet, 1970. Metacrylate plastic trays, metal.
Kurumata was one of the 20th centuries most influential and innovative furniture designers of the 20th century. He used industrial materials like plastics and steel mesh to create arresting and glamorous deigns.
I found this piece when i was visiting the manchester art gallery and thought i would be good for my work moving and folding into itself like a machine, which i could use as an element or material tat my font could be made up of. This also resembles a spine slightly and also related to the "monsters" side of the sic fi genre.
Issey Miyake Suspension light
Japanese fashion designer. He is known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.
These two designs shown are also interesting shapes i could think about using to fold in on themselves morph and move etc for my Sy Fy text ident to give it a more mechanical feel whilst still keeping a slightly organic nature about it still (the shapes of these creation see to show a combination of the two as they are not too harsh etc).
Hiroyuki Murase, Shuzuku Lights
Steam Punk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction and sometimes fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-poweredmachinery.
Steampunk is influenced by and often adopts the style of the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. Several works of art and fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before the genre had a name.
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction and sometimes fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-poweredmachinery.
Steampunk is influenced by and often adopts the style of the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. Several works of art and fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before the genre had a name.
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the genre of science-fiction. He is best known for his novels "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1870), and "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before navigable aircraft and practical submarines were invented, and before any means of space travel had been devised. He is the third most translated author of all time, behind Disney Productions and Agatha Christie. His prominent novels have been made into films. Verne, along with H. G. Wells, is often referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction".
Steam punk Syle:
Hans Rudolf Giger:
Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger (5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss surrealist painter, whose style was adapted for many media, including record-albums, furniture and tattoo-art.
The Zurich-based artist was best known for airbrush images of humans and machines linked together in a cold ‘biomechanical’ relationship. Later he abandoned airbrush work for pastels, markers or ink. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for design work on the film Alien. In Switzerland there are two theme-bars that reflect his interior designs, and his work is on permanent display at the H.R. Giger Museum at Gruyères.
Giger combines metalic and organic imagery for a startling effect and 'future life' Visuals. His paintings are eery and overpowering, perverse obnoxious and disgusting but also beautiful.
Giger Newsweek- "its like if there is an accident in the street everyone goes to look at it, even if it gives you a heart attack".
Gigers work is interesting to use for my research for this project as he created the concept art and helped with the special effect team for the film Alien which is a classic si fi film. As well as the fact that his art works even before he produced work for the film Alien combine organic materials with robotic and inorganic materials to creat an eery mutant style futuristic departure of people and monsters all of these things are iconography's and stereotypes of the si fi genre and more that that all relate to the kind of programmes and genres of films and shows that the channel Sy Fy airs.
To find out more about the artists i had a look through these books both of which are on the subject of his work before and after he created the designs for the film Alien:
Some examples i liked that i found from these books:
HR Giger's Witches Dance (1977) inspired by. Max Ernst's "Robing of the Bride" (1940)
To find out more about the artists i had a look through these books both of which are on the subject of his work before and after he created the designs for the film Alien:
HR Giger's Witches Dance (1977) inspired by. Max Ernst's "Robing of the Bride" (1940)
Acrylic on paper/ wood 200x 140cm.
This is one of his pieces from before the Alien designs and artworks that Giger created. It shows a clear example of how he combined organic and inorganic forms in his work with the robotic tubes and wires connected to the women in the painting.
This is one of his pieces from before the Alien designs and artworks that Giger created. It shows a clear example of how he combined organic and inorganic forms in his work with the robotic tubes and wires connected to the women in the painting.
HG Giger's Biomechanoid Lanscape 1976:
This piece shows a good example of the use of textures and shapes i could look at making my text out of etc. It shows how tiger has combined and related the shapes of bones to that of the inner makings and structures of machines.
(Right) - H.R. Giger 2012 luci christ - darkroom (alien style resemblance)
One of his sketches using ink an pencil to show his first stages of his work that i found in the books i was reading on his work.
The image on the right shows a font that was in one of the books i was looking at for tigers work. I though the style and shapes inside the letters relating to his style could be used in my work in this way. Making the shapes of the letters up out of these robotic and organic structures.
Darwing textures and styles inspiration:
Hiroyuki Murase uses an ancient Japanese textile finishing technique called Shibori for his work (translated as wring and twist) to give a three dimensional structure to fabric. Hiroyuki Murase, the designer of these luminaries and founder of Suzusan the company that produces them, comes from Arimatsu, a town between Kyoto and Tokyo. His family also has a long tradition working in Shibori.
Sibori inspired pieces:
C4D test using Gigers image Phallic Duress:
Gigers piece i used:
Gigers piece in cinema 4 d flat with out any bump or distortion effects (the light shows and exaggerates its flatness):
I added a bump to the piece and already it looks 3d
I then added a distortion texture to raise it up even more this angle shows how raised it is
a higher distortion shows an even more exaggerated 3d effect:
I then added some shapes on top of the texture and aligned the image up on these shapes so the match that of the background and blend in with it:
My Idea:
After looking at my research and experimenting in C4D i have decided that i am going to try and create a sequence in which the camera is panning through a spaceship corridor and at the end of the corridor there is an 'infected' wall that has Geiger inspired alien shapes and within these shapes the SYFY logo can be seen. This along with atmospheric sounds should hopefully produce an Alien style visual effect. I have chosen to an ident that has a theme (like SYFYs star wars ident) as opposed to their every day ident of white backgrounds and purple text as this given me more elements to work with so that i can create a Geiger inspired ident as this is an iconic Sci Fi film and relates to the SYFY channel.
At the end of this sequence i also wanted to try and end with the camera shaking and facing the sealing in which there will be dripping words made out of goo (relating to the aliens iconic saliva) that read imagine greater as this is the slogan that SYFY often use in their idents.
Testing text in giger's style :
This is the image i used as a template to make the logo 3d
I also drew over the shape of the s in the SYFY logo with alien style shapes and textures to create my own Geiger style shapes to make up the S:
Then using the techniques i experimented with using Geiger's image previously, i added my drawing as a texture onto the 3d s i made from the logo and then added a bump and displacement to get the 3d effect on my letter:
This is the effect it gave against Geiger background image as a reference (as i will make my own background when i actually make this wall) From this angle the bumps and distortion look effective over the shape.
I then experimented with the lighting to change the atmospheric mood of the piece as i want it to be quite dark to represent that feeling of fear walking down a dark corridor that potentially has an alien somewhere down it and the feeling of it could attack at any minute. The dark lighting helps with this as it does in many horror films.
The purple colour of my S seems too intense and reduces the visual effect i want to portray which is serious and scary.
I wuld also have to consider how to make the shapes in my letters relate to the background image i will make and how it will bend with it whilst still having the shapes easily visible. ( i would probably have the background shapes and letter shapes a closer matching colour so that contrast isn't so obvious).
I then started experimenting with camera angles and lighting to change the visual effects and feeling of the shape and my image :
Darkening the lighting did help to make the background and the letter work together better.
This is the effect i want for my wall:
I also like this angle of the SYFY logo as it makes it more intimidating and surreal. so when i make my corridor i might have a cavity at the end that the dammer has to look up at before it faces the ceiling (for the imagine greater words) so that when you see the SYFY logo it is being looked up at from a lower angle.
I decided that with the amount of time i have left to work with the alien idea might be a bit much for me to tackle within the time frame i have and so i decided i would attempt my second story board idea (in my sketch book) based on mutating nerve cells. Which reflects the mutant monsters and science experiment themed sic fi genre films to symbolise the program and its content (by reflecting a sic fi genre). The storyboard shows a normal cell which then splits and "mutates' to form into the word syfy (the programmes logo).
Cell research:
I looked at the different types of cells to base my idea on and the brain and nerve cell images i found were the most interesting aesthetically due to the fact they had a circular body and extruding tentacles which would be interesting to work with and move.
looking at cell division under the microscope:
One cell divides into two in a liquid kind of way. I will use this as reference when i come to making my cell mutation animation.
First i thought i would make the original nerve cell by using a sphere and extruding it (selected points on the sphere ready to individually extrude for the nerve cells tentacles).
I then made a texture for the cell using bump and distort and using fresnel and noise textures to create a bumpy specked effect for the cell.
I tested the cell against an infinite white background i made to suit with the syfy channel indents style (where they use generally purple text against an infinite white background).
Now that i have made the cell i am going to use i need to make the sight logo in the same style (tentacles coming from it and the same texture on it) so that when the cell morphs into the logo it is obvious that it is the same object that has transformed into the logo making it look like the cell has split and mutated.
I made this applying the same step by step techniques i used to make the cell:
I had to alter the original texture slightly as the effect of it on the text was a bit too clean cut and transparent, this image bellows shows how i altered the texture to look more like the cell does (bumpy and less transparent) However the tentacles were too big.
I had to change the distortion levels slightly in order to get the tentacles to a size that looked right and not too full on.
This was the finished piece i made
This method of creating the model for each other individual models (the cell and then the syfy logo) was more visually effective however in oder to morph one into the other i needed to have the same amour of polygons in each shape (which mean i would have to use the deformer tool to get the letters to a circular shape which could then be my cell):
Here is an example of how i did this for the f:
I did this with all of the letters :
I then added the tenticals my self using the loft tool and circles that i extruded using this tool to have points on each of the tenticals that i could control (e.g. they bend in certain points).
This is the aesthetic of the model of the final frame of my ident :
I then pushed all of my shapes into one point to make the 1 cell at the beginning of my animation (the texture i have create for them made this possible without giving it away or making the shapes seem overlapped or strange)
And i animated the shapes moving away from each other and into the final positions of where the text would go (each letter)
I decided to make my animation more exaggerated when the cell splits that what happens in actual cell division to represent the drama aspect of the channel and to add more of an impact (as though the cell is out of control to symbolise the science experiment gone wrong theme for my ident to keep within the genre).
My Animation (without sound):
The colour scheme of my ident is in keeping with that of the syfy ident colours that they use (purple inclusion and white background) however syfy usually make the SYFY text white and the imagine greater text purple (they do however mix this up sometimes) i decided to swap this making the SYFY text purple and the imagine greater text white so that my mutating cell (which then turns into the logo) can be more of a cell ish colour as a white cell wouldn't really work aesthetically against a white background in this piece also it gives the cell a more 'mutant' visual feel amplifying the theme of my piece. I did however for the imagine greater text add a subtle purple glow around the edge of it to make it pop a bit more as with this text being smaller it needed a visual boost to make it stand out.
Overall i think my ident kept the minimalist visual appearance (with regards to clutter on screen and colour scheme) that SYFY uses for their idents however had a bold and impacting subject matter that immediately relates to the channel and the content of the channel itself and i feel that what i have created is in keeping to the channel itself with regards to their current visual branding their target audience and their channel content.
The sound that syfy uses for their dents is generally not too dramatic and just foley sounds to match what is happening on screen with the subtle inclusion of occasionally some futuristic sounds etc. i used this as inspiration to create the sound for my animation.
An example of SYFY's use of sound in their dents:
Another good example of sight's use of good foley sound:
SYFY TERRIBLY GOOD IDENT from Bubble TV on Vimeo.
My finished ident with sound:
The sound effects i used for this animation again after researching SYFY's idents and style, i made sure that my sound effects related to what has been made by SYFY before and made sure my sounds had foley sounds for the visuals.
The sounds i decided to go for was that of subtle underwater atmospheric noises to reflect the envvironment of a cells (suspended in liquid) and electricity sounds to reflect the mad science experiment aspect of the 'mutating' theme i went for and also because many cells in the body communicate via electrically charged atoms. I also included a subtle dramatic 'swooshing' sounds for when the imagine greater text appeared as syfy uses some futuristic style cinematic sound effects in their dents and i thought this sound in my work added to this dramatic effect.
Making Of My Syfy Ident Animation:
In this video i show the stages of my creation from research to physically making the animation in cinema 4d. I added sound to keep the viewer amused while watching and add some atmosphere to my work, i chose a robotic futuristic song to reflect the genre of the programme (the basis of my project). I have used images, words and video footage as well as some sound clips at the end to try and clearly as possible explain to the viewer my ideas and the processes i took to get their.
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