Adam McDaniel - Art Gallery - Movie Studio Work

Movie studio work

(This page is still in progress.)

D V D M E N U S

While at Walt Disney Pictures Worldwide Technical Services, I had an incredible time working with their DVD designers. They're a great team -- patient, knowledgeable, generous, not to mention a lot of fun to be around -- and I had the good fortune of playing with tools & software that were pretty state-of-the-art at the time. (My computer stuff at home absolutely sucks in comparison.) These are some samples of my work. I must say I learned more about Photoshop during my months at Disney than I had in all the previous courses and training up until that time...

MENU REDESIGNS

OLIVER & COMPANY
(rollover for comparison)
Here's a before & after comparison between the original menu, and the one I made using other images and fonts.

IMAGE RESTORATION

MICKEY MOUSE IN BLACK & WHITE: Vol. 1
Click on the image to see a gallery of DVD menus that required extensive digital restoration & new translations. This was my first project at Disney, and I was thrilled to be a part of it.

LOCALIZED MENU TRANSLATIONS

	MICKEY MOUSE IN BLACK & WHITE: Vol. 2 Click on the image to see a gallery of DVD menus that required Japanese translations.
	OLIVER & COMPANY Click on the image to see a gallery of DVD menus I worked on for the film's 20th anniversary DVD release.

Rollover the images below to see examples of translated menus.

I M A G E M O D I F I C A T I O N S T O S P E C

One of the key things I do for Warner Bros. Digital is handle the artwork -- poster and still images that go out to different vendors and clients. Each film requires a variety of art assets, including the standard poster image, as well as a textless version and an isolated title design. Sometimes these assets are available, or can be made easily from layered Photoshop files. Often, however, they have to be created by digitally "painting out" the text, or extracting, then repainting elements from a single image. Here are some examples.

CREATING MULTIPLE ASSETS FROM A SINGLE IMAGE

COMPLEX TEXT REMOVAL

One of the biggest challenges I face in creating the key art comes when a poster has text over a particularly complex background. Below are some of the tougher poster designs I've come across; on the left of each is the original image I had to work with. On the right is the finished, textless image.

Due to the enormous volume of work and "can't miss" deadlines on a near daily basis, I can only spend so much time on a given title -- usually just a few minutes. It's a constant struggle between being meticulous with the work and timely in the process.

M O V I E P O S T E R S

ORIGINAL DESIGNS

On rare occasion, there have been releases where artwork either must be made from scratch, or tailored from existing assets -- and due to project timing and/or budget, the company's regular creative channels were unable to deliver. I therefore step in and have to prep something in just a few minutes.

The greatest challenge for older or more obscure catalog titles is not prepping the art itself, but researching available images in our archives -- stills, old newspaper ads -- and trying to determine what's best when only a brief story synopsis is available as reference. (Not to mention confirming any last-minute legal clearances.)

Here are some examples. While they're admittedly barebones, they sufficed at the 11th hour.

L O C A L I Z E D T R A N S L A T I O N S

When a title is released worldwide, it often requires localized posters for each territory. When those are not immediately available, I then convert existing English assets to the appropriate alternate language, trying my best to match the font and style of the original text. This can involve a bit of digital work, when layered files are not available and I must first"paint out" the English text.

Alternately, there are times when the best image available comes from a poster in a foreign language, and I must "reverse" the process by adding English text:

I M A G E C L E A N U P

Examples of posters involving color correction, fold, rip, blemish, and/or text removal and reformatting.

M A R K E T I N G C A M P A I G N S DC COMICS When DC Comics unveiled their new company logo, a sales rep at Warner Bros. wanted to feature a new DC banner in order to promote some digital platform releases. These are some of the quick, 5-minute variants I came up with from the logo (left), resized to meet the required spec:


QUARTERLY RECOGNITION AWARDS These were prepped for internal company letterheads and postings: