For this project I was hired by an aspiring Indie Game Developer to design a logo for his game and a interesting cover to help promote the game when it releases. I followed the client’s guidance for the design and theme of the logo so it would match the feeling of the game, gothic, dark, and mysterious. I made use of both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop help composite a cohesive look together. The product being on a PS3 disc is only for product example purposes and does not represent a real product by the company.
Completed: February, 2023
Client: NMH Studios, by Derrick Bilodeau
I’ll start by explaining the logo design itself. The client requested a realistic styled moon to match his more realistic looking game about a werewolf. To match the lore in the game, it also had to be broken in half, think similarly to the Time Machine movie if anyone has seen that. So in Photoshop I took a full HD image of the moon and composited a lot of different free crack Pngs overtop. I erased the large gap through the center but left just enough here and there to give it some depth. Then along the sides painted in the dust and debris left behind from the initial damage done to the moon. The font for the logo was created in Illustrator where I used the Newcomen font and made a few small adjustments of my own to get the proper look the client was going for. And once both were approved independently I composited them together in Photoshop for the final result, with a light dark shadow around the text to help it pop out from its background.
Lastly the game “cover” as it were. For this I asked the client to pose his main antagonist in a threating pose, looking as though it were ready to pounce. He turned in a few as Png files with different sorts of lighting effects already baked onto the 3D model, and I chose the one that gave the creature a back light. I composited the pose on top of a free photo I found of a forest trail and then played around with the brightness, exposure and saturation until I got the dark night effect I wanted. I placed in the moon from the logo into the scene, behind the trees and took the dodge tool to brighten up the places I wanted to be affected by moonlight, and the burn tool for areas I wanted more in shadow. I then found a free fog brush for Photoshop that I used to help get the fog effect settling on the ground, further adding to the mood of the art piece. Once satisfied with the look I added in the game’s font logo along with the studio’s logo and the rating label for authenticity.
The client and I are still continuing to work aspects of this game together. So while this portion of the project is closed and shut, I look forward to showing more future work of Moonlight. Stay tuned!