Help to achieve this effect!

I am an absolute beginner in Blender and I want to create a logo for my company in blender, yes it is definitely sounding paranoid but I have some experience in artwork, but everything was in 2D and hence I am ‘totaly’ new to this 3D world and I am unsure what to do, where to start but I really want to get this done.

Requirement: f-Dev Logo
Please give me some suggestion on:
[a] Where to start.
[b] What tutorials to follow.
[c] Whether this task can be done in blender, or should I go for some other tool?
[d] How much might such a task cost if I hire someone?
[e] How much time will an experience designer take on such a project?
[f] Chances of a newbie to do this in a month time after learning the tool. Assume the engraved graphic will be a font, hence time to develop may be very less.
[g] Is there any tool bend a rectangular image/block around a spherical shape?
[h] I would also like a vector to be extracted, so if that is also possible please do throw some light on that as well.

Some enhancements to the designs:

[a] I would like to have the inner orb, have a thick translucent jelly glow so that the inner orb may look like a shinny led glowing out.

Why I need this design:

[a] I am paranoid about consistency in my design no matter what so I was thinking if this logo could be created in any 3D software, then I can simply change the colours or the angle to mod it for various products I will be releasing (all of them being web based). So any suggestion is also welcome.

I would also like to show you another example, even though I can understand that this can be infinitely more complex, but it really does highlight my actual dream: KeyHole Logo

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Jikku Jose

/uploads/default/original/3X/0/3/03879a02a07deb1164980175c2c4614d856b8176.pngstc=1&d=1229114548
This took my about five minutes, but just to show that it is possible in blender if you’re not as lazy as me. An overview of what i did:

Added a UV sphere.
/uploads/default/original/3X/c/f/cfd7a7a57e5060d3eeb062277eff24614f056bf7.pngstc=1&d=1229115806

add an empty mesh.
/uploads/default/original/3X/7/9/79e46e7ffa1dc6a57e779bf5c2da7701ddb16442.pngstc=1&d=1229115806

Press tab to edit the empty mesh. In the editing panel, more buttons should appear, including /uploads/default/original/3X/c/a/cacc63075828505a5a6b24380dde16f8d0b270ef.pngstc=1&d=1229115806.
click on it.
Now ctrl-click on the sphere in the bottom left:/uploads/default/original/3X/d/6/d6b8d131d8cc4b1d85f3ac2b7e6ff09642792a74.pngstc=1&d=1229116095
Then go to edge selection mode (ctrl-tab 2) and select the edge you made. Extrude it (e) until you get this:/uploads/default/original/3X/7/f/7f6e7f694b83af29fab2db4fcb9cabe330abcac1.pngstc=1&d=1229116095

do that for the other part of the “f” shape. Select everything (a) and press alt-s and shrink it into the sphere a bit. press e. Choose region from the pop-up bar. Right click. Press alt-s and fatten it out of the sphere.
Select the sphere and add a boolean modifier. change the operation to difference. Click the ob: box and type in the name of your “f” object, which is probably EmptyMesh. Select the f, press ctrl-2. Go into edit mode, press ctrl-alt-shift-s, press ok, and press shift-e to crease. Move your mouse until it says +1.00. Press tab to go back to object mode and press “apply” in the modifier panel. Select the sphere and apply it’s boolean modifier as well. Note: the order in which you apply them matters. Delete the f shape and select the sphere and press the set smooth button. It looks really ugly, so add an edge split modifier. This is basically how to make the mesh. To create the materials, you must create seperate vertex groups. Here’s how to assign multiple materials to a mesh: http://www.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/x4448.html
For lighting and ambient occlusion: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Lighting_Rigs
Hope this helps a bit.

Attachments







Here’s the sloppy blend file, by the way.
LowGO.blend

Attachments

LowGO.blend (251 KB)