Starmax

Background
Starmax (스타맥스) is a South Korean video distributor and a former home video division of Samsung Corporation, that was mostly active in the 1990s.

1st Logo (1988?-1992)
Logo: On what appears to be a space background, there is a blue circle with 3 houses. This is followed by many blue circles with different values making a soundwave animation on the blue circle. Stars start coming out of one of the houses. Everything fades out except for the stars. They soon disappear and two green oval with cutted lines collide together which forms a flash. A white star appears on those ovals which now makes an S shape. The symbol zooms out while a blue streak comes out of it. Once it's done, it makes the word "STARMAX" in silver. The text then transforms from English to Korean.

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic little tune followed by a whoosh, then a heroic, but dramatic tune. Availability: Rare in South Korea.

2nd Logo (1992-December 2000)


Logo: We shoot in from a starfield while a flash occurs at the center, bringing up a flying CD while a smiling star comes out of the bottom-right and flies on the top of it. Blue musical notes then fade in from the center of the disc, as other, larger ones move in from the right, reflecting the other elements. The star is shown dancing and proceeds moving to the left, and then we cut away to a blue VHS with the "STARMAX" brand in yellow, and the enlarged, 3D red logo shown in the label. In the side label is the Hangul text of the company. The tapes moves behind, and then rotates into perspective before a flash occurs from its left side. We fade into the CD and star, again, but the disc is shown at the top and the star is shown flying onto it, while a filmstrip appears and flies below the disc. The filmstrip turns into a yellow, glowing light while the star centers itself and the models of the yellow text "스타맥스" and "STARMAX" appears by another glowing light. The starfield fades out and the text rotates into perspective, and a blue glow can be seen behind the logo.

Technique: 3DCG animation.

Music/Sounds: A bombastic synthesized fanfare ("Theater of the Mind" by Jonathan Merrill). Playing along it is a flashing sound at the beginning, series of glissandos when the musical notes appear, and a whoosh when the logo forms. Availability: Uncommon in South Korea; mostly appears in later VHS tapes as well as earlier DVDs/VCDs distributed in the country.

3rd Logo (January 2001-2007)


Logo: It starts on a fast moving space background. Some weird shape in yellow zooms out. There is also a blue line. The text "STARMAX" in purple with the "A" replaced with a star come into view. Each letter including the star all flash white. The space background and blue line dissapear leaving just the text, the star, and the yellow thingy on a white background.

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized theme with strings, which fades out at the end. Availability: Uncommon in South Korea, as it appears on some of the last VHS tapes released in the country.

Legacy: Quite an animated downgrade from its predecessor.