Presto Studios

Background

Presto Studios was a computer game development company of the 1990s, especially famous for its award-winning The Journeyman Project series and the 2001 sequel to Cyan's hit Myst series, Myst III: Exile. In August 2002, Whacked! for Xbox was released, being Presto Studios' final title before closing its doors shortly afterward. Though still in decent financial shape, Presto was facing an uphill challenge in the transition from the PC to console game market. The directors of the company anticipated a rapidly shrinking PC game market and decided to close the company while it was ahead. A significant number of the creative staff moved on to high-profile roles in motion picture and animation production.

Logo (1992-October 8, 2002)

Visuals: On a black background, a blast of fire comes rushing towards the screen, before it switches to a CGI render of water via a fan wipe effect, revealing the thing is contained within a small rectangular box. As the water switches to a shot of a cloudy sky, the box shifts upwards and after revealing a field of green clovers, the fan wipe repositions itself as a cross-shaped diagram with all four elements: fire in the lower left, the clovers in the upper left, the sky in the upper right, and the water in the lower right. A magician's hat, flipped over and donned with accents of all 4 elemental colors, ripples in with a ball of light above it, positioned directly in the middle of the cross, which spawns a clear glass sphere. "PRESTO STUDIOS" then appears via 3 red, green, and blue version of the words merging together. Both are in a stylized font and "PRESTO" is filled with grey, but is replaced with a multicolored gradient. As they appear below, a pattern of words fade in over the elements as they move, all in a thick serif font: the fire has "VIDEO", the clovers have "ANIMATION", the sky "INTERACTIVITY" and the water "MUSIC". All the elements continue to move

Variants:

On earlier games, the logo was mainly still and the multi-colored gradient "PRESTO" had was just grey. The elements also looked more realistic and a dark glow surrounded the edges on the inside. Only the elements moved, starting with this order: clovers, clouds, water, and then fire.
A still version exists. It also appears to be brightened and in poor quality.
On The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime, "PRESENTS" in a pink Microgramma font appears below the logo briefly before rippling into the opening of the game.
On The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time, the ball of light zooms in and rotates from the logo, while the sphere in the middle of it and the rest of the logo fades out. After stopping in the middle of the screen, it changes to the Sun, beginning the game.
On Stephen King's F13, the logo appears and disappears via a swirling ripple effect, turning green as it does it.
On Myst III: Exile, the logo is sped-up.
On Whacked!, the logo does appear normally, but it also appears in game on a curtain in the beginning.

Technique: Live-action/traditional CGI.

Audio: Depends on the variant.

Early Variant: A thunderstorm, a gust of wind, a water fountain, and a fire sound ending with a 3-note synth-violin finishing with a descending note. Composed by Geno Andrews.
Still Variant: A dramatic synth tune. Composed by Bob Stewart.
Main Visuals: A single held orchestral note starts off, with the sound of flames starting, followed by water running, a gust of wind, and the sound of thunder, while a proud, yet dramatic orchestral fanfare plays throughout. Composed by Jamey Scott. Whacked!!, however, had a completely different fanfare, involving a dramatic bass tune with woodwinds, as well as the same sounds mixed in.

Availability: The early logo appeared on the first 3 The Journeyman Project games as well as Gundam 0079: The War For Earth, while the main logo debuted on The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime and appeared on Star Trek: Hidden Evil, Myst III: Exile, and Whacked! The still version appeared on a few trailers.

Legacy: A highly memorable logo and a fan favorite from their releases.