Character Session: 03/11/2015

In today's character session with Justin we were learning about expressions in both the face and the body. Our first task was to draw a Superman pose that Charlie was doing. By trying to remember how I created the maya poses, I wanted to make sure I demonstrated the correct details of the body's position. I did the first one wrong, so I did another one, but in doing so didn't manage to finish the next pose in time. Our next task was to get into a pose, dependent on the scenario we picked, and then the other members of the group, in our case a group of 4, would draw you in your pose. As we were in an even group, we did two people at a time (Myself and Ridge - Julien and Emma), This was a very fun exercise. I tried to get the main idea of the pose in my stick men drawings and got mixed results, some work well, but some went completely wrong - whether it being due to the balance of the figure or just incorrect placements of arms, legs etc. 

Our final task was to pick a character of our choice and then create expressions for that character. I was a little confused as to whether we had to do the whole body or just the face or both. As you can see from the images below, I chose Wile E. Coyote and did a series of facial expressions for him, as well as copying a pose that I found on google. I think these all look very similar and there isn't much difference in expressions. It was difficult trying to figure out how he would look if his mouth was open, and so that is why his mouth is closed in all the expressions. When Justin came round and spoke to me, he asked me to pick an emotion and so I chose anger. He then did some quick sketches using images from google to show me how I could create an angry expression. 

Wile E. Coyote Facial Expressions

Justin's Angry expression sketches.

Stickmen poses.

Character Session: 27/10/2015

In yesterday's character session with Justin, we were learning about designing environments. Our first task was to create an environment based on the video game character that we received. I got John Marston, who is the main protagonist in Red Dead Redemption. The game is set in the late 19th century to the early 20th century in Texas, and so is based around cowboys, like John Marston. For my first design, I drew a Saloon, which is quite obvious as that is one of the things that is thought of when thinking about the genre. Although it did work, Justin explained that it doesn't necessarily link to the character. John Marston is very serious and is, as the title says, seeking redemption. He suggested making it looking more "run down" and that it looks like a dangerous place to be, while still being quite strong. I continued with that design by including sections that look like it's been fixed.

I then designed a completely random building based on one that I found on google, and tried to make it fit to what Justin said. I made it very rectangular and square because when learning about characters, we were told squares are used to show something is strong and so I wanted to show that in this design. I, also, made it look quite old through it wobbly pannels and broken areas. I think this design works more than the first as it matches John Marston's character better than the first design.

Our final task, was to design an environment based on the two words that Justin gave us -  the words I got were "Restless" and "City". Unlike other people's words, they go together quite well. It could be fair to say that most of the World's major cities are considered to be restless, New York being an obvious one. As it was too late in the session, I didn't have enough time to do a design.

From Script to Screen: Character Design Workshop - Lesson 4

In our final Character design workshop session, we were focusing on story boards. We were given a character type, I was given "Pirates", and an action or event that would happen in the scene, I got a "fight". Those two components wouldn't seem out of place in films, and make sense, so I was quite lucky in that regard. Firstly though, we had to design some characters. I wasn't having one of my best days, in truth, and so it took me a while to get my drawings done, as every design I tried went wrong. Because of that I drew a Pirate tattoo, which allowed me to get back on track, somewhat. I did continue to struggle with designing the characters though, so drew two incredibly small pirates, a Captain and a lower member of the crew. I also drew another pirate cartoon, for some reason. Anyway, my idea for the scene was the pirate confronts his Captain as there is a mutiny and so challenges him to a fight. The scene begins with an exterior shot of the ship, which is sat near an Island. The camera then zooms into the ship. We then see the crew circled round the pirate and the captain. The camera moves round the circle The camera then switches between shots over the Captain's shoulder and the pirate's shoulder as they stare and argue. My storyboard below is obviously not in the same level of detail as the like for like ones I did, but they do have the more original story board feel to them, which is a good thing.

Pirate Tattoo Design

Character Design Page

Storyboard

From Script to Screen: Character Design Workshop - Lesson 3

In our third Character design workshop session, we switched our focus onto environments. After learning about environment design, we were asked to design an environment. We were giving an example, I was given "Santa's Workshop", and we had to re-design it that relate to the genre that we were given , I got "Sci-fi". At first, I imagined robots and how the elves were replaced by robots. My first idea was too cliched and too original. It didn't have enough sci-fi elements to it. As you can see from the first imagine, it is a classic perception of what Santa's workshop would look like, so because of this, it wasn't Sci-fi enough, and didn't live in a different world. 

I decided to try again, and so I made it show the exterior of the workshop. It is a lot more industrial, but some of the buildings are shaped like presents. The idea was that due to the ever increasing population the methods of making and sending presents had to evolve, and so it was brought into the industrial world. The workshop is still in a snowy environment, that is guarded by a large Robot Santa statue. This is a better attempt at combining my two components as it shows what the future of Santa's workshop may become.

1st Attempt

2nd Attempt

From Script to Screen: Character Design Workshop - Lesson 2

In today's lesson, we all got our own type of character, and I got a mad scientist. We were asked to redesign them, or to put them in another era or world. I firstly drew what the original mad scientist looks like. Long white coat, large hair, glasses, moustache...basically a crazy Albert Einstein. The first design I did wasn't thought through. I draw a man pouring chemicals into a beaker. I added a few things to his appearance to make him look like a scientist, through a tie and glasses, mainly. I then threw a load of random objects on. At first, I intended him to make him look like a king with a crown and cape, but I then went onto add more things that made it look like someone had drawing over it to make it look as silly as possible. I then began another design, I still included some of a mad scientist's trademarks, but it was a weird, funny alien. I drew it very cartoony, through smooth lines and lack of tone, in order to make it look like a scientist from a children's sci-fi animation. I think this looks quite well, as it looks like a scientist from another world. However, I don't think it's clear that it's a mad scientist, rather than just a scientist. 

Our last task included us being assigned a room or place, and to draw things that we'd expect to see in that room/setting, as people. I was assigned a bathroom, and drew a toilet, 2 sinks and a towel. I began with the toilet. My initial thought was that it would be a liar because it's full of it.  I used the handle as one of the eyes, but just drew the other eye beside it. I think the look of the character works well because he looks quite moody and arrogant. I then started drawing a sink. It isn't very clear how to get character from a sink, so I made the taps the characters. The cold tap is smiling because it isn't likely to cause harm and is safe, where as the hot tap is angry because it's full of anger and fire. Although, I think that's a good idea, they wouldn't be able to move, so I drew another sink. I used the same taps, but I used the base of the sink as a mouth and added eyes to it's pillar. I don't think that was designed very well, as it has no character and doesn't work with the sink's shape very well. I hen quickly drew a towel. It's not exactly clear it's a towel and the face is drawn on without any though. I added a little joke, but I don't think the towel was well thought out.

Mad Scientist Cliche

Mad Scientist - Unique 1

Mad Scientist - Unique 2

Bathroom components

From Script to Screen: Character Design Workshop - Lesson 1

Today was our first Character design session, and for preparation for the session we were asked to bring in a picture, or have a picture ready, of our favourite character. I chose the Joker. I have always been a fan of the Batman comics and the Batman films, especially the 1989 "Batman", where the Joker was played by Jack Nicholson and "The Dark Knight", where Heath Ledger played the Joker . The picture I chose was of Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight". I wasn't necessarily aiming to get a picture of his Joker when I was looking for one, I just picked the first Joker picture I saw. Our first task was to take our character and draw it in a different style. I based the drawing on the traditional, trademark look of the Joker with his long face, beaming eyes and large smile. I then added all the features that Heath Ledger's Joker has: The scars on his cheeks, the black around his eyes and his long messy hair. I drew it, however, in my own pen style as that is, as I have said before, something I feel comfortable with. I wanted to emphasise the black around the eyes to really make them stand out and I think they have turned out quite well. Overall, I am very happy with this as it is quite dark, like Heath Ledger's Joker, but has the fun appearance that the Joker always has.

Our second task was to draw a cartoon character, that we got at random, and to redraw it using different shapes. In the session, we learned about how shapes are used in characters. Circles represent safe and gentle things. Squares show stability and strength. And Triangles are usually associated with villains, primarily, due to their sharp edges that have an element of danger. The character I got was Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo is a friendly dog, but as he is a great dane he needs to have a strong appearance, so, due to them two traits, circles and squares are the shapes that are used in his design. I decided to replace the friendly manner of the circles with the sharp danger of the triangles. This substitution has made Scooby look evil and not like the friendly dog we all know. I added claws, also, to add more danger to the design. I am very happy with this, although, I think maybe the neck is a bit too long.