Minor/Major Project: New Average Character Concept

Following on with the re-designs of the characters, this is the new average character concept that I did the other day. I don't think that this has fixed the issues that the first one had, and also looks a bit odd, especially the arms. Out of the heads, however, I think that number 5 works well and suits the character's personality, so in the next drawing of this character that will be the head I go with.

Minor/Major Project: New Short & Fat Character Concept

Taking into account the feedback for the last design of the character, I have drawn some more heads and have drawn him in a pose that is relevant to his shy and awkward character. I think there's something quite feminine about the body here, and I think that is because of the shape of the hips and the legs - the feet look a bit odd too. I think the head that is already on the character works quite well, and has a child like innocence to him, and so this can be beneficial for when he is with the tall character.

I'll try to sort out the problems in the next design, as well as chosing the right head shape/expression.

Minor/Major Project: Clip Ideas Re-post + Character Heights

I have drawn this to show the difference in height between the characters - the tall character's height wasn't right/realistic at first, so it needed a bit of tweaking. I have also put them into some new clothes and have added colour for this picture. Below is my previous clip ideas post, with a few more ideas that I have come up with since.

Clip #1

 "And there are people who say that you're involved.

That you might be responsible. That you're a very dangerous man"

Story Ideas

• Interrogation Scene, with a toy being the thing that's being interrogated.
• Similar to the previous idea, but having a zoo-keeper talking to an animal at a Zoo.
• A trashman who likes to talk to the rubbish that he picks up off the floor.
•  In the bath.

Clip #2

 "Wait a minute, you're wearing black! That's my colour. I'm the Bad Guy!"

"But you're not wearing black, that's dark blue."

"It is not!"

"It is so. It's navy"

Story Ideas

• A married couple getting dressed
• Getting ready for a stage performance that leads to a fight.
• With the dialogue being slightly different, it's two decorators arguing over the colour of the paint, and they get other people's opinions involved.
• Political debate.

Clip #3

"He said he was going to do it, and he's doing it now.

The most stupendous, the most incredible crime of the Century."

Story Idea

A man is saying the quote from the clip to another character, who has just asked him about his worried expression on his face - the camera slowly zooms in on his face, while he is saying the quote. Once he has said it, it cuts to someone doing the something very minor and not at all illegal, like walking on the grass, where there is a keep off the grass sign. (This is just an example of a minor crime, and will be thought about more).

Clip #4

 "What do you want from me?"

"What do I want? I want to play a game?"

Story Idea

A man and a woman are in bed, and the man starts trying to wake up her, like a child on Christmas day. The woman annoyingly wakes up and asks what he wants. The man replies saying he wants to play a game. The woman is confused. The man then pulls a Spider-Man mask over his face and then grabs two cans of web spray cans from under the duvet.

Clip #5

"I had a friend. I was with him yesterday, but we got seperated.

Have you seen him?"

"Marshal, you have no friends."

Story Idea

• A man talking to his therapist.
• A boy/girl talking to their teacher.
• In the Jungle

Minor/Major Project: All 3 Characters

I have taken each character concept and have drawn them in this image, with the tall and short characters both having different heads. I will change the average character's head once I have come up with a better design, as this one looks a little too young - a teenager, rather than an adult.

When drawing this there were a few little problems with these designs: Firstly, the short character's arms are too long. It was quite difficult to get the arms right in the pose that he is in, and so I had to settle with the best that I could do. Secondly, when drawing the hand on the tall character's shoulder, it sisn't look right a few times due to the number of fingers. They original had 4 fingers and one thumb, but I had to chop off a finger as it looked better, and more cartoony, with just 3.

I'm going to draw another picture with these characters, which will give a better idea of their height difference, as well as trying to fix some of the problems that I mentioned.

Minor/Major Project: Short & Fat Character Concept

I have now finished my initial concept of the short and fat character, and like the previous posts I have drawn some alternate heads as well, so that I can see which would work best. I think the shortness in height isn't entirely clear, and he should be a bit fatter, so those are two things that I'll need to fix in the next drawing of this character.

Out of the heads, number 4 works the best, I think, as it looks like a miserable adult and that is something that would work with this character. The others are just a bit too simple, where as number 4 is a bit more unique, especially in the shape of the head itself.

Minor/Major Project: Average Character Concept

Carrying on with the character designs, I have finished the first design/concept of the average character, as well as some more heads. This one was a little more of a challenge than the tall and thin character as it was a struggle to make it look like an adult, rather than a teenager - which is a problem that this design has.

It was, also, reasonably difficult for the head/face designs, as they are all a bit basic and no one stands out. The majority of them have basic haircuts, with basic faces, and although the designs need to be a bit basic, they still need to stand out and suit the age of each character. I will continue working on this design as well as doing the first concept for the short and fat character.

Minor/Major Project: Tall & Thin Character Concept

For the animation, I want 3 different characters, who are all different in terms of shape and size, as well as personality. I have started by designing this tall and thin character and some additional heads that I came up with for this character.

My thought progress behind this character's personality is that due to his height and being skinny, is that he is somewhat out of control with the way his body moves, and so his arms and legs can be quite elastic, and would fling around all over the place. I have watched many Monty Python sketches recently, for this project of course, and have based this character on John Cleese. One such sketch that sticks out features "the Ministry of Silly walks." In this sketch, John Cleese's legs are so flimsy and elastic in their movement, and this is something that can look very funny in an animation.

I'm quite happy with the body shape, although the pose isn't quite how it should be. Out of the 7 faces, my favourites are 2,3 and 6. I think that's possibly due to the fact that they have a bit more character, where as the others are a bit more generic.

For the other two characters, I am trying to design a short and fat character (the opposite to the tall and thin character) and a basic mid-height/mid-build character.

Minor Project: Character Design planning

After my dissertation meeting with Phil yesterday, I asked about my minor project and my new idea. One of the problems that I mentioned was that "as I'll be doing 3, or so, completely different scenes with completely different characters, how will I be able to do this?" A possible way to get round the character problem is by having a character design, that can easily be made into other characters: for example, the lego characters are the same in shape, but each design/paint work is different.

I went back and looked at my info-graphic work and the work of David Shrigley, as that is something that I felt confident doing and was able to create a good, little character. As this is 3D, however, the challenge with having my info-graphic character and Shrigley's work as influences is that they are 2D, and so may not translate quite as well. I've gone through many quick drawings over the past couple of days and have designed these characters.

As you can see, they are all mainly the same - hair style being the main difference. This page shows that it is possible to have one character design, that is then made into several characters. I like these drawings, although as I'm also considering doing the 2D facial rig on a 3D character, I'm not too sure how that'd look.

Adaptation B: Re-Design - Ebenezer Scrooge

For this re-design of Scrooge, I have tried to add the "sleeping hat" as well trying to include some things that relate to the character. I don't think there's a whole lot different between this design and the initial one and so I will need to work on this a lot more.

Just like what I did with the Miss Havisham re-design, I have put both designs together so that I can see the differences/similarities and see what works well and what doesn't. Like I have said, there isn't much difference as you can clearly see.

Adaptation B: Oliver Twist & Uriah Heep - Initial Designs

 

As I hadn't yet done nitial designs for Oliver and Uriah heep, I have done these designs in the same method as my other initial ideas. The reason for doing this is so that I can have all the buildings having an initial design and so it would make more sense in the crit on thursday. Obviously because of this these aren't that useful, but do give an idea of my own first ideas behind each of these two characters.

These were a lot more tricky compared to the other four and so they have very unrealistic body/building shape. As Oliver is different to the other characters in that he's the youngets and is genuinely nice and friendly, I wanted to show by drawing him differently by being less "skecthy" and being more smooth with the outlines and details.

When I progress with these designs, I should try to make Oliver look quite cute and innocent, and a character that the audience will like. Uriah Heep, on the other hand, should look ugly and quite mean, similarly to Fagin.

Adaptation B: Re-Design - Miss Havisham

 

In today's tutorial with Alan, I got some more help, which I really should have asked for earlier. It's been much harder than I thought to get buildings designs from the research/exercises, that I've done so far. In the tutorial, Alan did a few quick sketches on Photoshop as to how a Scrooge and Miss Havisham should be based on/designed. As I have said in a previous post, the idea of Miss Havisham's building being based on a wedding cake is something that Alan recommended.

For this re-design, I have tried to avoid simply basing the design of the building around only original drawing. By looking at wedding cakes online and thinking about Miss Havisham's presonna, this is the design I have come to. Perhaps, it isn't very clear that it's a wedding cake and to others it wouldn't be clear that this is Miss Havisham. That is obviously something I'll continue to look at.

 

Below is an image showing both the initial design and this re-design, so that I/you can compare the two, and see what works well and what doesn't:

Adaptation B: Structures/Spines of the Buildings

In a similar way to finding shapes in the other exercises, I have tried to look at the overall pose and structure of each character. This will help me when redesigning the buildings as they show me how each building should be stanced/leaning.

These look a bit strange, so below are the original drawings, yet again:

Adaptation B: Finding more shapes in the Original sketches

With original drawings

In friday's tutorial, Alan showed me another way as to how I could find shapes in the original human form drawings of each character. Although there are some more interesting shpes and structures, there isn't too much different between what I found in the previous exercises. Also, I think they act as outlines rather than findind the forms within the structures of each pose.

I will continue to explore shpaes and forms from these images, as well researching each character in more detail, so I can get designs that suit each character better than my initial designs for 4 of them.

Without original drawings

Adaptation B: Fagin & Mrs Gamp - Initial Designs

Using the same methods of editing and drawing as the other 2 initial designs, I have created my initial ides for Fagin and Mrs Gamp's Building. These were a little more tricky than the previous designs and so they took a bit longer to do. 

I wanted Fagin's building to be quite siister looking and being very crooked. I think this needs quite a bit more work to do as I think it's a bit too upright and isn't very scary. Mrs Gamp, however, is the opposite. I wanted it to look friendly, which I think it does. As Mrs Gamp will be looking after Oliver, it needs to look very 'caring'. When drawing this buildin, I was looking at images of cosy cafes as well as cottages. 

I'm quite pleased with the Mrs Gamp building as it looks friendly and, in that respect, is much different to all the drawings that I've done, so far. Like I said, the Fagin builidng still needs a fair bit of work done to it to make it look like how I want it to.

Adaptation B : Finding the main Shapes & Skeletons

  

Original Drawings

Like I said in the previous post, I am still some way away from getting the overall shape/design of the buildings. I have continued to try out some techniques as to how I can convert the human form characters into buildings.

One of the things that I did was going round the outline of each sketch to get a single shape, but having them still resemble their characters. Some of them look quite odd, but I think some of them have some building like shapes to them. One such case in Miss Havisham where her head/vale create a shape like a triangular roof. Scrooge also has a chimney like arm. I have put the original drawings at the top of the post to show the similarities.

 

All the Characters

Fagin, Mrs Gamp and Scrooge (Left to Right)

Miss Havisham, Oliver and Uriah Heep (Left to Right)

As the buildings will need to be rigged, I drew out a rough rig skeleton for each skeleton. I feel that this will be helpful as it will allow me to know where I can create joints in the building. Obviously, the buildings shouldn't have a human skeleton rig, but this is a nice way for me to know where movements in the buildings would be.

 

 Rig (Outside)

Rig (Inside)

I think I have done enough for some of the characters so that I can start to try and create the buildings. Some of them, I imagine, will be easier than others, as some of the exercises that I've done have given me little ideas behind the design.

Adaptation B: Silhouettes & Finding Shapes

In Friday's tutorial, Alan told me that I should try to find the shapes within the sketches of the characters, in human form, that I did. The first thing I did was turn them into silhouettes as I wanted to see how they'd look. I then drew around the sketches to get their outline'.
 

Silhouettes

Character Outlines

I drew the outlines by only drawing it straight lines roughly, as I wanted them to show a clear structure that would ressemble a building's. Once I had all the outlines drawn out, I looked at the original sketches and then I drew more details into them, therefore adding more shapes. I drew them using only straight lines and didn't go into too much detail. After I edited them in Photoshop, I added more detail, without looking at the initial drawings. I tried to make the details similar to ones that you'd find on a building, which I don't think is that clear, although there certainly are some interesting shapes and patterns there, I think.

Added Detail

Further Detail added

As I had changed the original silhouettes' outline by drawing in straight lines, I made more silhouettes to see if the use of straight lines had an effect, which there is, but very minimal. As buildings tend not to be one shape, I drew over these silhouettes to make them one whole form. There isn't much difference, especially with Oliver, but that's good, to some degree, as they still look like their specific character.

Straight lined Silhouettes

Whole Silhouettes

Obviously these are in very earlier stages, still, and aren't yet showing the characteristics of a building. I will continue to work with similar techniques as well as trying to get buildings from these shapes.

Adaptation B: Character Sketches (Human Form)

As I have metnioned in the previous post, Alan said that I should draw out the chracters in human form first so that I can use them to get a better understanding about the pose and appearnace of the building. By looking into the 6 characters I have drawn these skecthes, as you can see below. I wanted them to have quite a clear pose and one which suits their character. Some of them were easier to figure out what pose it would be, like Oliver Twist (Asking for me) and then it was a challenge trying to draw them in an interesting and understandable way - drawing Oliver was especially difficlt as it was unclear what he was doing when I tried to draw him from the front.

I do quite like these, of course some more than others, but I think there's a clear style there as I'm trying to maintain the style of my initial sketches whilst looking at existing illustartions from Dickens's stories. I think this has shown me that there is a good range of appearance in there and so that will make it easier to understand when watching the animation.

Adaptation A: Initial Character Designs

I have done these drawings of the character that will be in the info-graphic. As I will be doing it in Flash and will be drawing it out quite often, I want something simple, and a design that works with the idea that it will be on a whiteboard (Although drawn/animated in Flash). I tried to do them as fast as possible, and so it only took about 10 seconds to do each one. I wanted to do as many expressions as possible to demonstrate what he'll look like in many situations. Some of them work better than others, of course. I think the ones that work best are where he's running,as the standing still ones don't have as much emotion in them.

The character, himself, will be very fast and crazy, all the while being quite stupid. I think these drawings work quite well, as a result.

Character: Initial 3 Character designs

 The 3 Groups

I have made these initial designs for each group of people in the game. As the game allows for custom made characters, I have designed them based on 3 random characters. From the image above, you'll see an example of: The Scavengers (Left), The Retinue (Middle) and The Cabal (Right). I think they all work individually, but I don't think it's clear that they all belong in the same game and in the same post-apocalyptic world. As you can see, I have redesigned the retinue character slightly, but I still think this design needs more work done to it, in order to make it look more "modern". 

Scavengers

The Retinue

The Cabal

 

Character: Initial Design Idea - Retinue

I have made this design of a character from the Retinue territory and it shows my initial thought behind how they'll look. I have also made an emblem for this territory as they will all their own. 

Retinue Definition: a group of advisers, assistants, or others accompanying an important person.

From the defintion, I have designed a character that resembles a Knight, the obvious reason being is that the character serves a person of importance, like a King or Queen. When designing the emblem, I looked at emblem meanings and so found the meanings of the 3 different icons in the emblem that I designed:

Key: The key is a symbol of knowledge, guardianship and dominion. two key cross is the symbol of St. Peter, the key to the gates of heaven.

Sword: The sword is the symbol of the military honor. It is also a symbol of power and freedom. The sword (especially with flame) is also a symbol of purification.

Tower: The tower is very much like a castle,  it is a emblem of grandeur and of society.It is also a symbol of the defense and an individual fortitude.

I felt that these definitions suited the territory well and so when designing my character I tried to make it suit those meanings and colours. Overall, I think it's quite a good starting point, but there are some things that need fixing, like the colours, the face and the clothing.

Bibliography:

(2015) - Heraldry Symbols and their meanings - http://www.familytreesandcrests.com/heraldry-symbols.htm - (Accessed 19/11/2015)