Wednesday 28 November 2012

Narrative and Character: Anecdote Studios: Alan rigging and skinning update 2

"(middle) Mouth and Jaw set to "Eee" expression"

"(middle) mouth and jaw relaxed"
Another small update this time, his arms, legs and head are all rigged and skinned with just the mouth shapes to go. So far, following the tutorial, this is my first attempt in recreating the mouth shape for "Eee". This still needs some retweaking since the mouth shape for "E" has a strange look on his face. Won't be long til he's ready to go!! :D

http://anecdotestudios.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/alan-rigging-and-skinning-update-2.html

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Character Design Project: Class Week 8

Today we've taken on a different approach in our class, we've been put into groups and working in a team we've to create a character design using what we've learnt from the past few weeks for a pitch by the end of the day. Justin gets to be our client and our task is to draw up some character designs for a children's cartoon series, "Jetpack Jones". The cartoon is set in the 1940's style and is set in a action-adventure genre aimed at 11-12 years. Along with Chrissie and Ernesta and Kadeem (who later "went to work for our company instead") we've became "Creation Station" for the day. Not only that we had to work on characters, after experiencing multiple "phone calls and e-mails", changes were made on the characters, storyline, adding in an extra prop and even creating a logo.


I focused on drawing on the main hero, Jetpack Jones who is a space galactic aviator hero who is never far away from his mark 7 pistol and wears a rocket pack. I decided to look at some olden aviator costumes as well as looking at galactic clothing. I imagined Jetpack Jones as a young hero, similar to Flynn Rider. So for his costume, his jacket design is based on a pair of wings, representing flight and his aviator role. I've also added in a scarf that hangs out from his jacket, for a bit of space- galactic style I've added in some arm and leg padding with the trousers slightly flare out at the bottom with the shoes in a space- shoe style. As for his rocket pack, it was also based on the wings idea but spaced-it up, as for the gun it was a simple space galactic design that just came into my head.


Just when we began our pitch, we've came up a character height sheet of the characters in the series. I've also decided to draw all the finalised design on a new page with things that would be most important to the pitch. All went pretty good as all teams had their good and bad points but we've been told that from what happened today is an example of what its like working for a client with sudden changes and pitch.


Monday 26 November 2012

Character Design Project: Dragon sidekick facial expressions


I think I have found my chosen thumbnail!! I've chosen number 3 from my previous sidekick post as my chosen sidekick. I think that with those eyes they would be better at expressing features and with its tiny shape could help make the character line-up interesting. So I've decided to play around with its features and creating some dynamic poses such as in "running" mode, sneezing and my favourite of all, trying to fly as high as it can only to be able to lift off a few inches from the ground. ^_^



Thumbnail 3 chosen as the sidekick

Friday 23 November 2012

Character Design Project: Odin designs 6

Using Justin's feedback, it was decided that thumbnails 6,9 and 12 from the previous post would be combined. So here are some latest thumbnails using those combinations and also I've added some metal armour in as it was noted that the character shouldn't look too reflective. At the minute I am liking numbers 2,3 and 4.



Old designs- numbers 6,9 and 12 were chosen for the newer designs.


Thursday 22 November 2012

Narrative and Character: Anecdote Studios: Alan Rigging progress

Just a small update on the latest rigging process on Alan, done the leg rigging and made changes on the spine rigs.  Also added in some locators and planes as a guide. Not long til he's moving once the rigging and skinning's done!! :D

http://anecdotestudios.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/alan-rigging-progress.html

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Character Design Project: Dragon sidekick thumbs 2

Based on the received feedback, it was decided that the "bunny-eared dragon" silhouette was a good sketch to develop on. Also, using Justin's feedback and what we've learnt yesterday, I've tried to incorporate them all into these thumbnails. I wanted the sidekick to be brave yet a bit small to be of help in the battle kind of character. So far, I am liking numbers 3,5,7(snout change) and number 10.


Tuesday 20 November 2012

Character Design Project: Class Week 7

Today we've began to look at animals and how to create monsters. We've learnt that animals share the same anatomic structure as humans only at times the placement of the arms, hands and feet are slightly different to the humans. This also helps us knowing the anatomy of animals, so to start the day off we've picked an image of an animal and try to shapen out the basic anatomy form of it. I've chosen a lion as a challenge for myself due to the angle its set in and how most of its mane covers the body. I'm quite proud of it even though the reference image had its back legs "cut out" but I've just guessed where they could've been. The shoulders needs some working on as drawn out by Justin. Ive went onto more experimenting with other animals like horse, eagle, rabbit and an otter. I've also inverted the colours in the images to make it a bit easier.





Next, we've been given a terrain and note down as many animals that live in that terrain to come up with a creature that would be adapted to this nature. I've got the jungle and as you can see I've noted as many animals that lives in the jungle on the left. I've decided to go for a predator like creature, therefore combining a tiger, gorilla/ bear and a crocodile. The first thumbnail made for this is shown on the top right, it was noted by Justin that it looked too tiger and that the combination isn't blended in well. I've tried developing it this time, as shown in the middle of the page, changing the shape of the head slightly and made the reptilian scales flow through the body and exaggerated on some parts of the body mainly in the torso area. I enjoyed today's lesson since not only we've get to design creatures but it has also given me some ideas on how to develop my dragon sidekick. ^_^
  


Character Design Project: Dragon sidekick silhouettes


Some dragon silhouette shapes to form the basic body for a sidekick.

Monday 19 November 2012

Character Design Project: Alien enemy facial expressions

Still making a few refinements on my alien enemy, some head crest designs (top left) and the idea of whether to keep a moustache (?) or not. But mainly here are some of its facial expressions that it would use if it were to be animated.


Sunday 18 November 2012

Character Design Project: Dragon thumbnails 8

Starting to get too focused on the other characters and almost forgot this one!! Here I have drawn up some head thumbs and body stance of the hero's sidekick dragon. I went for a slightly baby dragon but tries to help fight off the villain, but would it work? I've also included a thumbnail which is from my unit 1 anatomy project- thumbnail 6 as I remember it looking like a dragon than a zebra hybrid.




Saturday 17 November 2012

Character Design Project: More Villain Enemy Thumbs 7

Based on Justin and TutorPhil's feedback, it was decided to bring back the old body structure with the "cobra" like stance to it but change its body language. It was also noted that a robe should be in place of the legs to give it a more villainous look. So here's more thumbs, the head still needs to be resolved by the number of horns but my favourite so far would be the top two images, one in its villain plotting form and the other is, taking its robe off!! Feedback and comments would be loved and appreciated!! ^_^





Friday 16 November 2012

Narrative and Character: Anecdote Studios: Studio Ident ideas

Some ideas that I came up with about how our studio ident would work.


http://anecdotestudios.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/studio-ident-ideas.html

Thursday 15 November 2012

Character Design Project: Odin thumbnails 5

After speaking to Justin on Tuesday, it was noted that Odin should appear more younger fighting against the old alien enemy, therefore his body structure would be slightly toned down. I've created more thumbnails of him in his younger self and the same set only with a single eye patch on them as I wasn't sure whether or not should he have gone through the event in losing one of his eye. But because its Odin in his younger days and before he was well known and became a God, I think its better that he goes without? I've also stripped out most of the metal armour and replaced them with more fabric clothing because of his status. So far, I like numbers 4 and 9.


Wednesday 14 November 2012

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Character Design Project: Odin, Alien and Dragon thumbnails 4

Coming up with more ideas for the Alien villain based on its new structure. I also thought about the idea of just using the helmet as a face but I found this hard to convey expressions especially with the mouth as it is not connected to the nose area.

Here I've tried to come up ideas for the hero's sidekick Dragon. I've thought about the idea of using the viking designs indented on the dragon's body. 


As for the left image, it is a mixture of the alien enemy and the dragon sidekick in one page! It was noted that the alien villain thumb had a good structure but still needs to be refined as it does not appear to be "evil" enough. I've also played around with various eyes and expressions for the alien.


Character Design Project: Class Week 6

  Today based on last week's lesson, we've focused on the use of silhouettes. The idea of this is to create something interesting using these silhouettes, adding shapes or curves into them. Originally they're to look humanoid but once we've got the grips of this, I've explored other areas too such as focusing in more curves to make the body more flow-like as seen in the second image. From these set, we've to choose a silhouette to focus on and begin to give details.



I've chosen the winged creature from the top left of the second image. First, I've focused on the body shapes before changing the the pose to a full front rather than the side. I've then added some details in before being noted about how the wings should work since I was working on them without any reference (As shown by Justin next to the right wing!). Just for a fun thing, I've played around with the facial expression from serious to its "ha ha funny" face.


Character Design Project: Hero Odin's faces and body thumb 3

Drawing up some ideas for Odin's appeareance and how he would dress. At the minute, he looks a bit too "superhero-ey" so need to change this idea.


Monday 12 November 2012

Character Design Project: More Alien Enemy thumbs

More Alien enemy thumbnails this time only based on Phil's feedback on the posture of the thumbnails, I gave it a go in changing the shoulders and spine to give it a more "dominant enemy" feel. More to come! :D

New updated version: shoulders and spine put back

Before: The old version which didn't look enemy like

Sunday 11 November 2012

Character Design Project: Alien Head sketch

Whilst coming up with thumbnails for the alien design, I came up with this sketch of the alien head, playing around with different brushes on Photoshop. Looks a bit "buggy" but was pretty fun drawing him!!


Character Design Project: Alien body thumbs

Based on my influence maps and on the chosen body structure of the alien, here I have made a few thumbnails of the entire body.


Saturday 10 November 2012

Friday 9 November 2012

Character Design Project: Odin's Armour thumbs 2

After looking at some Viking influences and Durer'd Rhino for metal armour ideas, I came up with a few thumbs for Odin. I've played around different armour parts as well as experimenting with different helmets.