07/12/2015 - Visual Research 02

Week 13

Visual Research 02

Bugs Bunny

This is a picture of the progression of designs of Bugs Bunny. For this visual research I am going to give an analyses of the different designs of him over the years and discuss why his appearance has changed to what it has today in relation to his newer audience. 

I do not own this image:

The most prominent thing in his evolution is that he has become more human like. This could have been a way to make him seem more intelligent by the writers since in his later cartoons he became known for out smarting hunters and other such threats. This more up right posture seems to put him on a level playing ground with the human characters he shares a screen with. Another thing that has changed is his cheeks, the first three on the left have minimal cheek definition where as the four on the right have bushy white cheeks which make them more appealing because it resembles the cats and dogs we live with. 

His feet have also gotten quite a bit larger from his first design to his last. I believe that this is a reflection of the standards of children programmes today where the characters have to be friendly looking characters. I have not watched the TV show that the latest Bugs Bunny is in but I would assume that Bugs Bunny has a less wise-cracker personality and a more friendly one. 

Over the decades it appears that Bugs Bunny has become more intelligent and sophisticated from his earlier days of the more mischievous Bugs Bunny.

In terms of my own project, I will actually need to consider the size of the characters feet rather than just making them proportionate to their body. I am not going to draw things to realistic proportions for all my characters so thinking about that now is helping reinforce the fact.

30/11/2015 - Character Design Process Update

Week 13

Character design Process refinement 

Update:

1 - Research Characters

2 -Moodboard every aspect I can think of

3 - Sketch from Moodboards

4 - Initial Sketches of characters

5 - Character refinements

6 - Colour studies

7 - Pose sheets

8 - Final character sheet

This is a quick update of my project so far. The start of next semester will begin with initial sketches of my characters and things will begin to pick up pace.

23/11/2015 - Presentation 2 Feedback

Week 12

Presentation 2 Feedback

Today I presented my pecha kucha style presentation to the class and the lecturers, following are my notes from my feedback.

Regarding my planned post about the character design/development of Bugs Bunny, I should look into how the time period of each of his iterations of designs have had influence on how he was designed. This can be clearly evident if you imagine the style of early animations like Felix the cat and Daffy Duck. There is a clear visual style of character back then.

The other feedback I received is to do more with my sketchbook work, it has been recommended to me to work in colour and tone into my initial ideas, This was given in relation to my moodboard studies, so I will take this on board with my initial sketches of ideas in semester 2. My normal approach would have been to do my initial sketches but now I will incorporate colour and tone into them to bring them off the paper more. I think I will also play about with doing some in Photoshop to see if my results are any better.

A suggestion from one of the lecturers was to perhaps try out a more parallel work flow instead of my more sequential work flow. By sequential work flow, I mean I work doing all the research and only after all that, I get onto the idea generation. Its a process I have been taught throughout college before I came to University. By parallel, the lecturer means that I could begin drawing some character ideas and after I have done a few I could then go back and do some research to help inform my ideas up to that point. In terms of how that will effect my project work flow, I will continue to do the research I have planned for the end of this semester but I wont be too restrained at the beginning of semester 2, even if there is still some research I feel I could do.

That's all my feedback for this presentation, it has given me a lot to think about and a lot to add to my project. 

23/11/2015 - Final Moodboard Studies

Week 12

Final Moodboard Studies

Below are all my sketchbook pages for this project so far, they are all studies based on my moodboards.

"Hunger"

The following two moodboard studies for "Hunger".

While drawing from my moodboards, it became apparent just how much muscle is visible with skinny people, and "Hunger", is even thinner so my imagination will be key in how I visualize this character. The bones also pop out more at the knees, elbows and hips the most. 

The ribs are also the most prominent part in all the drawings. They dominate the visuals of the body.

Icarus:

Below are four moodboard studies for Icarus.

Above are some sketches of wings from a wide variety of birds. In the version of "The Fall of Icarus" I have been working from, There is no mention other than, bird, as to what type of feathers were used. I have the option to go with the sensible option of birds who can be found in modern day Crete, or, I have the choice to choose from any bird around the world. So I decided to collect images of bird from around the world to draw inspiration for my wing designs for Icarus. 

These are sketches of built wing designs used on more modern, and some not so modern, flying devices. I will have to combine the free flowing aspect o a birds wing with the structure and technique used to allow humans to fly. Many depictions of Icarus have him with literally the wings of a bird...but even though the tale is myth, there is also an element of crafting involved when his dad builds the the wings. 

This was from my moodboard depicting wings that have been used in various other aspects of digital painting/film. This was an important moodboard for me because this was me looking and observing the way that professionals have created wings from the shapes and feathers to the functionality to them. 

This is the last of my moodboard studies for Icarus. This is based on my moodboard for Greek attire. This is important for my character...because I don't want him to be naked. I will most likely end up using a basic form of clothing for him since Icarus himself is not described as particularly well off, therefore would probably not have fancy clothes.

Kitty Grau:

There are 2 moodboard studies below for Kitty Grau.

This one above is for the outfit of Kitty Grau. I thought about the time that Kitty Grau is set in and I aimed my moodboard towards a medieval farming environment.

Above are sketches of witches from one of my moodbaords. The reason I have done this is because I wanted to draw influence from witches because Kitty Grau is described as being a woman who scares the devil himself and she is particularly unpleasant to look at. I thought witches would be the best source of inspiration for her appearance. 

The Minotaur:

Below are 3 moodboard studies for The Minotaur.

These are sketches from my bull moodboard. I found it extremely useful drawing the bulls, it helped me to better understand the way that the horns come out from under the skin and also the different types of horns there actually are.

These are my sketches from my moodboard exploring cartoon bulls. This was really useful to do because these are other, stylized, ways of depicting a bull. There are also some really nice examples of exaggerated horns which is something that I never really would have thought of without the moodboard and these sketches. 

This last one for The Minotaur is based on my moodboard for depictions of The Minotaur done by professionals. This has helped me to see what has already been done and take inspiration from them but also allow me to try and create something more original by not repeating what has already been done.

The Arch Rogue:

Below are is my moodboard studie for The Arch Rogue. 

This is based on my moodboard of hooded men. The Arch Rogue isn't described with a hood but he is vaguely described in the story. I will explore the side of him wearing a hood as I feel it best fits his description.

That is all my moodboard studies. My next intention is to begin actually sketching some ideas for how the character may look in semester 2.

16/11/2015 - Update

Week 11

Update

It is one week until my presentation for this module, all my time recently has been compiling my slides and planning out what I am going to say. I have done all my sketches based on my moodboards and I will  post them up at the weekend with my thoughts on them.

07/11/2015 - New Moodboard

Week 09

 New Moodboard:

Inspiration:

Inspiration Moodboard

 I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes

This moodboard has been created because I have realised that while I have a good number of moodboards already which I feel cover almost every basis I can think of, I haven't actually created a moodboard for inspiration in general. So that's what this moodboard is all about. These are some character pieces that I have come across online that I find striking and interesting. Some of them have really nice silhouettes and some have poses that compliments their appearance. All this has given me some really good characters to take my inspiration from when designing my own characters. Another thing I need to remember when designing my own characters is that I need to find my own style of sketching. There are some really striking shapes that jump out from this moodboard as well that help to add personality to the characters.

02/11/2015 - Character design Process

Week 09

  Character design Process:

1 - Research Characters

2 -Moodboard every aspect I can think of

3 - Sketch from Moodboards

4 - Initial Sketches of characters

5 - Character refinements

6 - Colour studies

7 - Pose sheets

8 - Final character sheet

This is my revised character design process, the highlighted (green) stages are the ones I have completed so far, I am currently in the course of doing the 3rd stage. I have been on this stage for a few weeks now with slow progress but I believe I started with a lot of work and such slow progress in recent weeks is almost to be expected. By next week I will have all my sketches based of my moodboards and then I will be ready to begin stage 4, Initial sketches of characters.

02/11/2015 - Critique Exercise

Week 09

Critique Excercise

Bruce Nauman: Swastika/Prayer Wheel, 1986

Critique:

The piece of work I am going to critique for this module is called, “Swastika/Prayer Wheel” created in 1986 by Bruce Nauman. There is actually very little information about this piece of work, it seems that Bruce Nauman is more celebrated for his neon and sculpture works. So it’s quite difficult for me to establish the context that this piece was made in and where Bruce was in his life in 1986. The use of skin colour has the result of there not being any real dark areas within this piece. The line work is sketchy but still conveys the shapes and size of the arms with outlines, they are still representational of human proportions, thus, having a naturalistic form. This work was created using water colour and pencils on paper. The piece is representative of Hindu believes, although, the fact the arms are giving the middle finger suggests a care free nature to this and could symbolize Bruce saying, “It doesn’t matter what religion someone is.” This could be further backed up with the concept of using a Hindu version of the swastika which is the opposite of the Nazi swastika, and they were against every religion except their own. That makes this piece even more powerful.

There is a repetition of arms going in the same direction, this creates a nice balance to the piece and makes for a nice composition. The work has been built up using a skin colour for the arms but he has left the center white to convey light which is interesting, that means instead of using white to add light he has literally planned it out so he leave the lightest areas blank add a great contrast to the overall value. There is a good unity to this piece, the four arms emerge from the middle of the canvas and all uniformly bend in the same direction to split up the canvas into even, empty spaces. The main theme here is the attitude towards those who don’t accept another’s religious beliefs. This is done through the middle finger extending from this Hindu swastika. There is a rhythm with the scale as well, all the arms are close in scale and proportions, like a pattern of arms that could be repeated for eternity. Not only do the arms follow the same path, they also have a repeated interval between each other which further adds to the repeating pattern.

This piece makes me feel calm and frustrated at the same time because of the fact that the message I have taken from it shouldn’t be a problem at all and yet it is. The quality of this piece is a mature one, there is an adult theme and it is represented in an honest and truthful way.

I would say that this piece is a success, the theme is the strongest part of this, the most striking part is the four arms in a swastika while doing the middle finger, this alone made me want to question the meaning behind it. This piece is a statement against those who are racist. Its saying that it doesn’t matter what someone’s religion is. Good criteria for other people to judge this work is on the theme, the balance of the piece, pattern and lastly harmony, particularly of the four arms moving in unison around the same pivot point. This piece is post-modern in the sense that someone else could see this piece and come away with a totally different interpretation. 

26/10/2015 - Visual Research 01

Week 08

Visual Research 01

Shrek

This is a picture of Shrek on the right and a picture of one of his early concepts on the right. For this visual research I am going to give my own analyses of the two and why perhaps the Shrek on the left was the better decision and why Dreamworks may have adapted the one of the right to the one on the left. The intention here is to give me a greater awareness of the design thought process behind some of the most well known animated characters around.

DreamWorks/Barry Jackson for DreamWorks

My Analyses:

When it comes to first impressions, the Shrek on the right (who shall be named "Shrek 02") has a more dimwitted  personality, he appears to be more relaxed and welcoming, even his pose plays a a part in his first impressions. Shrek 01 on the other hand appears more cunning and clever. His posture also hints that he has a devious plan. First impressions is something I really need to think about in my own character designs and some feedback I received from a lecturer was that I could aim for some nice final sketches of my characters in poses relating to their personality. This is where the first impressions come in, later in this project I will do some sort of visual research analyzing poses of character in different mediums.

One of the most notable differences between the two is their colour, While Shrek 01 is a brighter hue of green, Shrek 02 is a darker shade of green. Shrek 02 could perhaps be perceived as a more realistic green for an ogre but for a family animation it is perhaps too realistic which is why I think they changed his shade of green to brighter, to resemble the lighter side of the animation and make Shrek more friendly and appealing whilst (thanks to his build) remaining threatening at times. I haven't planned on doing coloured pieces for my final characters although I think I should at least take them into Photoshop and apply a basic set of colours for each character because in the animation/games process, colour would be done in the character development stage so the people further down the pipeline doing the 3D modelling have textures to go on.

Shrek 01 has a bigger frame than Shrek 02, based on the story I would say that Shrek 01's build suits the story line better as he has to be the mean ogre at the beginning. Shrek 02 really doesn't feel threatening and his design would have made the story a lot different. This moves me onto the shape of his head, the shape of Shrek 02's skull is like a cone, this could be implying that he has a small brain and that he is not a particularly smart character. On the other side of things, Shrek 01 has a more rounded, full skull which could be interpreted as a sign of intelligence. Both of their skulls appear to fit with their posture and their intended personality. This aspect of analyzing is good for my  own project as I hadn't really thought about skull shape before and without this visual research I probably would not have considered it a character feature and all my characters would have ended up with generic skull shapes. Now though, I will definitely explore different skull shapes for each of my characters where possible.

One last thing left to analyse is their attire. The clothes of Shrek 02 make him appear more relaxed and at home, he looks as if he is on holiday in Spain with his sandals and cloth going around his waist. Again, he has the appearance of a care free ogre who is relaxed and happy. On the other side of things, Shrek 01 seems to have a far more formal set of clothes, I'm not saying he is in the ogre equivalent of a suit and tie, but, his attire looks more like someone who is going out for a days work cutting down trees, where as Shrek 02 looks as if he is staying at home all day. This drastic change of attire from Shrek 02 to Shrek 01 could have been implemented because the first Shrek film has lots of adventures and Shrek 01 looks more equipped to go out on this adventure. The attire of my characters is going to be an important aspect of their personality and it is something I will need get right in order to convey the personality intended on my part.

Overall, I can see the clear differences behind the two Shrek's and some aspects I need to keep in mind when designing my character's is skull shape, colours and attire.

19/10/2015 - Extra Moodboard

Week 07

Extra Moodboard

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This moodboard started when I perchance came upon the image in the bottom left and I saved it out and wanted to put it in a blog post but I was unsure if the one image merited its own post, but after someone mentioned the aye-aye to me and how it could influence "Hunger" I have gathered more images that relate to "Hunger". I looked at Transparent animals as well for "Hunger" as she is somewhat described as being transparent. 

In the coming week I will get some visual research done for this blog.

19/10/2015 - Feedback Week

Week 07

Feedback Week

I have not received any direct feedback in today's class but we, as a class, gave our thoughts on the presentation experience to the lecturers. During this session one of the lecturers mentioned "visual research", this is something I have recently been doing for another module but had never thought about doing for this module until today. Possible visual research I can do is taking some highly regarded characters and analyze what makes them so appealing compared to their personality. I could look for some early concepts of characters as well and compare the early concepts to the finished designs and analyze why they might have changed the characters appearance and what the differences are between them and the difference in personalities. 

Along with my continued sketches from my moodboards I will also be doing some character analysis that will inform my own designs.

19/10/2015 - Visual Statement

Week 07

Visual Statement

One of the key components required for my presentation was a visual statement, this is a sentence with two or three key components that sums up my project. 

To show future employers that I can develop someone else’s characters I will - visualize characters from short stories - to improve my sketchbook work and improve my character development. 

This reason I have chosen 5 short stories (rather than create my own world of which to visualize the characters) is because if I am tasked with doing character development in the future it will be more likely that I will be developing the character of a team leader or company. 

15/10/2015 - Initial Sketches 02

Week 06

Initial Sketches 02

The Arch Rogue - Initial Sketches

 It has been a while in terms of getting work done because the past week has be focused more towards getting the presentation done, but now that's out the way, I can hopefully continue with my initial sketches. 

The Arch Rogue: 01

These are my initial sketches for The Arch Rogue, again, using the moodboard I did for him as a foundation of which to sketch from to get me going in the right path for my own designs. 

12/10/2015 - Presentation 01 - Pecha Kucha

Week 06

Presentation 01 - Pecha Kucha

Feedback

Today I presented my presentation to the class and the lecturers. My feedback from the lecturer's was that he recommends I fully form my characters. This could be what the characters would look like sitting down, but also what they might look like in the winter or the summer. Basically, I should try and place the characters in different scenarios to interpret the way the character would look in that given scenario. 

Research Character Development Process

http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/character-design.html (Pixar, 2015)

http://www.creativebloq.com/character-design/tips-5132643 

The websites above have provided me with several key tips for the character development process.

One aspect that I have picked up from the links above is line quality. I can add personality simply by changing the line type I use. So for example, for The Minotaur I could use quick, sketchy lines to indicate an uneasiness about him and the opposite, I could use more flowing, continuous lines for Icarus to emphasis the motion of flight. For "Hunger" I think using a combination of thick and thin lines with squiggly, uneven line work would fit best to create a sense of horror and creepiness with her. For Kitta Grau I would maybe use again, the more squiggly line which could aid me in creating an ugly, grotesque woman who scares the devil. And lastly, The Arch Rogue I could possibly approach him from the angle of using light sketchy lines to imply his quick and deceitful ways or I could use dark, scratchy lines to imply the danger that follows him. This aspect of course is something that I could easily experiment with later in my pipeline and is something I definitely will add to my pipeline for this project.

      So Far my pipeline for this project is as follows:

• Gather Backstory

• Moodboard every aspect I can think of

• Sketch from Moodboards

• Inittial Sketches of characters

• Character refinements

• Pose sheets

• Final character sheets

04/10/2015 - Initial Sketches

Week 04

Initial Sketches

The Minotaur: Initial Research

The Minotaur: 01

 

 These are my initial research sketch's for The Minotaur,  all I have done is sketch the images from my moodboard. I feel this should be an important part of my process because it helps me to properly analyze the properties of the bulls themselves. I will do this for all my characters and after that I will move onto the initial sketches for my actual characters. Doing these two sketchbook pages has helped me to understand how the horns of a bull relate to the skull and where the ears sit in relation to the horns.

The Minotaur: 02

This is another page of bull sketches from my moodboards. This was from the bull moodboard of bulls from cartoons and has helped me to see how other people have interpreted the form of the bull.

28/09/2015 - Moodboards

Week 04

Moodboards

Icarus Moodboards

Icarus:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodboard consisting of various depictions of Icarus. I thought about straying away from looking at other depictions of him but realised that I need to know whats out there and what has already be done so I can try and improve on it and not directly copy it either.

Built Wings:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

I thought it would be helpful to look at how inventors have physically built wing like flying devices since Icarus' father built theirs.

Bird Wings:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is literally a moodboard of a lot of types of birds. I have noticed that there are a wide range of shapes when it comes to wings. In The book, it does not directly say which feathers Daedalus used (probably that of a gulls) so I have tried to explore the more interesting shapes. In the book, Daedalus bends the wing structure he makes back a little bit to resemble that of a birds wings. That is where this moodboard comes in.

Wings in other mediums:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is just a moodboard for wings (on things other than birds) created in a different context than that of Icarus. A lot of them seem to be very angelic, There are however some really nice shapes in here Which could come in useful possible exaggeration in my own character designs. 

Greek Attire:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodboard for Greek attire. This is simply for the clothes of Icarus as he wont be naked, unfortunately. There was a style I imagined in my head when first reading "The Fall of Icarus" (Ovid) but for development purposes I have included a variety of styles to draw inspiration from. 

The Minotaur Moodboards:

The Minotaur:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodboard for The Minotaur. Here are a wide variety of  The Minotaur's many depictions in several platforms. There are some more traditional depictions with a bull like man wielding an axe who has big muscles and big horns, but then there are more original ones with a proper hybrid of human and bull. The image top centre is a perfect example of this hybrid because he almost looks like a hairless bull which is really disturbing. 

Bulls in other mediums:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is  a moodboard of cartoon bulls. This moodboard I will use for sketching from to get to grips with the proportions of a bull, I will use this moodboard equally with the moodbaord below to use as reference for this purpose. They also show a range of different styles used to depict bulls. 

Real bulls:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodboard for real life bulls, I will use this as reference to draw the bull part of my depiction of The Minotaur. I've noticed most horns tend to go in the same direction but there are subtle differences between the Spanish bulls and the Highland bulls, although I'm reasonably confident that they didn't have Highland bulls in Crete...but The Minotaur is a hybrid, so thus, the rules change. So I wont restrict myself to only more traditional bulls.

"Hunger" Moodboard:

Skinny representations in other mediums:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodbaord of skinny/malnourished people. This sort of moodbaord is essential for "Hunger" as she is described as such. Here I have a number of different images from different mediums. They help me to visualise the body structure underneath the skin since I'm not used to seeing the human body in such a way.

Skinny women:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodboard of skinny women. I tried to focus this one on women since "Hunger" is a woman and the female structure is different than that of a mans. I will be using this moodboard to get the frame correct while using the next moodboard to help me get the organs in the correct place...if I decide to place them in the conventional places.

Organ Diagrams:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is simply a moodboard to help me place the organs for "Hunger".

Kitta Grau Moodboard:

Witches:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This is a moodboard of witches for Kitta Grau, the strongest image I had when reading her story was that of a witch looking woman. I'm not saying she is a witch, but they are known for not looking particularly nice and neither is Kitta Grau as described in the fairytale. 

Old Medieval Women/Paintings:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This moodboard is to help influence the clothes of Kitta Grau. My initial vision for Kitta Grau is an old woman with a medieval style.

The Arch Rogue Moodboard:

Hooded Men:

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

This moodboard is for The Arch Rogue. I only have one for him but there really isn't much to go on for his appearance other than he is tall, stout and dark whiskered. I have only portrayed him in a hood in my mind while reading the fairy tale because of his cunning ways. I will explore him with out a hood of course as well.