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.