Showreel Research

Looking back on all the work I did, I realized that there was one key aspect of the project that I'd completely forgotten to include during the research part of my project; looking at showreels and picking out the ones that I felt worked the best. This might be a tad out of place, but for the sake of showing that I have done the research, here are a few of the showreels that I was looking at for inspiration:

David Ridges 2d Showreel 2013

Valentina Ventimiglia 2d Showreel 2010

The main problem I had with showreel research is while there were tonnes of good animation reels to pick from, there were almost no character design reels that I liked the look of, bar one. As such I was working off of a pretty loose idea of how to tackle it. I did pick up some ideas on how to tackle it from the reel I did look at, however:

Jo Painter Concept Art/ Design Reel 2013

Hopefully there isn't a problem with this being included here so last minute.

Loadsa Work

This will be the final update before I submit my showreel.
I'm leaving animation out of this because I wanted it to showcase the last few bits of character work I did.

Character Paints

I finally managed to put together a colour scheme that I was happy with, even though I'm not 100% behind it.
I feel like I could still rework Lionel's face heaps more, but as it's closing in on hand-in date, I'm running out of time, so I feel like it would be for the best if I just stuck with it. Besides, this character already has bucketloads of development behind him, so he'll be great as far as showing off how he's changed goes.

The second paint I did was to do with a character idea I recently had about a trickster god with an onyx pyramid for a head. He grants wishes that are based on signing contracts, and always looks for ways to exploit loopholes in those contracts to cause as much chaos as possible.
He's sort of a Neutral Evil character, so I designed him primarily using triangles and hard edges while keeping his design nice and simple, with a bit of softness to it to reflect his neutrality. The reason why I left the sketch next to the paint is because I don't actually like the current colour scheme I have for him, or the way I painted him. Then again that might because the paint is unfinished, but oh well. I'm rarely happy with everything I produce that isn't a rough sketch.

Progress Update

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted here. I took a break and then completely forgot that I had to upload all the work that I'd done before that break.

All of it's animation related, though. The character paints aren't finished yet because I'm struggling to get the colours to look right.
They should be done soon, but for now have some walk cycles.

Brisk Walk

Sneak

Character Redesigns: Reworking the detailing and Shape Language

As the title of the post says, there are a few designs I'm not actually that pleased with.
I've made a decision to work into them and polish them up before going any further into their model packets or worrying about character paints and story shots.

Here's the first of the three that I feel need a rework before I can take them any further.

I made his design sharper and more muscular to reflect his violent character, which just wasn't coming across in the previous design. I also added more definition to his facial structure to make it easier for modelers to work with as well as changed his chin shaped to better reflect the sort of character he is.

expression sheet for first character

Expression sheet, go!

As it currently stands I think I only have one or two sheets left to do for this character; body construction and hands. After that the model packet will be pretty much completed and I'll be able to add in the reworks I've been doing.

The rest of the week will probably be spent on walk cycles and thinking about what to do for the other 7 characters (not including the robot. I already know I want to do a pose sheet and possibly a 3d model/ sculpt for that to demonstrate that I actually understand how to use 3d software.)

Pose sheet and Turnaround

Here's a Sheet of Poses and a Turnaround I did for the main model packet I've been working on.
Some of them could be a lo better, but I'm pleased with what I managed to accomplish, so there's that.

I think the only thing I have left to do for him is an expression chart, a body construction sheet and a hand posing sheet, all of which can be done pretty quickly and easily.
If I have time, I'd actually like to go back and do more poses, but I'll wait until after I've done all my character paints before I dive into that swimming pool.

Facial Construction sheet 1

I have no idea if I've gone into too much detail on this, but I wanted to make sure that when I draw this character in the future, all the lines on his head hit the points that they should.

Looking at what I've done, it's a deceptively complicated design considering how simple all the shapes used to construct it were. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's because of how I chose to structure his hair and where I positioned his facial features.

More finalized designs

I'm actually kind of upset that it took me this long to finalize the designs I did. anyway, here are the finished designs for the Fantasy character set. I think I can do one more girl character to add to this set, but I don't actually know where to take that idea, so for now I'll just focus on working with the designs I already have under my belt.

I think I want to work on the shot I said I'd do for Ben's film for the rest of the week, so the next few updates will probably be relating to that.

Finalized designs for 1st character set

I wish I had more to say with this blog update, but I really don't. here's a set of finalized designs that all fall under the huge thematic umbrella which is 'Sci-Fi'.

I want to do way more robots and outfit variations, maybe even a battlesuit or two, but I feel like my showreel would be way too one track if I did that, so the next 4 designs are all going to be based off of fantasy/ sword n' sorcery. I'll also try to go for a very pseudo-Wakfu/ Dark Souls vibe with that design set, not necessarily stylistically, but more in the general nature of the designs themselves, if that makes any sense.

It will be tough.

Now that I've got the designs pretty much figured out, I think it's time to do the legwork.

Fantasy Thumbs

Here's the first page of fantasy thumbs that I came up with along with reference boards for each of the character types I decided to do. I feel like there's more that I can do, so I'll probably do more exploration in the future if and when I find the time -particularly of the rogue and the monk- but until then I at least have something that I can work off.

3D work for Digital Skilling

Here's all the work that I've done on my 3D model.
I tried to keep a certain standard, but as I'm not planning on going into 3D modelling in the future, I felt that it would be counter-productive to do too much, as I'd get so wrapped up in it that I'd forget to do everything else.

Sorry it's all bunched in to one big post, but I didn't want to clutter up a blog that I meant to be for Character Design and Animation with my fisher-price level modelling skills

Sci-Fi Design 01

I took the thumbnail I liked the look of the most and drew it up using the design elements from the Reference Board I posted earlier. The Thumbnail had the most believeable proportions, but also felt the most natural to me, hence why I chose it. If I have any time left over at the end of the week, I think I might go back, pick another thumb and draw up a character based on that.

I feel like I could do a few more expressions to get a better feel of exactly how the character would display more complex emotions, as well as how far his facial muscles could contort before he started to look horribly out of character to the point where it's going off model.

Sci-Fi Refs and Thumbs

This week I decided to get most of -if not all- of my sci-fi character designs done and dusted. The first thing I did was compile a bunch of reference boards from the images I gathered;

Following that I drew up about 5-6 thumbnails using design elements from each board that I felt best suited the theme of 'Colony Slum'; Raggedy, slightly old looking space suits for the first character, and sleek, spacey walkers for the mecha.

I avoided using any Gundams/ Variable Fighters/ Orbital frames as direct reference for the mecha as I decided that their body types were too recognizable and established to have any real variety outside of details and base design. I feel like I could add 1 more tumbnail to the mecha group taking more deign elements from those mecha types, though, as I managed to get a decent amount of variety between the current 5 to warrant going for something safer as an addition

Posing Test

Here's the quick sketch sheet I did for last week's brief.
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do for the character design, but I feel like I managed to nail it with the design I used on this sheet.

I broke the text up into about 6-7 phrases, but decided that it wold be better to shoot higher instead of lower.
The final pose bugs me a bit, but it's only one pose out of 7, and in context I feel it works in expressing the emotion of the phrase just fine.
With this particular sheet I wanted to try and make the poses tell all of the story without relying on help from facial expressions. I'll add in the faces when I refine the poses, though, so you'll be able to see more of what I thought about while listening to the voice track I used.

UPDATE:

Here's the finalized version of the above set of thumbs.
I went back and changed 2 of the poses and decided that it would be more fun and interesting to draw up the character in at least minor detail while adding the expressions.
Looking at the design now, I love how his face came out.

Ghost Turnaround

Following the advice we got about cutting and pasting drawings to complete a turnaround, as well as the redlines from Neil, which were really great at breaking all of our designs down into their essence to re-solidify exactly what made them what they were, I started on a turnaround of the wraith, as I felt that -given the way I'd originally painted it up, it would be really hard to turn into a turnaround.

I was so wrong that I would've made a politically correct, conservative, young-to-middle-aged mother blush;

I hit a few small snags along the way, but after redefining the lineart it was surprisingly easy to pull together.

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Now to get that tar monster finished.

Final Designs for 1st brief

I cannot believe how inspired I was when the clock struck 10.
Something came over me and I suddenly had this urge to completely repaint the wraith design I was working on using a brush I've never even touched before.

It was easily one of the funnest things I've drawn in a while.

Oh, and here's a slight edit to the tar monster.
I gave him a more expressive face, so now he looks a lot more recognisably uncomfortable.
I also messed around with a few layers of colour burn and colour dodge thanks to Sultan's advice.

This was a really productive evening!

Tar Monster Paint

Here's one of the paints that I was working on this afternoon.
It took me a while to get started because I was unsure how to fit together the aspects of the designs that I - and everyone else - seemed to like into it.
The good thing is that I managed to get there in the end.
The bad thing is that my digital painting skills need a lot of work; doing this made me realize how rusty I really am.

It was a pretty good exercise in using photographs for colour reference, though
I kept the image I was using as colour reference in the top left corner so that it was easy to see what I was working off, and I feel like I managed to get the tar to both look - and feel - like tar. My main problem with this picture is to do with the way I rendered the bubbles; My skill at rendering different kinds of reflective surfaces is really bad right now, so I'll probably need to practice that sometime next week.

Now to do the wraith...

More References and Ghost Thumbnails

The next thing I did was look at different ways that ghosts have been designed in modern media. The second monster I wanted to design was going to be one, after all.

Specifically, I wanted to explore the idea of the 'wraith'; one of the more aggressive ghosts often associated with death;

From the research I did, the most common attributes of a wraith are a long, flowing cloak, a cowl covering most -if not all- of the face, only exposing an eye or two, and occasionally the mouth. The colour of the wraith tends to vary very little as well; most are coloured a shade of grey/ blue/ black, with highlights that tend towards red or blue colouration, emphasizing once again the relation of a wraith to the idea of death.

Given that wraiths are so strongly tied to death, I asked myself,"Hey, why don't I explore some designs that people will recognise as somethIng like the Grim Reaper?" 

The following designs kind of stemmed  from there.

I also wanted too try and capture a personality that was sort of mischievous, highly aggressive, quite haughty and bordering on evil. Some of the designs feel much more solidly 'evil' than others, so for the sake of tying them all together, I'll say that this was an attempt at designing a 'bad guy'.

Admittedly, I thought the scythe would be a silly addition, so I didn't try incorporating it in any of the designs. 

Now all I have to do is finalize the design for each monster and paint them up.

In Depth Research and 1st Set of Thumbnails

So I decided that the first thing I wanted to get done was the first set of thumbnails for the Tar Monster.

The first thing I did was gather references for the general design of a tar monster;

The most common traits I could think off was that they tend to be a lot more 'solid' than your standard slime, probably because Tar is naturally much denser. Aside from that, the general shape remained similar across the board: rounded, soft edged and amorphous -to varying degrees.

With these things in mind I started thinking about what sort of character that I'd be creating.

I knew that I wanted to make the monster an introvert, as -being a giant blob of tar- I expected that he wouldn't socialize much, and if he did it would get incredibly awkward very quickly.
I also wanted to make him appear misunderstood; fearsome but not to the point that it becomes scary. Kind of like a gentle giant that's insecure about his size.
Finally, I wanted to make him insecure about the fact that he's made of tar. Admittedly, this is an easier problem to tackle when you start to consider posing, but I tried to reflect it in the designs nonetheless.

I used purple as a base colour as I thought that it would best reflect the idea of tar. I'll go into a bit more detail as to why I made this choice when I get to expanding on this design.

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I decided to expand on 2 of the above designs after talking with Neil about them. The set I've got now feels heaps more comprehensive;

There are about 4 designs here I'd really like to work up, but one of them just seems to speak to me; the one in the far right column on the second row.

I'll start thumbnailing the ghosts before I start fully going into painting that design up, however

Research for First Brief

The first task we were given was to design 2 monsters, going through the full production pipeline in the process. It's a bit out of my element as I'm not going to be used to thumbnailing different versions of what a character could look like before going for the final version -I tend to just draw it straight and only keep the design if I feel it works, if not I just scrap it- but it will definitely be an interesting experience.


To start off with, I thought about what types of monster I wanted to do. Given that I'd expect most people were going to go with something a bit more tangible and solid, I decided to look at some designs that were more akin to my favoured style of drawing; things that flow and have a natural sense of dynamism.


As such, I settled on 2 types of monster that I felt would both be fun for me to try and draw and to characterize; a ghost and a slime.

Granted, the slime was something I want to vary a bit in terms of its design, as I feel like I can better represent its character if I make it out of tar;

• Tar is quite dark in colour, so it should reflect a pessimistic personality
• Tar is also thick and gloopy, and has a much denser structure than slime, which is a lot clearer and more aqueous
• Tar is much much more tencious and sticky than slime, and is a lot harder to get rid of while being vastly more toxic in the process. 

You can see that I've pretty much already sussed out the slime's character just by thinking about what material to make him out of.

As for the ghost, I have a /few/ ideas, but I'll need to draw them up first before I can figure out what works best.

Watch this space.