Retake on Wolf Character Designs

I had an opportunity to speak to Justin today. He gave some really useful advice considering the take on designing. Just how to start and think i different approach to mine. So I managed to pull some new shapes quite quickly. So here is new set of designs for both evil and good wolves.

More at The Wolves Within

WW: Character Development

Having received loads of feedback from both, tutors and classmates I went in to refine some of the more successful examples . Mainly clarifying the construction. I believe by this point It will be clear weather these can be taken further or I should try and come up with some new ideas for wolves' designs.

Design Ideas for The Bad and Good Wolves

Life drawing is really fixing things for me, drawing gets more fluid.
Today I had a chance to sketch out some ideas I had for both of the wolves. These are the sheets of variations in shape and structure ( I left other aspects like surface texture, colouring out of consideration). The main references while creating these, were wolf anatomy, of course, and Native American carvings. Influence of their culture will be even better pronounced when we select particular designs and work on their better resolution.

Well, now its time to ask for your opinion. If you have any preference or comments over any of the wolves, drop a line :]

Also, for more, visit The Wolves Within blog

Wolf Character and Environment idea sketches

I upload some more in-shape sketches of wolf characters and thumbnails for environment.  This is only the very first ideas I tried capturing and serve more as guidelines on which the design would rely.

In my honest opinion, and also from Bob's and Godwins feedback, it seems this can be pushe way much further. The anatomy studies are playing here a lot, but maybe the boldess should instead.

And these fairly vague thumbnails aim to explore directions for environment. However, lots more, for sure, will come.

Character Designs

To see  work I did in past few year on Character Designing please go here  and here

Week 2/10 : Defining Animation in Detail

This week I took some time to revisit and define the character better. In our discussions with Alan, we agreed that bird's model needs to be revisited to make adjustments for animation. Add more expressive body parts ( eyelids, eyebrows, jaw etc.) . as well as the story asks to add other details, such as a lantern in between his hips and chest, a lock and so on.

And the next follows experiments with his jaw :

Then we go underneath the surface. I've gathered Ivan's character profile. This was a note made during this weeks tutorial with Alan. To have a clear map of personality (then go and analyse the animation itself, what is being done atm) which would then drive the animation.

Here you'll find a brief description, main characteristics progression and body language.

As written in my previous posts, story is taking it's better and more defined shape. The idea here  was to present other mish-mash models. They would be presented in the opening sequence, at Ivan's 'birth place'. Suggesting this is a workshop where models like Ivan are made.

My only note is.... maybe these models shouldn't be fully built, but only half way there. Suggesting this is now Ivan's time.
But there you go, a sheet of mish-mash model thumbnails,  meet Buckaloon, Shiball and Spyrer.

As supposed to be done in preproduction, I merged myself with concepts of the animation's world.
Here is the outer environment concept start:

But I somehow didn't feel for this drawing... There were (are) problems. SO I went back to my original drawing, pixie which I'm using as an artwork-inspiration for the environments . The work also defined the colour pallet of use. It was surprising to discover the true tonality and colours withing this work, event to me, the author

So at the moment, I'm drawing a new concept of the shore. It will build on this composition:

Currently I'm solving Ivan's performance issues, and looking in to ways to enshure the animation will be in its fullest potential.
As well as I'm thinking of ways to merge 2d and 3d techniques to make the animation an experience of illustration brought to life.

The Making of Monsters and Aliens

The last post for Character Design Unit, I upload the (soon to be) book pages of The Making of Monsters and Aliens Character Design

Character Design of Aliens and Monsters by Jolanta Jasiulionyte

Fully Textured Characters, Resolved 4 View Turnarounds and Props

I believe the rendering of characters is pretty much finished. Here I post sidekick's and hero's concepts. Villain's finished concept was posted previously.

 I retouched sidekick's shapes to be  relatively clear rather than suggestive as before, also added textures for wings and eyes.

To paint hero took awfully long.. Definitely what I haven't expected.. It was because of his furry texture. I had to resolve  body hair as well as design props which were  intended for him ( I just forgot they were still  missing :/ ) 

That's the shield he carries with him on his back. It says.. . Well I don't know what, I don't speak in that language ( fictional that is). But I believe something epic.. :D

Last week I've posted the turnarounds, but mistakenly thought it's only necessary to do 2 views, so here is the added views for each one of them . 

What’s left is expression sheets, maybe some poses if there’s any brake in-between other two projects we have. I’d like to draw suggestive concepts for the two world environments. I know we have a lecture with Justin about it. But we’ll see...

Character Sheets

Having figured out the basic construction of characters there is a next stage in designing them in full detail from side and front views at least.  General standarts include 3/4 view, front, side and back.

So here it is as follows:
( Character designer J.J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte* )

Additional information sheet follows for the Villain to see the impressions he brings when fully stretched out. 

 

After the two views were finished it was only quick to do shape tests for each character.  

 

Again, had to tweak some of the hero's facal features. But to see the progression of design I upload a sequence of them.

Thanks for watching!

Character Design Refinement

Like two weeks ago, so as the last week's lecture, I’ve got advice and notes on all three characters.  No radical changes needed to be done, since the designs are pretty much in their refinement stage: tweaking proportions, adding details ext. 

So for the hero, again, I had to make some adjustments with his head's structure. Change nose and eye shape, add facial hair. Hopefully it’s working for the better now.

 

 

Sidekick pretty much worked as it is, just needed to add the jaw for more comunicative  facial expressions, and cleaned up the drawing for its clarity.

 

The Villain, as thorough out the whole character design unit, took the longest time to “figure out”. After changing  the head it became “more interesting” than body, also  seemed detached from it, so the advice from Justin was to add some “complexity” to the body.  

 

  

All of the changes were really necessary. Characters can be better understood when seen in relationship to one another.

 

I started working on the texturing. I had basic ideas about it  for each of the design:  hero will be furry, sidekick has a /dry/ thin bat-like skin, but the villain.. (There’s just something with villain’s design all this unit :D ) a great great idea came from Justin, and it was perfect, as soon as he mentioned it I saw fully finished design in my head ( Eurica! ) He said that villain’s design structure suggest he could be mineral-based creature, made of a see-through mineral.. Like.. He’s an evil alien, why not.  

  

I’ve gathered some Visual reference for each character’s texturing ect. Hopefully in next week I’ll be able to work on that more.

Oh, And I discovered I haven't uploaded show's synopsis , forgot :/  But here it is.

Character design lectures 5 and 6

Week 5 was all about getting the lines which construct and dominate in the pose. Depending what pose , what attitude it expresses , the lines vary. The main tip was, to look for balance: if there's a curve to the left ( say in the spine of character) then it means there has to be a curve to the right ( legs would support the figure and try to keep it stable) . So we acted out some scenarios between each other ( like "the doctor tells bad news to the patient and his wife" or  "the house is on fire and he is madly satisfied while she is horrified" and more simplistic poses like shy , confused and heroic)

In week 6 we were introduced with additional information usefull to include to character designs, like the use of hair, hairlines, costumes and uniforms.

Also techniques of how to test if the design is working , one of which include shape test

Baby Dinosaur

For our Studio experience project we needed a concept of toy. The baby-dinosaur is supposedly a first fully mechanized toy in 1950's cute and adorable.

This one soon turns into a threatening 50ft Alien after a meteorite crashes. 

More on Void Canvas .

Character Design Development (continued)

Both Colin White and Justin Wyat gave similar advice regarding character improvements. Apparently hero's and villain's heads had "problems", one looked like clayed onto design and another failed to convey the personality correctly. So having put some thought I came up with some ideas.

I had to make hero more human-like, so the audience could empathize with the character more and recognize him as "the good guy"

And for the villain, quite simply ( and I don't know why I didn't do that from the beginning) I just had to keep the same design logic with the head as with his body - more edgy, sharp triangular shapes.

I'm not quite sure if these are working perfectly, I wouldn't hesitate to change anything if it be more communicative. So I guess I’ll wait for some feedback or a good idea to come.

Other than that, this week’s assignment was to write a dossier for each character, sketching out whatever detail might be important.

And I quite used it. Before drawing test expressions I’d read it so to respond to it when creating expressions. So further follow few examples of that for each character. I didn’t want to rush myself with this, since really, I’m only beginning to get to know my characters, their construction. It does take a while to get your head around their shapes and how they’d change in a particular reaction… I felt my brains swollen…:D