Mustang modelling almost done...almost...

Life drawing

After having Jono look over my work he pointed out that many of my drawn "male" character's anatomy is slightly off and that I should revisit life drawing. After going back there it has improved my drawings already so I intend to do a little everyday.

SIdekick revisited

After talking to Justin I realised my sidekick character does indeed need a mouth as it is needed to show emotions.

as well as adding patterns onto Yggi so he doesn't look completely like a Pokemon.
I also liked the ideas of making him into a slightly elemental dragon still based of off Jormungandr he resides at the bottom of the sea, so Yggi in turn has a watery tail.

Character Design Lesson

Today we learnt how to use gravity properly on character clothes and how to make the characters look unique when in silhouetted form, which in the long run will improve the way characters look when done correctly.

We briefly went over how material would look if held from a certain point and what creases would be made due to gravity and then were given a task to put it in effect.

My more successful attempt at a good silhouette is the female (bottom right)

Trying Cloth folds on a monkey in a B Boy outfit.
(lower picture and top right) Justin showed me how to better utilise more interesting designs in terms of shoulder armour and cloth folding (leg and arm line must always be visible on at least one side of the cloth)

Mini House Sketch Jam

Me and Kayleigh decided to try and take on a different style on our existing characters

(1st is Nikulas 2nd Rafarta and the dog is Yggi)

Villain Silhouette

The first official silhouette I've done since we were first taught how to do it.
I quite like 2 and strange bent back of num, 4.

Mulholland Drive Review

Sidekick: Yggi official Sketches

At the moment I like the idea of having his relaxed sitting self look really pudgy however when he's moving about his weight is shifted else where making him elongated.

Expressions

Official big self and to scale.

Trying faces

While working on our narrative project I realise I am stuck within a certain way of drawing and its hard to draw something so.... caricature.

I decided to just try drawing without much thought and making it as abnormal as possible to help me break out of my personal mould.

Developing Yggi

Kayleigh showed me Neopets as a reference for my sidekick and I think its very helpful, the way the characters are designed and especially their feet will help me considerably with finishing of Yggi.

Yggi Thumbnail Doodles

Moulin Rouge Review

Moulin Rouge

Character Design Lesson

In this lesson we learned how the use of lines help to make the character more expressive and dynamic. Using the body line system for expressing emotion along side facial expressions is one of the key elements to making a character successful.

With the new found information I then tried to put it into effect with my own character.

While doing this I know want to look into how i can make my stick man work better, I feel that what ever is being lost there gets carried out to the fleshed out version as well.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

I didn't stay to watch the movie even though I should of so I watched it at home to make up for it.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

Scream Review

Scream

Yggi / Mögg design ideas

Silhouette of designs for Mögg/Yggi~

I quite like number six, nine and twelve. Six because of the cute pudgy face, nine for elegance, twelve for the flowing-ness.

Important point to remember

Secret agents are not spies.

Nikulas development

After going home and talking with family about my direction with designs for my characters
they showed me that I needed to continue to go back and look at references of Secret Agents and Vikings see what makes them them and put it together.

I fished out my Tekken 6 Concept Art Book and noticed they always had a string of one model for a character with an assortment of clothes, and looking at my sisters Devil may cry Art book, I found they also did the same thing, using one version of clothes then on the other models are just variations.

I've decided to take that approach and I know it is improving the creativity of my overal designs and seeing the process also helps.

When I finished a string of clothes for one character a Sheet of all their outfits will be present.

My first designs before reassessment

This one was closer to a good design

After Reassessment

Orn (not continuing)

originally I was to have three heros and a sidekick and third being Orn, but after speaking to one of my peers they noted that I may not have time to do them all including my villain.

So I did do a draft for Orn who will, one day when there is time, be added to 'Secret Agent Vikings"

Group Blog status update

My group have finally gotten to the character design stage, and we are all drawing a version for whatever character was assigned to us.

A link to our Group Blog: http://centrifugalstudio.blogspot.com/

My sketch ideas for our Dame:

Rafarta White outfit 2

Quick sketch of another possible outfit and gadgets with her characteristics~

Secret Agent stuff

Thinking of a second outfit design for my current characters,namely Rafarta White. I'm inspired to do a "Mush-up of a Viking styled attire with something from Read Or Die's Nancy (who also was agent).

"Read Or Die" Nancy aka MissDeep

Character Design Lessons

Recently we've looked over what shapes are used to create certain characters and on a more advanced note how the shapes can be defined into brush work.

When we began our third lesson I attempted to recreate the joker in the style that the artist had before me, and to do I had to understand what shapes they used.
"Because when you know the shapes you can reproduce that character in that style every time".

We also went over using these techniques on head shapes and body shapes to better grasp variation, and variation is one of things that makes your character memorable~

We moved onto Props (and costume). Our first task was to turn inanimate objects into objects with particular characteristic i.e. evil, hero, sidekick.

I was given a library/study to do, and I found this task rather hard.

After having talked to Justin I was redirected to the basics, circles, triangles and squares and what those shapes actually mean if they were to be put onto an object to give it a certain characteristic/look.

We also had to design props for chosen characters, mine was Pocahontas. After trying to take particular shapes and lines from her outfit and placing them onto a object, I was shown that in order to make a prop look like it belongs to one certain character one has to take almost obvious shapes and almost make the object from that shape, example was the knife made from her body's structure, bold lines, and pointy bits because of her spiky tattoo)

@Alan: Possible animation to watch

I'm not sure if you have heard of Read Or Die, but it is a feature length animation, quite a creative one too.

"A young female agent with a powerful psionic power over paper must stop a plot for world destruction."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368197/

Inspirations and new directions

After to speaking to my classmates Andriana and Kayleigh they've advised I look at "How to train your Dragon" for ideas on props which could later be turned into special gadgets.

The Flinstones were also suggested because the creative way they had modern things i.e. showers/ ovens but they were all done by creatures which looked similar to the machines they were imitating.

Advice was given on how to make Nikulas less... flamboyant.
In which case I should look up typical Vikings create a silhouette from them and place them ontop of Nikulas and see what designs I can make from the silhouettes.

I'll also be able to substitute actual Viking helms (not for all characters however) by implying they are there via spiky shapes on furry coats.

I've also been advised by Kayleigh and Justin to use sharper lines rather than the delicate thin lines I have currently used.

I am very excited to see what I can create from all this~

Object 1:

- Make list of Viking materials: i.e, Stone, metal, cloth

The Spine Tingler:The William Castle Story

The Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story

Useful references: Wickie The Viking

I found a viking cartoon called Wickie the Viking:

Channel Frederator:

I was subscribed to their youtube channel a few years ago and they always showed clips of animations, and other various cartoony things. I have just found their actual site and the work they have on their is very relevant to our current character design project.