Sunday 13 February 2011

Transcription: Erich Zann Character Design Beginning

Between getting the last sound effects and rough voiceovers for the animatic, I decided to begin character design for Erich Zann. Although I did have some influence maps and research done for the character, i decided to quickly gather some more photos, however this time around I applied something I learnt in 1 of the Gnomon Workshop DVDs- Visual Storytelling by Iain Mccaig, artist known for working as a storyboard and concept designer for films such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Peter Pan.
Iain Mccaig gives a lot of importance to research, however to full gather information from your research you should not only take the pictures from any source but also draw from them, so instead of copying, you are learning how specific things work or are made.
So that was exactly what I did, I gather some pictures and then immediately began to draw them in order to understand my research.



Here are the sketches I did for my research on Erich Zann, it shows me research in different areas, bony human structure for Erich Zann body, Satyr and goat-like faces for Zann's face, and also something really important, the pose in which a viol-player plays, this research is really important because it enables me to understand how I can create motion with my character but also to exaggerate his pose when he begins the frenetic playing. More sketches exploring this area will follow. 

Also here is the Influence Map , I have put together with the images I researched. 


Finally, as I was getting excited with drawing I decided to quickly create some silhouettes for Erich Zann possible face. And then took them in photoshop and try to add some information onto them by creating the character's face. This exercise was extremely helpful, as it allowed me to free my imagination, and try different things that if I was consciously creating a character wouldn't be able to do. The following sketches have strengths that I will later apply to my final concept. 

Here is the ones I explored thus far:




Now, is time to get back to the Storyboard and animatic and finally create the 1st draft. Meanwhile , some research will undergo in order to understand how music can be visual expressed in film. 

Keep tuned!!

1 comment:

ivanka k said...

I love the faces they look like they're carved, the bottom one's my favourite ;).