Anatomy Sketches *2

This space has been quiet lately, as I have tried to be a bit away of the overwhelming power of the blogosphere and concentrating on learning and broad my knowledge on different subjects, as part of my summer plan. 

For now, I am just uploading a few anatomy sketches I have done lately. 

Please, Enjoy!

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Anatomy sketches *1

As part of my plan for summer time, I want to get on with drawing a lot more. understand better human proportions and then apply that to my characters for either realism or stylisation. Therefore I began my own set of Anatomy classes, where i will sketch the human body, either as a whole or detailed parts.

Here is the first set of drawings:

Exploring Skull and Neck Structure- Bones and Muscles

Now back to the Maya tutorials.

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Transcription: Size Comparison Chart

My characters are full resolved now and ready to go to the modelling stage, something I'm looking for to do. However, some other things have to be done meanwhile, such as resolving the animatic and the concept art for the environment. This tasks will be done simultaneously with modelling the tasks.

These characters only need to be painted but that i will do once again simultaneously with other task, just before texturing. 

For now, here is the Size Comparison Chart of the 2 characters the viol instrument. 

Now lets get on with the rest!!

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Transcription: Characters Turnaround

With my characters resolved, I wanted to explore the in a 3D view, not only to understand them in different angles but also to use it when beginning modelling them. 

Erich Zann Turnaround

Young Man Turnaround

Alongside getting the front and side views of the character, I have also drew the turnarounds for Erich Zann's instrument, the viol.

Viol Turnaround

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Transcription: Young Man Face Expressions

Having the final design done, I really wanted to explore the personality of the character. By creating a expressions sheet I wanted to see all the emotions which the character will have throughout the animation. Not only, these sheet will help me at late stages when creating the blend-shapes for the character, it is also a process really fun to do, in which for a few hours you are able to embody your character.

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Transcription: Young Man Final Design & Silhouette

As I was happy with the final body design, I posed the character into a more relaxing pose just to see how the design would turn out. The pose also reflects the character a curious young man maybe carrying around all the time a sketchbook to write down things.

Alongside the design is the silhouette, just to see if the character is  recognisable or not.

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Transcription: Young Man Body Development

After choosing the silhouette I was most content with, I began to develop it even further.

Being the character, a student at university impoverished by his life, I want to keep in mind the skinny factor. while Erich Zann's body is the ultimate skinny due is frenetic and stressful life, I wanted the young man to be skinny but to have more mass. 

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Transcription: Young Man Character Silhouettes

With Erich Zann pretty much in its final design stage I wanted to bring the young man to the same level. Indeed. He had his face design however the body was in its initial stages. So I did the process used before, firstly began by sketching out in the Program Alchemy some body shapes silhouettes  which I thought it would belong to the character.

With no hesitation, I felt that the strongest silhouette was no. 4, So I began developing it a bit further!

More to come!

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Transcription: Erich Zann Final Design & Silhouettes

With everything decided for Erich Zann Character I just want to create 2 poses for the character, firstly is when he is walking with his instrument. He is mentioned to be a really lean, small, bent person, so I thought of having the viol to be overpowering him, just like a  burden that he has to carry all the way to scare the strange things that come from his window. My idea is that not only he would be dragging such enormous piece but also, it would use it as a walking stick or at least to support his frail figure.
The second pose is when he is playing, once again I wanted the viol to overpower him, although being a genius, it is the viol who produces the music. I wanted the viol to be big however I didnt want to increase even more the size as it would begin to disconnect with the character.

And the silhouettes: 

The design of the viol, comes firstly from some collages I have done at the beginning of this project. I wanted it to be slightly irregular and curved, as it would  connect with Erich Zann's body shape and become one piece. 

Here are some more sketches to support the design of the viol, as well as other studies I have done when creating the final designs.

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Transcription: Erich Zann Face Expressions

As soon as I redesigned Erich Zann's face, I really want to experiment with different expressions to see how extreme I could push it. So I began to draw a neutral face, skeptical and surprised then drew the negative expressions such as Mad, Angry, and Insane (dead) its final appearance , and then I tried an opposite emotion, Happy. 

I'm happy with the outcome, and I can see that I will be able pull really good expressions with this design. 

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Transcription: Young Man New Face Design

After receiving some feedback from Alan on the previous design, I understood clearly what needed to be changed. In order of having the Young Man character and Erich Zann at the same style, I tweaked the face design of the young man. My intentions were to keep the logic of the character mentioned on the last post, the main points, such as ears and nose and then emphasise those shapes.

So I came up with this design:

The idea was to stylise the character but still keep it with a friendly face.

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Transcription: Erich Zann New Face Design

After looking back at Erich Zann's character I felt it was still looking too realistic, so I decided to exaggerate the face, to create a more stylised character. I felt that the body and the face weren't connecting so I made some last minute changes in its design.

My idea was to create an even frailer character. and even more irregular.

More to come !

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Transcription: Young Man Face Development

With already some ideas floating in my head of how the character would possibly look, I began developing him. With fairly good designs that came out of the Alchemy test, I decided to mix the strengths of each design together and generate the final one.

The young man is a friendly, young and curious chap, who happens to be studying at university. My idea was to create a character that is quite easy going and friendly, being curious and slightly adventurous.
The main points for the character are the ears and nose, to emphasise curiosity and being nosy.

 

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Transcription: Young Man Initial Silhouette Study

The Design for Erich Zann Character is pretty much resolved now just have to create the final one quickly create some face expressions to aid me to create the blend-shapes. So before it gets finished I wanted to bring the young man character to the same stage. 

Firstly, I began by creating a couple of silhouettes in one of my new favourite tools Alchemy, and then began to sculpt the inside. I love this method of approaching character design as it gives you freedom to go any way you want without even thinking about some rules of character design, but the most rewarding thing is the happy accidents that happen along the way, which can generate ideas for the final design. 

For this character y aim was to create a rather friendly and more generic guy, nothing over the top like the old Erich Zann, however he also has the main points of interest.

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Transcription: Erich Zann Character Design Development

So while I am getting animatic sorted I have took some time to begin developing my characters, Erich Zann was the one on the list. 

With previous aid from either Collage or Alchemy silhouettes, I began to explore the character. My main aim with the designs I have been doing is to trick the audience slightly, so for instance, according to the book, Erich Zann is a bent, small, lean person, with blue eyes and satyr -like face. 

My designs despite following that description, I took some artistic licence by emphasising the fragility of the character, for instance, by making frailer, will surprise the audience when the old man gathers strength to play the music he does. 

The main point on this characters are the ears, hands and maybe nose. Firstly, ears and hands because he deals with his insane music that himself plays, and secondly the nose, to emphasise the oldness of the character. 

Here are the the face and body development of the character :

Left is to dress up the character and create the final design in a different pose. Also create some face expressions to aid me when creating them in 3D

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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!!

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Transcription: Experimentation Silhouettes- Collage

Yesterday, I started to create some designs for my characters. The method used was a quite peculiar one, I have used cut-outs of magazines to create the silhouettes, of it could be a possible character. My aim with this exercise was to achieve a good and distinctive silhouette, only dealing with overall shape. Details, form and colour were left out in this early stage of the process.

To be more spontaneous, instead of cutting paper as I was designing the silhouettes, I rather used a different way, firstly I cut a few papers from magazines I found, then put all of them on the table and tried to find shapes that could help me build my character, at a later stage to fit the character i cut some more paper with shapes I couldn't find. I loved the randomness of the process, which allowed me to concentrate only on body shapes and silhouettes

This was the first attempt, while trying to recreate my vision of the character Erich Zahn based on body shapes. I'm particularly happy with the middle silhouette, but I also like some features from the other ones. 

To design the young man character, I found more complicated, as it is not specified how he would look like, however after some more research on the character I think this issue will be sorted. Alongside, the design for the young man, I have also tried to come up with some distorted designs for the viol.

Now the reveal of the original collage and the process used.

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Unit 2.02- Character Design- Prop Displacement Sheets

Firstly, I would like to say that i have not been posting much lately, as I'm quite busy trying to finish the Character Design Project. however< a few post will come in chunks... so keep tuned. 

Enough excuses and let's get down to the point, I have been working on my character design project, and decided to dress my previous characters.  

So before I get focused on detailing all the props I did, what I like to call a "Prop Displacement Sheet", where through A lot of brainstorming I decided which gadgets each of the characters will have, as well as weapons or other accessories.

It is important to note that this is not the definite Sheet, and many thing will change along the way. 

John"Rusty" ( Hero)- Prop Displacement Sheet

For the hero I decided to add the things mentioned on the. Also I tried to design weapons for him, however being the good guy and the hero for all the kids and to not promote violence, my design for the weapons change slightly, so I added some more rounded shapes, a smaller scale, to blend with the hero shape and not stand out the most.

Captain Hidalgo "Bolt" (Villain)- Prop Displacement Sheet

For the villain I also followed my previous descriptions of him on the  Character Profile Sheets, and the clothing, accessories and weapons influence maps. So Captain Hidalgo "Bolt" will have some of the props seen in real pirate Captains, but they will be slightly old, he will have gadgets incorporated in his body, such as the hook. But also the old look will help the silhouette to look sharper. 

"Metal Jaw" Gertie (Sidekick)- Prop Displacement Sheet

For the Sidekick/ Henchman, I used the same Character Profile Sheets, and the clothing, accessories and weapons influence maps, to guide me when placing the props. however many changes were taken. For my final design I have streamlined the body of the sidekick, I have changed slightly the the design of the cannon and took discarded the axe, but those modifications will be seen next time. Finally, as Justin Said, to favour the silhouette try to add some irregularity on the props so they create a more appealing design.

It is all for now, later today, i'm planning to post the updated version of these sheets. 

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