CHARACTER DESIGN

The first problem I’ve found with designing characters for this brief is what context they will be used in. I’m assuming that we will be creating a short at a later date and using these characters. The question is will the short be open to any character design? I think having a story first would make it easier to narrow down the type of character. For example I spent ages mulling over whether or not to go with human characters, or animals/creatures/insects, or even objects. I took a bit of advice that I’d read while researching the subject. The book title is ‘3ds max6 animation > cg filmmaking from concept to completion’, which is more of a guide for using 3ds max. But it does cover concept in great detail, including a section on character design. What I took from that was mostly what to avoid or more accurately, what’s been overdone. This relates more to full-length features though, e.g. robots, aliens, dinosaurs, dragons, spaceships etc. I had started off by sketching some animal and bug ideas. Having already done an animation about animals, and guessing that we won’t be making that many shorts during our remaining time, I more or less decided that I really want to make human characters this time.

 

                                                

                                                 

 

some of the early drawings were designed with primitive shapes in mind, I suppose these shapes put the idea of insects in my mind,

 

 

 

Some of the ideas I had for human characters. I was drawn to the idea of something 'occult' related - maybe involving a defenceless child and a evil adult. I like the idea of doing a Tim Burton style puppet horror, but I'm not sure if that would be feasible considering the facilities it would require.

 

 

 

Drawings for the bug characters I decided on. they are based on research images of parasites and deep sea creatures. I think they will have a timeless quality - unlike human characters whose clothing pigeon holes them to a specific time. They can be portrayed as bugs, aliens or nightmare monsters.

 

 

 

I decided on creating two bug-like characters based on research images of parasites, insects and deep sea creatures. Character 1 (above) will be a small, bad-tempered, mischievous creature, possibly hyper-active and annoying. In contrast Character 2 (below) will be a large, easy going, calm creature that diffuses the chaotic situations caused by Character 1.

 

photos of the maquette of my character1

 

My next post will cover some of the contextual research and the characteristics that I intend to give each character.