Final Character Designs

To help finalise the finished character designs for the film, I have passed on my previously created designs onto my team-mate Chelsea, who will refine them to a more workable character model. Chelsea's designs for the Orphan and the Old Man are below.

I really liked Chelsea's designs, and had definitely improved upon what I had already created, but they needed some further work before they were ready to be modelled. To help refine the characters, my Tutor, Neil, took the designs and created rough redesigns. These are below.

Chelsea then took these roughs, and cleaned them up, to create the final, finished character designs. These character designs are displayed below. From these designs, I will now be able to go on, and model the two characters in Maya.

Architecture Concepts

Previously, I had only looked at architecture for my film in reference to where it'll feature within the town square set. Now I have that aspect planned out, I have started to look at the features, and aesthetic the buildings will have. The above research collects together different types of buildings found in St.Petersburg. these buildings are similar in style to the look I want for my set, so will act as inspiration to the models used within my environment. 

The above drawings are of various silhouettes of buildings. These silhouettes could inspire the overall shape of the buildings in the square, and incorporate various design motifs. The buildings can be quite stylised, and feature architecture which can be seen as imposing. These silhouettes, and picture research, have inspired the below design ideas. 

Colour Concepts

As I am nearing the end of pre-production, I have began to look at the colours I might use in my film, and applied it to a few concept drawings. The main colour scheme is a mixture of browns, greys, and blues, and all using washed out tones. Although my fellow team mate, Chelsea, has done a lot of colour concept work towards the film, I wanted to create a few myself. As I am the director of the film, this gives me the opportunity to show my teammates the look I desire for the film. 

The below three images are a key influence for the colour scheme I wish to achieve for my film. they are all concept art for "The Little Match Girl", created by Hans Bacher.

Character Turnarounds and Colour Schemes

After my continued research into character design, and the progression of my own designs (previously posted), I have settled on the two designs I am happiest with. The Orphan's and The Old Man's character turnaround are displayed below. Although they are quite similar to the designs I created last year, I think that my understanding of what I have learnt through shape language has influenced these new designs. I have put a better understanding into the silhouette  of the characters, and how they'll look when stood together. As ever, I think that the contrast between the huge Old Man, and the slender Orphan will be effective on screen. My next task with the characters is to now transport these designs into 3D characters in Maya.

As well as creating the character turnarounds for the two characters, I have also created a few possible colour schemes for each character. These designs follow the standard I set when I said I wanted darker, muted, washed out colour scheme for my film. The exception to this is parts of The Orphan's colour scheme, as I felt it would be good for him to have something that would stand out against the rest of the film, and help the audience pick him out within the more frantic parts of the film. This comes in to play through this scarf, which is brighter against the rest of his costume.

Week 7 - Layout

The blow images show a collection of research showing animation layout. Layout is seen as a step up from the storyboarding stage, and is used to plan out a shot within an animated film. These layout drawings can be compiled into a story reel, which acts as a similar tool as an animatic. For a 3D film, the layout is made using basic models to plan where each asset will be within the film, again, similar to an animatic. As such, my 3D animatic that I have made can be seen as a part of the development of layout too, as it clearly shows where each asset of my film will be when needed, and contains the right timings and sound cues that will be in my finished film. My 3D animatic can be found earlier in my blog, and another example of a layout reel (for comparative reasons) can be found at the bottom of the collected research.

Screen shots from a 3D Layout for Disney's "Bolt"

Example of 3D Layout:

Further Character Design Research

Before I complete my finished character designs, I have collected together a few pieces of research to help inspire and inform my work. These designs are relevant to my work for a number of reasons, as some of the designs are similar in style to the look I was going for with my characters. All the designs are interesting, and like any well produced piece of work, I am able to take something away from them. The designs I've collected range from the 1940s right up to the present day. I think what is important to take away from these designs is there use of strong lifework, and their ability to portray the character through the design.

Above: A mood board showing the pieces of relevant and interesting character design work I have collected. 

The above doodle is from "The Art of Up". It goes back to what I learnt in respect to shape language, as it shows the simple shapes that go into creating the complex characters within the film. It is interesting to learn that iconic Pixar characters started out as a simple rectangle or circle.

The below pieces of work are specifically relevant for my two main characters.

The Orphan

*Large head.

*Big, full eyes.

*Smaller body and features.

The Old Man

*Hunched frame.

* Tall, imposing body.

*Long beard obscuring face.

Week 6 - Development of Character Designs

A continuing aspect of my film, is the development of my two characters. After previously trying to redesign these characters using simple shapes, I have built upon them to add more detail, and character. These designs stick truer to how I envision the two characters within my film. These designs still stick to what I learnt within the shape language task, but build upon those principles. As ever, there is still work to be done on these characters, but I feel I am going in the right direction with them, and hopefully achieving the right level to be transferred into Maya.

The Orphan

The Old Man

Continuing with Concept Work

Below is a few pieces of concept work  have created for my film. These pieces are there to show the atmosphere of the piece, rather then being designs that would be followed, and then created in Maya. I have taken a few key moments from my film, and tried to show the look of that current moment, to give my other team mates an idea of what I want from the film. I will add more of these as time goes on.