I know my character designs don't fit into a universe together, I wasn't really sure what style to go for so I had a whirl at a few. The script needs to be done but for some reason adobe story keeps crashing my laptop and the storyboard is still in progress.
You beat to it - you're absolutely right re. your character designs - it does seem as if you're dabbling with a variety of approaches. For me, the most successful is your first iteration of your embalmist - he reads as austere and patrician, whereas your other version looks more comedic and less likely to inspire nervousness or transmit authority. That cartoonishness characterises your boy and mouse, so it does feel as if your production design needs to shuffle more towards the first embalmist. I do think, however, you could afford to move it all in this direction more:
Not 'cartoony' but with greater emphasis on exaggeration - so bigger moustaches, sideburns, hats etc. What I like about that first design too is the emphasis on the big white surgical coat as a shape-based component of the character. I think that's key to his design - thinking about that coat as an essential element of his design - and the shape it gives him. You might want to look at the artist Edward Gorey and his 'Gashlycrumb Tinies' as a useful reference for your boy character too - they somehow have the emotional mood of your world:
As already discussed, I do think you should consider a sort of 'lightness of abstraction' in terms of the design and depiction of your various environments - achieving more with less, and embracing more fully that sense of your environments as born from drawing (as opposed to making a secret of the fact). I've shared this example with you before, but just note the fact that this animation background is making no apology for being a drawing, with it's loose lines and imprecision of colouring in. Of course, it's all really controlled and planned, but the appearance it gives is artful and expressionistic. As I said, there are charms to some of your mousetrap thumbnails hat begin to produce similar effects:
You might consider recreating one of these examples for yourself in Photoshop and/or Illustrator, to get a better sense of the techniques so implied before trying to emulate the style in your own world.
You will have already seen no doubt that I've been pushing your classmates towards a more professionalised output in terms of character design - the model sheet. The model sheet really demands that you understand your character as a form in 3D space - something which could be translated into CGI. I'm sharing here some of the example model sheets you will have now seen elsewhere:
I know my character designs don't fit into a universe together, I wasn't really sure what style to go for so I had a whirl at a few. The script needs to be done but for some reason adobe story keeps crashing my laptop and the storyboard is still in progress.
ReplyDeleteOGR 14/02/2017
ReplyDeleteHey Graeme,
You beat to it - you're absolutely right re. your character designs - it does seem as if you're dabbling with a variety of approaches. For me, the most successful is your first iteration of your embalmist - he reads as austere and patrician, whereas your other version looks more comedic and less likely to inspire nervousness or transmit authority. That cartoonishness characterises your boy and mouse, so it does feel as if your production design needs to shuffle more towards the first embalmist. I do think, however, you could afford to move it all in this direction more:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/39/41/7f/39417f9b2fcfc131f9c92e038e4f798a.png
Not 'cartoony' but with greater emphasis on exaggeration - so bigger moustaches, sideburns, hats etc. What I like about that first design too is the emphasis on the big white surgical coat as a shape-based component of the character. I think that's key to his design - thinking about that coat as an essential element of his design - and the shape it gives him. You might want to look at the artist Edward Gorey and his 'Gashlycrumb Tinies' as a useful reference for your boy character too - they somehow have the emotional mood of your world:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/01/19/edward-gorey-the-gashlycrumb-tinies/
As already discussed, I do think you should consider a sort of 'lightness of abstraction' in terms of the design and depiction of your various environments - achieving more with less, and embracing more fully that sense of your environments as born from drawing (as opposed to making a secret of the fact). I've shared this example with you before, but just note the fact that this animation background is making no apology for being a drawing, with it's loose lines and imprecision of colouring in. Of course, it's all really controlled and planned, but the appearance it gives is artful and expressionistic. As I said, there are charms to some of your mousetrap thumbnails hat begin to produce similar effects:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b5/fb/a3/b5fba3e6295a97e693b4f193c1786a32.png
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/60/17/51/6017510409c1022c6b44684106b219fa.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e2/85/a4/e285a4241b2abc087f4a1463176e12ab.jpg
You might consider recreating one of these examples for yourself in Photoshop and/or Illustrator, to get a better sense of the techniques so implied before trying to emulate the style in your own world.
You will have already seen no doubt that I've been pushing your classmates towards a more professionalised output in terms of character design - the model sheet. The model sheet really demands that you understand your character as a form in 3D space - something which could be translated into CGI. I'm sharing here some of the example model sheets you will have now seen elsewhere:
http://www.traditionalanimation.com/wp-content/gallery/winnie-the-pooh/poohmodelsheet1.jpg
http://orig04.deviantart.net/3347/f/2011/072/b/0/brittany___model_sheet_by_s_c-d3bjmfy.png
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ISTQ_WJdnjo/U-kbmI0i4jI/AAAAAAAA4n4/bQ0n6UlEgII/s1600/hercules_001_Nik_Ranieri_+Hades_Expressions_Model_Sheet.png
So, my summary would be to embrace stylisation with more confidence - and with greater precision.