Developed and Final Dragon Design

Sophie has put together some developed designs for my dragon, along with some expressions and a final design. She's done a great job in capturing what I had in mind and portraying his expressions. As mentioned before, we bounced back ideas and whilst Sophie was drawing I tried producing a quick sculpt using 123D Sculpt, a piece of free software that allows you to sculpt organic shapes and objects on the iPad. This allowed both of us to get a better idea of how the head would look like in 3D as we had some trouble trying to figure it out, and if it would indeed work how we would have wanted. Fig. 1-2 shows the first sculpt I did which seemed very generic in terms of a dragon, I wanted a more rounded face to give it that soft appeal. Sophie was drawing up more rounded designs as seen below, but just to make sure it would work I did a really quick test keeping the face as spherical as possible (Fig. 3-4). It seemed as if it could work out quite well, the eyes would just need repositioning.

Once we settled on the design that was right, Sophie went on to producing a final design along with different details and colours. Out of the initial four that she gave me, A-D, I chose the one with my favourite details and she produced E. This version was also a blend of colours of B and D. I decided against a green or orange dragon due to my animation be set within a forest, I felt that the dragon may get lost within that. He is the main character and focus of this animation so he needs to stand out from the background. I'm really happy with all of the designs produced and I think the final design really captures the essence of my character.

                                         Fig. 1                                                   Fig. 2

                                         Fig. 3                                                   Fig.4

Initial Dragon Designs

After compiling some moodboards, I started on drawing up some initial ideas for my dragon. These were some quick sketches taking some aspects that I liked from my moodboards. Using these designs as a rough guide, Sophie Linney will be designing my final character in colour, along with a T-pose in order to help when modelling. We've both sat down and talked about what I wanted in my dragon and what would be possible when modelling. Seeing what Sophie was drawing and being able to give feedback right there and then proved very useful and we were able to settle on a design fairly quickly. All these designs have been roughly based on a circle, having smooth lines rather than harsh ones to make it more appealing. As mentioned before, proportion will play a big part in getting across the fact that he is a young dragon. The small wings are a key factor in the dragon's design as the whole point of the story is him not being able to fly, and it will also add appeal in terms of cuteness.

Moustache Man

After writing up a couple of character sheets the next stage is to produce some drawings that are based off these. I want to improve my drawing skills a bit more so I wanted to contribute to the concept part of the brief. I had a rough idea of how the boss man should look so I started sketching out a few ideas, concentrating more on face shapes as his moustache is the main focal point. I tired out a range of different shapes to see what would best compliment his overgrown facial hair. Passing it on to the rest of my group for feedback I have managed to come up with a possible final idea for his face (it still may need tweaking), but I think I will take it into Maya and block it out to get an idea of volume and how it will be in a 3D space.

We have also decided on his body shape being almost like an upside down triangle, he is very well built on top but has short legs which can give him an almost comical look as you would expect him to be quite tall in comparison. Below the drawings you can see a quick model of this character in I did in Maya. At the moment it is just in smooth preview, it may not be this smooth when it comes to making the final one as it would bump up the polygon count quite a bit. His hair and facial hair may need to be modeled separately but I will have to find this out, at the moment I have just extruded out specific faces to create them. I will pass these on to Lija so she can get a better idea of proportion and how he will look from different perspectives.

Character Sheets

To get a better idea of what our characters might look like we have wrote up some character sheets. By doing this it outlines what we are designing to and get a better idea of their personality. Their personality will influence the way they act which will determine the animation. These character sheets are still subject to change as this was just the first draft, it may come to a point where things need to be added onto this sheet or even replaced.

From these character sheets we will then take reference videos for how each character will walk and act and this will help not only with research but animation too.

Our characters are stark contrasts from each other, the girl being very tall and slender yet clumsy whereas the man is very short and stocky and disciplined. We wanted to play with their height and proportions in relation to each other as this would create a more comical look which would fit well with the overall cinematic story.

Carter Goodrich

Carter Goodrich started off his career as an illustrator, and from that he moved on to work on films such as Finding Nemo, Shrek, Sinbad and Despicable Me. When I look at his work I can see straight away it is far more traditional in the use of pencil and tone, rather than markers or any digitally produced work.

Just looking at the shape of the body, you can tell that this character is strong and holds a lot of power. Even without any details on the character I think you would still get this impression. A character should have a striking and noticeable silhouette - in a game, from just a character's silhouette, you should be able to tell who they are or at very least whether they are hero or villain. All the well known characters in our lifetime how very distinguishable silhouettes. No two are alike and just from the shape you instantly know which character they are.

When looking at his other work such as the likes of Finding Nemo it looks as if this is much more in the first stages of character design. The characters themselves are not as finalised as the ones from Despicable Me. The final characters in Finding Nemo are much different to the drawings he has produced. Character design can be a collaboration between people, without feedback from others you cannot achieve to produce the most effective character.

Jay Shuster

When looking at character design it is not a simple process. A lot of time and effort goes into creating just one character, developing certain aspects of it for it to achieve the right standard. There is no use in creating a character just for the sake of it, their overall appearance should reflect the characters personality or motivation in some way.

Jay Shuster worked on Cars and as you can see above it shows the process of how he incorporates a cows characteristics into a tractor. In the film itself, it is straight away distinguishable that it is meant to be representing a cow - not just because of the way it is animated, but of its aesthetic look. It has the same basic structure of a cows head and Shuster has just adapted certain parts of the tractor to look like the features of the cow. If you base a character on a real thing and you want it to be noticeable then you need to make it look like it in some way. But you can't stop there, once you have the basic idea it needs to be pushed and developed. Without development you cannot see what will work and what won't. It is better to have several ideas and evaluate and possibly combine them, rather than just sticking with the one idea.

Character design needs development, and the drawings above show this is great detail. Without showing how the character is going to move, how will the animators know what to animate and how. For Wall-e the way he moves is far more characterised than other robots, he has his own personality - this comes through in the movements he does. Yes an animator can elaborate on movements and gestures, however it all must start with the character designer.

I find it really impressive the work any character designer comes up with. I know now that through looking at Jay Shuster I will definitely need to expand on the developmental work for any character I produce. I want to be able to produce a solid character that has a good back story and personality however I find that I have trouble in drawing out my ideas and coming to a design which is what I envisioned. I will try to improve on this by looking at other character designers work and see how they are able to produce their characters and what, if any was their thought process behind it.

Design in Animation

Design always comes before the actual animation process. Using traditional drawing techniques you create characters, props, environment, colour, compositions, lighting and storyboards. Everything needs to be planned out and you have to know every detail before you go through the animation process, without this your animation may not be up to its full potential.

Character Design Tips:

• Research and evaluate - reference is key, look at why certain characters are really successful and why others are not. Break down the character and pick out the main characteristics.
• Design and plan - where and in what format will the character be seen? there is no point in creating something really detailed for it only to be placed on a small mobile phone screen.
• Who is it aimed at? - think about the target audience, make the character age appropriate.
• Visual impact - the character needs to stand out from everything that is out there these days. The character needs to be strong and interesting, something that will grab the audiences attention.
• Line qualities and style  - lines can convey different meanings on a character. Soft smooth lines, the character will be more approachable, where as rough jagged lines might show that the character is uneasy and not as friendly.
• Exaggerated characteristics - can emphasise certain characteristics of your character. Exaggeration defines features of your character which will make them more recoginisable to the audience.
• Colour - colour is really important, it can help communicate the personality of the character. Dark colours such as purples, black and greys can portray villains; whereas light colours such as whites, yellows, blues and pinks show good and purity. 
• Adding accessories - props and accessories help to emphasise character traits and their background. They will add to the character, however the character should still be distinguishable even without the accessories.
• The third dimension - if your character is going to exist in a 3D world, you need to figure out and make sure you know how they are going to look from all angles. Height, weight and physical shape is all important.
• Conveying personality - personality can be shown by the way the character has been drawn. The personality needs to be interesting, looks alone will not necessarily make a good character.
• Express yourself - expressions play a big part in showing how the character convey their emotions. It will depend on their personality but they could be wildly exaggerated or even muted and shy.
• Goals and dreams - the character needs a specific goal or dream. It's that, that will give them their drive in personality and this will also produce a more dramatic storyline for your character.
• Building back stories - back stories are very important, without these you will know nothing about the character. Where do they come from, any certain events that took place to change them in anyway, why do they have that specific goal or dream. All these will make your character more believable and help back up the solidity of them.
• Quick on the draw - don't be afraid to experiment. This one does go against a lot of the previous tips however it can be good to just let go and drawing anything. From there you can then develop the character more in a specific way.
• Hone, plan and polish - some people prefer to be more structured and give more thought to the character. Have everything planned out, how they speak, act, even walk as well as having the artwork to go with it.
• Drawn in mud - no matter what medium you produce your character in, they should always look the same, they should still have the same appeal.
• Real world drawing - allow real world things to be incorporated into your drawings, they may be able to add to your character in some way.
• Release the beast - always get feedback for your work. Ask what is good about your character, if anything can be improved. Try asking your specific target audience as they are the ones you are directing your character/animation at. Without feedback you cannot improve and you may be missing something vital or have over complicated a certain factor.
• Beyond the character - the environment in which your character lives needs to fit in with themselves and what they do. Having an environment that is completely irrelevant will take away the believability of the character. The character, its back story and the environment have to all work together.
• Fine tuning a figure - break down your character and examine each feature, question it, especially facial features. If something does not fit or isn't exact people will not be able to relate or interact with them. It's all about believability. 

I find these tips really helpful, even though I knew a few of them already they help emphasise the importance of them. I think when it comes to designing my characters in future I will try and go by this list making sure it achieves each section.