We started off this week by learning the basics of character designs before jumping into creating our own. We learnt about taking inspiration from real life and always using reference. We then learnt of shape design in characters. We learnt that square characters tend to be safe, reliable and strong. Circle characters are childlike, friendly and innocent. Triangles are more often used for villain characters as they tend to be seen as dangerous, evil and scary. For our first class exercise we had to create characters from random blobs we were given. I ended up having to redo mine as I had forgot and left the file on the computer in uni. I also ran into a bit of difficulty as krita wouldn’t let me save any of my files but I have that problem sorted now
I am quite pleased with these as there is a lot of variation in characters and personality types. I like the bottom left as it looks devilish and mischievous. The top right character also seems very snobby and stand offish.
For our next exercise we had to stylise people from real life, using the shape language principle.
We had to stylise Marilyn Monroe using triangles, Frank Sinatra using squares, and Orson Welles using circles. This is my second attempt doing this as I also left this file on the uni computer but I am glad I did as i ended up preferring the new ones.
I feel my Marilyn Monroe is mainly a good stylisation with the hourglass figure, hair and cheekbones all leading into a slim figure with a recognisable silhouette, however I feel there are parts of her face that aren’t that accurate to the real life reference. I would change the position of the eyes and mouth as I think that is what I am unsure about.
I feel the same about my Frank Sinatra design as I feel his cheekbones, nose, and body shape are all accurate to the real Frank Sinatra. I liked the way I made the eyes more square as opposed to the other character designs, and the square smoke helps add more life. I would change the arm as I feel it looks too short for his torso
I am very pleased with how the Orson Welles design turned out as he looks approachable and fun to be around. I like how his beard has lines moving in triangle shapes to create more variation in the otherwise circle shape. His puffed out chest also implies he is strong and confident in what he does. However I would change his hands as I am quite unhappy with them as I felt I could have done more with them.
After class I got to work on designing some characters of my own for the vampire animation. I chose to base my designs off singers I like as I admire their style and they give off vampire vibes. I chose Ville Valo from HIM and Taylor Momsen from The Pretty Reckless, as i felt they would be good to stylise as an exercise. I feel I could have done these a little better as it doesn’t really resemble Taylor Momsen too much but I think I captured Ville’s jaw well.
I then looked at Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails as I felt his nose, jaw and hair would all be quite recognizable when stylized. I am pleased with my outcome on these even if they didn’t end up as designs for anything in the finish. I feel they accurately capture Trent’s look and general vibe.
Overall I really enjoyed this class I had fun brainstorming what each character could be and how I could stylise each persons facial features