We were given the task of looking at characters and how they can all be broken down into simple shapes. This helps with learning about basic forms and character building. Animation is developed further by taking the shapes from 2D to 3D. When looking at characters you can start to see the collection of balls, pyramids, cylinders and cuboids.

To get us started we looked at basic shapes like Circles, squares and triangles to see how they could be transformed into 3D shapes to bring them more depth and character. When I was exploring making my shapes 3D I decided to add faces to them to bring them some more character. I found the curved angles a bit difficult at first, because I was not used to making the curvatures within shapes but I think that the practice was really fun and it did help me to learn a little bit about different poses and how they can bring a character to life.

The next exercise was to design a flour sack by combining the shapes of a cuboid and a sphere together. I tried to work on a variety of different poses, such as squashing it down and having the sack be upside down. I think this worked pretty well but I think with more practice I will be able to vary the poses even further and get a better grasp on form.

The homework task that was set was to pick three of our favourite characters and draw over them to work out the shapes which they’re composed of. I picked three characters who I really like, but I also wanted to pick characters which had interesting shapes which were not humanoid.

I picked Baymax because I thought it would be fun to analyze a character who is made up of very circular shapes. I started with the torso, and noticed how it was a very circular shape for his stomach and then a slightly cuboid shape for the top of his body. The arms have almost a stretched triangle shape to them but the top and bottom has been rounded to keep that very friendly, circular appearance of the character. I tried a couple of different angles to really get to know the shapes and composition.

I picked Pikachu because I thought that it would be interesting to look at the difference between the very rounded shapes of the body and ears, compared to the squared tail. I started with looking at the different shapes which Pikachu was composed of, so I drew out some circles, and rounded triangles. Then I started to trace over the shapes. I started with the torso and found that his shape is very rounded, especially with his rounded face. This makes him look cute and friendly, and even the ears have a rounded form, despite them ending in a point. For the tail, I noticed that the tail looked very flat and 2D so I thought I would try to make it a little more 3D and bring out the shape of the tail. It was interesting to think about how the character has been designed to be cute and cuddly (with the rounded forms), but who is also powerful (represented by the more linear, squared forms).

I picked Ponyo in her fish form because I thought it would be a fun to look at how she is designed with the idea of combining a human form and a fish form. Again, I started by drawing out the basic forms I could see. Then I started the outlines. I noticed that all of the components were very rounded and cute. The body is almost like a rounded cylinder and even the arms which are like triangles are rounded off to keep the cute appearance. I noticed that this was quite similar to Baymax in terms of shape. I tried a few different poses to get used to the idea of building characters using the basic shapes.

 

It was a very interesting activity and I found it a great way to practice looking at form and shape. Creating three dimensional characters has been a problem for me in the past so it was really good to start from the basics and have the process explained in a way that I could understand and practice.