Hi. I started character design and have to work out a character which I will be using all semester to do all steps from turnarounds to a pencil test and then will use this in my flash class as well.
This was on of the sheets I did where I decided to do a mudskipper character.
Love to get feedback as I need to finalize my choices and prepare several different colored items including turnarounds, action sheets and expression sheets by friday.
The character in your second image looks like Richard Williams' drawing of Vincent Price in the "Animator's Survival KIt"! I like the facial features, but the body drawing seems unsure. I think you have to think of some analogy (old man bent double, frolicsome toddler, hungover teenager...) and try to "map" the mudskipper features onto how these people would look and behave if they were mudskippers.
At present the drawing is hovering somewhere between a real mudskipper and the anthropomorphic equivalent, so it lacks conviction. (In my opinion).
J
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
bupaje, I have to state the obvious, muddy mudskipper from the Ren and Stimpy series. Perhaps a synthesis? I like what I see and jahnocli has some valid points.
@jahnocli - thanks for your insightful suggestions. I see what you mean and the 'mapping' idea sounds great. Up until now I'd been trying to anthropomorphisize a real mudskipper. The initial sketches I did included all the correct fins and features and I've been gradually shaving away at them.
@ingie01 - I hate to admit it but I have never watched ren and Stimpie. All the kids at class talk about them but never caught my eye. Someone mentioned the mudskipper character and I looked at him online but didn't like him. I actually drew a mudskipper character a few years back as a coloring sheet for my son and I always liked him. I worked in the pet business for 15 years and have been a fish hobbyist most of my life so I am more familair with fish and tend to favor them in toons. Mudskippers are one of my favorite 'odd fish' and there are a few more I'd like to toonify one day.
Hi ingie01. Yes, I have been doing some more. Here are a few more sketches and I have started coloring. I am not satisfied but the downside with a fast paced school like this is that I don't have much time to finish. I need to hand in the several pages of colored expressions, actions, a full shot with background scenery, 5 point turnaround and mouth shapes by tomorrow. :/ Lucky I love the work or I'd be running for cover.
These are the only ones I happened to have scanned and online - I'm at work. I'll post finished images when I finish the rest tonight ... one other bad thing is to save time I am leaving the black outlines ... would love to refine the shapes and color the lines but by the time I get home after work I'll only have a few hours to finish it all.
Oh, I'll also be doing a short pencil test with this in char dev class and another in my flash class.
Here's my first flash lip sync. Needs more mouth positions but I'm finding I have to be a little more pragmatic or I can't keep up with all the assigments. Love to keep on picking at it until its 'perfect' but not enough time -wish I could quite work and study this stuff full time.
Characters head is weird. Have to do a hand drawn character animation of 30 seconds by friday, then going to do a lip sync the old fashioned way for that same class and then build a maquette ... gonna be a busy but fun couple of weeks.
Bupaje, what's a maquette?
It seems that school is giving you real life experiences with all the pressure of dead lines and such.... Keep it up, you'll be happy you did.
Hi. A maquette is basically a sculpture of a character to help animators visualize, and sometimes it is also used with a 3D digitizer or scanner to convert it in a 3D model.
As for the deadline thing, that's why the say they do it. It is true, it has begun to force me to cut off projects as normally I pick at stuff forever trying for perfection.
