Foundation Degree - Summer Project Development

Over the course of the summer in preparation for my initial character design project starting in September I was issued a task sheet from my tutor to stimulate idea generation for the module due to begin when I returned. Once I did return in September most of the work, I created over the summer was reworked and new directions were interjected into the final design outcome. Despite this I wanted share a few of the characters I designed and explored to showcase some of the things I experimented with leading up to my return to study. 

Artist Responses – Rudo Company - http://www.rudocompany.com/work.php

Rudo Company is an animation studio based in Argentina. They have gain

ed significant popularity due to the music video titled “The Wolf” for popular band “Siames”. The style of the music video is one of the reasons that they have gained the popularity they have as a studio which they have applied to two other popular projects: MTV Ident “Fear” and SYFY25 “Rick Baker”.

At the beginning of my summer project when preparing for my character design module I explored the style of Rudo Company by creating artist responses through hand drawn and digital means on paper and in Adobe Photoshop. The following are my design outcomes:

A series of colour tests by using one of my drawn sketches. The original paper sketch has been lost. 

A full body exploration into style and colour script. The head was taken from the traditional sketch and the body was drawn digital into Adobe Photoshop directly. 

Original Character Concepts - https://oritoor.com/ - http://www.linnfritz.com/ - https://www.behance.net/t-wei

 

With several ideas streaming in my head I was keen to explore some physical forms for characters as a starting point to my character design project. Some artists that I sourced for inspiration through this development process included: Ori Toor, Linn Fritz, and T Wei. The characters followed a contemporary graphic approach to visual style informed by the raw textures of experimental Illustration.

These characters began as a silhouette exploration exercise and later were drawn on top off forming various initial character designs for me to potentially explore. I utilised basic geometry to form the form of these characters and fleshed them our with a standard white brush in Adobe Photoshop. 

The final character design and I ended up with at the end of my summer project before the beginning of my studios in September is shown in the “mock” model sheet above. As outlined previously this deign combines contemporary graphic style with the appeal of a illustrative gritty texture. I made this character design with the intention that he would be animated either by hand in a frame by frame software or in Adobe After Effects as a 2d rig.

I am pleased with the design outcome of this character and although he did not move forward into production once I had begun my Character Design Module, I am still keen to find a project I could include him in or recycle his design into as I believe he has potential. The experience of creating this character served as a foundational primer when considering how to approach the creation of original characters when I began in September.