Character Design

In the past week I have looked at several animation clips of other characters and people, as well as starting on my characters artwork.

My artwork on the character is is going well, but proving difficult as I only have a limited ability to draw. To combat this I have taken to drawing in Flash CS4/5 with the paintbrush. This allows me to draw artistically but gives me the ability to undo mistakes easily. Below is a screenshot of the artwork so far. I plan on finishing the image off with a second, front angle drawing of the character, as well as shading and even colouring the design.

Screenshot of artwork so far

To try and get a sense of the characters movement I have tried to find clips of old characters and men, as well as characters who use a cane of walking stick to get a feel for the movement.

Looking at Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, from 00:12 - 1:10 you can see the "Host" of the show. The character is an old and creepy man. You can see from his exterior that he is very thin, has a thin face with sharp chin. The animations are very helpful when working with hand animations and facial expressions, however this character moves to fast and unaided to give me a sense of my characters movement speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmYF_YzrvGo

Maleficent starts with a dark entrance, having the lightning and loud strikes already give the user an idea of evil. Once she appears on the screen she is immediately met by a vulture, which swoops in from the side. Her look already gives her and evil appearence, and her actions accompany this. She moves very slowly, to give the appearence that she is relaxed and in control. This sense of control is found in many evil characters and is represented differently to the hero. The character gives you the idea that she has planned everything she talks about and the actions of those around her.

When she speaks you can also see that her head is mostly tillted upwards, to give the appearence of looking down on those around her. This adds to the sense of control. Sometimes you will notice evil characters monologing while looking at the floor. I always see this as the characters being "bored"with the advisary, and gives the character a feel of confidence and control, in this scene you can see her looking away from the other characters while talking. This shows that she is not worried about them, and feels un-threatened by them, as apposed to the other characters who's eyes are fixed on Maleficent.

Evil characters (enless made purposly grumpy) can usually be found with a simle on there face. This is because the character is following there plan and unsuprised. The times when evil characters and angry or upset are most commonly when there plans are changed or effected by the other characters. This can be seen here, as Maleficent is smiling most of the time, but when her control is lost her emotions turn to anger.

At one point she raises her arms, her cloak around her

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl8RY7Bm-Ew

While searching through animations I also thought to look up Nosferatu, which is very helpful in designing the look of my character as they share the same body style and age. Another I decided to look at was the professor in the intro for Robot Chicken. The character is clearly insane, although you get this through only seeing him for around 15 seconds. This is a great example of how his personality is clear just through the characters model and expression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=patgT_qG65U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDwJArADO9o