Bridges of Mime

Like Mat I've been pretty busy these last few days with various activities so I haven't had much chance to do much work. Here are some rough designs of how the setting might look for my mime idea. I like the top right and can see all of the action happening on the bridge, like a busy paris bridge.

(testing out some random signature placements...admittedly they're all pretty naff!)

It's quite wide as it has a road running through it, not just a foot bridge, over a river that runs through the city/town. Might be stone railings or iron railings, I like the railing idea on the bottom right sketch and may incorporate the 2 together...


Here's a quick sketch of the top right with a little more detail, with an idea of stone pillars that I researched.

If you're lucky I'll add even more detail, being strapped for time and all it may have to just stay as a rough concept sketch. Hope I could explain it enough for you to understand though.

So here is the rendered version, just turnarounds, set design and synopsis to finalise then I can get on to my series project!

Oh and here are some facial expressions I sketched out for the other mime character.

I like how you can tell how strong his emotions are without him having to speak

Clean Development

Forgot to post these yesterday. 


As I said in the comments of my last post, I would clean up some of the characters and choose one I liked to develop and produce in the realism style that I'm going for. 

Here are the 'cleaner' versions and I have to say I still like the third one along, I think he would fit well with the story I have as opposed to the other designs.


I'll hopefully sketch up a final render and turn arounds today, ready for some set designs tomorrow...fingers crossed!

Mime Development

After the style development post yesterday I thought I should probably post the development of the mime characters. I like the old guy with the cane, hence stylising him, I also like the tall guy in the centre. You might be seeing him in a realistic light as I am still not sure how the story is going to go ...we'll see...

My Attempt At THE New Style

So I got some inspiration from the animations I found late last night, and if I'm honest some of Mat's work. Using a similar method I produced this.

And I am very happy with the results :D It is just how I pictured it in my head. 

I should have saved it in stages to show my workings but I forgot...so here's how I did it...

- I started with the outline and then cleaned it up quite a bit (omitting the hands). 

- Then greyed the whole character in and worked on the tonal range on 2 different layer, one for highlights and the other for shadows.

- After this it was relatively easy to just add the colour on a new layer and I was nearly done. 

- And with some tweaks to the shading I was done...makes it sound easy but it took the most part of 2 hours to complete!

Oh and I added a photo texture over the top set to Difference and reduced the opacity to around 50%. this gives it a nice tactile look.

Now I know what I'm doing I feel more confident to be able to produce more work like this as I now have a proper working timeline.

Oh and the mime idea is back in the mix...if you didn't guess already ^_^

Byyyyyee

Ships

Here's a few ship designs I did a couple of days ago, forgot to put them up!

Along with a rough idea of what setting the ship will be in in the story

Final Design

Ok so I'm happy with the final design and I'm gonna draw up the design sheets tonight, I went with a lighter skin tone as Mat suggested but I feel that the paler skin is better suited for this design.

Then I'm on to my final idea and ready to make a move on my futures assignment that has been so far greatly neglected!

A Collection of Heads

...I realise the title sounds a little disturbing :p


I took the poses and tried to give them some different and unusual/exciting hair.

I like the top left and have used it to decide hair and skin colours

I also finalised her face to suit the style. I think I like either the top right or bottom left ones, can't decide right now. Still need to develop some proper clothing and structure to the character so I guess thats more important at the moment.

Stylising

I took my life drawings and used them as a base for stylising my female character, I knew what I wanted in my head and I need to match the style of my other main character so I drew up these designs.  I know they all look the same but it's a style I think blends with the story and with my other main character.

Life Drawing

It's been a while since I last posted, I have been pretty busy with work and fun days out recently! :) But now back to the hard work, only 5 weeks to go and I thought I'd do some life drawing to help with my character designs.  
I plan to us the poses as a base line for one of my Space story characters, stylising it to fit with the style of the story and my other main character.

These sketches were very...sketchy, so I cleaned them up a bit with the eraser tool and I think they came out quite well. Maybe some proportion issues on one or two but overall I am pleased with them. (still can't really draw realistic hands and feet though)

Now to start designing a new character as fast as I can!

Spacemen and Their Development

A little earlier than promised but here are my initial sketches of spacemen:

I'm liking the top 3 non-defined sketches, the ones that aren't too realistic, as I find that you can better characterise them when animating with all sorts of squash and stretch techniques that wouldn't necessarily look right with an anatomically correct body.

Need to work on some suitable head gear, even though I like the top right helmet, I'll see if I can develop something better based around that idea. It depends on how my story goes, which is one of 2 directions...yet to decide and finalise it.  If I go for a more serious story I think I'll go for something more in the style of the bottom right design, this is because it would be more suitable to the storyline.

Set Design

Here are a few set designs I have done for my Mayfly idea, I most like the 3rd one with the willow hanging over the stream.  This is because it looks most natural and fitting to a Mayfly.


I'll use these set designs to show examples of the style I'm thinking of and help you to understand more how I want the animation to look like.

The Spaceman Development

On a totally unrelated note...I don't think I've mentioned my spaceman idea, so I guess now is as good a time as any...


Here are some head/helmet designs that I did last week, I guess I should give some of them a body, that can wait till a later post.

Mayfly Development

Here are some developmental sketches of my Mayflies, I like the top centre design as it has the main features of a Mayfly whilst being simplified. I'll sketch up some more poses using this design and post them soon.

Pike Attack

An idea I had a few weeks ago was a fish-based underwater storyline, this was because it is a new challenge for me as I haven't done any underwater animation before. It was an idea with an evil pike or two and an unfortunate fish.
To help me to draw the characters and understand how they move I did some image research on Pikes. I drew them out so I can characterise them and develop the characters with an understanding of their main features.

Here are the anatomically correct drawings and images

And here are some characterisations I did, focussing quite a bit on an underbite for the fish. I thought this would help to give it more character