Claw

Just been playing round in photoshop, trying to establish the right sort of textures for the characeter. I stuck "Noir" into Gogle images and got a load of nice high contrast effects. Among them was the marble effect that I used to create one of the dust mites claw. Originally I looking for background textures for carpet pile, but soon realised this would suit a mite better.

Character development

Dean: I have selected this character from the initial sketches and created a cheeky personality for him, i will pass this over to Jim so he can start modelling the character and begin the character rigging process.

Jim: Looking good Dean, might consider making his feet a little broader - like they're webbed, or maybe expandable/retractable so he can spread his toes out whilst retaining the overall delicacy of the character. The expandable arms will be a nice feature in the rig, looks like from your drawing he travels at pace, so they need to lag behind him when in full swing - thinking about using a dynamic chain with a switch so the animator can swap between the two.

• Could do with a few more concept sketches - think  facial expressions, especialy considering the narrative, looks really happy in these pics, not really appropriate as he's supposed to be under oppression. I've found this wicked showreel online (click) have a look at the worm style character and the faces he pulls - immediately gives you an idea of what sort of character he is. 

• Can you give me a bit more detail around the eye's mouth and hands? Need to know if the eyes are protruding in frontof the face or sunken in, does he have wrinkles? Bags? Tongue? Is it like a human tongue or a long lizard style tongue that can act as an extra limb? Teeth? Fangs Nashers? Gummy?, if he's gummy he could have a set of falsies - that insinuates age, could be shrivelled up like a sultana? 

•  Couple of close up drawings would be beneficial just to see whats going on around the afore mentioned areas (eyes, mouth, nose). Legs, are they hairy (like a fly) or smooth (like a baby's arse), shiny/ matt

• Textures - How does his skin appear - remember he doesn't just have to be flat colour, we can apply allsorts - use photographs, manipulate them in photoshop and bang them on. I did a drawing in photoshop the other day using a marble texture (click) of an insect claw. If you could give me something like that would help no end.

  

Character development

Depth Map

Tutorial I found on You Tube aboput post rendering. In this instance he's acquired the depth map from the render pass and overlayed it in photoshop and changed the blending style to overlay. In this project I will be required to produce renders of the character so having techniques like this up my sleeve will definitely be beneficial.





This is a nice and simple look at depth of field. In the bonus material for Pixar's Wall E they revealed how they enlisted the services of traditional cinematographers to show how them how depth of field was achived physically using camera's and lighting, the boffins at Pixar had to figure out how to make the computer do it. The depth of field node in Maya seems straight forward enough, but would definitely be beneficial to have a play with an SLR to figure out how f-stop values affect focus. Nice to know about the Object Display UI also, that will definitely come in handy...

Hoover pics

Side and front shots of the old hoover that until now has resided in my cellar. These shots will be useful for image planes in Maya, but what is useful is actualy having the model as a physical reference. Dean and I will have to decide exactly how the thing is going to move and become animated. I have taken lots of other shots from different angles, and may consider adding a few extra components to make it look a bit more aesthetically interesting.


What i do like about it is the years of damp and neglect that have withered away at its paint work - will look especially nice when textured.

Film reference-Dust Mite characters

Film reference: Antz

DEAN: Character design for the film. This is really interesting and incisive in to the process of character design.
I am learning so much more about character from this collaborative project, i am thinking more in depth about character, i am thinking more about the movement of the character, so after creating a character with a specific personality i am now considering the movement which is informing my practice of character study, i am becoming more aware of what a 'real' character is, not just a doodle that looks 'cool', the character has a narrative and purpose.



Another clip showing the process of character development:


A clip of the fight between ants and termites, i have added this video just to show the difference with both the termites and ants looking at the size and movement of both.



Film reference: A Bug's Life.

Some character dvelopment for the film:



A clip looking at the movement of each insect:

Dust mites

DEAN: Initial sketches for the dust mite characters, after speaking with Jim and having a variety of species living in the rug, these characters will develop into ten to twenty different characters, exploring different possible movements and characteristics for each one.