Ahem. As mentioned, this blog shall be talking about the characters and my part in play. I originally started but drawing concepts for all the characters, for thids time I had not already decided to be Willie and Cornelius. These are the five main designs, and I shall be talking about what I like and dislike about them. I'm sorry if some of the drawings might have "crap" stuctures, such as Willie's Legs. But I'm not the greatest pose drawer... so this will just have to do. Enjoy!
Cornelius - Silverback Gorilla
The first "complete "drawing of Cornelius. While the stucture of the arms might be a little off I like this picture, and I think the shading works quite well. I researched from the LRC books and the internet to what the Silverback looks like. I also used my own ideas to convert the character to look the way I wanted. I've decided to keep all drawimgs in a cartoon fashion to relate to family and child, as well as another method of attraction. I do believe this will be the most difficult model to create and animate due to the natural movements of the Gorilla itself, and how it uses the arms to "push forward" to direct. I have many doubts this will cause problems in the modelling process but it's a risk I'm taking.
Wee Eck McGlone - Keeper
My original choice as my selection of characters was either Wee or Cornelius. And while I had my own ideas on how Wee would be selected I felt I wanted to use a human character as a vistor (willie) and an animal from the "other side" perspective, so the Zoo isn't just seen from the human's perspective. While the drawing might be off, I quite enjoyed drawng this character. I was aiming for a grey/greenish work jacket to blend in with the Zoo Environment and to be recognised as staff. I really dislike those hands...
Wilhemina Billiams - Grandmother
I was worried when designing this character. While at this time I was working on how to improve how to draw/research Female structures and anatomy, I never really considered the "old age" looks and feel. This drawing was a risk... and it JUST paid off. I started with the face down and while I like her clothes I do believe her face isn't as effective as it should as be, though you can clearly see the skin marks and last-gen clothes.
Willie Billiams - Insect Boy
My original concept of a yellow shirt with a spider pattern and black hair just seemed to fit. Could it be the black/yellow pattern of a wasp? I don't know but to I believe personally it's quite effective and successful. I wanted the child to be a pest, yet lovable at the same time so while he's attracted to insects I managed to draw a cute face to show the innocence and youth of the character as his other attitude. To model this will be easier than the Silverback, as the model is smaller in size, less detail and features. I look forward to modelling this character BUT I worry over using the program, as I have yet to successful design a character beforehand. If I decide to animate this character I would use fast-active movements, such as the use of childplay as in Pocoyo. Please view the video below to see what inspired me to motivate this character:
Pocahonta Billiams - Shy Girl
While small and imperfect I really liked her character. I was tempted to replace Willie with her as the character I would take forward to modelling. But It was the weathercoat she is wearing which prevented this; I don't have the skills to animate and model this in a way I would feel happy with. There was one problem with her character and that was the fact that because she was rather shy I didn't think I could provoke a story that easily with this character, even if she dreams to be a Gorilla like Cornelius. Though its possible acts of her copycating the Silverback might have cancelled this thought.
Willie Billiams and Cornelius were the chosen characters. Since they are being pushed forward I've decided to show their designs and concepts including faces, clothes and body stuctures.
Willy Billiams - Concept
While I started originally to work on plain-faced boys I quicker discovered my love of the current face through the reasons described above. This page shows all the different clothes and originally body and face bulk which I started with. To be honest, this character drew itself as it was stuck in my mind from nowhere.
Cornelius Silverback - Concept
Originally tracing from the Gorilla sources mentioned (they will be shown in a future blog post... hopefully) i decided to get the feel and size of Cornelius. The major changes mainly involves the eyes which turned from Cartoony Bubbles, to Angry eyes... to short grumpy eyes. He might be wise but he would naturally look grumpy throughout his body's nature, regardless if he is happy or not. I also designed the Silverback's shape using squares, hoping to achieve a style focusing more of the muscle of the animals. Since this project was focused more of the character's personality this idea was scrapped for the final and I focused on the basic body shaped and more details around the facial expressions.
There were two choices on how I could carrying on these characters, in which both involved modelling the characters in 3D. I could choose to texture them, to make their body feel real, in the form of stop-motion; maybe as plasticine or clay. OR I could animate and rig their body to make sure they move naturally and not artificially smoothed when moving, this would be more difficult but more rewarding and a bonus lesson learnt on rigging, a area I have not studied before. I'm not sure if it's acceptable, but I've decided to a play and see method. I'm going to choose and animate/rig my two models, as this should help me make my own characters if learnt correctly. BUT if the project starts going wrong near the final weeks, I might have to chance to texturing as I am not capiable of animating and as a learning outcome this WOULD NOT be my work field for the future.
Future Blogs hopefully should include my communication with the project and industria, and how I feel about how this will turn out. Let's hope things turn for the best.
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