Minor Project - Sound Collector Style Development

After looking at the artist Phil showed to me, I worked on my previous design, making his skin pastier and sketching in much finer detail. I've also looked at some small possible changes to the character which may aid in accentuating his dullness. I am overall very happy with this version of the character. I am mostly drawn to version 1 and 3, they both look much better than the previous versions of this character whereas the added details in versions 2 and 4 seem quite obstructive.

@Phil - Minor Project - Sound Collector Style Direction

As I am continuing on with 'The Sound Collector' from my Adaptation B project. One of the things I wanted to explore further was the style of my character. As such I've been looking at different ways of illustrating the sound collector.

I feel that this is my most successful exploration so far, it is still very rough but I believe there is some potential in this direction. I am drawn to sharper and more geometric features/lines as well as more emphasized facial features.

If you have any suggestions regarding this direction Phil, I would love to hear what you think.

Adaptation B - Sound Collector Skin Tweaking

After the latest tutorial with Alan, it was clear that I needed to change the skin of the character slightly. It probably shouldn't be grey but just pale instead. After making this set of tests I am fairly certain that I want something very close to thumbnail 4.

Adaptation B - Environment Design Direction

After more thought on the environment style for 'the sound collector, I feel that a 50's British home design would work best with the tone of the poem. I also still like the idea of using colour to show where the sound is coming from and also turning the colour to grey to show the sound being collected/taken. I feel that this will make the final shots particularly effective. The final four lines about being left with silence would work well with an environment that is dull and grey after all the sound has been taken away. |The idea and style will need more work but this is the general direction I want to go.

Adaptation B - Contraption Revised Design (with handle choices)

I have altered my previous design working on the sound aspects of the device and making it more cluttered and interesting. I put the reel-to-reel on the left side as this is the right-handed version of the device. I couldn't decide on a specific handle but I have narrowed it down to four. Let me know if you have a favorite and bear in mind this is supposed to be a clunky government issued contraption.

Adaptation B - Continued Contraption Thumbnails

After considering different ideas I feel that I have concluded the basic design on the sound contraption. I am confident that a simple brick-like design will work best with the character. As such I will likely create a design very close to number 5. I have explored multiple faces for that design as I am still unsure on the specific look I want from it. My overall favorites are 5B and 5C.

Adaptation B - Uniform Thumbnails

From the uniforms I have looked at for reference, I found an old postman uniform to be the most fitting as a starting point for my design. I have made four versions of the same uniform exploring some of the key details I may use in the final concept. Some of the smaller details here may change but I feel that these are quite close to how I want the 'Sound Collector' to look.

Original Reference for Uniform

Adaptation B - Hair and Ear Design Thumbnails

After settling on the basic face design, I have narrowed down my ideas of the hair and ears to 4 designs each. I'm starting to like how this character is looking and of the 4 hair designs I personally prefer B as I think a cheap toupee would work well for this character. Let me know if you have a favorite.

Adaptation B - Further Face Thumbnails

I've created some more thumbnails for the face shape and details as I may have narrowed in too fast on my idea. I am particularly pleased with the face details shown on 4, 5 and 6 and I feel that it is very close to how I picture this character. Personally I am quite confident about taking number 5 forward with some more refined thumbnails to figure out the ears and hair. Let me know what you think.

Adaptation B - Sound Collector Face Thumbnails

I am fairly certain on the basic shape of his head so I have started to narrow down his hair. I feel that this character would have a thick moustache, but I have created alternatives without to see how much it changes his look. I am currently torn between 1 and 7 as my choice moving forward.

Adaptation B - Sound Collector and Contraption Thumbnails

After talking to Alan on Friday, he suggested looking at specific actors and characters portrayed by actors for reference when drawing the 'sound collector'. I've done some line drawings with this in mind but I think I will need to do quite a few more to figure out exactly how this character looks. 

Sound Collector Thumbnails

Sound Contraption Thumbnails

Adaptation B - Further Character Exploration

Refined Influence Map

No Colour

Basic Grey

Multiple Grey's

After watching the film 'Brazil' as Alan suggested, I am beginning to see the 'sound collector' as a kind of eccentric tax collector. As such I have created these refined thumbnails to further explore the possibilities for this character.

Adaptation B - 'Sound Collector' Character Exploration

So far I've been looking at other characters and animals that share traits with the description of the sound collector. I have looked at characters like Roald Dahl's B.F.G, and the grim reaper as it is the most prolific cloaked character. I have also looked at animals that have particularly strong hearing, like rats and owls.

Adaptation A - Refined Style Thumbnails

After talking to Phil about finding the right style for my infographic, he directed me to the artist David Shrigley, whose style is purposefully rough and basic. His work seems to align itself quite well to my infographic, which will appear rough and slightly ignorant. After creating refined thumbnails attempting to draw my intended assets with his style, I am only more confident that it will work very well in getting the overall point across to the audience.

The next step now that I am confident in the style, is to create my script and storyboard.

Adaptation A - New Step 9 and Initial Thumbnails

As step 9 in my infographic is a bit too extreme I have decided to change it. The new step 9 I have chosen which I think will be quite successful is;

9. Don't waste your time being creative (or studying art), do something more useful with your life.

These are some initial thumbnails I have done to represent the elderly in my infographic. They are fairly simple but I wanted to get my own ideas out of the way. I have created these so that I can start to find the style for my objects and the amount of detail that will work best.

Character - Alien Invader Silhouette Work

The silhouettes below are for my 3rd character in my game, which is the alien invader that my two plant characters will be fighting. Overall I am quite happy to take some of these forward into more refined concept work. I feel particularly drawn to numbers 4, 6 and 7. 

 

Character - Post OGR Progress

During the character session with Justin, he advised me about how I could develop my three characters more.

 



The three thumbnails above are for my first plant character, he is meant to be the more agile and flexible of my two plant characters, as such Justin suggested that I take the character I had already worked on and make his limbs longer. This helps translate that this character is agile and fast. Of the three silhouettes I have created, I feel that number two is the strongest and is very close to how I want my character to look. I will definitely be taking that design forward and developing it into more refined concept work.

 These three silhouettes above and the six below are both further explorations of my second plant character, I feel that number five is the strongest silhouette of the group but will still need more work. The six thumbnails below seem far too generic to me and as such I will not be considering any of the designs as I move forward with my characters.

The next thing to do now is to create more silhouettes for my third character, the 'alien invader', and then begin more detailed concept work for all three.

Character Project - Initial Environment Thumbnails

I have started to explore environment designs. For example, thumbnail 1 is an example of a pod where the alien characters could crawl out of in the background of the main environment design. Many other thumbnails including 2, 3, 7 and 11 are explorations of possible plant life for this planet. Let me know what you think.

 

Character Project - Refined Plant Character Silhouettes

Here are some more refined silhouettes for my plant character, I have used more precise ink strokes to create these silhouettes and I am very happy with these thumbnails. Feel free to let me know what you think.

 

Narrative - Fish Character Development

After creating the bulk of ink thumbnails for our fish character, I took what I felt were the strongest silhouettes and altered them using the fin designs I had also created. After talking to the group, we all agreed that thumbnail 4 had a lot of potential. As such, after discussing what tweaks could be made to improve it, we have ended at something that can now serve as the core reference for our character concept and orthographic.

Set of Refined Thumbnails

Fish Thumbnail with Alterations

Final Tweaks