Apr 30, 2009

Personal Protagonist and Antagonist

More character design. My personal protagonist and antagonist based on my life experiences/traditions/etc.


The protagonist was based mostly on Maasai clothing and jewelry. I basically just made the headpiece up after looking at a bunch of Pacific Northwestern and Plains Indian masks/costumes/etc. The antagonist is based in a bunch of African and a little Oceanic culture. The tongue mask is inspired by a Balinese Rangda mask.

Sketch for the antagonist design:


I'll update with sketches for the protagonist later today when I get to a scanner.

Apr 28, 2009

Owlie


Hello owl

Character design for character animation class

Apr 23, 2009

Culture-based character design

Character design - a character based on a culture, but not just a member of that culture.

I chose royal Cambodian Khmer dance traditions.

Apr 18, 2009

Gibbon animation exercise

We went to the zoo last Monday for character animation. This was the exercise I got out of it.



I like how it turned out; usually I keyframe but this was freeeestyle. Hand-animated in Flash, on 2's.

Apr 10, 2009

Titan A.E. redesign project

The Titan A.E. redesign project
Group members:Heather Kahn, Kim Weiner, Magnolia Porter, and me.

Titan A.E. is a mediocre-to-awful animated sci-fi movie that had potential for interesting themes and issues, but failed to connect to audiences due to bad storytelling and generic character design. We attempted to craft more interesting and engaging characters with more potential for good storytelling.

Sorry about the crappy pictures, I just took some photos of our presentation board. I'll post the nice digital files eventually.

Main cast:
Cale - protagonist, 20-year-old space station mechanic
Group design, my drawing + ink, Magnolia color

Original.
We wanted Cale to look a little younger and more awkward, less like a male model.

Akima - female lead, Korso's pilot
Group design, my drawing + ink, Heather color

Original.
Made Akima's ethnic group more ambiguous, wanted to make her feel like a gypsy connected to Earth, but still a believable pilot.

Korso - Works to find the Titan with Cale, ex-military, working with Drej
Group design, my drawing + ink, Kim

Original.
Korso became a bitter Vietnam-style vet, decorated but scarred by his military experience. A believable "fallen hero".

Drej - pure energy, hivemind with queen figure, want to destroy humans
Kim's personal design + color

(Couldn't find an original that showed them very well.)
Wanted to make the Drej look less manufactured, focus more on the queen and hivemind aspect to make them creepy instead of just inanimate energy.

Supporting cast (crew of Korso's ship)
Gune - map-reader, scientist, comic relief; works with the protagonists
Heather's personal design + color

Original.
Made him less generic. Gave him more hands to work on multiple tasks at once, a long neck to extend up to peer into people's faces. Gave him a birdy face to allow for a more fidgity demeanor.

Preed - Korso's first mate, traitor
Magnolia's personal design + color

Original.
Added a transformative quality to him, making him appear nonthreatening until his point of turning traitor.

Stith - weapons and muscle; works with the protagonists
My personal design + color

Original.
Gave her more upper-body strength and a powerful, stout set of legs to keep her grounded. Turned her into more of a protective figure.

This was a great learning experience about working in groups--our group was great and I think we all played our strengths well, I'm proud of us.

Apr 7, 2009

Warm and Cool character design

Another character design assignment, this time an appealing character using an entirely cool palette and an unappealing character using an entirely warm palette. Warm character is undergoing revisions, which I'll post soon.

Apr 1, 2009

Sketchin with gas, sketchin with gas

Sketchbook pages
Providence Place Mall:










Random:


St. Louis Zoo: