Baring in mind different aspects of design and how they will translate into 3D space, it is essential to consider stylistically how it will be modelled. As stated in the book ‘Virtual Character Design for Games and Interactive Media‘, the “development of good character art is not possible without a solid understanding of nature” (Sloan and Stuart, 2015, pp.3) . Due to my direct reference to the human skeleton, it is important that I consider aspects of the real human body and understand its anatomy. Going forward into the modelling stage, I will make reference to the book Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists (Sheppard, 1933).
Trying to keep the design as minimal as possible, I want to push expression with a lack of facial aspects, heavily relying on the eyebrows to convey the majority of emotion. This design also will help me explore aspects of rigging and character modelling without overcomplicating the design for myself.
Character Inspiration and Mood Boards
A Large influence for my character ideas is Jack Skellington and the concept works of Tim Burton, as I like the ‘lankier’ and threatening yet simultaneously friendly looking character appeal. I think this largely comes from a longer, sharper body contrasted with a softer and friendly face.
Applying these ideas to my own sketches and concepts, I have given the character sharper and longer exemplified collarbones contrasting with a ‘cute’ round face which lacks in emotive feature bar eyebrows. I think the simplistic and minimal facial expression will help add an uncanny element, since facial expression is predominantly read through the upper regions of the face, and accentuate his ‘dead’ ness (Tinwell, 2015).
Aesthetic inspiration
when designing the overall look of the film, I felt very inspired by early black and white cinema, and want to take aspects of this into the final composition of my short animated film. In order to do this I have been considering multiple post production editing solutions and ideas to help build and expand on my overall look development.
Due to one of my main editing software’s being Da Vinci resolve, I looked into old film effects that i can later use in tests to see how the old scratch film look will appear. This will be useful to provide tests with later on in the production stage
Dance and Motion Inspiration
Thinking ahead for motion aesthetics and character reference Ideas, I think a strong visual for these skeletons could be the graceful and well timed dance motions of singing in the rain. The ballet-esque dance moves displayed in the film will I think epitomise the Hollywood association of the late 1920’s, and will help set my animation contextually and tonally.
References
.Sloan, R. and J Stuart. (2015). Virtual Character Design for Games and Interactive Media. Natick: CRC Press
.Sheppard, J. (1993). Anatomy: A complete Guide for Artists. New York: Dover Publications.
.Tinwell, A. (2015). The Uncanny valley in Games and Animation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press