Polar Opposites no.2 Turnaround Sheets

More of my polar opposite characters. I used the same techniques as mentioned in the previous post.  Marco and Hooves were created to be sidekicks to Storm and Blade respectively. However, they also had to have differing personalities from their friends, which in turn made them different from each other.

Marco's appearance changed dramatically, and is probably the character I had most trouble with designing. I think I did well with his design, and he's got the initiated 'awww' response going too. The nappies are funny as well. :D

I really like Hooves' design, and he challenges Storm for my favourite character. I changed Hooves' fur to a traditional brown colour. I also resized his head to a bigger size to make his long neck look funnier. I think he'd be really fun to animate, hopefully my lecturers will like him enough to let me do so.

Take care all :) x

Polar Opposites no.1 Turnaround Sheets

Well, here's my first two polar opposites in preparation for uni. I took the original images and traced over the lines using the pen tool. Once done, I exported the images to Photoshop to colour underneath the lines. I've measured out the characters proportions using invisible lines, and they're pretty much spot on. I might try and do more turnarounds if I have the time, but for now these will do just fine.

I'm really happy with the way Storm has turned out, and is perhaps my favourite character of them all. I added a gun to his belt just to give him a bit more of a cool factor (even though he wouldn't know how to use it lol). I'm still not sure whether to make him speak or not. I added the S logo to his belt and gun as heroes like to shamelessly promote themselves.

Here we have Blade, the badass fox. I like all the visual suggestions I've added to his uniform and body. My intention was to leave people guessing about his persona and background, which I think comes off pretty well. My only concern is if he's perhaps too detailed to be animated, but I'll solve that dilemma soon.

I should have more character turnarounds up soon, stay tuned! :)

MORE experiments...

Time to show off more of my 10 characters me thinks. As with Storm and Blade (the fox), I drew out the characters first and then scanned them into Photoshop to experiment. Circled designs are ones that I chose to put into further development.

Here we have Hooves, a muscular anthropomorphic horse. His design had to show power and evil qualities. I particularly liked this one as it vaguely reminded me of a rugby player. His hair colour will be different in the final design, at the moment he looks like a zebra without its stripes.

Next is his polar opposite, Marco, a flying lion cub. He had to be cute, even more so than Storm. However, he also had to look cool. I chose this design as it made him look up to date with technology while still making him look cuddly. His design will change in the future, as at the moment his ears look a bit too mousey.

Last of all, Lieutenant Lionheart, a brave and valiant soldier. In the first few designs, my original thought was to make him an American. I then decided that because the show is set in the UK, it might be better to give him a British origin. I made an amalgamation of a soldier and police officers uniform, with patches of silver to reflect his rank. I chose this design as it looked like he's ready for battle.

The Early Days...

Hey, been a while since I uploaded. Well, no time like the present. Here's an animation I did at the very beginning of my uni course. It was my first time doing hand drawn animation and I think I did it fairly well. It's pretty short, but I hope you enjoy.

Polar Opposites Character No. 2

This is a post for my character who contrasts my first one. Unlike Storm who's emphasis was goofy and cute, this character needed to portray a vicious and intelligent side. Originally I was going to make this character a dog, but then I realised this has been done to death, so I decided to make him a fox which are naturally quite sly.

The original drawing of the fox. As I had never drawn the character before, it took me a few tries to make his silhouette iconic. I used a lot of triangles to construct the character to keep with his stealthy look. I left the tail out as the page was too small to make it the appropriate size.

Next, experimentation:

When creating his costume, I wanted it to give visual clues to his background while enhancing his silhouette. The tail was designed to look bigger than him for comedic effect. I personally like the one on the top right, it was inspired by dub-step group Nero (which were AWESOME at Hackney Weekend btw :D). I've thought about calling him Nero in tribute to them, which I hope they'd appreciate.

Just in case you don't know who Nero are, here's a photo of them:

Click Here for their Facebook page

Polar Opposites Character No. 1

Hi all, in preparation for my return to uni next year, I've made a short start on my 'Polar Opposites' task. This required us to come up with two characters who were different physically and mentally. I decided to use a character that has appeared in other projects I've done; he is a personal favourite of mine. I've never had the opportunity to experiment with his design, so this was a great opportunity to do so.

Here's the original pencil sketch I made. He was always a bit of a fatty, but I added glasses and a belt to give him a nerdy look. His posture also suggests he's quite dumb as is intended.

However, I took it a step further and made a character sheet, experimenting with his costume to give him a more unique silhouette. I personally like the one just left of the centre, he looks like he should be in a workshop, which makes sense for someone who's so round.

I should have more characters up at some point, don't really know when, depends if I can be bothered.

Support Bee Rex T-shirt on Threadless

Hey guys, after much thought, I've taken the Bee Rex a step further and submitted it to Threadless for the chance to have it printed onto a t-shirt. However, before it can be published, it needs to be liked first by enough people before Friday next week. If you'd like to see it published, click on the link below the image to share/like it with others, wish me luck! :)

 Share/Like Here

Plans Gone Wrong Entry Update

Originally for a contest called 'Plans Gone Wrong', entrees had to include stock images of a pie, panda and a light bulb. I created the shark from hand, and painted over the stock images and adapted the scuba gear onto the pandas. Although I didn't win, I decided to give it some updates as I was quite proud of it. I gave the shark a more detail and shading to make it more scary, and added my signature (see if you can find it).

PAWS
Software Used: Adobe Photoshop CS5

Berwin the Seal Puppy Animation

My first 2D Cutout animation for my course. The seal was inspired by when I found one at a beach in Cornwall. As the animation was aimed at 5 year olds, I decided to do a counting game. Hope you like it :)

Here's the original photos that inspired me:

Here's the final animation, enjoy:

Bee Rex Print

This is my first idea for a mini print series being made at Staffordshire University. It's inspired by a pretty nasty sting I had from a wasp at high school. I then decided to combine it with a t-rex to make it more scary, which is why there named Bee Rex's. I'm quite proud of this and I hope it sells well.

Original Bee Rex drawing on paper.

Bee Rex
Digital Illustration
12 x 12cm
Software Used: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS5