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UPDATE! Sept-Nov

SO! The concept of my thesis still the same. Only now I’m doing more research based on what other people like about character design in the action-adventure genre. I’ve gotten a lot of information so far based on two sets of surveys and I’ve updated my designed and they are ALOT better. I’ll post those up when I can within the week.

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August 18th

For design 5 I wanted to take design 4 and think about how I would want to showcase it’s design for the intention of modeling in a 3-d program. So I nixed the line work and blended it into the design through color. Then I detailed everyone with shadows and lights to showcase how they should react on the character in a 3d setting. 

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August 16th.

I continue design 4, adding details and preparing for color. 

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August 12th. 

For the fourth design I wanted to take the third style but bring the details up to the standards of modern action-adventure animation such as The Legend of Korra or recent DC Animated films. There are lines in the fabric, details in the shoes/boots/legs. 

For example, HV’s boots are stylized but they have volume and look real based on the handing fabric around the ankles. Met’s platting on his boots hand hindges and points where the pieces connect and his armor fits better on his shoulders and forearms. Wendigo’s boots also have the same characters in her boots that were described with HV. Her armor continues to be extravagant but fitted and her claw/gauntlent are now retractable with line-work indicating that. 

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August 7th

As I finalized the line work/design I exaggerate certain aspects (such as Wendgo’s shoulder armor) I also minimized with others (Met’s shoulder armor). For Wendigo I also removed the horned crown. I wanted the focus here to be on her arms and the actions of her clawing being vicious. Met uses his powers when fighting and being covered in metal pieces of armor is just another example of how reliant he is of them. HV uses her electrical powers but prefers the refinement of hand to hand combat. She quick and slick with the punches and kicks.  

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August 4th

For the third style I wanted to reflect the animation style of action adventure animations like Batman the Animated series or Avatar the last Airbender. Styled but to a point of logic. This wasn’t supposed to be cute but sleek and easy(er) to animate than some more modern 2D designs. 

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July 31st

Add to do at least 3 various designs for the same character towards the end of the rubric. I’m finding that every time I do a new style for the same set of characters I find better ways to execute some design decisions.

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July 19th. As I continue work I started to think about the next style for these designs and I found that with everything in the rubric answered (character insight wise) the process was gaining momentum. While most projects would already have a style in mind, I’m sure this rubric could help the process move along regardless and explore various aspects of a particular look. Just something I was thinking about.

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July 17th.

For the second style I’m aiming to go for more simplistic with a drop of cuteness. Not My Little Pony or Power Puff Girls cute but inspired enough to reach a point of simplicity just a bit above Hanna Barbera simplistic for an action adventure directed towards girls.

For this version took the round shape associated with HV and included it in her facial features. So her nose is rounder, her eyes, and I even increased the size and roundness in her hair and fingers. Since I’m adding this cuteness factor I’m going to assume that the idea of someone fighting against her with a knife might not be what will be depicted. That means I’m not going to overanalyze whether or not her skin should be covered. This is where you would consider the style of animation. On my rubric I noted to identify the style between 2d and 3d and then into two separate sub branches. I’ll have to extend this to include not only a visual style of animation but content/level of violence.

For Met, I bulked him up slightly and then rounded out his bulkiness a bit. All the changes I made with HV for this style I made for Met with consideration of his more square and rectangular shapes with slightly rounded edge squares.

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July 10th

When designing Metallix I had the task of having to create a character who stood on his own but was also someone in a unit. (EMP Team) Aspects of his design had to be both different and similar to HV. Wendigo however, is the villain. While she does need to carry similar aspects to make sure she fit into the same world she also had to be apparent that she was not a team member and even more so, that she is the main antagonist. The basic shapes I noted for her was long, skinny and pointed. This can obviously get out of hand quickly. I wanted her to be all these things but in order to fit into the first style it couldn’t be too far off that she wouldn’t be reasonable against HV and Met’s stockier builds. Specifically, the style of the legs.

July 12th

When designing the villain, Wendigo there were aspects about her that I wanted to portray, in particular, the fact that this was supposed to be someone who is disfigured inside and out. She used the name Wendigo because of her thirst for flesh and souls. I chose the face mask to hide the fact that her mouth is filled with oversized, pointed teeth. It’s a point to be revealed later on. As for her oddly shaped body, it’s more than just a simple “looks cool and different” design choice. It’s an homage of her namesake; The Wendigo. Specifically the thin and sickly waistline.

Wikipedia’s description of the creature: The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody [....] Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.

 Even as I do all of this it’s easy to get caught up on drawing. As begin to add color to Wendigo I realized I added a component that is unnecessary (the arm band things above her spiked gauntlets. At first I thought it was a way to stabilize gloves underneath but as I colored them I doubted whether she should have them (the gloves) reach all the way to her forearm, especially considering she already has the gauntlets. Same thing for the neck things—here’s another good point. If you don’t have a proper name for them then you should probably rethink why they are there. Haha. I removed them in this final design on the right. 

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July 4th and 5th

Once I finished a design for the main character I now use it as a point of reference for the designs for this set. They all have to look like they are a part of the same world, after all.

After I got the majority of the costume completed for Metallix I could see where I had to make minor adjustments. After making these (elongating the legs and shrinking the head) I could continue on with the design details.

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July 1st. I started with A1 from the 4th design on the original sketches. As I got the overall shape and style I wanted I had to build on it. First I tackled this part of the rubric: Does it make sense? If she was going to have a jacket on than the outline of her chest would have to be subtle. No one likes “boob armor”. So that had to be altered. Then I went over the legs again. They were blockier than I wanted them to be for someone who would be running and jumping so I thinned them out slightly. However, I still like the blockyness of it so I’d like to go back to A2 after I finalized A3 to push the style more (more cartoonu and less realistic) but for now I think I can get the right balance with A3 once I work on it further. 

So Check point 2 was done. I picked a style. NOw to check point 3:

3. Design must reflect…

-          World

-          Culture and/or history

-          Identity (at least 5 points)

So how do I reflect the world? It’s still based on reality. So the costumes can’t be too outrageous. There’s the style of the boots which seemed like enough to push the boundaries of reality. As far as culture goes, I planned on making her eyes yellow.gold. An impossible color for an actual human. As far as identity. I wanted her shape to read spunky which I think it does with her height. Her costume will have a lot of reds and yellow to reflect that energy. SO what could I do in this stage? 

I thought about the costume. 

So I took A3 and thought “does this costume make sense?” I’m going to keep the poofy sleeve and shorts for A2.

I thought she needs some form of protection on the chest/abdomen. It’s easy to make a skill shot there. She I thought of a light armored vest-jacket. Because she does a lot of gymnastic moves I wanted her arms to be able to move. Knowing gymnast wear a lot of spandex I thought she would be comfortable with long sleeve under armor. And drew it so that she cut a hole on the sleeve to put her thumb through. It’s a small detail but enough to show that she’s going to be slightly unconventional with how it’s suppose to be worn. 

I also tried a few variation of her hair. The long hair while looking didn’t seem to make sense to me. It just seemed like it would get in the way. So I drew it up in a ponytail and it made her look too young. This is a character who is suppose to come off as 20-24. So looking THAT young was off the table. The short, side cut seemed trendy enough and I could see it animated easier than the long hair. 

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June 28th

As I work on the basic shapes for the other characters I realize I reference them to each other to get the proportions right. This may be because I’m working on three characters at the same time rather than completing one to finish and then working on the next. Will need to review further.

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June 26th 2017

After filling in the information of my first character via the rubric I began to tackle my designs. As I approached I realized that the first thing I needed to figure out  to start the design (aside from the character info) was the shapes. Knowing that HV would be short with rounder features I stuck to those shapes that reflected that: circles, slight ovals and rounded edges.

The shapes have to be interesting but still believable on an active character doing gymnastics and hand-to-hand combat. This slightly limits the choices as I begin sketching various shapes/body shapes for the design. From here I’ll have choose at least 5 to concentrate on after I‘ve worked out Metallix’s shapes. They have to be different to be visually appealing but they also have to have some common element. That element may or may not be shape but once I’ve completed the shapes for Met I’ll find that out.

Once the basic shapes of all the characters are complete I’ll also have to go into the shapes of details, but that’s later. This is just a little note/reminder of that.  

I may also continue to work on some other shapes for HV so these might not be final. 

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WIP Rubric

As I begin to work on my thesis R&D I realize that the order of this rubric is subject to change. I’ll post the final when all of it is done. But for now...

1. Character creation

-Identify character

-          Five traits (keywords)

-          Skills

-          Powers (if any)

-          Important characteristic (at least five)

-          Important physical traits

 -Identify the character’s world

-          What kind of world is this?

-          Where does the character live in this world?

-          How do they fit into this world?

-Identify the character’s culture

-          Human? Animal? Alien? Etc.

-          Are there sub-cultures?

-          Where does the character fit in this culture?

-Create and evaluate their history

-Create and evaluate their future

-Identify Clothing/wear

-          What WOULD they wear?

-          What WOULDN’T they wear? (Ex: Ridiculous short skirt because the character does hand-to-hand combat)

-          Consider purpose of wear (Ex: shorts because the character runs a lot)

-Identify accessories that reflect your character

-          Eye wear, weapons, gadgets, etc.

-Identify shapes/symbols that reflect your character

-Identify colors that reflect your character

  2. Identify Animation style

-          2-D

-          Hand-drawn or digital

-          Minimalist or intricate

-          3-D

-          Stop-motion or digital

-          Minimalist or intricate

3. Design must reflect…

-          World

-          Culture and/or history

-          Identity (at least 5 points)

4. Design may...

-          Include foreshadowing

5. Design must not…

-          Contain details that are unnecessary or will not be used

-          If such a detail is present, remove and revise

6. Determine if character is recognizable

-          Each character should have a signature feel

-          Each should be easily indentified in a line-up

7. Showcase character…

-          Sitting

-          Jumping

-          Running

-          Eating

-          Expressions (Happy, angry, sad, surprised, laughing)

-          Action poses (at least 5 unique actions)

-          Superpowers/Special abilities

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These are the preliminary designs that I will be applying with this rubric. They might look cool and complete now but as I go through everything I realize there are a lot of ways to make them stronger as designs that support their narrative for the genre. 

ACTION ADVENTURE CARTOONS: Things like Young Justice, Steven Universe, etc have to not only tell a story but showcase a lot of action (hence, the genre title). It’s the job of the designs to be able to support their narrative which is sometimes in a short amount of time. To say something without having to say it. 

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Thesis: Written

Statement

 In the action-adventure genre, it’s easy to get caught up on the visual appeal of a character because the principal itself is very broad.  Appeal is defined by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston as a character being pleasing or interesting to look at; however, such a definition can often be decidedly subjective. It is through such ambiguous design concepts that a character may fall into an uncharted realm between overwhelmingly detailed and uninspired simplicity as to offer its audience nothing in terms of depth and lore.  Through detailed dissection and analysis of a few choice characters, both well and poorly designed, we can glean relative details pertaining to their character, their world, and their current sociopolitical circumstances.  With said character aspects, we can generate a fluid formulaic approach to understanding a character’s rationalities and philosophies, such as with the “hero’s journey” arch, in such a way as to interpret pre-existing characters as well as concoct interesting original ones. We can then use this formula and implement it onto various designs, investigating further with appeal and its influence in action.

 Introduction

 Appeal is defined by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston as a character being pleasing or interesting to look at; however, such a definition can often be decidedly subjective. It is through such ambiguous design concepts that a character may fall into an uncharted realm between overwhelmingly detailed and uninspired simplicity as to offer its audience nothing in terms of depth and lore. Through detailed dissection and analysis of a few choice characters and already established techniques, we can glean relative details pertaining to their character, their world, and their current sociopolitical circumstances.  With said character aspects, we can generate a fluid formulaic approach to understanding a character’s rationalities and philosophies, such as with the “hero’s journey” arch, in such a way as to interpret pre-existing characters as well as concoct interesting original ones for the action adventure genre.