I won't be seeing you tomorrow, as it's first year crit week, so my days move to the end of the week. While it's good to see you progressing things and going back to basics, I'm not hugely convinced that you really know the value of this process. It doesn't work for everyone - and as your characters are essentially human, anything that takes them too far from that is going to be counter-productive. The PDFs I gave you are all about proportions, and how certain constructions of shapes make for a more comedic or cartoony style. I'm beginning to worry that 'character design' is simply not something you 'get' (in the same way, some people don't 'get' environments or French, or algebra). You just don't see to know 'what' to do about putting a design together. The silhouette method is one technique, but I don't think it's going to give you the answers you're looking for.
Can I recommend that you take the 'hero' character that we discussed last week and, using the 'How To' pdfs try and properly understand his anatomy and proportions and banish that spongey, boneless style in favour of something more refined. I know you must feel as if you're travelling in circles - you are, Bharathi - you have a skills deficit in this area - that's clear - but it needn't stay that way; go and take a fresh look at Ruben's character design project - and try and objectively see the differences between his approach and your own. I'm sorry I can't give you a 'magic bullet' for your problem, Bharathi - but a problem in designing characters you have:
I won't be seeing you tomorrow, as it's first year crit week, so my days move to the end of the week. While it's good to see you progressing things and going back to basics, I'm not hugely convinced that you really know the value of this process. It doesn't work for everyone - and as your characters are essentially human, anything that takes them too far from that is going to be counter-productive. The PDFs I gave you are all about proportions, and how certain constructions of shapes make for a more comedic or cartoony style. I'm beginning to worry that 'character design' is simply not something you 'get' (in the same way, some people don't 'get' environments or French, or algebra). You just don't see to know 'what' to do about putting a design together. The silhouette method is one technique, but I don't think it's going to give you the answers you're looking for.
ReplyDeleteCan I recommend that you take the 'hero' character that we discussed last week and, using the 'How To' pdfs try and properly understand his anatomy and proportions and banish that spongey, boneless style in favour of something more refined. I know you must feel as if you're travelling in circles - you are, Bharathi - you have a skills deficit in this area - that's clear - but it needn't stay that way; go and take a fresh look at Ruben's character design project - and try and objectively see the differences between his approach and your own. I'm sorry I can't give you a 'magic bullet' for your problem, Bharathi - but a problem in designing characters you have:
http://rubensblogpage.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-202-character-design-making-of.html