Sunday 1 December 2013

Owls, Angels, Northern Lights and Painters influences

Whilst researching painters that demonstrate a mood similar to what I wish to achieve with Prince Igor, I came across Melissa Forman and David M Bowers. These two artists produce work with a dark overlaying mood, lifted through a subject model that manages to provide a subtle sense of salvation.

I've decided to include a running theme of Angels to produce this sense of salvation.

The Northern Lights produces a sense of a miraculous atmosphere, housing the angels and pushing the purples and greens in Club Chemistry. Stained Glass windows may also be incorporated for there feature of Angels in Christian Art.

Owls will also influence my character design due to their nocturnal activity and visual prowess. In flight owls wings can visually be associated with the wings of angels. Owls also have three eyelids, with one nicitating membrane closing diagonally to protect the surface of the eye. I believe the look of the eye with the membrane closed has similarities to a blind person with a damaged cornea.





Wednesday 27 November 2013

Ethnicity and Profession development

In order to identify some possible character traits that may be inherited from his Russian and British descent, as well as characteristics that may develop from his blindness and affinity of Chemistry, I've created influence maps of famous people from each origin.





Wednesday 20 November 2013

Character revamp: Prince Igor

Having completed two weeks work experience at Rushes, a post production company, I now feel confident enough to rework my Character Design project. After receiving valuable advice from Andy Hargreaves, their Lead CG Animator, I've decided to adjust many aspects of my DJ character. I've started with his backstory. I've researched several ways in which blind people are represented in film, in particular those that make use of echolocation to navigate. I've also looked at the ways in which this technique is represented visually on-screen. I would like to use a soundtrack to set the mood for my character, I've selected a remix of the opera piece Prince Igor (1869-1887) by Alexander Borodin. I am looking to get in touch with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to see if I can spend some time there to gain any form of inspiration towards Igor.

BACKSTORY

Stage name: Prince Igor

Sex: Male

Occupation: DJ

Age: 22
 
Igor's father is a scientist born in Russia, and scouted to London to deliver several lectures to schools and universities, he subsequently met his wife in London and now owns his own laboratory for research. He often provides his son Igor with lab equipment, usually against his mother's will. Igor's Mother is a nurse born in London who is very protective of Igor.
 
Igor grew up with a genuine fascination in Chemistry. Igor's first experiments began at the age of 5 when he'd find his father's lab equipment and after observing his Dad's own experiments would attempt his own. His parents have continuously had to hide equipment from Igor to prevent accidents when not suporvised by his Dad.
 
When Igor was 7 he burnt his room down whilst experimenting with his Dad's equipment. His father was able to save Igor but Igor was left blind. Ever since then, Igor's Dad has vowed to train Igor to experiment with chemicals safely despite his blindness. Igor was trained by his Dad to 'see' with the technique of echolocation, recieving reflected sound waves through his ears from the clicking of his tongue.
 
Igor's particular interest in Chemistry comes from the sounds produced from the chemicals. He grew up with his Dad's taste in Russian opera music and his Mother's taste in Pop. Throughout his studies Igor typically excelled in both Music and Chemistry, going on to study Chemistry at the University of Kent. He was very popular during his time at University, and was a regular at nightclubs. His final year project was a musical set that merged the art of DJing with the art of Chemistry. Based on this, he was asked by Club Chemistry in Canterbury to become a DJ.
 

RESEARCH

After watching the film Imagine (2012), I noted down similarities between blind people and the ways in which echolocation affect their physical attributes.
 
After watching Daredevil (2003) and a documentary on Ben Underwood, a famous echolocator, I noted down the effects used to represent echolocation. I also looked at the use of Sonar in the recent Batman films and games.

MUSIC

I would like this piece of music to be what Prince Igor uses in one of his performances.
 

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Professor/DJ Character Concept Development

After writing up the personality of my Professor/DJ character, it occured to me that a change of sex was needed, so I began designing my character as a female. I've tried to represent her traits in the character design.

Traits: 
Feisty
ADD
Sexy
Dancer
Quick feet
Middle-aged
Confident
Working Concept Taken forward
Head Tests
Head Tests 2
Silhouette Using Shapes
Silhouettes Clothed
Silhouettes

Silhouettes 2

Anatomy Moved around
Early Sketches
Early Sketches 2

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Nutty Professor character analysis

After watching the Nutty Professor I was clearly able to see the link between a character's physicality and personality. Here we're able to see distinctly what kind of a person Sherman Klump becomes when he's transformed into Buddy Love. With this, I intend to create a detailed write up of what kind of a character my professor/lab technician is, and then use his/her traits to begin defining body shapes.

Friday 20 September 2013

Dj/Lab Tech Personality breakdown

I've down a breakdown of the character. I'll use these traits to make changes to my character.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Character Redo

In feeling lost I couldn't help but but turn to cute :/