Hake WIP

WIP for the Hake animaton. Here's the first 20 seconds, though the last few are still in roughs. This is at least my goal point for my final, as I only needed 10 seconds I think.

Kaede and Hake Sketches

Here are some sketches I did when working on Kaede and Hake's designs. I actually started on these a little bit after my Tim Buron style exploration, which is the inspiration for the stick legs on Kaede. I liked the way I had drawn Veronica with the thin legs, so wanted to use it here.

I spent more time on Kaede's design, especially with her hair style. The idea of using a maple leaf came really late and her little hair antenna being the stem came super last minute when I was working on the character sheets from the other day. Hake didn't get as much time spent on him, because I had a very solid image of him already in my head.

The last picture has him with a sword, because these two actually have a much more elaborate story than shown in the animatic posted earlier.

In their story, Hake used to be a talented, aspiring painter, but a conflict called him away to war, where his mastery and grace with a brush transferred to his handling of a sword. In one village, that had been set ablaze, he found a younger Kaede. Her real mother had died in the attack and her real father had run off and was no where to be seen, so Hake ends up taking the young girl in.

However, because of both inhaling too much smoke, as well as the trauma of both her mother dying and her father's abandonment, Kaede is a mute. Hake learns to live around this and they settle down after the conflict ends, which is shortly after finding Kaede.

But after the war, Hake find he can no longer paint without being reminded of the things he saw while out to battle. So he retires his hand at the brush and devotes his time to raising Kaede. However, the young girl discovers his paint set one day and tries to paint herself. Hake discovers that through painting, Kaede can communicate rather well and despite his hesitation towards painting again, he slowly starts to resume his old trade, so he can better communicate with his daughter.

Of course, this happy little situation doesn't last long. Hake's abilities in the war marked him more or less as a "hero" and "legend" of sorts, which he doesn't like. He doesn't take pride in anything he did while away on the frontlines and finds these titles to be troublesome and annoying. This, along with things in the village that causes Hake mild PTSD spells, leads him to decide to relocate Kaede and himself.

The traveling from their old village to their new home is where most of the story (which I'm imagining as another comic) takes place.

But yeah : P Hahah, some doodles~

Alternate Colours?

The other day when I posted Syan's character sheet over on my DeviantArt, quite a few people mentioned how is colour scheme reminded them of Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda. So I did up some alternate colour schemes up for him, so I might be changing it. Dunno. There were just some quick considerations.

Manya and Company Sketches

Some of the preliminary doodles I did up of Manya and Syan. The third sketch is also of Manya's younger brother, Muyo, and another unnamed member of the group. She's severely underweight and in their culture, this is seen as gravely unhealthy and unnatural and is viewed as a bad omen.

"Hake" Character Sheets

Real quick character sheets for my short film in Flash. I realize I didn't write the romanized names down on the two sheets, but their names are Kaede and Hake respectively. I know the film is also currently titled "Hake" but like I said, that means "paintbrush" and Hake is a painter. Kaede's name means "maple" and though it's hard to tell from the three quarter angle, her hair is shaped like an upside down maple leaf, the little hair sticking up being like a stem.

"Hake" Animatic

An animatic for a short film I'm working on in Flash. It only has a placeholder scratchtrack and the title itself is just a placeholder, but I can start animating on it soon. The title means "paintbrush" in Japanese, because the little girl, Kaede, is helping her father find his missing paintbrush.

The whole thing probably won't be animated fully this semester, as I only had to storyboard 20 seconds, but hopefully I'll be able to finish it at some point.

Some More Layouts

Some more layouts for my current Flash project. I only have a few more to do and I might be posting the animatic for the short later on .

Backgrounds

Some backgrounds done up for a short film I'm working on in my Flash class.

Flash Lip Sync WIP 2

Update on the lip sync test for my Flash class and I hope to finish this up tomorrow. I don't know if I'll get around to colour before it's due on Wednesday though.

Manya and Syan

Whoo! New character designs!

Meet Manya and Syan, two new characters of mine that belong with a valley-dwelling tribe. I was tried of drawing "normal" sized people all the time, so thought I'd change it up in the body-shape department. Frankly, I'm quite happy with the outcome and am very fond of these designs.

Manya is one of the tribe's Gatherers and like the rest of her occupation, is mute. This is to protect the locations of their valuable herb gardens from outside intruders. All Gatherers have an operation that disables their vocal cords and the scars from that operation are hidden under necklaces like the one Manya is wearing here. Her knife, though it's hard to tell in this drawing, also has a rounded, shovel edge. Though it can be used for defense, it's primary uses are digging up roots or cutting vines.

Syan is part of the tribe's Shaman group. He works directly under the council that runs their society, so his clothing is a bit more neater than Manya's. He's highly trained in the tribe's ancient magics and history, but is a rather down to earth guy. He has recently been assigned Manya as his personal assistant, who's charged with finding the ingredients for his various potions and remedy mixes.

I had a story in the works for the two and it's kind of a game idea, though it's nothing too revolutionary. I was thinking of it following similar lines as Legend of Zelda and Okami, where Manya has to go on a quest to rescue her kidnapped young brother, Muyo (I have a sketch for him to scan in still). However, it's a party based game - so kind of RPG based - where Syan and another character accompany her.

Nothing's fleshed out, as I just doodled these up one night before bed. Still, it was a fun exercise playing with some different body types, as well as some different colour schemes. I was trying to keep the saturation levels up here, instead of numbing them down as I usually like to.

Sandman Concepts

Over the summer, a fellow classmate, Matt, had asked me to help him with some design ideas for his upcoming short film featuring the Sandman. He originally had a tall, thin bearded man, but wanted to change it up a little from the"Merlin" look. Here are some of the concept doodles (and one finished version) that I did up for him.

I tried doing a stout, rounder old man and based the designs off ideas from various legends, myths, and characters of various cultures, as well as just animals linked to dreams and the moon.

My first few designs still used concepts from his initial design, mainly the use of cloaks and robes. I was basing the character off an owl, mainly because of their nocturnal nature and the fact I really thought the robe would be cool to animate in the shape of flapping wings. My main basis was the Great Horned Owl and I drew his hair and beard to resemble the Great Horned Owl's head. 

The Great Horned Owl design was eventually scrapped when Matt said he would prefer to stay away from the robes/cloak. He really wanted to stray away from the Merlin/Gandalf/Dumbledore look, so I suggested dressing him in an outfit more fitted to the time period his film took place in. Originally, it was going to be either set in Paris or London, but I didn't really have a time period. So, I decided to go to my default clothing choice for most characters: suits.

This second design was also shifted to the base of a rabbit. I felt the loss of the robes also made the owl concept a bit harder to pull off. The rabbit also has a more solid connection to the moon, as the rabbit is seen in the moon in most Asian myths.

In the end, I came up with the last drawing as my "final" design. It was the last one I did up for Matt over the summer, though initially the old man concept was completely scrapped. Still it was fun to work with and I am rather fond of the final design of this Sandman.

Grandpa's Little Pirate

Some new designs! I've been waiting to post these up to do some more sketches, but I figured I'd just post 'em anyway. These two were designed by a prompt by my instructor to do some older characters instead of just young ones. So I came up with the old man here, along with his grandson. They don't have names as of yet, but they do have a background.

The little boy is into pirates and really likes dressing up as one, however, he can't find anyone to play with because the other kids tease him at school. His grandpa ends up staying with them (the young boy and his mother) for a while. However, the little boy is scared of his grandpa, as he doesn't visit often. The grandfather attempts to connect with his grandson though, telling him tales of his time as a Naval officer and the things he had seen on the high seas. The two begin to bond and the little boy convinces his grandfather to play pirate with him, believing he'd make an awesome pirate with his artificial leg.

And that's all I have on them right now. Maybe one day they're get names, along with colours, which I hope will be soon, as I'm rather fond of the idea.

Proof of Concept WIP 2

Updated Proof of Concept

Caged Proof of Concept WIP

A work in progress shot of my Proof of Concept for my short film, Caged.

For more information on Caged, please visit the production blog: Caged Film

Ferdinand Lip Sync WIP

A WIP for my lip sycn assignment in my Flash class : P Thought you guys might like to see~

More Chameleon Stuffy

More WIP stuff for the chameleon stuffy : ) Worked mainly on his eyes and had played with some of the stitch brushes, but didn't like anything I did up.

Ophelia

A quick piece of fanart for my friend, Norma's Senior Project - Ophelia. This is her main character Ophelia : ) Her skirt's based off a jellyfish ^^

Chameleon Plush WIP

A little project I worked on in between classes today. I started on a little model of a plush chameleon, based off my character Ferdinand's chameleon form. I need to go in and add his stitching, as well as some texturing stuff later : )

New Hat!

Ahhh there. Fixed Tricorne's tricorne and started to add the tassels onto it. The hat was a simple model made in Maya and later divided in Zbrush so I can work on it. I still need to add the seam line to it later once I get a hold of the Alpha brush I want.

Burton Style Colour

Here's a coloured version of one of the pen sketches. I basically just de-saturated the colours so they look creepier.

Burton Style?

Here are some Style Study sketches. A friend had suggested I try my hand at new styles for portfolio work, so I was looking for some more dynamic styles. Dynamic here meaning significantly different from my own. So, I figured Tim Burton's fun, strange style would be interesting to try out.

The Study actually started with the bottom three sketches, because I wanted to practice drawing my own characters, Veronica and Ferdinand, in that style. There are certain things I noticed in Burton's style that I was trying to get down: The large, spaced eyes, the lowered mouths, the usually very thin, tiny chins. Even the line quality is unique and I found I didn't really get it as I like to do my sketchy bases. Most of his work, though it is very scrawly in it's own right, seems to make single, deliberate lines that aren't perfect. I noticed this when I was looking at the facial shapes: they were squiggly to a degree and not perfectly smooth, but they worked and compliment the rest of the drawing well, as most of the lines are like that.

Another thing I was looking at was his use of shapes, as well as his warped proportions. I remember hearing in a special feature - I think on Corpse Bride - how creating the models for Burton's thin characters were rather hard, especially in making them stable enough to support their own weight. Many may think of Jack Skellington when I mention his proportions too. I kept that design in mind for Ferdinand's tall figure, as well as for Veronica's. I made her much, much shorter than she's supposed to be, because that's how Burton's proportions can work. For her, I kept thinking of the Mayor from the Nightmare Before Christmas: short legs with an overly large coat and cone shaped arms.

More Tricorne WIP

More of Tricorne's face! He now has a somewhat crap hat, but I will fix that later. :D