"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.