More research & refrences

Here are some more image refrences that i have been looking at and which i have mentioned in the previous research post.

Wallace & Gromit is probably one of the more popular and iconic characters from Aardman and in general Claymation. Two of their short films "The Wrong Trousers", "A Close Shave" and its feature length "The Curse of the Were Rabbit" received academy awards.

Chicken Run is a Claymation film which was produced by Aardman Animation Studios and was released back in 2000.

Creature Comforts is also produced by Aardman Animation studios. I have watched this a couple of times on ITV and really found the facial and body animation convincingly expressed. The audio voice of these general everyday people that is lip synced with the Clay characters is impressive and funny. I think in some ways it has made me think more about facial expressions and Lip Sync, i only have to look at myself and see how my eyes, head and mouth move in flow with my voice.

Here is an image of Pocoyo which i also mentioned in my previous post. Again i have watched this many times on TV and the web and i just love the simplicity of the characters and the animation.

This is obviously CG claymation and this is the look i want for my character.

I also found out that Pocoyo is produced in Spain and the software they use to achieve their CG clay look is created using SoftImage XSI.

Noddy is also a CG claymation. What is interesting about this TV show is that Noddy was previously a pure Claymation but since then, the studio behind Noddy have decided to move into the Digital CG claymation. This is also evident for Postman Pat, another kids TV Show which was pure claymation but since then was adapted into Digital CG claymation.

Just some Refrences which i have used to sketch character poses for Willie Billiams in a character sheet. These poses displayed in the picture demonstrate that the boy is hyperactive and it is a useful refrence as hyperactive is Willie Billiams main personality aspect.

Here is a link which i have checked out for information on Claymation and the history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_animation

The Website below is the Aardman Animation Studio Website and i have checked out it for more information.

http://www.aardman.com/

This link below displays a concept artist who produced drawings for the Jak & Daxter Game. His name is Bob Falei and it gave me an idea of how i should go about producing the concepts for my character.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=jak3&message.id=61054

And this link below is the studio who produce Pocoyo. A quick warning for this link, it is in spanish as the Studio is from Spain.

http://www.zinkia.com/

Research & Refrences

The brief for the character design states that the client wants a claymation look to their characters. So i have been surfing the net and have been looking at videos of claymations, to get an idea of how the texture and movement of clay can look like.

The company best known for producing claymation is Aardman and i have been looking at some of their work on Youtube. I'm specifically looking at the way they are animated and how they move as i may use this for my character animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFfK5vl5N5g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6SwfidmOI4

I also found this kids TV show called Pocoyo which airs on CITV. I really liked the look of the design and how it is not a completely claymation textured look but more CG based. It definately differs in terms of texture compared to the Aardman animation as they are more of a natural claymation where as Pocoyo is CG based.

I really think the Pocoyo CG claymation will suit my character design and the look i am going for. Simple and slick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxu3jfqpItE

As for refrences for my initial character design and the concept look that i want, i found some examples of the look and personality that i want of my character Willie Billiams to have.

This specific picture of a kid is more me considering a possible clothing

refrence for my character.

I want my character to have simple clothing

so i am just thinking about a T-shirt and a trouser shorts for the kid

This Incredibles image of Dash has given me thought for the personality that i want Willie Billiams to have. The brief describes Willie to be hyperactive and being obsessive about creepy crawlies. So this tells me that the character has to have a colourful and fun design look so it reflects his personality.

This is an image of a CG animated character from a kids TV show called Jimmy Neutron.

I like the colours and expression of this character so this has given me food for thought about the overall design i want for my character. Obviously it still has to have some claymation look to it so i haven't forgotten.

Ok. I will continue a bit more research and then crack on with the actual drawn concepts of the character Willie Billiams.

Industry Excercise 1 brief

We have received our project brief for the Industry Excercise 1 assignment and from what i have read, looks pretty interesting.

Ok so in the project brief it states that i have to choose from 3 briefs, these briefs are

Brief A: Game Design - Build a Chop Shop Enviroment for Rockstar North

Brief B: Animation - Create an Ident animation for National Gallery

Brief C: Character Design - Design & animate some characters for Axis Animation

After reading the whole brief in full and some time to think i have decided to go for Brief C: Character Design.

Brief C: Character Design

Source: Jon Beeston

Editor -- Axis Animation

http://www.axisanimation.com/

“We would like your students to design and animate some characters for us for a potential animated advertisement for London Zoo. We are thinking about using a visual style that reflects traditional “Claymation” techniques but will be generated using CG processes. The characters should be worked up from the following list:”

1. Willie Billiams – “A hyperactive nine year old on his first visit to London Zoo with an obsessive interest in creepy crawlies.”

2. Pocahontas Billiams – “Willie’s sister, she’s seven years old but much more relaxed and more knowing than her sibling. She wants to be a gorilla.”

3. Wilhemina Billiams – “Willie and Pocahontas’s grandmother, she thinks everything smells bad and is worried that a chimp or one of those nasty bonobos might escape and “Poo in her hat.””

4. Wee Eck McGlone – “London Zoo’s long suffering head keeper sixty, bald, curmudgeonly, Scottish, fiercely patriotic and obsessive about sweeping up dung.”

5. Cornelius – “A middle aged silver back gorilla, the most civilised and sensible occupant of the zoo by far.”

“Your students should consider the following points when working through their character designs:”

• “If they work in 3D then they should concentrate on two characters from the list per animator.”
• “If they work in 3D then they should be using one of the major 3D packages, i.e. Maya, Lightwave, or Max. The characters should be fully modelled to a maximum resolution of about 100,000 polygons, decent texturing is vital, we won’t accept a model alone at this stage. The model should be rigged”
• “We expect to see support work on paper, development drawings and character sheets that should include orthogonal views, i.e. front, back, top, and side, and a more expressive drawing of the character in a typical pose.”

“We would like to see some expressive animation sequences that demonstrate the functionality of the rig and also character performance.”

The reason for choosing Brief C is because i really want to successfully create an actual Character that has gone through all the stages of modelling, texturing, rigging and animation.

I have never gone through the whole process so i want to work on these weaknesses and build on my strength which is concepts and modelling.

Also i enjoy the idea of designing a character as its much more creative and rewarding when you have created your own character from scratch and that is one of my main motivations for this brief.

So from the brief C i have decided to design one character which is the boy Willie Billiams. I spoke to Jared briefly and he said that i could stick with one character if i go through the whole process of the four areas.

The four areas i will be working on this character are

2D Conceptualization

Character Animation

Visualisation (and modelling)

visualisation (texturing and rendering)

Finally i have decided to work on my own as i really want to refine my skills and also decide and focus on the area i would like to specialise in. I have worked in groups before and i have enjoyed it but for this brief i want to work on my own. Definately i want to work more in groups in future projects as i would like to gain more experiance and knowledge from others around me.