This was a pretty unique experience.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Anime-ish character designs batch 4!
Just like your favorite talent search shows, my character designs also come in batches. This week has been particularly tough as I was down with the fever for a few days yet I didn't have the luxury to take a day off. But tomorrow will be a different story as I promise to treat myself extra special for all this hard work.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Latest Anime-ish character designs
New designs for work. This time the theme is a girl who loves superheroes. I widened the descriptions though, see for yourself:
1. A little superhero girl. This girl is really adorable but her moves are really brash and violent due to influence of film and tv. She thinks of herself as a real superhero trapped in a little girl's body.
2. The method-acting cosplayer. In every costume she wears, she becomes that character. Confidence and great poses are her signature in game. She knows how to project her best angles.
3. The consumer fangirl. Just a typical teenage girl addicted to cartoons, books, and internet culture. She lacks athletic ability or finesse but has hard hitting moves because of her bulk.
4. Shy "harajuku" nerd. This girl grew up embracing the fashion of Japan and it's famous street named "harajuku" where people express themselves through clothing. She is terribly shy though, and often hides the lower part of her face in a mask. In game this shyness will be relayed through a bit of indecisiveness in her every move.
5. Boisterous working girl. This girl acts more manly than most man, she works blue collar jobs and shouts a lot. In game this will translate to really manly moves that will surely match her tomboyish look.
Friday, June 7, 2013
More Anime-ish character designs
New character designs for work! The theme was a rocker dude. I totally enjoyed thinking of the designs and envisioning their personalities, you can read em below: (from screen left to right)
1. A bar room player who likes to play energetic songs. I imagined something like the men from the tap dance scene in titanic. So this personality will translate in the animation by giving him hillbilly like jumpy movements.
2. Wild rocker - just like his look, this guy plays with reckless abandon and wild kicks like there’s no tomorrow.
3. This guy is a blues singer. Suave and groovy, just like what his moves will be in game. Moves like James Brown or something like that.
4. The depressed, cranky artist. This guy doesn’t sleep and is underpaid. In game this will translate for sloppy moves, and poor balance.
5. Heartbroken drummer. This guy just got out of a 7-year relationship. He’s totally emotional and pours out his soul in playing the drums. For the game he could be constantly intense and crying as he releases his frustration in every move.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Anime-ish character designs
Some character designs I did for work. I tried to implement some things I learned about drawing clothes but as of now I'm still faking it. Gonna dig deeper and find out about how folds on clothes and drapery really work.
Monday, June 3, 2013
June - Clothing and drapery month!
If anyone noticed, I haven't done any long written blog post in a while. The reason is that I wanted to make this blog more about the drawings and less about the talk. It worked for me as I got a lot of drawings and work done during May. But for now I have to make an exception cause I'm once again dedicating a month to improving a certain area of study - namely, clothing and drapery!
This month is supposed to be dedicated to working on my comic and learning more about story but as fate would have it, my current project extended and I have a chance to design and animate 6 new characters plus 20 aliens. Now I decided to go along with the circumstance and study clothing instead to improve my designs and to make the characters more fun to animate in the future.
So for now, my plan of attack is this:
Drapery :
3. Master copies - Look for fold patterns and study how of these people draw/translate them: (200 copies)
-simple - fabien-m
-intermediate - gainax (TTGL and FLCL)
-complicated - kekkaishi
4. Appeal (200 samples)- Now that you've learned how folds work, it's time to present them in a way that you'll find it fun to draw and people want to look at. Keeping in mind how interesting are master copies you've done earlier, the two things to do to add appeal onto your own work are:
-simple, interesting general shape of fabric
-interesting and well defined two tone, giving sense to the folds
5. Putting it all together. Draw from your street photography bookmarks = (125 copies)
Pencil Mileage:
The top priority is to draw clothing/drapery everyday no matter how long or short your available time is. Just don't miss a day. Aim to do 100 clothing/drapery studies every week. 30 are copies from animation and 70 are drawings based on real life.
As an additional guide, here are a list of the most common types of fabrics, categorized according to : (thickness) thick, average, thin + (rigidity) hard, soft, crisp.
1. (normal, soft) Cotton is derived from the fibre of the tropical cotton plant. When the cotton flowers bloom and die, a boll remains which ripens and splits open to reveal a white, fluffy interior with seeds – this is the raw cotton. Cotton is the most widely used fabric and is the basis of over 30 types of textiles.
2. (thick, hard) Denim is a type of cotton fabric woven in such a way that the threads produce that distinctive diagonal ribbing on the underside of the fabric. Traditionally it was dyed blue and the first denim trousers were made in Genoa, Italy. Both the words ‘denim’ and ‘jeans’ are of French origin.
3. (thin, crisp)Linen is derived from the fibres flax plant and is highly valued for it’s fresh, cool feel especially during hot weather. Some fabrics of cotton or hemp when woven in a linen-like weave are referred to as linen.
4. (thin, soft)Silk is one of the oldest and most luxurious fabrics known to man. This protein fibre is obtained from the cocoons of the mulberry moth and was first produced in China as far back as 3,000 BC.
5. (thick, soft) Wool is a natural protein fibre derived from the hair and fur of different animals including sheep and goats. The fibres are shorter than those of silk and generally form a looser weave.
Gonna post the results and a tutorial in the future. Till then, keep your pencils busy!
