CHARACTER PROJECTDominic Atkinson

MOODBOARD

MOODBOARD

ARTIST RESEARCH – BRENOCHADAMS Brenoch Adams is a concept artist and illustrator currently

working at Crystal Dynamics in Redwood City, California. In 2005 Brenoch also worked at Nihilistic Software where he worked on Conan for the xbox 360 and ps3 including several other IP projects. Brenoch Studied at San Jose State University, in which he studied traditional illustration, and 2D/3D animation. Before video games, he worked as a snowboard graphic designer at Aero Custom rides, and as an illustrator for Fox Racing Co. He has created many concept art pieces but some of his key work is the Tomb Raider.I chose Brenoch Adams because I loved the Tomb Raider games and all of the art the work for them. It was awesome to look at with all the fine detail and colours. It also gave me ideas of the style of clothes and the way each crease is different to another and the dirt on them. I got the ideas of the colour of the pants and style as I didn’t want them to look identical however I wanted the same style.

ARTIST RESEARCH – GAVIN GOULDENGavin Goulden is the Lead character Artist at Insomniac

Games, having recently released Sunset Overdrive on the XboxOne. Before that he was the Lead Character Artist on Bioshock Infinite, Character Artist on Dead Rising 2, The Bigs 2, Damnation, and contributed to titles like FEAR 2, Dragon Age, and many other independent projects. He has used a huge range of software such as 3ds Max, Zbrush, xNormal, Maya, Photoshop, Unreal Engine, TopoGun, Substance Painter and DDO. I have chosen Gavin because of how recognisable his work is and how well known the games are. His detail and colour coordination is perfect for his art.I took ideas from the body shape, which is tall but muscular body build, for my characters body shape.

ARTIST RESEARCH - ISTVAN PELYIstvan Pely born in 1974, is an American game artist. He started out creating 3D computer graphics whilst at college. He was then introduced to 3D studio. He mainly focuses on 3D art and his work was noticed by Bethesda and they employed him to work on Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. He was the lead artist on the Fallout games.I chose Istvan Pely because of the detail and the style of his work. Fallout is also one of my favourite games and I loved looking at the art style for the game.His work inspired me to create the arm of my character using the wiring and the parts as ideas for my character. He is well known for his 3D artwork and concept art.I got the idea of the robotic arm from the small parts he has, such as the wires in the back of the robots neck and the small screw shapes at the bottom.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES - HEROThe Hero is usually the main protagonist of any film or game. They are the main character the narrative follows. Often seen as a role model or idol for viewers during spectatorship. The hero's are often created around traits such as; Brave, Strong, Selfless, courageous and friendly. These traits are often seen in films such as superhero films and games.

Link from the Zelda games fits into a hero. He is brave and strong as he travels and fights off powerful enemy's. He is very selfless as he does tasks and helps out many of people he encounters and willing to do anything to help. Which leads him on to be very courageous and friendly. Link is a perfect character who fits into the Hero category.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES –VILLAIN/SHADOWThe villain is the antagonist in both games and

films. They are usually shown to be brutal and unforgiving in their selfish actions. They think about themselves and bring harm to others.They often have the same traits such as selfishness, unfriendly and cowardly. The villains often test the Hero's wits by pushing the hero to the bitter end and bringing of the worst in the hero. A great example of a villain is The Joker from batman. He is a brutal and unforgiving villain who kills people and steals causing mayhem purely because he wants to hurt people. On multiple occasions he tests Batman and makes him do things he doesn’t want to then usually at the end of the movie or game the villain loses as the hero pulls through.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES - FOOLThe fool is the character which often makes a lot of mistakes. They are clumsy and close to the hero or villain. In many scenarios they make mistakes in the Hero is usually the one who has to clean up the mess or who suffers from their mistakes. However in the scenarios the villain has killed the fool to prove how unforgiving and brutal they are.A great example of a fool is Homer Simpson because of his traits. He is very clumsy and makes so many mistakes. However he is a loveable character and always ends up doing the right thing.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES –ANIMA/ANIMUS MALE

The anime/animus is the character which are often the accomplice or motivation figure to either the male or the female and often end in a love or relationship. Jake Sully in avatar fits into the category because he is the learner and the male figure to Neytiri and helps her to fight back against the military.Her falls in love with Neytiri and gives her motivation throughout the movie.He fits perfectly into the category because he is equivalent as Neytiri and he helps her from an emotional level. He is there and often gives her courage to do better in herself.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES –ANIMA/ANIMUS FEMALE

The anima/animus is the character which are often the accomplice or motivation figure to either the male or the female and often end in a love or relationship. Catwoman in the batman franchise fits into the category because she is the female in batmans life that helps him despite her mysterious intentions and never knowing if she is good of bad she helps batman after him gaining feelings, which allows him to become better then who he is and gain courage to win. Catwoman keeps batman on his feet and focused however she can also be selfish but ends up doing the right thing in the end. She fits perfectly into the category because she is equivalent to Batman in skill and despite her criminal nature she always ends up doing the right thing.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES – THE MENTOR

The mentor is usually the wise character that brings out the full potential of the protagonist in which allows the protagonist to win or overcome obstacles. Yoda is a perfect example of a Mentor because of his traits. The mentor take on a parent like role with advising the protagonist with ideas only for the protagonists best interests.Yoda fits into this category because his advice is thought about for the best intentions. He is very wise and thoughtful with helping the right people and bringing out the best in everyone.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES – THE TRICKSTERThe Trickster is the character that attempts to get everything

or steal all the glory for them self. They often try to do things selfishly to gain all the glory or treasure. Their purpose is selfishness. These characters can be a main part or a side character but their outcome or idea will always be in greed. Loki is perfect for this description as he can turn people to his side and his power is deception and fire. He can trick people into thinking he is someone else to gain things for himself. He tries to take over the world and using his powers tricked people into teaming with him along with trying to steal king of Azgard.The trickster will try to corrupt the hero or try something to stop the protagonist from winning or gaining anything. Along with trying to make the hero lose.

FACIAL SHAPES IN CHARACTER ARCHETYPES There are many facial shapes for many characters,

however most of these facial shapes are created on purpose and relate to the characteristics of that character.

The square face represents Hero traits and characteristics such as, trust, Honesty, Stability, Conformity. With overall hero looks and colours too.

The triangle facial shape is usually used on villains and bad guys. Who have traits such as, aggression, Conflict, sneakiness, tension and action.

The circle facial shape is often used on wise characters such as a mentor or parent. These characters are often found to be, graceful, comforting, wise and unified.

FACIAL SHAPE-THE RIDDLERThe Riddler is a villain from the Batman franchise. He is extremely

intelligent and deceitful. He has a triangle facial shape which we know to be the face of villains. The triangle shape can be seen around his face with the shape of his eyes, his jaw and his nose. The triangle is an occurring theme in villains not just shown only on the facial shape but also the body. Using the triangle and knowledge of the Riddler, he is very aggressive however he shows a lot of tension and action when he is in conflict. This relates to his personality of himself. He sets of deadly riddles everywhere and is aware of all locations. The triangle facial shape is his eyes show that he is mysterious in ways as he wants to be hidden but known at the sametime.

FACIAL SHAPE- SUPERMANSuperman is one of the best know super heros and he is an idol for many people who watch or know about him. With his broad shoulders and muscular body makes him perfect hero material. His facial shape is square which can show trust, stability and honest. This is all the traits of this superhero along with his colour of outfit. Heros often have square faces or aspects of square shapes such as the shoulders and hands to an extent. The square facial shape makes superman a perfect example of a hero as he has all the traits, colours and shapes throughout his whole body.

FACIAL SHAPE – MASTER OOGWAYMaster Oogway is a prime example of a mentor.

He is wise, intelligent and caring. Using his facial shape we can see it is circular with round eyes and a rounded nose. We associate circle facial shapes with people who are wise and perhaps older. Circle facial shapes are often characters who are graceful, wise, caring and unified as a whole. They are seen as a parent or guardian for the protagonist by helping them understand their true potential and bringing out the best in them. Master Oogway is a perfect character for this as he fits all the traits and shapes for being a Mentor character.

COLOUR THEORY IN GAME CHARACTERS

• The aspect of colour plays a large role in portraying a character in both games and films as it is the biggest visual aspect of anything. Everything has a colour and it is the very first thing we see. Many colours have represented certain aspects and traits to do with that colour.

COLOUR THEORYThe colour red generally evokes feelings of action, confidence, courage, vitality, energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination, passion, desire, anger, and love.

The colour yellow generally evokes feelings of wisdom, joy, happiness, intellect, caution, decay, sickness, jealousy, cowardliness, comfort, liveliness, optimism, and feeling overwhelmed.The colour blue generally evokes feelings of trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, health, healing, tranquillity, understanding, softness, knowledge, power, integrity, seriousness, honour, coldness, and sadness.The colour purple generally evokes feelings of power, nobility, elegance, sophistication, artificial luxury, mystery, royalty, magic, ambition, wealth, extravagance, wisdom, dignity, independence, and creativity.

COLOUR THEORY

The colour green generally evokes feelings of nature, growth, harmony, freshness, fertility, safety, money, durability, luxury, optimism, well-being, relaxation, optimism, honesty, envy, youth, and sickness.The colour orange generally evokes feelings of cheerfulness, enthusiasm, creativity, fascination, happiness, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, prestige, illumination, and wisdom.The colour black generally evokes the feeling of power, elegance, formality, death, evil, mystery, fear, grief, sophistication, strength, depression, and mourning.The colour white generally evokes the feeling of cleanliness, purity, newness, virginity, peace, innocence, simplicity, sterility, light, goodness, and perfection.

COLOUR THEORY IN CHARACTERS-SUPER MARIOApplying colour theory to characters. The classic red

and blue Hero also known as Super Mario fits perfectly into the colour theory. Red colour of determination as he travels through worlds and courage to rescue his princess. With a Big M on his hat. Including the blue dungaree's that represent loyalty, honour , truth and intelligence as her continuously proves to the princess as he saves her from every castle whilst putting himself in danger as a true show of selflessness and courage. Applying the colour theory shows that it is linked with his traits and characteristics shown throughout the games continuously.

COLOUR THEORY IN CHARACTERS-DR EGGMANApplying the colour theory to characters such as Dr Eggman,

who many know as sonic’s arch nemesis. You can see he has a red jumper and black pants with a yellow collar t-shirt under the jumper. Applying the colour theory, The yellow collar signifies intellect with his intelligence of building machines including, decay which can relate to him being evil.The yellow could also signify jealousy of Sonic always getting his own way with Eggman always failing and wanting to do better. The red jumper shows danger and determination, as he shows he wont stop until he gets his way or wins. With anger showing as he is always angry at everything.Finally his black pants. His pants are black that signifies death and evil. He is always failing showing that he gets angry and he has the evil within him to kill something or someone to get what he wants.

COLOUR THEORY IN CHARACTERS-LOKI

Again using the colour theory on the character Loki he follows a green, black and yellow colour coordination.The green on his jacket represents his sickness and optimism as he is evil but always has the believe he can win correlating with his optimistic side. Green is also linked with wealth as well as the gold, showing he wants power and wealth with his life. We link green with sickness as it is an ill colour. This links with his personality and mind, as he is an evil character with power and pride.The black on his outfit links with Death, mystery and possibly strength. Where he goes he brings death and destruction. He is strong and very powerful. He is a bad guy and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

CHARACTER BIO ORION JAMES BASICS

• Name: Orion James • Alias: OJ• Age: 36• Height: 6ft 1• Weight: 160Ib• Sex: Male• Race: white male• Eye Color: Black• Glasses or Contact Lenses: one robotic eye• Nationality: English• Skin Color: White• Shape of Face: Square face with triangle chin. Sharpened teeth

CHARACTER BIO ORION JAMESDISTINGUISHING FEATURES

• Dress: Ripped T-shirt with on robotic joint at the elbow on the left arm• Mannerisms: Sarcastic with British accent• Habits: none• Health: Lost his elbow in war• Hobbies: Inventing• Favorite Sayings: If in doubt…. Take it out• Voice: British accent• Walking Style: Sways to his side and tilts his head.• Disabilities: Insanity • Flaws: none• Best Quality: Accent

CHARACTER BIO ORION JAMESSOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Hometown: Cambridge • Current Residence: Unknown• Occupation: inventor • Income: Self-employed - varied• Talents/Skills: inventing and combat.• Family Status: No family• Status as a Child: orphan lived in care until 18 then joined the army.• Status as an Adult: left the army at 32 began inventing. Lives alone

CHARACTER BIO ORION JAMESATTRIBUTES AND ATTITUDES

• ATTRIBUTES AND ATTITUDES• Educational Background: home schooled • Intelligence Level: 162• Goals: Help track and find bad guys. • Self-esteem: low due to his physical traits• Confidence: High confidence as he knows he can achieve anything.

Doesn’t doubt himself• Emotion: Insane due to living alone

CHARACTER BIO ORION JAMESEMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Introvert or Extrovert: introvert. Doesn’t talk much• Goals: To help so people don’t fear him• Motivation: Self-motivation• Fear: being an outcast to society due to his physical looks.• Happiness: Low • Relationships: None• Archetype: Hero• Environment: helps society

CHARACTER BIO ORION JAMES

• Orion was born in 2013 by his single mother who died during child birth. He was kept in care and home-schooled until the age of 18. Doing exceptional in training he was put into the SS and was trained with the highest level of combat training, engineering and computer skills. During his time in the army he was captured and tortured with his teeth carved into sharp spikes and the loss of his eye, with damage to his arm causing him to lose his elbow and due to his skills was given a high tech elbow joint that still allows him to move his hand and fingers. He left the army to use his intelligence to help catch enemies and terrorists. Living alone he started inventing things but began going insane but is still very intelligent and helps in everyday life.

INITIAL CHARACTER IDEAS

I wanted him to have a very recognisable face but with a hat because of his lack of hair.

II tried different facial shapesto see which I prefered

I looked into different Style of eyes and features

I looked into his Clothes to make Ideas unique to me

CHARACTER FACE DEVELOPMENTI tried different facial features and hats to see which looked best on my character

Smiling and confused

Thinking and grinning

Sadness

Cheering and scared

Confident and sorrow

I picked two facesand worked on themto see which one lookedbetter

I draw a small sketch of my character to see what face fit on my character better

CHARACTER POSES

I created some poses quickly to see how my character would look in different positions

LIFE MODELLINGThe life modelling was designed to create a model of the woman we had in the room.This was to help give ideas of body proportion and shape.

The first image washe standing up withher hands on herhips and this helped me to get the shapeand size correctly when modelling and designing my character

The second image is of the model sitting down which helped me get an idea of muscles shapes and body shapes in different positions

LIFE DRAWING

SILHOUETTES

I made initial silhouettes and adapted my characters attributed with them as ideas for the shape of the body

SILHOUETTE'S DEVELOPMENT

I then selected asmall handful anddeveloped themwith more detailof my characterand got an ideaof the shape ofmy character

I chose thesebecause I wantedmy characterto have a curved body with a roboticleft arm

COLOUR VARIANT'S ORION JAMESThe colour variantswas created usingthe colour theorywheel because I wanted my characterto be a hero so I needed to make the correct colours

ORION JAMES FINAL COLOURS FOR THE CHARACTER

I have chosen a light blue to signify intelligence, trust, seriousness and to also show sadness and cold in the characters personality.

The second colour I have chosen is a brown as it is a mix of a primary and complimentary colour such as purple and yellow, or red and green. This is to signify his personality traits. However having two other pleasant colours to push towards a good guy.

The final colour I chose was green. This is to signify durability, optimism and honesty as a character in whole.

PRIMARY REFERENCE PICTURES FOR BODY PROPORTIONS

These are the pictures I have take of myself to get the body proportions of my character correctly

SECONDARY REFERENCE PICTURES FOR BODY PROPORTIONS

These are the pictures I got onlineto get ideas of different types of body shapesto use on designing my character.

SKELETAL IMAGE OF REFERENCE PICTURES

I began by sketching a skeletal structure to begin with using the reference images

SKETCHES FROM REFERENCE PICTURES

REFERENCE DEVELOPMENTI then developed the skeletal images by drawing the outline of a body on it usingthat as a base structure for my character.

FINAL REFERENCE IMAGE USING PROJECTING THE CHARACTER INTO THE SKETCHES

I then used the body outline and adapted my character into it in

three differentpositions

This allowed me to get an idea of whatmy character wouldlook like before I created the final design

CHARACTER FINAL 3 POINT TURNMy final design 3 point turnDrawing.

Digital 3 point turn with colour

CONCEPT SHEETS

MODELLING CONCEPT SHEETOrion James

Full Paint render 3 point turn aroundand perspective render

Flat colour render

Clay 3 point turn around renderof the Zbrush model

Left arm is robotic with a robotic left eye

EVALUATION

• For my project I was asked to design and create a hero or a villain. I chose to do a hero however my character doesn’t have superpowers just intelligence and computer skills. I started by researching 3 different game character artists to get ideas that I could use for my character. My idea was to make his outfit look like everyday clothes however his physical attributes to be recognised easily, such as the teeth, the arm and the eyes.

• I used a range of medias and techniques to create my work, ranging from Zbrush to Photoshop. I started by drawing initial ideas of my character on paper and scanning them in to my computer. From there I used Photoshop to create the digital drawings and outlines for my character.

EVALUATION

• For the clothes I used ideas from the artists I had researched and then the colour wheel to visualise the type of character I have. This helped me gain an idea of the different colour variants to create and design.

• My development of my character design progressed due to the research and digital designs. I had learnt body proportions and this allowed me to make major progress in the design and creation of my character. I had never used Zbrush before however I got a lot better and learnt very fast on how to use it.

• I am most pleased with the digital art work of my character in my work because I began not knowing body proportions and shapes so my drawings of humans looks off and not real at all. However through learning body proportions and life drawing I gained a lot of knowledge of body proportions and could digitally draw my character really well

EVALUATION

• I am least pleased with my modelling. I had never used Zbrush before however when I got the hang of it I couldn’t create normal looking bodies especially faces. This demotivated me however I managed to finish the model to look almost like my drawing.

• My strongest point was creating the skeletal outlines and the silhouettes for my character however, my weakest point was the modelling as I feel I could do better as I am practicing more at it.

• I believe my work really shows its similarities and communicates well to the originally set project. This is because I stuck to all the tasks and managed both my work and time efficiently. However if I could work differently in the next project I would most definitely practice a lot more at Zbrush modelling. However I feel the most important thing I learned during this project was the drawing human bodies and learning how to draw them correctly with body proportions.