Venturing onto Pastures New

As we have now moved on from our E4 idents and are beginning to watch and comment on everyone's work, we have been given the next and final task of the year. We have been given the task of developing our character studies from the AD102 project further and turning them 3D. Not only this but we have to make their movements and actions tell the viewer about the character and their personality.

I think the planning, storyboarding and sketching will be the easiest bit. I know the character very well, having based him off of my dog and developed him through the art and stories I'm planning for my series. The 3D work will definitely be a real kick in the butt. I'm expecting to need a lot of help with it.

I also want to redo a few things from my previous project, mainly Frodo's measurement sheet. I don't like how it came out at all and I feel I could have done better with it, but that shouldn't take too much time to do. I want to keep well on top of my development work and hopefully keep it up to the standard I had from my previous project. I feel writing this blog has really helped with that.

One thing we need to do is research 3D animators and their work. One thing to get us started is watching the newly created 3D animation, Cat Shit One. Now, with a title like that, I could only expect one thing. And I'm sure you'll know what that is. However, I was very surprised with the characters involved and the situations that arose in the animation. Rabbits fighting terrorist camels isn't something that one comes across every day. And cute bunnies carrying guns... it shouldn't have interested me but it did.

Anyhow, I loved the character designs, the rabbits looked adorable and the camels looks threatening and dangerous, so the audience could tell which side they wanted to be on. The rabbit characters themselves are different in their fur patterns but also in their mannerisms, with one being more bold and hardened by war and the other more timid yet able to fight. Little things like this can open the door to a character's personality, what makes them unique.

I think looking at these animations will be very helpful in finalizing my characters look and personality. I feel I've learned a lot from today alone. Although obviously there is much to do!