The site Deviantart is currently hosting a competition in conjunction with game developers, CAPCOM of the Street Fighter and Resident Evil fame. Amongst about a billion different games.
Anyway, the competition basically wants you to enter a piece of fan art in honour of the Wii console version release of the video game, Okami.
So, using inspiration garnered from the fan art, concept art and other images featured on the above site as well as experience from actually playing the game (which.. I've ben able to find a copy of) the contest holders want you to submit as many pieces of fan art for judging as you want, with the prize being a copy of the game on the wii, a wii itself, a years subscription to Deviantart.com and of course, some recognition in some way by members of CAPCOM themselves.
So, here are some sketches that I've hammered out so far in preparation:
The game follows a very sumi-e influenced style which you may or may not be able to tell by looking at the site (though I'd be very suprised if you couldn't to be honest.. ) and this is fortunate because I have a 'loose hand' type of drawing style so to speak.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Radiohead Competition
On the site Aniboom, a competition is currently being hosted with the prize of $20,000 (about 40p in real money) for whoever is picked by the community and finally, Radiohead themselves to make a video for one of the songs on the album 'In Rainbows'.
Initially the competition asks that you submit a storyboard of your concept, timed to the song but as was evident as soon as submissions were being shown, alot of people seemed to have pretty much glazed over this stage and gone straight into making the actual video. Which is a bit annoying to be honest because this then removes alot of good ideas who's 'storyboards' aren't finalised executions of the concept. Also, this means that the quality bar for the judging community (a concept that I've never really been fond of) is greatly raised, with many a comment of 'umm the idea is good but i don't like how it looks like a drawn storyboard' arising all over decent entries, much to the frustration of my work partner Matt and myself.
So, instead of going it alone, we decided to team up. I would do the storyboard of the concept he'd already come up with and then he'd make it into an animatic.
The concept he came up with was for the song '15 steps' which has an upbeat rythm, almost mechanical in some parts. Matt told me that this is why the video concept involved a printer as its mechanics chug back and forth rhythmically. From this printer comes a small ink man who ends up in the paper tray after being printed. Not satisfied with this situation, he spends the rest of the video trying to clamber back up into the printer, fighting against the unrelenting torrent of paper that comes out at him. At different stages he falls down the page, gets knocked back by a sheet, tears through one layer of printed paper to the one below and dangles feriociously to the edge of the printed stack, all in an effort to find some peace from the never ending marathon. Eventually he finds solace in defeat, lays back on the stack and waits for the unending pile up to smother him until he is only a pool of ink that drains out and pools in front of the picture.
The main concept of this neverending struggle is one that I like alot but, the resolution in which the protagonist just ends up giving up is a little too defeated for me. Matt feels that this is in line with the kind of message that Radiohead would want to have typically in their music but the overall feel of the song is about fighting this relentless climb and then for the end result to actually not be what you wanted it like the 'sheer drop' lyrics suggest.
By the time Matt had asked me to assist him, he had already written out what he wanted to appear in each frame of the animatic and drawn a few frames loosely of the storyboard. We met up to discuss exactly what he would like to see and I went through each and every description he gave with him to make sure to the best o my knowledge that I wasn't going to miss anything.
This is a good example of what we did over that couple of hours of discussion:
(If you want to read it: Just click for bigger)
So the page of text above is a transcript of Matt's original concept with my pencils over the top as evidence of my questions and clarifications on vague areas or instances where I've said 'is that going to work?' or 'is that the message that you want to get a across?' and then we've amended in some way. This was the manual for which I made the pieces.
These are Matt's sketches of what he'd want in the frames. I used them largely as influences for the video's style so that I could retain as much of Matt's 'Feel' as possible.
Because the time constraints Matt had set upon me for this brief were tight, I knew that the work I was going to do was to be done fast and not as polished as I would have liked it to have been. The time I was given was literally, he asked me on the night of day 1, we discussed the boards on day 2 and by the end of day 3 he wanted everything ready for working on. This deadline was made even tighter by the fact that I would be travelling to Newcastle on day 3 at midday to procure some work experience so I needed to crack on.
After listening to '15 steps' a couple of times to get the mood of the song into my head fully, I began sketching out the printer and figuring out what parts needed to move.
I understood that Matt would be using Aftereffects to make all the componments move around so I was aware of how things needed to be drawn and layered.
I figured that I would only actually need 4 frames total because all the angles and movements that Matt wanted could be brought about by moving the cameras and set pieces around in the editing program. This took a bit of pressure off me.
The four frames I needed to make were the outside of the printer from a front facing angle (as it the printer was at your eye line) with moving 'paper' layers and flashing lights, an internal printer scene using moving 'cogs' and 'roller' layers to show the paper being pushed through, an internal 'ink catridge' scene with moving ink cartidge layer and finally another outside printer scene but this time from a low view point, looking up towards the printer to give the impression of a much larger scale to the printer and so that we can better relate to the ink chap who's plight we will be witnessing. The last frame was to be the most involving I knew because in this, I must accomodate for all the action that most of the video will make use of including fully articulate marrionettes of the ink figure and several distinctive events like holes being punched in the paper.
Thankfully, Matt was wanting a fairly sketchy style to the whole piece so my working style naturally suited his needs.
As it turns out, I was able to turn the sketches into finished storyboard marionettes by colouring them and after showing the first frame to Matt, he liked it so I carried on throughout the rest of the frames.
This is what I came out with. Each one is very much like the planned out descriptions I gave for them. I guess this shows that if you're stuck for time, even a little planning beforehand will give you a much smoother experience when it comes to actually grafting.
Basically everything in each image can be moved about seperately but each moveable part is grouped to what I feel are intuitive members of its 'family' (like each part of the printers case being grouped) so that I give Matt an instantly easier time moving stuff around to his needs. In the case of the last frame in paticular this is important because there is even more stuff to move around than I've shown in the above image so it was vital that I helped Matt to meet his deadline by making it easy.
When it came down to it, Matt told me that he ended up not actually having the time to spend making the animatic because he had left it a bit late to enter the competition using this piece. Instead, he submitted a video that we have both worked on in the past which also happens to be set to a piece of Radiohead from the 'In Rainbows' album and so far, the video seems to be quite popular. Bit annoyed my more recent efforts didn't really come to any fruition but I held up my end of the bargain so I can't really do much more than actually make the animatic myself.
Heres to a rehashed contest entry win attempt!
Initially the competition asks that you submit a storyboard of your concept, timed to the song but as was evident as soon as submissions were being shown, alot of people seemed to have pretty much glazed over this stage and gone straight into making the actual video. Which is a bit annoying to be honest because this then removes alot of good ideas who's 'storyboards' aren't finalised executions of the concept. Also, this means that the quality bar for the judging community (a concept that I've never really been fond of) is greatly raised, with many a comment of 'umm the idea is good but i don't like how it looks like a drawn storyboard' arising all over decent entries, much to the frustration of my work partner Matt and myself.
So, instead of going it alone, we decided to team up. I would do the storyboard of the concept he'd already come up with and then he'd make it into an animatic.
The concept he came up with was for the song '15 steps' which has an upbeat rythm, almost mechanical in some parts. Matt told me that this is why the video concept involved a printer as its mechanics chug back and forth rhythmically. From this printer comes a small ink man who ends up in the paper tray after being printed. Not satisfied with this situation, he spends the rest of the video trying to clamber back up into the printer, fighting against the unrelenting torrent of paper that comes out at him. At different stages he falls down the page, gets knocked back by a sheet, tears through one layer of printed paper to the one below and dangles feriociously to the edge of the printed stack, all in an effort to find some peace from the never ending marathon. Eventually he finds solace in defeat, lays back on the stack and waits for the unending pile up to smother him until he is only a pool of ink that drains out and pools in front of the picture.
The main concept of this neverending struggle is one that I like alot but, the resolution in which the protagonist just ends up giving up is a little too defeated for me. Matt feels that this is in line with the kind of message that Radiohead would want to have typically in their music but the overall feel of the song is about fighting this relentless climb and then for the end result to actually not be what you wanted it like the 'sheer drop' lyrics suggest.
How come I end up where I started
How come I end up where I went wrong
Won't take my eyes off the ball again
You reel me out then you cut the string
How come I end up where I started How come I end up where I went wrong Won't take my eyes off the ball again You reel me out then you cut the string You used to be alright What happened? Did the cat get your tongue Did your string come undone One by one One by one It comes to us all It's as soft as your pillow You used to be alright What happened? Etcetera etcetera Facts for whatever Fifteen steps Then a shear drop
I think a triumph or at least 'just desserts' would be a more fitting ending and this seems to ring true in the narratives to other Radiohead videos such as 'Karma Police' in which a man who is relentlessly harassed and tortured by a slow chasing car gets revenge by setting it on fire but Matt was pretty 'un-sway-able' from his position. So, I conceeded that he was my client and that I would give him what he wanted to the best of my abilities.By the time Matt had asked me to assist him, he had already written out what he wanted to appear in each frame of the animatic and drawn a few frames loosely of the storyboard. We met up to discuss exactly what he would like to see and I went through each and every description he gave with him to make sure to the best o my knowledge that I wasn't going to miss anything.
This is a good example of what we did over that couple of hours of discussion:
(If you want to read it: Just click for bigger)
So the page of text above is a transcript of Matt's original concept with my pencils over the top as evidence of my questions and clarifications on vague areas or instances where I've said 'is that going to work?' or 'is that the message that you want to get a across?' and then we've amended in some way. This was the manual for which I made the pieces.
These are Matt's sketches of what he'd want in the frames. I used them largely as influences for the video's style so that I could retain as much of Matt's 'Feel' as possible.
Because the time constraints Matt had set upon me for this brief were tight, I knew that the work I was going to do was to be done fast and not as polished as I would have liked it to have been. The time I was given was literally, he asked me on the night of day 1, we discussed the boards on day 2 and by the end of day 3 he wanted everything ready for working on. This deadline was made even tighter by the fact that I would be travelling to Newcastle on day 3 at midday to procure some work experience so I needed to crack on.
After listening to '15 steps' a couple of times to get the mood of the song into my head fully, I began sketching out the printer and figuring out what parts needed to move.
I understood that Matt would be using Aftereffects to make all the componments move around so I was aware of how things needed to be drawn and layered.
I figured that I would only actually need 4 frames total because all the angles and movements that Matt wanted could be brought about by moving the cameras and set pieces around in the editing program. This took a bit of pressure off me.
The four frames I needed to make were the outside of the printer from a front facing angle (as it the printer was at your eye line) with moving 'paper' layers and flashing lights, an internal printer scene using moving 'cogs' and 'roller' layers to show the paper being pushed through, an internal 'ink catridge' scene with moving ink cartidge layer and finally another outside printer scene but this time from a low view point, looking up towards the printer to give the impression of a much larger scale to the printer and so that we can better relate to the ink chap who's plight we will be witnessing. The last frame was to be the most involving I knew because in this, I must accomodate for all the action that most of the video will make use of including fully articulate marrionettes of the ink figure and several distinctive events like holes being punched in the paper.
Thankfully, Matt was wanting a fairly sketchy style to the whole piece so my working style naturally suited his needs.
As it turns out, I was able to turn the sketches into finished storyboard marionettes by colouring them and after showing the first frame to Matt, he liked it so I carried on throughout the rest of the frames.
This is what I came out with. Each one is very much like the planned out descriptions I gave for them. I guess this shows that if you're stuck for time, even a little planning beforehand will give you a much smoother experience when it comes to actually grafting.
Basically everything in each image can be moved about seperately but each moveable part is grouped to what I feel are intuitive members of its 'family' (like each part of the printers case being grouped) so that I give Matt an instantly easier time moving stuff around to his needs. In the case of the last frame in paticular this is important because there is even more stuff to move around than I've shown in the above image so it was vital that I helped Matt to meet his deadline by making it easy.
When it came down to it, Matt told me that he ended up not actually having the time to spend making the animatic because he had left it a bit late to enter the competition using this piece. Instead, he submitted a video that we have both worked on in the past which also happens to be set to a piece of Radiohead from the 'In Rainbows' album and so far, the video seems to be quite popular. Bit annoyed my more recent efforts didn't really come to any fruition but I held up my end of the bargain so I can't really do much more than actually make the animatic myself.
Heres to a rehashed contest entry win attempt!
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Deciding what to send
So the date for entering Northern Design was almost upon the entrants and I hadn't yet selected any work to enter. Bugger!
Looking over work I could submit, sadly my lack of constant final image production left me with little choice over what I could use to present myself. This is unfortunate but a strong testament to a weakness of mine; an inability to focus on a final piece. Ideas? I got ideas; pouring left right and centre. Finalising though, different situation. Its not that I don't finish projects; its that I have trouble pouring time into making a polished piece rather than craploads of scribbly drawings.
I can see the positive side of quick drawing skills because it lets me get ideas out like POW POW POW! but getting someone to dribble over the concept, that I need to work on.
So, the pieces I chose are these three. They're all examples of my illustration but they show different elements of it.
I was originally going to submit some of the 'Ron' sketches I've been working on but, the dog theme helped the 3 images to work better I feel and they're a bit more presentable so, I hope I've made the right choice and net myself a bit of student debt killer!
Looking over work I could submit, sadly my lack of constant final image production left me with little choice over what I could use to present myself. This is unfortunate but a strong testament to a weakness of mine; an inability to focus on a final piece. Ideas? I got ideas; pouring left right and centre. Finalising though, different situation. Its not that I don't finish projects; its that I have trouble pouring time into making a polished piece rather than craploads of scribbly drawings.
I can see the positive side of quick drawing skills because it lets me get ideas out like POW POW POW! but getting someone to dribble over the concept, that I need to work on.
So, the pieces I chose are these three. They're all examples of my illustration but they show different elements of it.
I was originally going to submit some of the 'Ron' sketches I've been working on but, the dog theme helped the 3 images to work better I feel and they're a bit more presentable so, I hope I've made the right choice and net myself a bit of student debt killer!
Thursday, 17 April 2008
E-mailing Tony
(again, it should be noted that this email was sent nearly 2 weeks before this date I've blogged)
I decided that now would be a good time to update Tony on whats going on with the whole character development malarky so, here's what I sent him:
Hi tony,
how are you doing? Hope you had or are having a nice easter, the time off is different around the country so I'm not sure if you're still on your well deserved break ho ho :)
Here are some sketches of what I've come up with so far on the character; I've been showing them to different forums without giving away too much information just to see if they like the look and feel behind the different characters and the e-mails i've been getting back have been really good so far so, what do you think of it?
First, I should explain that I decided to split the Random Ronnie fellow into seperate characters, allowing a different facet of his 'randomness' to form in each of the personalities. I did this because when developing Ronnie and talking to alot of people about the character, I thought that a random character by default has little in the way of a discernable or reliable character or personailty so I'm trying this way of mainting audience interest.
The house that these characters exist within is also quite.. loose in the old 'reality' department but still looks and operates like a house most of the time, just bending to the context of the story (like rooms turning up for plotlines where there were no rooms before for example). The enviroment is something I'm working on currently so that I can do some storyboards with relationships between characters but, I'm thinking at the moment that the cartoon is set mostly in a house that Ron, 'Neil' and 'Pok' occupy, with their neighbour Benyamin in the house next door and the creepy little girl Lucy who watches from tree branches and shadows outside the house. Depending on the episode context though, the enviroment could change if we needed a townscape or a grave yard or a fun fair or something.
With each of the personalities then, we get another form for a new branch of the audience to indentify with. I had designed them more with the mind to contrast them with Ron, rather than just pander to the audience's tastes but hopefully this is a good side effect.
For example theres 'Ron' (all names are still working titles) who is the happy go lucky protagonist and is the main evolution of Random Ronnie, bearing a strong feel of the original concepts you provided me with his curly red hair and general feel. I've made him with the intention that he's the most.. amicable and maybe human character in there. I guess the way to think about my idea of 'Ron' is like Stimpy from 'Ren & Stimpy' in terms of his friendliness and general good nature; only Ron is more intelligent at this point. Ron will always want to help someone in need so we get plot hooks in that way and his personality clashes quite strongly with the overly aggressive and frustrated sock puppet called 'Neil' that he finds in his cellar.
'Neil' is an ancient demon god trapped in this poorly made puppet's form and this has made him very bitter over the centuries, giving him a resentment for anything happy or alive in general. He is the more malicious, angry character to contrast with Ron so, I guess they're a kind of 'Ren & Stimpy' coupling in that sense with a happy/angry clashing but instead of beating Ron senseless every episode, 'Neil' has very little physical power other than being able to use 'spooky ancient demon powers' (whatever the context of the paticular episode deems those to be) such as being able to throw his voice, move objects, summon demonic imps to perform tasks for him or being able to possess small animals. 'Neil' fantasizes often about being able to possess Ron someday when he is asleep or otherwise helpless and then using his body as a vessel, open a portal to an unknown dimension of pure terror. But, since he's usually quite helpless and Ron is aware of 'Neil's intentions, this outcome seems unlikely at the moment. 'Neil' moves about by either being on Ron's or another characters hand or, by being on top of a stick which ends off the bottom of the screen (looks a bit odd but, suspension of disbelief and all that).
I'll try to get through the other 3 characters a bit faster.
'Pok' is the dog of the household who has no eyes, just glowing white eye sockets. His origins are unknown of by the other characters but 'Neil' suspects that he is some government weapon gone wrong which escaped and turned up in the back garden. It would be more accurate to describe Pok as genderless rather than a male or female but the other characters find it humanizes 'him' a little to assign him a gender role. Pok spends his time following Ron around whereever he goes, literally sliding after him in a stood up or sat down position without moving his legs at all, as if he was a cel of animation that someone literally just slid across a scene. This is to emphasize the overwhelming ominous creepy factor that Pok exudes as he is a usually silent but still very intimidating character and even Ron and 'Neil' are typically weary of him. When not being horribly frightening, Pok looks for objects to fill his eye sockets with like bottles, lightbulbs or legs of ham which could be used as a good ice breaker in a scene or a punchline. This is also where Pok gets 'his' name from, from the 'POK!' noise when something is removed from a socket.
Benyamin is the foreign exhange student neighbour who lives next door to Ron and 'Neil'. He is a very stressful character who has as a result developed an over-eating disorder and understandably, an anxiety over how he feels about his body, which.. makes him nervous and eat more. In an attempt to 'deal' with his problems he often wears ridiculously large clothing or very odd eye catching clothing to avert attention from his frame. His fears include insects, dogs and 'Neil' and as such is quite a timid character, explaining why his best friend is his cat, Toasty.
And finally, Lucy or 'that creepy little girl' is a wannabe voyeur who spies on Ron from outside of the house, from tree tops or in the shadows when he's outside. She has a strong obsession with Ron and his friendly ways but prefers to communicate in her own way to him by dressing as different objects and animals she thinks he likes so that if he ever spots her, he might know that she knows something about him rather than ever actually speak to him . Which.. is a very stalker-ry in which to get to know someone. But she can serve as a kind of narrator to some episodes or a plot hook for investigation.
So, here's the link again if you missed it up on the top of the email.
Also, a second question. Can you please give me some pointers as to how you present a character for a client or similar audience? Would you include some possible storyboards/storylines as well? maybe some walk cycles/character sheets? I've made a bit of a pigs ear of that in this email so some advice on how to do it properly from someone who's got so much valuable experience on the subject would mean alot to me. :)
This would hopefully make it a bit easier to show more and more prospective viewers my ideas so I can get more valuble research on refining or completely changing what we've come up with so far.
Ok, so, once more, here is the link to the images of the characters I've talked about in case you didn't catch it cause this is a long mail, and, I hope to speak to you again soon!
Thank you so much for this opportunity again Tony!
Will
The e-mail is a bit of a fair old length, I need to trim these down in future to avoid confusing clients. Anyway, as of this post I'm still awaiting a response and have sent a follow up e-mail asking if Tony recieved the first so, I'm still waiting for his input.
I decided that now would be a good time to update Tony on whats going on with the whole character development malarky so, here's what I sent him:
Hi tony,
how are you doing? Hope you had or are having a nice easter, the time off is different around the country so I'm not sure if you're still on your well deserved break ho ho :)
Here are some sketches of what I've come up with so far on the character; I've been showing them to different forums without giving away too much information just to see if they like the look and feel behind the different characters and the e-mails i've been getting back have been really good so far so, what do you think of it?
First, I should explain that I decided to split the Random Ronnie fellow into seperate characters, allowing a different facet of his 'randomness' to form in each of the personalities. I did this because when developing Ronnie and talking to alot of people about the character, I thought that a random character by default has little in the way of a discernable or reliable character or personailty so I'm trying this way of mainting audience interest.
The house that these characters exist within is also quite.. loose in the old 'reality' department but still looks and operates like a house most of the time, just bending to the context of the story (like rooms turning up for plotlines where there were no rooms before for example). The enviroment is something I'm working on currently so that I can do some storyboards with relationships between characters but, I'm thinking at the moment that the cartoon is set mostly in a house that Ron, 'Neil' and 'Pok' occupy, with their neighbour Benyamin in the house next door and the creepy little girl Lucy who watches from tree branches and shadows outside the house. Depending on the episode context though, the enviroment could change if we needed a townscape or a grave yard or a fun fair or something.
With each of the personalities then, we get another form for a new branch of the audience to indentify with. I had designed them more with the mind to contrast them with Ron, rather than just pander to the audience's tastes but hopefully this is a good side effect.
For example theres 'Ron' (all names are still working titles) who is the happy go lucky protagonist and is the main evolution of Random Ronnie, bearing a strong feel of the original concepts you provided me with his curly red hair and general feel. I've made him with the intention that he's the most.. amicable and maybe human character in there. I guess the way to think about my idea of 'Ron' is like Stimpy from 'Ren & Stimpy' in terms of his friendliness and general good nature; only Ron is more intelligent at this point. Ron will always want to help someone in need so we get plot hooks in that way and his personality clashes quite strongly with the overly aggressive and frustrated sock puppet called 'Neil' that he finds in his cellar.
'Neil' is an ancient demon god trapped in this poorly made puppet's form and this has made him very bitter over the centuries, giving him a resentment for anything happy or alive in general. He is the more malicious, angry character to contrast with Ron so, I guess they're a kind of 'Ren & Stimpy' coupling in that sense with a happy/angry clashing but instead of beating Ron senseless every episode, 'Neil' has very little physical power other than being able to use 'spooky ancient demon powers' (whatever the context of the paticular episode deems those to be) such as being able to throw his voice, move objects, summon demonic imps to perform tasks for him or being able to possess small animals. 'Neil' fantasizes often about being able to possess Ron someday when he is asleep or otherwise helpless and then using his body as a vessel, open a portal to an unknown dimension of pure terror. But, since he's usually quite helpless and Ron is aware of 'Neil's intentions, this outcome seems unlikely at the moment. 'Neil' moves about by either being on Ron's or another characters hand or, by being on top of a stick which ends off the bottom of the screen (looks a bit odd but, suspension of disbelief and all that).
I'll try to get through the other 3 characters a bit faster.
'Pok' is the dog of the household who has no eyes, just glowing white eye sockets. His origins are unknown of by the other characters but 'Neil' suspects that he is some government weapon gone wrong which escaped and turned up in the back garden. It would be more accurate to describe Pok as genderless rather than a male or female but the other characters find it humanizes 'him' a little to assign him a gender role. Pok spends his time following Ron around whereever he goes, literally sliding after him in a stood up or sat down position without moving his legs at all, as if he was a cel of animation that someone literally just slid across a scene. This is to emphasize the overwhelming ominous creepy factor that Pok exudes as he is a usually silent but still very intimidating character and even Ron and 'Neil' are typically weary of him. When not being horribly frightening, Pok looks for objects to fill his eye sockets with like bottles, lightbulbs or legs of ham which could be used as a good ice breaker in a scene or a punchline. This is also where Pok gets 'his' name from, from the 'POK!' noise when something is removed from a socket.
Benyamin is the foreign exhange student neighbour who lives next door to Ron and 'Neil'. He is a very stressful character who has as a result developed an over-eating disorder and understandably, an anxiety over how he feels about his body, which.. makes him nervous and eat more. In an attempt to 'deal' with his problems he often wears ridiculously large clothing or very odd eye catching clothing to avert attention from his frame. His fears include insects, dogs and 'Neil' and as such is quite a timid character, explaining why his best friend is his cat, Toasty.
And finally, Lucy or 'that creepy little girl' is a wannabe voyeur who spies on Ron from outside of the house, from tree tops or in the shadows when he's outside. She has a strong obsession with Ron and his friendly ways but prefers to communicate in her own way to him by dressing as different objects and animals she thinks he likes so that if he ever spots her, he might know that she knows something about him rather than ever actually speak to him . Which.. is a very stalker-ry in which to get to know someone. But she can serve as a kind of narrator to some episodes or a plot hook for investigation.
So, here's the link again if you missed it up on the top of the email.
Also, a second question. Can you please give me some pointers as to how you present a character for a client or similar audience? Would you include some possible storyboards/storylines as well? maybe some walk cycles/character sheets? I've made a bit of a pigs ear of that in this email so some advice on how to do it properly from someone who's got so much valuable experience on the subject would mean alot to me. :)
This would hopefully make it a bit easier to show more and more prospective viewers my ideas so I can get more valuble research on refining or completely changing what we've come up with so far.
Ok, so, once more, here is the link to the images of the characters I've talked about in case you didn't catch it cause this is a long mail, and, I hope to speak to you again soon!
Thank you so much for this opportunity again Tony!
Will
The e-mail is a bit of a fair old length, I need to trim these down in future to avoid confusing clients. Anyway, as of this post I'm still awaiting a response and have sent a follow up e-mail asking if Tony recieved the first so, I'm still waiting for his input.
Some rough colour concepts
Here are some tatty concepts for the character ideas I was banging on about in the previous post.
This is 'Neil', an ancient demon condemned to existence trapped in the form of a poorly crafted sock puppet. He is an angry character who has a bitter but hilarious disliking for anything living or representative of happy life. He takes out his frustration for the freedom he lacks by possessing other people, objects or using his spooky ancient demon powers to try and make others lives a misery.
This is 'Ron' then the happy-go-lucky protagonist who is amicable but careless and naive to the ways in which this world works. He is the most 'human' of the characters in the sense that he's the kindest and most logical one and I'm assuming the character most people will identify with. His long body tends to be drawn a little warped to emphasize how ltall he is but also, his playfulness. You don't get how happy he is usually from the above and below images so I need to draw some very thourough character sheets up with a broad spectrum of emotions and movements but in these images you ARE seeing the relationship often shared between 'Ron' and 'Neil' the puppet as Ron is aware of 'Neil's' sinister intention to dominate and possess his mind someday.
Benyamin is the foreign exhange student neighbour who lives next door to Ron and 'Neil'. He is a very stressful character who has as a result developed an over-eating disorder and understandably, an anxiety over how he feels about his body, which.. makes him nervous and eat more. In an attempt to 'deal' with his problems he often wears ridiculously large clothing or very odd eye catching clothing to avert attention from his frame. His fears include insects, dogs and 'Neil' and as such is quite a timid character, explaining why his best friend is his cat, Toasty.
'Pok' is the dog of the household who has no eyes, just glowing white eye sockets. His origins are unknown of by the other characters but 'Neil' suspects that he is some government weapon gone wrong which escaped and turned up in the back garden. It would be more accurate to describe Pok as genderless rather than a male or female but the other characters find it humanizes 'him' a little to assign him a gender role. Pok spends his time following Ron around whereever he goes, literally sliding after him in a stood up or sat down position without moving his legs at all, as if he was a cel of animation that someone literally just slid across a scene. This is to emphasize the overwhelming ominous creepy factor that Pok exudes as he is a usually silent but still very intimidating character and even Ron and 'Neil' are typically weary of him. When not being horribly frightening, Pok looks for objects to fill his eye sockets with like bottles, lightbulbs or legs of ham which could be used as a good ice breaker in a scene or a punchline. This is also where Pok gets 'his' name from, from the 'POK!' noise when something is removed from a socket.
And finally, Lucy or 'that creepy little girl' is a wannabe voyeur who spies on Ron from outside of the house, from tree tops or in the shadows when he's outside. She has a strong obsession with Ron and his friendly ways but prefers to communicate in her own way to him by dressing as different objects and animals she thinks he likes so that if he ever spots her, he might know that she knows something about him rather than ever actually speak to him . Which.. is a very stalker-ry in which to get to know someone. But she can serve as a kind of narrator to some episodes or a plot hook for investigation.
I should show more people to garner impressions of these and alert Tony to my progress so far. Otherwise, I need to steam on and get this tidied and finished me thinks.
This is 'Neil', an ancient demon condemned to existence trapped in the form of a poorly crafted sock puppet. He is an angry character who has a bitter but hilarious disliking for anything living or representative of happy life. He takes out his frustration for the freedom he lacks by possessing other people, objects or using his spooky ancient demon powers to try and make others lives a misery.
This is 'Ron' then the happy-go-lucky protagonist who is amicable but careless and naive to the ways in which this world works. He is the most 'human' of the characters in the sense that he's the kindest and most logical one and I'm assuming the character most people will identify with. His long body tends to be drawn a little warped to emphasize how ltall he is but also, his playfulness. You don't get how happy he is usually from the above and below images so I need to draw some very thourough character sheets up with a broad spectrum of emotions and movements but in these images you ARE seeing the relationship often shared between 'Ron' and 'Neil' the puppet as Ron is aware of 'Neil's' sinister intention to dominate and possess his mind someday.
Benyamin is the foreign exhange student neighbour who lives next door to Ron and 'Neil'. He is a very stressful character who has as a result developed an over-eating disorder and understandably, an anxiety over how he feels about his body, which.. makes him nervous and eat more. In an attempt to 'deal' with his problems he often wears ridiculously large clothing or very odd eye catching clothing to avert attention from his frame. His fears include insects, dogs and 'Neil' and as such is quite a timid character, explaining why his best friend is his cat, Toasty.
'Pok' is the dog of the household who has no eyes, just glowing white eye sockets. His origins are unknown of by the other characters but 'Neil' suspects that he is some government weapon gone wrong which escaped and turned up in the back garden. It would be more accurate to describe Pok as genderless rather than a male or female but the other characters find it humanizes 'him' a little to assign him a gender role. Pok spends his time following Ron around whereever he goes, literally sliding after him in a stood up or sat down position without moving his legs at all, as if he was a cel of animation that someone literally just slid across a scene. This is to emphasize the overwhelming ominous creepy factor that Pok exudes as he is a usually silent but still very intimidating character and even Ron and 'Neil' are typically weary of him. When not being horribly frightening, Pok looks for objects to fill his eye sockets with like bottles, lightbulbs or legs of ham which could be used as a good ice breaker in a scene or a punchline. This is also where Pok gets 'his' name from, from the 'POK!' noise when something is removed from a socket.
And finally, Lucy or 'that creepy little girl' is a wannabe voyeur who spies on Ron from outside of the house, from tree tops or in the shadows when he's outside. She has a strong obsession with Ron and his friendly ways but prefers to communicate in her own way to him by dressing as different objects and animals she thinks he likes so that if he ever spots her, he might know that she knows something about him rather than ever actually speak to him . Which.. is a very stalker-ry in which to get to know someone. But she can serve as a kind of narrator to some episodes or a plot hook for investigation.
I should show more people to garner impressions of these and alert Tony to my progress so far. Otherwise, I need to steam on and get this tidied and finished me thinks.
A psychological breakdown
Something which I've been thinking about is adding other characters alongside 'Ron'. I want to take the 'random' element from the protagonist and distill it into a supporting cast. My reasoning for this is the 'random' in the original concept is potentially a powerful surreal comedy tool but in one character, myself and those I've discussed the subject with believe that the personality would be absorbed and lost. So, break it into several, discernable chunks.
What I've observed in shows like 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force!' and 'Ren & Stimpy' is that a contrast of personalities makes for a watchable cast, with a character like Frylock or Stimpy who are either logical or optimistic enough to get us through each episode intact. We might want to subvert this like they do occasionally but for now, I'm going to stick with the basics that I'm starting to pick up.
I'm thinking at the moment of having 'Ron' as a happy-go-lucky character with his sock puppet as an overly agressive contrast, so we get just in those two characters already a flexible range of possibilities and reactions to events.
To contrast with those two strong personalities, I'm thinking of incorporating a meek, nervous character who operates close by, maybe a neighbour who suffers from a nervous disposition and is frequently disturbed by the actions of the main cast. I'm not certain about this paticular personality as of now, because I don't want the setup to turn into a kooky, "Normanmeyer's being frightened by the 'un-normality' of the Adam's family" situation so, I need to watch that this character isn't very dull or cheesy.
(If you don't understand that last point, the Normanmeyer's were a run-of-the-mill American family who were used as a direct contrast to the Adams family in the cartoon show which was very cheesy. Not the contrast itself, but the mood of the cartoon in general. I would post a picture of them up here but honestly, I've had some trouble locating one. I'll put one up if I gets one)
I could also use a mysterious silent character as an ice-breaker or punch line-deliver-er in the main cast. This sounds a bit complicated so, I'll mention Silent Bob. His character usually stands by the sideline whilst the rest of the cast do all the talking, simply miming agreements or confusion or other light expressions until critical points in the narrative when his intervention can influence unexpected inciting moments or conclusions, e.g. when he comes out with a pearl of wisdom just as no one else can call anything to mind or by acting almost on intuition to a dangerous situation and saving all of his friends. This character is a leveller, a creator of equilibrium and a proverbial kick in the arse for plot lines.
Maybe some kind of rudimentary animal could suit this position, like anthropomorphic Brian from 'Family Guy' only, with less personality. Ironically here I think I would specifically want this character to have little of what we would normally call character. Well, if I intended to make him or her mysterious that is. I suppose Silent Bob has character, and he's very expressive, but I have this idea currently for having a very intimidatingly silent and mysterious version of this archetype and for that, I'd need what was outwardly a very 'blank slate'.
As for anymore characters... Maybe some kind of observer over the whole thing or a narrator? Not sure if it's necessary really, doesn't feel like it at the moment but it wouldn't hurt to have another character who can either explain what is going on or maybe just another way of introducing plot lines. Like 'Ron's no. #1 fan stalking him everywhere and thus being able to tell us exactly what he's been up to or something similar.
What I've observed in shows like 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force!' and 'Ren & Stimpy' is that a contrast of personalities makes for a watchable cast, with a character like Frylock or Stimpy who are either logical or optimistic enough to get us through each episode intact. We might want to subvert this like they do occasionally but for now, I'm going to stick with the basics that I'm starting to pick up.
I'm thinking at the moment of having 'Ron' as a happy-go-lucky character with his sock puppet as an overly agressive contrast, so we get just in those two characters already a flexible range of possibilities and reactions to events.
To contrast with those two strong personalities, I'm thinking of incorporating a meek, nervous character who operates close by, maybe a neighbour who suffers from a nervous disposition and is frequently disturbed by the actions of the main cast. I'm not certain about this paticular personality as of now, because I don't want the setup to turn into a kooky, "Normanmeyer's being frightened by the 'un-normality' of the Adam's family" situation so, I need to watch that this character isn't very dull or cheesy.(If you don't understand that last point, the Normanmeyer's were a run-of-the-mill American family who were used as a direct contrast to the Adams family in the cartoon show which was very cheesy. Not the contrast itself, but the mood of the cartoon in general. I would post a picture of them up here but honestly, I've had some trouble locating one. I'll put one up if I gets one)
I could also use a mysterious silent character as an ice-breaker or punch line-deliver-er in the main cast. This sounds a bit complicated so, I'll mention Silent Bob. His character usually stands by the sideline whilst the rest of the cast do all the talking, simply miming agreements or confusion or other light expressions until critical points in the narrative when his intervention can influence unexpected inciting moments or conclusions, e.g. when he comes out with a pearl of wisdom just as no one else can call anything to mind or by acting almost on intuition to a dangerous situation and saving all of his friends. This character is a leveller, a creator of equilibrium and a proverbial kick in the arse for plot lines.
Maybe some kind of rudimentary animal could suit this position, like anthropomorphic Brian from 'Family Guy' only, with less personality. Ironically here I think I would specifically want this character to have little of what we would normally call character. Well, if I intended to make him or her mysterious that is. I suppose Silent Bob has character, and he's very expressive, but I have this idea currently for having a very intimidatingly silent and mysterious version of this archetype and for that, I'd need what was outwardly a very 'blank slate'.
As for anymore characters... Maybe some kind of observer over the whole thing or a narrator? Not sure if it's necessary really, doesn't feel like it at the moment but it wouldn't hurt to have another character who can either explain what is going on or maybe just another way of introducing plot lines. Like 'Ron's no. #1 fan stalking him everywhere and thus being able to tell us exactly what he's been up to or something similar.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Audience Research
This is the first post in a series of back log post dates as I've been looking for houses recently and have silly-ly neglected to update the old blog. Theres a bit to go through, ticking boxes and all that.
So, I overcame the problem of which direction to take the character, now on the working title of 'Ron' cause it's one that my 'focus groups' have assigned him. I did this really by talking over the problem with the inhabitants of forums on sites who's audiences might watch the 'older-teen-to-adult' cartoons I'm talking about. The sites I'm talking about are collectedcurios.com, newgrounds.com, deviantart.com in the cartoon section and friends and colleagues who have this viewing taste. I still need to post up on conceptart.org to gain more opinions but I'm doing pretty well so far.
The range of the sites, although not specifically chosen for this purpose is good because it grants me a range of sub audiences within my broad audience bracket. For example, collectedcurios is host to a fairly small community who discuss the works of the character artist, Jolly Jack and so have this one artist in common for aesthetic taste. Newgrounds was undoubtedly the most difficult to gather constructive points from because it's users are primarily young teenagers and as such, alot of users tend to have little patience for others but, in a way this is great because it's like being able to just dip my hand into pure intended audience and see how it feels. Deviantart was the most understanding of the sites and my guess for this would be because this is a community that is specifically used to dealing out and receiving criticisms with art work.
To cut a long, long, LONG story short over the forum posts and discussions with peers, I had basically asked which direction my audience felt that I should take for the character. It was agreed by collectedcurios almost unanimously, by my peers and by alot of newgrounds and deviantart that a character with a discernable personality who they can see in different strange situations each episode, as opposed to a completely random character.
So, I overcame the problem of which direction to take the character, now on the working title of 'Ron' cause it's one that my 'focus groups' have assigned him. I did this really by talking over the problem with the inhabitants of forums on sites who's audiences might watch the 'older-teen-to-adult' cartoons I'm talking about. The sites I'm talking about are collectedcurios.com, newgrounds.com, deviantart.com in the cartoon section and friends and colleagues who have this viewing taste. I still need to post up on conceptart.org to gain more opinions but I'm doing pretty well so far.
The range of the sites, although not specifically chosen for this purpose is good because it grants me a range of sub audiences within my broad audience bracket. For example, collectedcurios is host to a fairly small community who discuss the works of the character artist, Jolly Jack and so have this one artist in common for aesthetic taste. Newgrounds was undoubtedly the most difficult to gather constructive points from because it's users are primarily young teenagers and as such, alot of users tend to have little patience for others but, in a way this is great because it's like being able to just dip my hand into pure intended audience and see how it feels. Deviantart was the most understanding of the sites and my guess for this would be because this is a community that is specifically used to dealing out and receiving criticisms with art work.
To cut a long, long, LONG story short over the forum posts and discussions with peers, I had basically asked which direction my audience felt that I should take for the character. It was agreed by collectedcurios almost unanimously, by my peers and by alot of newgrounds and deviantart that a character with a discernable personality who they can see in different strange situations each episode, as opposed to a completely random character.
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