Characters / Animatic

Character with a laid back, calm personality. Not really bothered or has much interest with objects around him.  Thought it would be better to start with a character like this as there wouldn't be much exciting movements about him since he is more or less 'lazy' and since my plan is to animate different personalities, it would be a build up to the more exciting characters with big reactions

I tried some silhouettes to see how the character looks and if he would be easily recognizable.

I found this walk cycle and wanted to apply it to the character because the walk does look a bit lazy and loose, however I still wanted my character to walk with his hands in his pockets whereby giving him more of a look that shows him not too bothered or interested with whats around him.

After finding the information about creating character based on shapes I tried it out for myself by creating a few shapes in illustrator whereby I would be able to just combine shapes and see what I got. I found this method actually pretty difficult and would have been better off just drawing from what's in my head but decided to push myself as this would challenge me and brodden my skill in character designing aswel instead of sticking to what I know. 

  

I made it simpler by just using a circle for the body instead of multiple shapes since I was trying to create the intire character's chape in detail instead of just using it as an idea to start the character on. Also I decided to create te character from the side as I found this a lot eisier to create and could then draw him from other angles.

 

I decided to change the colour of his top to a warmer colour as to show his warmer personality aswel. Also gave him eyeballs to make it clearer as to where he is looking instead of just the two dots for eyes as it was quite tricky to show the direction he is looking in in the storyboard and animatic.

 

These are just some faces that I looked at while trying out some for my own character.

                                                                                                         

Story Board.

After a few scenes I decided to just start on the animatic instead of continuing the animation as I felt like I was just doubleing the work I did since I could do the same thing in the animatic and then just add the movements to make it an aimatic.`

                                                                                                                                                

Animatic part 1

                            

I know it seems pretty short and nothing much happens but I did feel that it was necessary as he's not interested in the box that really but did let his curiousity get the better of him for a short while but wasn't curious enough to continue trying to open the box when he couldn't get it open with a small bit of effort.

Here is another part of the animatic that I have so far... just need to finish the second guy and add one more character and then it should be finished.

 

Here I took a picture at this angle for a scene of the animation where it would be from the box's "point of view" looking up at him however I didn't think that it is accurate enough as I couldn't get the camera low enough to where the box would be.

 I decided to create the angle needed in Google Sketchup (3D Software) as it is easy to use and no details were required. Using this would allow me to get a more accurate view for what I needed and would be able to manipulate the view.

I created this and set up this angle because I didnt find that the other picture of me gave a view that I needed as that one didnt allow me to include the box in the shot and didnt look as distant/tall as I wanted the character to look from the box.
                                                                                                                                      

Here is a test of the girl when entering the scee and faced with the box. I was trying to focus on her body movement/language to show what she was thinking before following with the action. Another part I focused on was the hair and skirt and trying to make them flow smoothly and reacting to her movements and turns.

Quite short on time so the entrance walk was skipped as I wanted to finish more on her body language  with her actions towards the box rather than walk cycles (although I am aware that a person's walk also says alot about their personality). I found that I works pretty well however, I think that the view is a bit too far and would have been better as a medium close-up. I do feel that the animation here works well mainly her hair and skirt.