Character Design Production Bible - The Nervous Knight (Updated)

After receiving feedback on my character bible, I revisited it and made some improvements which include: changes to the Knight's structural issues, (I made his neck thicker to support the head and helmet), I also made his cape a lot shorter so the silhouette around his legs aren't swamped. I revisited the Beast, still not in as much detail as the Knight but did make improvements and tested out different poses to make the Beast look more aggressive and intimidating. Lastly I revisited the storyboard to build more tension.

Character Design Production Bible - The Nervous Knight

Character Design: Environment Concept Art

Character Design: Week 10 - One Day Challenge

Today we spent the whole day on a challenge which for my group was to research the world of Noddy Toyland Detective, identify their art direction rules and create characters that would fit in that world along with a merchandise toy of our character. 

My group's approach to the task was to think of it as if we were creating an episode that would require extra characters, so we decided on an Easter Special. As all the beings in Toyland are toys our characters would be too. The problem that Noddy investigates is a tin wind-up hen's eggs have gone missing so has the Easter Bunny's chocolate easter eggs that he has to hide for the hunt. 

Douy's Bunny Design

Rachael's Wind Up Tin Hen Designs

In the first image, the teal dinosaur's house is an egg so we thought it'd be a good idea for all the eggs to be found in there, we designed a child for the dinosaur that would be the one responsible for all the egg snatching.

Jess's Dinosaur Design

My characters below are toy plants that are made of plastic and to move they bend on their hinges. Plants don't move by themselves, so these two toys are an act together, staying in the same spot for a while they see a lot of things including who took the eggs, when detective Noddy questions them they bicker over details and only provide Noddy with hints rather than answers that would progress the story further. I chose a daffodil and a tulip as those are well known Easter Flowers/Spring flowers. Whilst looking at flower toys I noticed a lot of them where faces put on flowers but in Justin's drawings he shows how flowers can be designed into characters rather than just putting a face there.

My Initial Flower Toy Concepts

I struggled with putting eyes on a flower, the daffodil is supposed to look down at the tulip as they bicker to express a know-it-all attitude but getting eye direction and their perspective right proved to be a challenge.

My Character Development

Rachael's merchandise toy chair of the dinosaur character

Character Design: Beast Design

Combined of several animals I have designed the beast that my Knight will interact within the story instead of a sidekick.

Character Design: Knight Body Poses

Approaching Beast - backed against a tree

Unheroic Stand

A weak, pathetic throw of the spear

Character Design: Knight Expression Sheet

Clean Lines

Sketches

Character Design: Knight Character Turnarounds

Digital sketches and guidelines

Character Design: Stained Glass Texture Tests

Using the glass textures below I have collaged stained glass into a picture of my unheroic Knight.

Character Design: Character Bible Font Ideas

Below are some of the fonts I'm considering for titles and body text, baring in mind the medieval stained glass theme.

A few reference Images

From Disney's Sleeping Beauty

Character Design: Knight Line Work Tests

In Illustrator I used the pen tool to go over my drawing and develop it more to look like stained glass and used the software's features to play around with the line's thickness, the first image is of the lines unchanged which for stained glass would be suited as it's thicker. 

Next Steps: Mix and match different lines for best image, add colour and apply a glass texture.

Character Design: Medieval Monsters Influence Map

Below I've made an influence map of the following creatures that could be appropriate for medieval era as I would like to design a monster other than a cliché dragon: Ifrit/Afrit (Arabic Fire Spirit), Griffin, Aspidoceleon (a sea monster much like a whale but has a turtle shell and a snake like head), Cynocephalus (man with dog head), Capricorn (goat head with fish tail), Fenris Wolf, Unicorns, Lions, Bear and Cows/Buffalos.

I'm going to combine some of these creatures with human anatomy to create a beast for my knight to face. I've noticed with some medieval beasts they tend to have multiple heads or limbs - my beast will definitely have horns.

Character Design: Week 9 - Production Bibles

Today we looked into production bibles and how to make a graphic poster that hints to the story, it is not the same as a movie poster. Below was my first attempt, mainly trying to find the graphic style, I went with Maui's (Polynesian) Tattoos. Unfortunately I didn't get round to working in photoshop or illustrator to test colours and tones in the negative/positive spaces.

After my first attempt I was told it needed more story in it and taking elements from the story I was able to design the image below including, Granma Tala as stingray, heart of Te Fiti, Te Fiti, Maui's hook under the stars and Maui's Moana tattoo

Character Design: More Environment Thumbnails

Thinking more about staging, I've done a few more thumbnails trying to make the surrounding objects point the eye towards the cave

Character Design: Week 8 - Animation Action

Today's session was looking at animation layouts, they're not the same as a storyboard, animation layouts indicate camera motion and what characters do within shots. The task today was to look at any scene and look at the camera motion, staging and how the staging points your eye towards a subject, I looked at Lilo and Stitch, the scene focuses on Stitch feeling alienated seeing a happy family and realises he's been longing for something like it.

Character Design: Props for our Character

Nervous Knight

Character Design: Week 7 - Filmic Scene

Today we worked on storyboarding shots from given scenarios, my scenario was Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, storyboarding is one of my weak points and I'm not familiar with the story given but here was my attempt anyway.

Next steps: Storyboard my filmic scene (last minute escape). I have yet to design the secondary character (a medieval beast who emerges from a cave) who my Knight will be fighting and escaping from. I need to develop my environment thumbnails so everything points the eye look to the cave where as at the moment there are too many focal points.