CG Artist Toolkit- Character Design: 'Stylised vs. Realistic'

Wednesday afternoon, we had our first character design workshop. 

There our lecturer Justin explained the range of character archetypes... and the stages required to reach a finalised design that steers true to the 'world' being created.

First thing first: research.
Make sure you know about the character you're designing... their purpose, the role they take, the culture they're integrated in etc.

Secondly: consider the overarching style of the world.

What's going to make this world distinct from someone else's for instance? This style will come across into the character design... 

Styles, according to Justin, can come in two extremes.

1- 'Stylized' (where less consideration is given to how and why the design acts or is animated the way it is... yet is often very distinct. Some examples would be more commercial based, i.e. Hello Kitty, or something like a kid's program where there's less exploration in character depth, i.e. Power-puff Girls'... You'll find that because of this, the character isn't given enough detail to allow for diverse emotion or 'character' since, in their context, it's not needed),

2- and 'Realistic' (which is more prominent within the game industry, as seen in the advancement of graphics in games like 'Beyond: Two Souls', where the character's are captured to the likeness of the voice actor, using motion capture technology). 

Both have their pro's and con's, and both have to be balanced just right.

Otherwise the 'stylized' would become too abstract and unrelatable...(not able to be used in a story, or even as a recognizable reference/statement).... and the 'realistic' might stumble upon the 'uncanny valley'- a phenomenon where 'a computer-generate figure or humanoid robot bearing a near-identical resemblance to a human being arouses a sense of unease or revulsion in the person viewing it'. 

Once we established all that, we had to put this understanding to the test.

One by one we accepted an image of an existing character, (see below my pick of Maui, from the film 'Moana'), and took the image to the two extremes.

I hadn't known this character on first glance, so the culture I had no idea about. Luckily, the designers who made the image had put emphasis on the things that were of importance to the story. The hook, the confrontational stance, the trouble making grin etc.  

So it wasn't too hard to get the gist of the type of character he may embody.

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Simplified

The first drawing had me stuck as to how I'd attempt it. (Up to this point I'd never really understood or tried out the process of character design). Justin helpfully did a few sketches, as marked above in red, to illustrate the kind of things we were looking for.

Small, narrow eyes. A dimple, arching eyebrows. A square like chest, and curved arms. And the massive object he held across his shoulder.

Apparently, according to Justin, this character wasn't an antagonist, but rather a 'comic relief'', part way between stylised and realistic. The film was revolving around Hawaiian culture, and apparently the inclusion of the dimple, and arched eye brow captured the character completely.

It was these particular attributes that needed to be captured, alone.
Getting the bare minimum was a good way of understanding the building blocks of the character... and choosing the essential lines to keep in put emphasis on the fact that they were the lines that technically make the character.

In the end, I found drawing the character, as he was originally, was the push I needed to understand what I needed to work from. If you don't understand something, the best thing to do is draw it.
And draw it. And draw it again. Until finally, you start seeing what the artist is getting at. 

Though I'd softened the arm curves, blocked out the leaves and reduced the facial characteristics to mere circles and lines.... 

There's clearly still consideration for the curves of the chest, and the pose he was taking. This wasn't as simplified as it could have been.
Justin suggested, instead, seeing the whole design as a shape.
The problem was, you can see shapes across the body throughout (circles for fingers, circles for upper torso, etc.). The challenge is seeing the shape as a whole, and being okay to take out the unnecessary, (his example, as marked again, shows how he considers making the hair and the body a single interlinking shape). The bigger shapes are the ones to concentrate on, more.
Squinting seems to be a helpful may of picking out the most obvious shapes.

Realistic

Next came the 'realistic' Maui. This was challenging but fun to try and draw, as you have to try and imagine the weight and stance of the original Maui, and translate it across to area's that hadn't previously existed.
For example the legs in the original design were quite small, to try an emphasis the upper body size... but applying this to this kind of design (as tried above, after making the image below) makes the entire design feel less 'realistic', so you have to draw from existing anatomic knowledge (life drawing being particularly helpful for this), to invent the higher part of the leg.

This design needs a balance between the two, as I feel they are still pretty tall for what I would imagine him to have below... but also seem unrealistic the other way.
The arm on the right also comes out further, as marked by Justin, to match the other.

This session was super enjoyable and challenging, and I'm incredibly glad for opportunity of the feedback I got. I look forward for the next session!