CG Artist Toolkit- Character Design: 'Environments'

Yesterday's 'Character Design' had us considering the role of environment in giving insight into a character that may live, or work there. 

We were given one place, and one emotion, and asked to make our own environment capturing the two together.

I had 'War-like' and 'Workshop'. 

My concept was for a military general, who'd either retired, (or was released to his anger), who -now faced with 'unemployment'- had to pick a job working in a children's toy workshop, much to his absolute disgust.

Incidentally the designs worked along either the idea that 1- He was a strategic person who'd plan- to a point- the movement of his troops, or 2- Someone who'd fight up close on the front line. 

The first one had me drawing a plotting table as inspired by the ones I'd visited under Dover Castle. Only these ones use a combination of shapes, and teddy bears to represent each group of deliveries, heading across Europe. 

The lamps are inspired by the ones I remember from the same place. On the wall a portrait of the queen, if I decide to take him down the more 'patriotic' route. 

Additionally, I had a 'peg board' (if that's what they're referred to in this context?), or 'gun rack' that'll be used instead for buttons, stuffing, sheets of fabric, screw drivers, and huge power tools- that don't look like they could be used for something as intricate as a toy- but are the generals first choice for destructive and aggressive toy-making. 

Alternatively, I could bring this potential for violence further, by having the room and floor around him seem like a war-zone. Where teddy bears, and toys lay still in and amongst the carnage of tools, needles, screw drivers, and stuffing. 

On the wall, gunshots show the man's outlet for stress, and there hunched in the corner is the man himself, swinging a hatchet on 'Garcia the Bear'. 

 Upon Justin's feedback, it was apparent that without the objects, the room itself doesn't give much indication about the character himself. His suggestion was to produce more props to fill the space,
and to show the impact of him being there upon the very walls and area itself, (like the gunshots, but more obvious perhaps).

 I gave more consideration of the wall, to indicate it was made of metallic panels. Maybe, in retrospect, if he was in a small workshop on the premise of the shop, (the original drawing I'd made it too big, and my second made it look cramped like some of the shops I know, and have volunteered at in my home town),- behind the scenes- then including some wooden beams or hints of the original wall underneath the since panelled room, done by the General, would have been a potential idea.

This part of the workshop is his 'firing range', where he recycles stuffing and buttons from older, unsold bears, and uses it for the newer ones (note the box where the stuffing falls, and is collected into). True the bear on fire at the back would be counter-productive, but again someone working as both the stock producer, and sales assistant, would need some stress outlet, other than the customers of course.

I started designing a gun cabinet, adding an additional door part that swings in and outwards accordingly. The main body of the cabinet was originally wood (works with the 'homemade', shop like quality), while the base metal- military (though I would probably change it now to either one or the other). The content of the gun cabinet I should have changed to a combination of power tools instead, some of which are tools you'd have no idea how'd they'd work, in general. Let alone, intricate toy-making.