Character Design | Week 5: Face Up To It
Week 5's lecture was on facial expressions.
The topics covered included character sheets, and their pro's and con's (i.e. considering the pose, angle of neck, to accentuate the emotion etc. Avoiding using the generic 'smiley face' and 'sad face', and instead consider the micro-movements of the face, and muscles at play).
As a general rule, the more muscles featured, the more extreme the emotion. The more effort being exerted by the character, and the shorter the burst. Often we cannot retain an intensely emotional outburst for long, as it's physically exhausting.
Other things we discussed:
> Does the pose open up (anxiety- opening eyes and expression to take in more information, for a potential flight-or-fight response), or close in (disgust- as a defence mechanism, or contentment- when we're comfortable enough to temporarily miss external messages)?
> Fleshy or Rigid?
Often parts of a face (whether it be organic or mechanic), in relation to animation has a rigid part- indication of bone/realistic muscle, but also to retain an essence of the general character-and a fleshy part, which yields more movement.
> The crown.
A vital part in hair/fur design. Often the latter will grow away from it, or may quiff against itself. Either scenario can give insight into character.
Exercise 3
Continue working on character project:
Having established the fact my agent is an older male, close to retiring and/or a technophobe that struggles with new gadgets for modern espionage... I have some idea as to the kind of character I'm aiming to flesh out.
However, there's still an issue with 'style' and realism.
After a discussion with Justin, I want to try drawing more realistic, (but slightly more stylised than it is currently), and use Saul Bass's blocking in to keep with his easily read imagery (despite a lack of information for the internal details).
Other things include considering a binary character to compliment my current one.
This could be a newly introduced agent whose up-to-date with technology, but not particularly practical when it comes to one-to-one combat. This would compliment the main character whose 'old fashioned' get-to-business, grit-your-teeth, grumbling spy, who's all for undercover work, but struggles with technology to get there.
Just a few thoughts...
The topics covered included character sheets, and their pro's and con's (i.e. considering the pose, angle of neck, to accentuate the emotion etc. Avoiding using the generic 'smiley face' and 'sad face', and instead consider the micro-movements of the face, and muscles at play).
As a general rule, the more muscles featured, the more extreme the emotion. The more effort being exerted by the character, and the shorter the burst. Often we cannot retain an intensely emotional outburst for long, as it's physically exhausting.
Other things we discussed:
> Does the pose open up (anxiety- opening eyes and expression to take in more information, for a potential flight-or-fight response), or close in (disgust- as a defence mechanism, or contentment- when we're comfortable enough to temporarily miss external messages)?
> Fleshy or Rigid?
Often parts of a face (whether it be organic or mechanic), in relation to animation has a rigid part- indication of bone/realistic muscle, but also to retain an essence of the general character-and a fleshy part, which yields more movement.
> The crown.
A vital part in hair/fur design. Often the latter will grow away from it, or may quiff against itself. Either scenario can give insight into character.
Exercise 1
A group of two or three must combine two conflicting 'emotions'.
Choosing multiple emotions gives way to many complex facial movements and expressions. These facial movements can be minute, or a strong indication of one particular response.
i- Anger and Shock and ii- Joy and Shock.
Exercise 2
Using an image of an existing design, create a page of that character, experiencing a range of different emotions.
 |
| Example of Character Sheet |
 |
| Justin's Examples |
 |
| Response |
Continue working on character project:
Having established the fact my agent is an older male, close to retiring and/or a technophobe that struggles with new gadgets for modern espionage... I have some idea as to the kind of character I'm aiming to flesh out.
However, there's still an issue with 'style' and realism.
After a discussion with Justin, I want to try drawing more realistic, (but slightly more stylised than it is currently), and use Saul Bass's blocking in to keep with his easily read imagery (despite a lack of information for the internal details).
Other things include considering a binary character to compliment my current one.
This could be a newly introduced agent whose up-to-date with technology, but not particularly practical when it comes to one-to-one combat. This would compliment the main character whose 'old fashioned' get-to-business, grit-your-teeth, grumbling spy, who's all for undercover work, but struggles with technology to get there.
Just a few thoughts...
Comments
Post a Comment