Stopped Brief

Jim has got into touch with me and has told me that he has fallen behind with the workload for his FMP submission and has decided to design character rigging for just three characters, none of which are the characters i was working on. I am disappointed and annoyed as i could have spent that time on other projects, however at the same time i feel relieved as there was a many occasions were a decision was made for what direction the characters were going and then the decision would change.

On the bright side:
What i learnt from this project was the consideration and detail that goes into the process of designing a character for 3D rendering and animation. I learnt when designing a character to consider everything, big or little, the smallest of details can make a character completely different like adding a scar, a hat or a pet spider. I also learnt a character in 3D is very very different to a flat 2D character, although i have touch on this when designing previous brief 'DOY' working in 3D, i just designed the template, creating a real character you have to consider if they have a hairy back or a big bum.

Overall i feel when i design characters now i consider more finer details of their appearance and the personalties of them.

Re-evaluating tall character

Dean: i have taken the feedback received by Jim and re-visited the character i previously created,
i have changed the expression of the character to make him more sad and tired.

Character features are:
-Sunken dark eyes
-Bags under eyes
-Small mole like marks on body
-Small lines (like what you see on leather) on body
-No teeth just gums
-Bottom lip is always out

The arms of the character are tenticle like with suction pads at the top, with a sticky under neath texture and little bumps, the arm will be a smooth rubber texture. Where the arm comes out of the body is a plug also a smooth rubber texture.

The arms are long enough to reach the top of the rug so they can be cleaned, the sticky texture collects all the dust particles and dirt the rug as been gathering.

The legs of the character are kangaroo like to enable him to have the right spring movement just before stretching out and shooting himself off. They are strong and a smooth texture like the arms.

The stance of the character is tired, dragging arms slowing bouncing while he walks, droopy facial expression and that bottom lip sticking out.

Front view of the character.

Character development

After discussing about the initial characters with Jim i have created some more. The character below is one that would eat up all the dirt in he rug, living like a skip. Initial ideas are that they would live under the fridge and some of the dust mites would delivery the rubbish to them.

Character development

Adding colour

I have coloured the dust mite character and will review any colour schemes Jim may have in mind.

Expressions

I have selected this character from the initial sketches and created a cheeky personality for him, i will pass this over to Jim so he can start modelling the character and begin the character rigging process.

Character development

Meeting with Jim

I have designed a variety of characters for the tall dust mite character. I showed these to Jim and received positive feedback, i just need to develop and finalize this character so Jim can begin modelling on the computer and i can begin design the next range of characters.

New intentions for brief

After me and Jim went over the initial characters for the short story, we discussed that we could showcase the five different effects Jim wants to rig within this short story. The two hoovers would the mechanical rig, and the other four effects i can apply to the dust mites, creating not just one dust mite character and repeat it but have a whole variety of dust mite species and make some taller, ones that roll, jump, fly ect, this will cover all of the five rigging techniques Jim want to create and keeping all the characters within one story, by doing this all the characters are relevant, have a narrative and background and are not just random doodles.

Jim will be writing up the final story as it has changed and developed a few times, this will help us keep focused on what our goal is and what we need to produce. This will be a set of five short clips from this short story showing each rigging technique, for example one clip would show a hairy character clinging onto the rug as it is getting sucked up by the hoover, this will showing the movement in the hair being pulled.

Characters to develop and what to consider for each:

Old Hoover:
wheezing tartan bag.
coughing dust.
flickering light.
stiff and rusty.

Dyson Hoover:
Lights
Dot matrix
Steam
Material
Exaggerate hoovers functions ( extra compartments)

Dust Mites:
Jumping
Flying
Rolling
Blobby
Fat
Small
Tall
Long
Strong
Weak

Feedback on characters

Today i had a meeting with Jim to show the initial character ideas i had for the old hoover character, futuristic hoover character and dust mites.

OLD HOOVER CHARACTER-FEEDBACK/DEVELOPMENT:
My initial sketches for the old hoover character was for him to have glasses and a mustache. The bag attached to the hoover was to act as the lungs and contract and expand to give the impression of wheezing, i also had the idea of having the character to cough out dust.

After discussing this character with Jim he had told me that he didn't want the hoover to have the human features, the hoover will be a mechanical character. I am now thinking of characteristics such as lights, beams and steam would be more suitable.
Jim has an old hoover that he wishes to base the character on, so i will use that as a template to create the character, it has a light on the front of the hoover so this could be substitute for the characters eye, it could flicker to give the sense of old age?


DUST MITE CHARACTERS-FEEDBACK DEVELOPMENT:
Jim liked some of the characters i created for the dust mites, the very first one i create were cute and happy but looking more closely at dust mites under the microscope they appear to have amour on there bodies which gave me the idea of making them quite sinister or have the colony as an army. However after more discussion on this, we reviewed the story again and made a decision that we need to sympathize with the dust mites as the Dyson hoover will be playing the role of the 'bad guy'.


DYSON HOOVER CHARACTER-FEEDBACK DEVELOPMENT:
Like the decisions made with the old hoover character not to have facial features, this is what we intend to do with this character, we spoke about having beams of light, dot matrix and possibly steam come out of the character.

Initial characters

Below i have drawn the hoover coughing out dust, the bag on the hoover would expand to show breathing, or more of a wheezing and then he would cough some dust, this would blow the hair up thats on the front the hoover:

A few front views of the hoover just to see the character from slightly different angles.

Initial character for dust mites

Meeting with Jim

I spoke with jim today about the characters i am designing for him and he spoke to me about an idea of a short story he had been thinking of. A story of tan old hoover that is not strong enough to pick up the tiny colony of dust mites emerged in the carpet how ever the dust mites know they have to keep a low profile and not to give away the fact that the hoover isn't working or the owner could be a new dyson model which will destroy their colony with in seconds.

What Jim as asked me to design the characters for this story:

- Old Hoover
- New Hoover/Dyson
- Dust Mites

The characters designed for this story will count as one of the five characters asked to design.

Below is a short film by Pixar referenced from Jim and in his words his ides for the short story.



JIM: "Short film from Pixar, gives me an idea for a short film. Red is an old obsolete unicycle, marginalized by the other bikes in the shop and devalued by its modest price tag. The film explores the Reds consciousness to reveal he/she has aspirations of performance and entertainment. The films basically about repression, and how a stereotype can reinforce the manner in which the individual (in this case the unicycle) can be oppressed. The other bikes in the shops are two wheelers, and designed with a function in mind. The unicycle however is less practical; a novelty item not intended as a serious mode of transport, but shows he can out perform when assigned to his designated task (and there's 100 two wheelers for every red).

My idea is vaguely similar in theme; i've got a really old hoover vacuum cleaner at home - the kind Reeves and Mortimer sang about (see the "i've got a new hoover" song from the bang bang series). As with all sorts of old fashioned machinery, the vac is rich with nuanced facets that would allow plenty of opportunity for developing its character. This is the hoover that has a landing light on the front of it (for some reason) and was popular throughout the 60's/70's - somebody has actually made a demo of it hoovering a rug and stuck it on youtube (don't worry - i will post it up).

This classic old school hoover has been rendered obsolete by it's younger bag-less rival the "Dyson DC25". All aspects of character has been removed and replaced with shivering functionality. Slick, modern, powerful and absolute - it takes no prisoners and captures everything! Until the Dysons introduction the Hoover enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the dust mites. The Hoover's poor suction performance allowed to the mites to colonise the carpet pile - but they are very aware it could be game over should the housekeeper upgrade to a better model; so they keep a low profile. Their worst fears are realised when the new all powerful Dyson is introduced - it will rip through their culture in seco

Hairy character

Initial ideas for dust mites.
To cover the effect of showing movement of hair, i have covered the character in hair, they hop around so in doing this the hair can flow in different ways in which it jumps.