Synopsis

Drunk with Power tells the story of a confused young man suffering a debilitating hangover; that is until he discovers he has superpowers. In three minutes, our protagonist arrogantly flaunts his new found superhero abilities to a small crowd of onlookers but in turn discovers a terrifying truth about himself.

Friday 16 January 2009

Character Development

This post is comprised of a number of pages from my working sketchbook, illustrating the development of my films lead character. I'm not entirely happy with his appearence in the animatic, although as it has progressed, so has his design.

My main concern is to keep him appealing while ensuring his design is solid i.e. does not change drastically as the film progresses. However, this doesn't mean I want to create something completely prescriptive, but more a design based on readable forms and construction.

I've left page annotations on the images because they save some explanation, although there's a lot of left over rubbish.

After looking at Heroes for visual influence, I studied their characteristic eyes.









Having established a number of general principles for draughting the eyes, I turned my attention to the construction of the head itself, attempting to keep it as simple as possible to increase its ease in drawing. An influence from animation of the 1950's encouraged this.




Although I liked the way these designs were developing, paying more attention to accentuating perspective and simplicity, they consequently began looking very simlar to Samurai Jack. Likewise, I thought the overall appearence was looking too rigid, almost anime esque i.e. I wasn't having fun.

This became increasingly apparent.



The design was becoming too flat, with features that appeared stuck onto the construction rather than being a part of it. The effect makes the character look like something from Thomas the Tank Engine.


Because of this I have considered the overall structure of the face from a more anatomical stand-point in order to reduce this effect. Although it may initially complicate the design, I'm hoping that it will allow me to compromise with something functional, but versatile and funny.




This has also allowed me to tackle another part of the design that had confused me - the chin. From studying the skull, I can now render a mighty chin worthy of any superhero.

My epic character design journey continues...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good!

Rob Brindle said...

Much appreciated!