Outside Work

Earlier this year, I also entered a competition set by Aphelio, a bold games and interactive design company, challenging competitors to create designs for characters, creatures or environments a game design they are beginning work on. We were given a short brief for what they were looking for and this is what I ended up designing. These creature designs were both exciting and difficult for me as I have never tried to design creatures before. Some designs came simply out of my imagination, like the Peryton Deer design, while others I really focused on their background and why they look the way they do, such as the Whaitiri Glider, which turned out to be my favourite design. I gave them all names and short pieces of information to show I had thought about what each creature would be like and not simply focused on the aesthetics.

 After being invited to join the team for this project as part of a group of interns, I then went on to create some character designs.

This first image was my first design I liked, but I didn't want to get stuck into one character design so I created some thumbnails, exploring different shapes and sizes.

These are the characters I developed from my thumbnails, as you can see I tried to explore as many different designs as possible, from old women to young children to spirit type characters. 

These are a few different head designs.

And currently I am working on different clothing, focusing on helmets and masks 

Initial Designs

Developed Helmet Designs 

Character Illustrations

This is an illustration I created of Sister just sitting in a tree to represent her closeness to nature.

I realised the head was too big so shrunk it down and neatened up the colouring.

I then played around with different layers and tried to create the look of light shining through the tree tops. I also made separate layers to show her blinking, I would like to add some movement to these images for my show reel.

I then went back and neatened the line work up, added in her hair accessories and developed the colour and this is what I currently have. 

Brother Illustration

This is the initail sketch, I wanted to show the siblings relaxed and calm amongst nature as a contrast to their wild hunter sides. Initially I had a bird sitting in the boys hand but opted for a red squirrel instead.

I drew over my sketch, loosely coloured the in the base and added a similar effect to the sisters to create the lighting effect. 

After looking back, I felt there was something wrong with the head and I didn't like the re-drawn face, so I cleaned up the original sketch of the face and enlarged it. I have begun to add shading to add depth.

Current animation scenes

Once I had finished digitally painting all of the panels, I then began to animate each scene one by one, matching it up to my pre-recorded narration. These are the current scenes I have, my next task is to sew them all together to make the final motion graphic.

Character Illustration Ideas

For my character illustrations, I was originally going to produce just one illustration that shows the two siblings in the woodland environment with the weapon I designed, however, if I continue with the art book idea, I would like to complete multiple illustrations of the characters in different situations such as:
 Sister in Autumn in Foxes
 Brother in Spring with a Stag and Doe
Sister Hunting in the Tree Tops with her staff
Brother Hunting/fighting a wild boar with his tusk or antler weapons
The Siblings in their camp/home
The Siblings sitting by a fire.

I would create these illustrations to have some movement in them, like a short gif image, such as a flickering fire, or blowing wind.

Here are some initial sketches and designs, using deviant art stock images as reference and inspiration.

Easter Break Work

After talking to Nigel about my work, we discussed the idea that my motion graphic should include the two characters when they are older, as I have designed, rather than simply re-tell the story of Babes in the Woods with the two characters when they are younger, which do feel like completely different characters. At this point I had completed most of the line work for my motion graphic and felt that I should put the motion graphic on pause, focus a bit more on my concept art and work out what I wanted to achieve with this project. All this happened the day we broke up for the three week Easter Break which meant I was unable to discuss my plans further with any of the tutors, so I have spent the Easter holidays trying to finish up other work and complete other projects.

(Project x)

The first thing I went back to was my concept art, after discussing my previous designs, there were a few things I wanted to change, I was happy with my male design, and created this clothing sheet to show his under clothes, what he looks like if he was clean, so modellers can see clearly what he is wearing, and finally what he would like like overall, covered in mud and dirt.

When discussing my female design, Nigel felt the current short hair style looked too clean and nice, and felt my dread designs suited the situation better, this I agreed with and decided to incorporate this into her design. This hairstyle was more fun as well as I began to think of how she would find things that interest her and simply tie them into her matted hair. The only other change I made was her leather skirt, which was too bright before for a European forest. Again I showed he under clothes, and what she would like like after years of living in the forest, covered in mud and dirt.  

After I had completed this, I had to think about what I would create, if not the motion graphic. My initial idea was to make a fairytale like art book, which would tell the original story in text with a few illustrations, but continue to show the two children grown up, and tell short tales of what they have been up too, which would describe the way they look. An example of this would be when the brother had to fight off a wild hog for the first time,won, and now wears its tusk to honour the creature. Therefore, my next task was to create different assets the characters could wear that would each tell a short story explaining the characters lives since they were abandoned.

Brothers Wild Hog Tusk, used as a weapon and pin to hold his furs.

A stag antler the Brother took from a stag that fed the siblings for a week.

A carved belt buckle the sister found and gave to her brother as a gift on his 16th Birthday.

A pendant of the siblings parents is worn around the brothers neck as the only token they have of their past life.

A feather from a Jay Bird the sister befriended when they were young which she wears in one of her braids.

The sisters ears are pierced with Lynx cat fangs, in honour of a great Lynx that adopted the children when they were first left in the woods.

The left image is based on the idea that the sister will keep a piece of vertebrae from every small animal they must kill for food, in honour of their sacrifice, while the right image is a rosary skull bracelet the brother stole from some passers by as a gift to his sister, which she wears in her hair.

These two sketches were to gain an idea of how the girls mementos and findings would fit in her hair, and what different ways she might wear her hair.

Sister head turn around

Brother head turn around

Sister Character Sheet

Brother Character Sheet