Character Design Workshop Week 2...

Our second character design workshop lesson began with an introduction to the 3 different shapes used in character design. We were shown examples of characters made of these three shapes; circles, squares, and triangles. It showed us how each different shape creates a different feel, for instance circles create a round, soft and safe feeling, whereas triangles are sharper and give signs of danger. So depending on who your target audience is, you may choose to use a certain shape. You can also combine the shapes for more varied 'mashup' styles. We were also shown how the complexity and realism of characters has developed over time, from basic designs like the Powerpuff Girls to more human-like and further developed designs like Hercules. After our introduction, we were given the task of designing a group of henchmen for an evil asian army. I began with quite a generic and unmemorable design, so Justin felt I should be more imaginative and original with my design. This led to the first of my robot henchmen. I really like this design because you can see clear strength and power from the design. However, it isn't very clear that he's an evil henchman, I feel he looks too heroic. I then took the design in the direction of animals, leading to the design of my lizard henchman. I like this idea of aninal henchmen, but I feel my design doesn't work because the proportions aren't correct and there isn't a strong pose. I then decided to go back to the robot idea and develop a thinner character and a fatter character. I came up with thise idea because there is usually a variety of shapes and sizes in these cartoon groups. I like the idea of the female character, although i don't think my drawing skills were too strong on this one, with the proportions looking wrong. I had similar problems with the fatter character and i feel his design is even weaker. I'm really looking forward to developing my own characters for my western kung fu fighters now, and i can't wait to see what we do in next weeks workshop.