Character Design

I started off by creating different head shapes, I want my audience to feel sympathy for my main character so I want him looking cute, If he was to look like Sid (naughty child from toy story) then it wouldn't suit the animation. By doing this I was able to see a good structure for his face; chubby cheeks and big round eye's. I also want the eye's to help show the emotion of my character.




I then used the best face shapes and added hair style's, this began to give the head shapes more character and I was sure which head shape to use, I could visualise my character and how he will look in Maya. As I am specialising in CG animation, I want these characters to look a good standard and not only as a textured model but also for how he moves.




This is the face shape that I am going to use I like the hair style of the boy (top right) as it makes him look quite cute and innocent.


Test piece of how my characters head may look, I am happy with the shape of his head and hair, I will change the shape of his feature's slightly by giving him a button nose and fuller cheeks, I will also change the eye's; instead of having them close together I will have them apart.


This is a drawing I did to see how the proportion of my character; I dont like the proportion of this one













Maquette of little boy





Adding colour to my maquette to see what he will look like




My boy modelled on Maya, I gave a little more definintion to his face, giving him more bulgy eye's and cheeks, I may go back and alter his cheeks a little smoothing them.










I then went over and smoothed parts of his head to remove any sharp lines and to bring out his eyes a little more.


before....



after..... as you can see the lines going from his nose across the cheek bone are smoother and his eye lids are more defined. I think that he looks alot better now so I am ready to rig him :)










Developing the mother- I began in the same way as I did with the boy, I created a few head shapes to see how the mother may look, I want her to have a resembulance to her son; having some of their facial features the same or very simular.



I then added hair shapes, I want her to look motherly, she has to look authorative to give the right impression to the audience; a single stressed mother.



I gave her a hair style more like her son but as you can see she looks to imature and more like his sister rather than mother


These hair style are more appropriate, I prefer the image (top left) as she looks more sophisticated and motherly









Maquette of the mother





This is the kind of look that I want for my animation


I then modelled her on Maya, I changed her proportion slightly having longer legs and more bulgy eyes like her son, I also gave her the same nose and a wider face so that she looked more like her son.




Here I just tested out the rig to see if I can achieve a pose that I will be using in the film. I need to go back to the skin weights as it has a little crease on the right side of the neck.