Project Brief: Character Design

When I Grow Up I want to be...
Industry Exercises 1

Set Of Decisions to make:
1. As an individual or as part of a team..??
For this project I've decided to work individually so to test my skills and see what I can achieve on my own.

2. Which of this four possible areas do I concentrate on?
-2D Conceptualization
-Character animation
-Visualization (and Modeling)
-Visualization (Texturing & Rendering)

Well, playing with my strengths & weaknesses that I've identified from last year, I decided to concentrate on Conceptual drawing for my characters since I'm quite good at drawing, which either way is going to be my starting point to developing and designing my final pieces. Last year I noticed I had difficulty using Maya since it's a very complex software with a lot of potential and there's quite a lot to absorb from it. So this year I'll be tackling it not only to see my creations coming to life, by visualizing in modeling, texturing & UV Mapping but also to become more comfortable with the software and less intimidated by it.. and if I have enough time I'll try a little rigging too.

3.Do I follow one of these briefs set by the industry or' do I formulate my own?
Having looked at the 3 briefs I'm happy enough with what I've got to choose from, and chose the 3rd one. I chose the 3rd because it interested me more having to do with characters. Since I've kinda had a fondness for their unique appeal and coz I have been designing my own characters ever since I was a child.


The Brief:
The brief is about creating a promotional potential animated advertisement for London Zoo. The Company wants a visual style that reflects traditional "Claymation" techniques but will have to be generated using CG processes. There are five characters from which I have to choose two to create.

1. Willie Billiams - "A Hyperactive nine year old on his first visit to London Zoo with an interest in creepy crawlies."

2. Pocahontas Billiams - "Willie's sister, she's seven years old but more relaxed and more knowing than her sibling. She wants to be a gorilla."

3. Wilhelmina Billiams - "Willie's and Pocahontas's grandmother, she thinks everything smells bad and is worried that a chimp or one of those nasty bonobos might escape and "Poo in her hat.""

4. Wee Eck McGlone - "London Zoo's long suffering head keeper sixty bald, curmudgeonly, Scottish, fiercely patriotic and obsessive about sweeping up dung."

5. Cornelius - "A middle aged silver back gorilla, the most civilised and sensible occupant of the zoo by far."

I've chosen to go for the gorilla coz i like drawing animals, creatures and such, and the zookeeper which I find more interesting compared to the other human characters.

Points to consider when working on the character designs:
-Concentrate on two characters per person.
-Should use major packages such as Maya, Zbrush, Mudbox, Lightwave or' 3D's Max. Also the characters should be fully modelled 100,000 polygons & decently textured.
-Support Work expected on paper for development drawings and character sheets that should include orthogonal views, i.e. front, back, top and side + a more expressive drawing of the character in a typical pose.
-If time permits I'll try to do some preparatory rigging to show that I've thought about how my characters would function.