@Phil [Minor Project] 25: Oxygen Character; Thumbnails 26-55

In response to Phil's feedback on my previous post I have adjusted my approach to Oxygen's design. My favourite thumbnails are 55, 49 and 43. I quite like 49, however I'm unsure whether the off-centre mouth adds too much asymmetry to the design? This is why it has been shown as my second favourite, rather than my first.

Favourites

Oxygen character thumbnails 26-55

New influences

[previous post] [next post]

@Phil [Minor Project] 24: Oxygen Character; Thumbnails 01-25

There are similarities between the design of Oxygen and Hydrogen because it is important for the audience to believe that these two characters could combine to create the Water character. The large mouth and 'quiff' are important aspects of Oxygen's design, with the former connecting to breathing and the latter to Oxygen's kindly yet mischievous nature. The hands have not been designed yet, but I partly know how they're going to look. The grayscale is not representative of Oxygen's final colour scheme. My favourite thumbnails are 24, 14, 20 and 09.

Favourites

Oxygen character thumbnails 01-25

Oxygen character Influence Map 01

Hydrogen character front view

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 23: Hydrogen Character; Modelling Progress 01

I'm going to ask for Alan's advice tomorrow on how I should best go about reducing the complexity of the geometry around Hydrogen's eyes to achieve a cleaner mesh, especially the closely packed edges running below the eyes. 

The body circle in Hydrogen's top view is not accurately representative of the body's top view, however the hands are accurately presented. 

My biggest struggle so far has been keeping Hydrogen's body properly spherical when I add & adjust new edges, however I am now trying to remedy this by using a live ('magnetised') NURBS sphere to help me position the vertices along a curve.

I have also adjusted the shape of the eye holes to take into account the eyelids.

Shots

Orthographics

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 22: Iron Character; Front View w/ Correct Hands & Other Dev.

Figuring out the side view of Iron's hands was a pretty straightforward process. I then moved on to establishing where the hands finger joints / 'folds' would be via the Top View; the correct movement of Iron's thumbs will become more clear when viewed during skin-testing of the 3D model.

Iron Front View with Correct Hands

Hand Side View Development

Iron's hands may bend at the joints as if they were composed of flexible heat-softened annealed metal...

[source]

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 21: Iron Character; Front View Colour Tests 01-04

At the moment I have taken my four favourite colours from my previous tests and applied them to Iron's front view. Iron's hands still require being redrawn palms down, but for now that is not the focus of the attention. So far my favourite is CL03, I like how the darker desaturated blue works with the grumpiness of Iron, whilst not being so dark as to fall into the colour realm of my Graphite character.

Iron Colour Tests 01-04

Graphite Front & Side Orthographics 

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 20: Iron Character; Colour Picking & Top 4

All Colour Swatches

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 19: Iron Character; Face Thumbnails 21-40

In response to my previous post, Phil advised me to bring my Graphite (Carbon) character back into the mix, to ensure Iron is distinct. He suggested presenting their faces together so they could be nuanced accordingly. 
My favourite thumbnails are 39, 40 and 22.

Favourites

Iron (09) & Graphite Head Comparison 

Iron Face Thumbnails 21-40

[previous post] [next post]

@Phil [Minor Project] 18: Iron Character; Face Thumbnails 01-20

The grayscale represents Iron's colour brightness only, not the final hue or saturation. Iron's brows have been coloured more lightly for clarity, however as part of the character model these would be the same colour as Iron's body to keep with the 4 colour limit intended for each character (sclera/eye-whites, pupils, body, mouth). 
My favourite thumbnails are 20, 09 and 13.

Favourites

Iron Face Thumbnails 01 - 20

Influence Map

Below are the shaded silhouettes of Iron's front & side orthographic views, the hands in the front view are temporarily positioned with the palms forward, this will be switched with a side-on view once it has been designed.

[previous post] [next post]

@Phil [Minor Project] 17: About Iron's Retractable Hands

Below-left is what I originally thought retracted hands would look like, which I'm not keen on because it looks quite odd, I also imagined the alcove would be visible from the front, but realised this was not necessary. The concept of Iron having arms does not sit right because I feel it would lead that bit too far into robot territory.

On the right I have provided a better retractable hands alternative, I'd quite like to take this forward, what do you think? The alcove would be much larger than shown in the sketch, to fit the actual hands large size.

Here's what the retracted hands would look like from the front...

[previous post] [next post]

@Phil [Minor Project] 16: Revised Iron Hand Thumbnails & Influence Map

Tutorial feedback from Phil indicated that the hand thumbnails to experiment with were 157-160, so I bought these together with Iron's body silhouette at four different sizes (168-183), my favourites are 171 and 177.

Favourites

Revised Iron Hands Influence Map

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 15: Greenlight Pitch & Animatic

Elements Academy Greenlight Pitch

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 14: 'Elements Academy' Intro Animatic (Silent)

[previous post] [next post]

@Phil [Minor Project] 13: 'Elements Academy' Logo Colour Tests

Following feedback on my previous post, I have happily taken thumbnail 23 forward into the colour stage and produced 41 different colour scheme variations (labelled 38-77). Adobe Color CC (formerly Adobe Kuler) has been an invaluable asset in gaining interesting and exciting colour combinations. My primary favourite thumbnail is 62...

Favourites

It's interesting to note that the yellow ACADEMY text of 67 is far too bright when placed on a white background, whilst 73's teal+red combo appears to be slightly jarring to the eye. On the other hand I find 62's combination of the light & dark mint colours with slightly off-white ELEMENTS text quite appealing.

Thumbnails 38-77

38-57 & White BG

38-57 & Black BG

58-77 & White BG

58-77 & Black BG

New Influences

Adobe Colour CC

[previous post] [next post]

[Minor Project] 12: Logo Thumbnails 01-37 & Influence Map

Favourites

Logo Thumbnails 01-37

Logo Influence Map

For thumbnails 05-08 I attempted some colour tests, however I quickly decided to return to thumbnailing in black & white so I could focus on the shape of the logo first, rather than its colour. The base font I used for the logo text is Helvetica, as inspired by the text found on chemical warning labels.

[previous post] [next post]