Sunday 14 August 2016

YPGTTO: Character Experiments

Hey there! I'd like to apologise for the radio silence since my last email but I had something else going on unfortunately (driving license's theorical exam fun). However upon seeing Jordan's characters the other day I got inspired to dump a few experimentions of my own tonight - I doubt they'll actually be useful but at least it allowed me to get back into the swing of things. 

Parts of Phil's script reminded me of a series of french children books from the late 50s that would often have illustrations of flocks of children with the protagonist set apart through the use of red, so I figured it might an appropriate source of inspiration to use for this (see bottom of the page). I reckon some of the following sketches ended up looking a bit too humanoid though. I think that kind of came from a fear they would all just look like notes; since I remember reading in the script that at some point musical notes were flying off tubes (or something along those lines), I figured it might be important for those to not be mistaken with the note-children.

Anyway tomorrow I shall look into developing some 'kingdom' concepts. Sorry again if this post seemed a bit unnecessary. Hope everyone's been doing okay :)


4 comments:

  1. JVW!!! Talk about 'in tune' and 'in synch'! I love these characters; they sit right alongside many of Jordan's populace... as expressed below, in terms of the 'crowds' that populate these various kingdoms, I think there should be a multiplicity of types all stemming from the same DNA (i.e. musical notation) - a sort of menagerie. Can you do a quick additional post, where you stick a few numbers next to your individual characters (tedious, I know!) but there's a few in there I'd like Ethan to zone in on in terms of strategies for creating them in 3D while losing none of this early drawn charm. I must say, I'm very fond of the little guy in the first set, on the far left 'point' of the diamond cluster - and likewise the little guy just below the top point of the second diamond... (see numbers would help me!). Thanks so much for posting, Julien - a very welcome addition :)

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  2. Wow Julien, what a page! Instantly charming, beautiful and full of life. Lots of really exciting possibilities here. In agreement with Phil, the more abstracted, notation based characters are on the money.

    And I must say, I'm constantly impressed and inspired by your presentation techniques. You nail every presentation page, from the layout to the quality of the line art. All really inspiring stuff. Certainly something I need to learn from. You put me to shame! I've got a few more pages developing so I'll get them up tonight, but can't wait to see more :)

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  3. Thanks so much for your kind words, Jordan! I wish I could say my presentations are carefully considered and thought out but I owe a lot of ideas to spontaneous, little 'happy' accidents. I'm glad you find them inspiring though. And you've got nothing to be ashamed of, on the contrary! I really enjoyed the B&W wallpaper-y layout you used to display your characters in a previous post. You really have a knack for working with greyscale, balancing values and atmospheres and it really does come off as one of your greatest strenghts. It's pretty brilliant to witness. Likewise :)

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  4. Haha, thanks Julien. Nice to be working alongside such great style and natural taste. I do seem to be a person of the monochromatic. It's almost impossible to shake off.

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