And The Rest

Watching some of the behind-the-scenes for The Incredibles gave me an idea. As a sort of mid-point between assignments 1 (conceptual stage) and 2 (final character) I've built a rough draft of the character in plasticine to get an idea how it would work in 3 dimensions. I took a few photos in natural environments (my backyard) to give me further reference for colours and textures.

If you can't make it out, that's a Hard Rock Café toothpick (from New York, no less) he's holding as a makeshift rifle :D

I photoshopped this last picture to modify the colours a bit, make it seem more wintery, similar to how I envision the character's snowy Northern Old-World forest to be.

Job done. Time to open Maya, I guess!

Today's stuffs 2 of 3

This is just about everything that went into my presentation now. Here is a quick storyboard of Banamadr interacting with one of the Kodiak bear elders. There is some speech text in the version I presented, but it's not exactly Tolkien so I dont' think I'll bother repeating it here!


Here is the animated version of the run cycle sketches I did earlier.



And these are the sound clips I used to describe Banamadr's communication. The first is a cheerful chatter / barking kind of sound that could be used when he is happy or talking to another character.

Chatter MP3

This one is his battle-cry.

Battle-Cry MP3

The sounds are slowed down and reworked noises from actual wildlife. No clues for guessing which animal - yep, badgers! I scoured the interwebs to try and find a collection of Wolverine sounds but excluding the Marvel character, there was nothing. So instead I started with bears, wolves, lions, any big predators until I found they were all very characteristic of their respective animals. That's how I ended up slowing down the badger noises to make them seem bigger.

I think in-game or in the animation the animal noises would make more sense than human voices and could just be subtitled on screen.

If I could be so furbolg...

Just a quick post with some research images from a character along similar lines, the Furbolg from Blizzard's World of Warcraft game. This bear-like creature has styling that was obviously influenced by native American / tribal costume. They also appear to use natural materials such as wood and leather, along with objects like fangs and feathers for decoration.

I'm including these as a reminder to try and differentiate my own character, though I may adapt from the colour palettes on some of these pictures. I like that you can see the tribal influences, and I'd like to somehow capture the Old Norse theme in my own character in a similar way, without being too obvious (ie: horned helmet, beard, axe etc.). I may try applying rune symbols to Banamadr's fur or something.

First some concept art:

And lastly some in-game images:

Not-so-deadline

Another big update: basically a whole batch of stuff I was preparing for crunch-time which I had thought was today, but turns out it's been pushed back 2 weeks which gives me some more time to refine.

First up, a few sketches of my character in different poses.


Here is a board of facial expressions I'd like my character to use. For my presentation I also set this page up as a sound board to express the kinds of noises I'd like my character to make. Using slowed-down animal calls and howls, I drafted some quick mp3's for his basic talk sound and his battle-cry. I may work on them some more, so I'll post them here later.

Finally, a last-minute colour draft as I'd realised I hadn't actually put the character into colour for my presentation. This is a first attempt on my laptop, so the colours may appear a bit different on other displays which I'll also work on later.

To do list:

• Character interaction storyboards (figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and put interaction / storyboards together)
• More research
• Add some brief notations to presentation

and that's about all I can think of right now. More pics up soon!

Cheers CoG!

The market research has been running a couple of days and I've had some very useful feedback from the forum-dwellers at Colony Of Gamers. Here's a revised character draft trying to incorporate some of the ideas mentioned in the thread.

A much less bulky shape to bring a bit of speed back to the character, along with some human relics to reinforce the post-apocalyptic setting I made up for the bio. I also tried to bring out a recognisable silhouette. I'll see what my new critics think and perhaps work up a colour version.

3 Deadlines In Two Weeks And Watchmen Is Out :O

A little bit more development, I tried out some different styles for facial markings.

The first is a simplified version of realistic wolverine markings, the second is influenced by one of my ink blots. The others are random small changes, the last being a bit too close to the Marvel character's markings. I think I'm happy with the second, as it's simple but also identifiable. Using that along with all my previous reference, I worked up the first complete concept sketch:

This is what I'll post to an online forum I frequent called Colony Of Gamers, to hopefully get as many opinions as possible from my target audience.

The Incredible Bulk (post)

Big post today, lots of catching up. First up some more reference sketches for accessories, starting with some wolf pelts used for Native American head-dresses and similar things.

I especially like the shape of the top left head-dress, I think it's also less visually distracting without eyes and fangs. Having the front paws hang down over the shoulders is also a cool look. I had an idea that each paw could be tied together with twine so that the pelt sits on the character like a cross between a backpack and a hooded cloak.

Here's some reference for his rifle. I wasn't sure which direction to take so I looked at all styles and periods of weaponry before sketching some that I thought might work. At the top is an American blunderbuss. I like the flared barrel but the purpose of the gun is more shotgun than sharpshooter like I had intended for my character. Below that is a fantasy hunter's rifle. I liked the steampunk look and the oversized barrel on this. Second from bottom is a Japanese musket. I thought the rounded off grip made more sense for a character with huge paws than the conventional grip and stock. Finally, A Mosin Nagant bolt-action, a classic sharpshooter's rifle.

These sketches are of various things I intend to use. At the top are a couple of different Gemshorns. I'll almost definitely go for an over-emphasised curved Gemshorn, hung from string. Below those on the left are a few varieties of bamboo. I thought bamboo would make an interesting alternate material for the barrel of my character's rifle. On the bottom right is a sketch of some natural hemp twine.

Finally, a revision of my character's basic shape:

I really bulked him up this time around, and he now resembles a fierce hunchback bear rather than a kangaroo hybrid. I also made a slight change to his feet, giving him a raised ankle which I think gives him more poise than the previous flat-footed iteration. The musculature is probably a bit over-emphasised in these sketches but that's just so I have a good idea where to put it on the final model.

Phew! Next up, I think I'll attempt some proper character drafts with all accessories added and some different facial markings.