OUAN501 - COP2: Character Inspiration

OUAN501 - Character Inspiration:

Adorning some of my characters are patterns, items of clothing relevant to their chosen origin, and accessories. When looking at the Japanese anime character for instance, it might not be clear as to why she has a kimono - a traditional piece - alongside some angel wings. This is because modern anime features a lot of cute, girly accessories and are often crucial to the characters' storyline.

The Russian man is covered with patterns on his sleeves. These are a traditional Russian folk pattern and look a little bit like postage stamps at first glance. They are often gold and red/green to signify wealth and stature.

The Middle Eastern man seems very plain to begin with, however the classic look of a 'sheikh' is plain, clean white clothes, possibly to stand for purity and cleanliness. White is a colour of holiness and I guess being such as secular part of the world seems appropriate to use this colour/shade. His scarf around his shoulders is covered in green, red, and yellow. This makes a nice contrast from all the white and his blue and white striped 'kaffiyeh' on his head also makes a nice tough of colour.

OUAN501 - COP2: Finished Character Designs

OUAN501 - Finished Character Designs:

After finishing the outlines and adding some clothes using reference materials in order to gather information of my chosen parts of the world, patterns used and so forth, I then proceeded to colour them in and finish them up with a little bit of shading and highlights. I narrowed my decisions down to three designs as six seemed too much so I went for three finished designs in an Americanized style instead of a transformation animation (which yes, would've been more successful but would take too much time).

OUAN501 - COP2: Initial Character Sketches

OUAN501 - Initial Sketches:

To get a rough idea of what character I was aiming for, I did a few initial rough sketches outlining the body types, genders, and original styles of each character. Each character in this original set will conform as much as possible to original cultural identities and then will be transformed into their Americanized counterparts.

I chose one female character and two male characters in order to get more practice in drawing males. I also wanted to stray away from drawing female characters all the time as I feel it won't expand my technical abilities as an animator and concept artist.

The pink outlines allowed me to get an understanding of where the joints would be whereas the the blue outlines were rough sketches over the top of the skeleton to get an idea of shape and stature. The American characters will be posed differently but the head will remain in the same position to give the idea of a sharp transition from one cultural pose to a more action-packed pose.

OUAN501 - COP2: 500 Word Analysis of Academic Text

OUAN501 - COP2:

As part of writing my essay for Context of Practice, one source I found particularly useful was that of Art in the Age of Mass Media by J. Walker. I discovered that there were many interesting points and factors to aid me in writing the essay and seeing as the topic of this book is closely connected with that of my work, I felt it was only appropriate to read it and cite some quotes to back up my points.

The chapter I enjoyed the most was The Mass Media and Mass Culture. I found it was very opinionated yet factual and accurate in its discourse. This chapter talked about how although globalisation and Americanisation are considered a negative influence on outside cultures by so many of us, without it there would be many problems that would affect our day to day lives. It mentioned briefly that there are definitely positives to the mass spread of American culture and technology as it has done plenty of good.

‘Billions of people have become consumers of culture’ is an interesting quote used to describe how globalisation has lead us into a world and way of life that when something new and unusual is done by say, a television show, a ‘celebrity’, or even a new trend on the internet, millions of us will actively endorse this and spend money to become part of that culture and trend as a means of gaining popularity and notoriety. Sadly, this is very wrong and wipes out our sense of self completely as any form of true identity is taken away from us in our feeble attempt to become known by becoming ‘one of the crowd’.

‘On the positive side, technology and mechanical reproduction have brought about a tremendous democratization of culture’ is indeed very true. Globalisation has, in a way, brought us together and although this has come at the cost of our identities and cultural expression, it has allowed us to mass communicate and share ideas on a global scale. We have been able to do things that would have been impossible hundreds of years ago where even towns only a several few hundred miles away from each other had completely different identities.

The book goes on to talk about the impact it could have on us in the future and whether or not Americanisation may not even be a part of our lives anymore due to another culture taking over and forcing us into a completely new set of ideals and ways to run our lives around. I find the book a fantastic read as it has helped immensely with my essay. It has opened my eyes to the world in a different light and allows me to think about the future of globalisation and how it will affect the entire world’s population and not just myself. I highly recommend this to anyone who wishes to write about such an interesting topic.

OUAN501 - COP2: Character Design Research and Reference Part 2

OUAN501 - COP2:

To help with inspiration and reference when putting my characters together, I decided to look at three aspects of animation; Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and East Asian (predominantly anime). I chose to look at traditional clothing, historical aspects, and other potential influences on a character's appearance in relation to their culture. For my six character designs, I planned to draw out three original characters that were true to and resembled their national identities followed by three Westernised versions of them.

For example, I will take my Russian/Czech-style character and use as much reference from animations of those regions in order to create my own design. I will then base the changed version of the European character on styles from that of traditional Disney (elegant character, very idyllic in appearance). For the anime style character, the changed version will be using reference from such companies as Pixar and Dreamworks as films like Big Hero 6 have already taken a Japanese style and Americanised it like I plan to do. For the Middle Eastern character, I will use reference from Hannah Barbera and Warner Bros to create a very cartoony and exaggerated, silly character.

To give a good balance of gender and some more practice in anatomy for myself, I plan to use a female anime character, and two male characters of Middle Eastern and Eastern European origins. I feel that I can express the styles better by using two males from regions where males are seen as (sadly) more privileged. Although it could be argued that males are more privileged in Japan too.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5802/1865/1600/ratibor6.0.jpg

(E.U reference)

http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/07232008/b/8/4/8/b84894b3592f20_full.jpg 

(Anime reference)

(Middle Eastern version of Sim City - reference)

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs7/i/2005/261/8/4/Jamshid_and_Khorshid_by_soheildanesh.jpg

('Iranime' - Iranian anime is starting to creep into the Middle East but still retains a distinct style)

Middle East - Warm, deep, purples, red, plums, yellows

Eastern European - Dark greys, browns, reds, blues, golds

East Asian - Bright colours, pinks, purples, greens, blues, pastels