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Jean-Rene Losier
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3yr
added comment inAssignment - Developing Characters
Asked for help
Here is my assignment for the second step of developing characters. I decided to focus on the Bee Hive idea that I had initially as I really liked the square shape of the hive. I developed the idea thinking about how each character could link together in a common theme and decided to go with the idea that the leader is someone who can manipulate bees to do her bidding. What results is "Hive Golems"! We first have Queen B who manipulates the bees who is carried by little bee hive minions. Then we have the Crawler who moves around on his hands. Then we have the Guardian which is the muscle and finally, the Tower who is simply a huge tree that also carries with it, a bunch of beehives from it's branches/hair.
Nicholas Geier
3yr
Really like your shapes and gestures! You’ve got some really cool diversity of body types, maybe posing them in different ways will help suggest different actions and roles for them? The skinny Tree hive one is pretty pointy which lends to a stab by striker pose, Or you could lean into a cowboy hat side and make it shoot bees?
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3yr
Right on Jean-Rene. These are cool ideas. Next thing I'd like you to do is to begin composing these characters together as group. A "lineup" as you'll hear me refer to it pretty often. Part of the point of doing that is to see how these shapes will relate to each other. It's going to help you see where you need to push and where you need to adjust the scale of your characters relative to one another. As is, I see what are essentially 3 tank class roles. That's not necessarily wrong but I'd like to encourage you to attempt to differentiate them further. I will likely address this more directly in the next critique video. I'll probably be recording that this month. Again, nice work man :)
Will David
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3yr
Here’s my first page. I took Scott’s advice and decided I’ll spend a page of explorations on each of my chosen characters for my lineup. I will then take a variation from each new page and refine it. These are variations for an electricity Harvestman.
Just FYI if you want these critiqued, you need to put them in the "assignments" section. Just in case that's where you intended to post these :)
Jean-Rene Losier
•
3yr
Asked for help
Alright, 4 pages done of exploration. I'm going to have a hard time picking from these. SO MANY THAT I LIKE!
Here are 2 new pages as well as 1 I already posted where I tried to fill in as much space as I could. Feel like I was a bit lost and mostly just exploring all kinds of ideas before settling on the "Scythe head" concept that most people seemed to like (including myself). I also liked some later ideas like "sytche collector" as well as the spider harvester who Harvests men!
Jean-Rene Losier
•
3yr
That tip about using the entire page and how the constraints of space end up motivating different designs is gold!
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3yr
Thanks a lot. It's very similar to the 'abstract shape exercises' you'll see on IG where you attempt to develop a face within the constraints of the shape which has been laid down. The way you and I have done it here is sorta like the inverse of the same idea, but applied to the character's body shape. I find that the constraint of 'limited available space' consistently seems to push me in ways I might not have considered if left entirely up to my own devices. I'm really glad to hear that you're having a good time :)
Andrea Rubbini
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3yr
Asked for help
I have added new guys to a Patrol Field crew. Guess it's time now to kill some darling and decide which one should go on with more studies. If I have to choose only one, I think I would go on with the scorpio grape, seems like something that could bring nice shapes to the table.
The mouse tank thing is pretty neat. The grape scorpion is also an interesting idea. You could definitely develop a ton more ideas from those concepts.
Andre Camargo
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3yr
Hey Scott, I had a blast working through the idea creation. I would like to upload my sheet, which is too big for my scanner (DIN A4 max).
Can you recommend a preferred way for getting a good digital image/print/scan from paper?
I'm just taking pics with my phone to upload them. Make em look better in digital.
@auno
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3yr
Here's the first page of my Crow-man ideas, I'm completely stuck after this page I can't seem to think of other possibilities, I know Scott said to aim for 4 pages but not sure what else I can incorporate into this Crow-man? Anyway thanks for reading I'll try and think hard what else I can change or add.
Maybe just start doodling silhouettes? No details, just silhouettes to get different shapes. And look up crows to try and get the brain going? What's crow man supposed to be about? Just ask a bunch of "what if?" type of questions. "What if his wings were cut off in a fight?" "Why was he in a fight in the first place?" "Who was he fighting?" etc etc. Go down the rabbit
hole.
Sonja Müller
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3yr
A general idea: Would it be possible that we are not limtited to the A3 format? I think Samuel ran into the same problem I did. Including all my process thoughts alone would have filled the page half. And because it makes total sense that we should try many drawn variations I think I would need more space/turn in more pages.
Maybe it is just me, but I am so used to big canvas sizes in digital drawing I was really struggeling to fit more on the A3 format.
And/or give a base number of shapes we should at least try if we should stay in really basic forms without details?
I think i am overthinking this :D
I know he specified to try and do 4-5 pages on my answer. So I don't think he's necessarily expecting that you do ALL your work on just one page. I'm personally shooting for as much as I can.
Jean-Rene Losier
•
3yr
Here's my first little batch of explorations. Got some things I like but still want to explore some more themes/ideas that I stumbled upon.
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3yr
Excellent!! Keep going. Aim for 4-5 sheets total. But this time draw smaller. No larger than 1-3 inches. The constraint is part of the key to achieving clarity in your idea. Very nice start my friend 💪
