Tyra's Got Nothing

Here's some real modelling. Wrightley is all modelled up, now I just need to texture him out. Looking at the shapes I'm working with UVs could be pretty disgusting so I'll see what the tutors have to say about it before I commit to any one path. I have downloaded a number of new textures regardless. One can never have too many options.

Creating an aperture seems simple enough based on what I read on forums but unfortunately there isn't enough space in Wrightley's goggles to hide the blades when they are wide so I may have to go without them and just use the glow by itself. It also means he'll have to have quite expressive body language but I feel his head is big enough and his neck flexible enough that I'll be able to accomplish this.

Fifty Shades of Wrightley

Well maybe more like twenty-something. Anyway, here are some colour concepts that I had been thinking about and now I've finally put them on file.

As shown by the pencil render I did earlier the second scheme is my favourite, though I do like the burgundy leather for the goggles and I may make the brass for the highlights dirtier or even bronze. The glow for the eyes will be easy enough to change colour but the blue or green are definitely my favourites at the moment.

For the final hand-in for 2a here is my movement sketch. Whether or not Wrightley will exhaust steam with each jump I will decide based on how hard it is to animate.

No Place Like Home part 2.

My first of three environmental sketches. What I wanted to convey in this sketch is the dominating image of the window casting light on everything. Keeping my steampunk theme in mind I might change the square window to a porthole and change the style of the objects around Wrightley. I will also design a junk box in which he lives which will be where he gets all his tools and materials from.

No Place Like Home

This was my first idea on where Wrightley could live. In a garbage dump he would feel the urge to leave and there would be all the items he needs to construct his means of getting out. However, modelling such an environment would be a nightmare and I don't feel I have quite enough time or commitment to pull such a thing off.

I feel a workshop could be an excellent location for Wrightley to exist. This would make him some kind of experiment that has become sentient and wants to be free. Again, he would have access to everything he would need to try and escape and I think the context it puts him in is far more suitable than "discarded in a garbage dump".

Now I won't be able to make something quite as detailed as these but they give a really nice idea on the type of lighting the environment could hold. I also really like the idea of a window of light being one of the only light sources in the room. This would make it an instant point of focus. For this idea Wrightley could be living on top of a desk amongst the tools and gizmos.
Alternatively he could have been discarded and be in some kind of bin initially, giving him more motivation to leave as he knows he isn't wanted. I am weary of how much time I have to spend on exposition.

Wrightley on His Way

Just a sneak preview of Wrightley in the Maya workshop. Rigging him for animation shouldn't be too hard. For this part of him anyway. His neck will be atrocious...

Pre-break Interim

Here I've put together all the work relative to the design of my character Wrightley for the sake of convenience.

Initial Concept

Development

Refinement

Refinement 2

Orthographic

Render

The Orthographic and Rendered views are the only new additions. This colour scheme is based off of the classic black steam train design but it is actually the second colour scheme I envisioned for him. His original look was grey and brown. I think I will experiment with different colours to see if anything else sticks out.
I decided against putting up the storyboard again because you could barley see what was going on in some frames.

Storyboard Initial Drafts

Firstly I apologise for the poor quality of the images. The scanner I used nailed the originals, which weren't great quality to begin with but that's besides the point.

 Exposition: Shows parts of the character then shows his goal all in the first few seconds. His first attempt on the diving board is also simple enough to understand that the rest of the attempts fall naturally into a montage sequence.
My character needs a name. I'm thinking Wrightley. So it shall be... Anyway, Wrightley tries a spring after that, then a catapult.

 Upon the failure of the catapult, Wrightley tries a pinball launcher. I'm going to swap the mousetrap and the rocket's order around so the montage finishes on him scribbling instead of crossing to show his frustration. One of the shots that might be hard to make out is his pupils shrinking after watching the rocket explode.

Giving up for the day, Wrightley goes to bed pulling his blanket over him. Suddenly he sits bolt upright with an idea and fiddles with the blanket. A shot of the window shows night turning to day and then we get a shot of Wrightley's determination. The camera cuts to a shot from behind him where we can see a ramp aimed at the window. Wrightley sparks the rockets beneath the cart he's made and returns to his ready stance. The cart takes off with more acceleration than he expected and he zooms down the ramp. A long shot shows the cart plummet but Wrightley continue on upwards. At the peak of his jump he unfurls a parachute made from his blanket and uses his own steam vents to guide it to the window. The end.
I will, of course, construct a better quality storyboard for my animatic with revised shots and character/environment designs, but that will come later.

Character Building

And not the kind that requires physical exertion. Here are my first character concepts, complete with the three "m's" to show what was going through my mind at the time.

P.S. Apologies for the long post; this is all my work from over the weekend as well as today.

 This was my first idea coming primarily from the idea of the mousetrap's sudden leap if you flip one upside down. I liked the idea of having a character that has a really reckless means of transportation that they aren't fully in control of.

 This is my favourite concept for meaning. I like the idea of a potentially menacing or creepy character could be stealing seemingly meaningless items when in reality he's just taking stuff others see as useless to construct a friend for himself.

 This is another character whose movement is my favourite feature. As he explores his environment he would use his aerial parachute thing to blissfully drift from place to place.

I pair these concepts together because they come from the same idea of materiality. Each is a protective vessel for a creature of liquid mercury within, whose eyes would be visible bobbing within. I do feel their purposes are a bit weak, however.

Here is my development of my favourite concept. After talking with the tutors I found it to be my strongest one. These are variants of the same idea of ballistic transportation. The main changes are that I have forced these characters to use their extreme leaping by making any other means of mobility highly impractical.

As it turns out I have been misinterpreting the brief and my organic materials/motion concepts were a bit off the mark. The challenge is to bring life to something otherwise lifeless. Our character will be a hybrid of characteristics of the objects we've chosen. My revised and reworked character is based off the following objects:

Materiality

Meaning

Movement

Looking at my precedents, I think the Steampunk design movement would be an awesome influence to incorporate into the design of my character and perhaps its surroundings.

The detail would not be nearly as intense as it would be a massive pain to model an environment that full on. Still, it's something worth considering.
The current stage I am at looks something like this:

This new character, influenced by the steam train, would be made of hard metal with a pair of steam valves on his back. The "goggles" are in reality his eyes and are not able to be removed from his head. The singular arm (joints based off of the digger arm, however once I redesign him orthographically I may base the shapes within the arm more precisely on it) would be used for both movement and manipulation. The meaning derived from the jet engine is also the main point of my narrative with this character; his quest for flight.
The concept for my story at the moment is sitting at this character being unhappy with his environment and wanting to escape to a brighter world (either over the fence of a garbage dump or out the window of a basement etc). His many attempts will result in disastrous failure until he collaborates his unsuccessful attempts into something that works and he is able to escape. The attempts will be covered in a montage style as to fit into the tight time-frame we have for the animation.

Brainnado

It's like a brainstorm but more violent and leaves ideas scattered around and falling from the sky in weird places.

For movement; The character could propel themselves by a violent or sudden means that launches them through the air and they are left to brace for impact and hope they landed somewhere where they wanted to be. Their surroundings could be full of damaged objects that the character has collided with that aren't explained until the character is seen moving for the first time. Some of these objects could be based of props from pinball machines.

Alternatively the means of propulsion could be a powerful spring or spring-based mechanism. Unless the character is organic in which case it could be a coiled tail of similar appendage.

The character would need some kind of protection for their head, like and acorn cap or something. Or natural body armour like an armadillo (if it's organic) or a thick plate/helmet if it's mechanical.

For movement; All these are alternatives for the dandelion idea I had earlier. Each carries a different style of motion but all are influenced by the air, allowing room for conflict in the narrative for lack of control. The sycamore seed would be the most energetic of the movements with its rapid spinning, whereas the others hold a far more peaceful drifting style of motion. If this was to be the character's primary means of motion then they would probably a rather placid or docile character (with the exclusion of the sycamore seed which could produce a slightly confused but energetic character).

For materiality; A character made, or possessing rubbery appendages would probably have a malleable body. This would also influence the nature of their movement as well. The character would probably be able to reach afar to grab things or contort their body to move about.

For materiality; A character with a liquid body that is viscous enough that it can essentially be atable without a container could be interesting. Their motion would be very fluid (let's face it, there is no other way I could describe that) but probably slow and creeping. Perhaps they could be contained within a solid suit or something that protects the liquid creature inside?

For meaning; The character could be lonely and constructing an imaginary friend for themself or looking for one. Their equivalent of a teddy bear. Being a unique, alien character they could find a friend in unconventional objects.

Three's the Magic Number

I've been thinking about Project 2A (yes, a day after the hand-in, hush) and I've got some concepts for the three "m's" already. The first one that came to mind was a trash can for meaning. I thought that this character could collect objects that nobody wants or collect a specific type of object (recycling bins). In any case it would be a collector of some sort, potentially even a kleptomaniac.

The second object I thought of was a dandelion for movement. I'm not sure if organic things are allowed to be used so I'll have to check on Friday but I like the idea that my character's primary means of getting from one place to another would be by wind-directed air travel and they may not have full control over it.

Lastly I thought of a cellphone, or any generic hand-held electronic device for that matter, as a source of materiality. I like the range of materials that feature both internally and externally. It would allow me to make a character out of metal, plastic, rubber and glass components.

These are of course just initial thoughts. My favourite is definitely the trash can for meaning but I'll see what else comes to mind.