Design Process

Themed Silhouettes

I had quite a few ideas whizzing around my head for what I wanted the design to look like before I started my silhouettes but now I've looked at my image research and the 7 virtues I have decided I want to create the personification of nature in the from of a woodland fairy/spirit/pixie. This is because they are something I have never really given a go at drawing/designing and also I thought that the virtue 'charity' fits with nature quite nicely. The idea will be that they sprite can speak using the power of telepathy and can fly due to a strong aura it possess so I might not give it wings but I haven't decided yet. These are a few more silhouettes I completed with my theme and virtue in mind.

 

 

7 Virtues Image Research

Disney Princesses

I am a big Disney fan and a lot of people believe that each Disney princess from their older films are supposed to represent one of the 7 virtues. I thought this was a interesting concept and realised I had saved a set of images of the Disney Princesses on deviant art not too long ago and I thought these would be good for a little more inspiration when it comes to design, expression and pose.

These drawing are created by SADYNA : http://sadyna.deviantart.com/

 

 

 

 

Looking into the project theme

7 Virtues

Now that I've done my image research I wanted to have a look in more detail of what the 7 virtues are and what they represent, this is what i found out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_virtues


CHASTITY- purity, knowledge, honesty, wisdom.

TEMPERANCE- self control, justice, honour, abstention.

CHARITY- will, benevolence, generosity, sacrifice.

DILIGENCE- persistence, effort, ethics, rectitude.

PATIENCE- peace, mercy, ahimsa, sufferance.

KINDNESS- satisfaction, loyalty, compassion, integrity.

HUMILITY - bravery, modesty, reverence, altruism.



These are just the basic summaries of what each virtue stands for. I don't want to go into anymore detail on the 7 virtues because otherwise I will end up getting them all mixed up and it will make my final design disjointed.

At the moment I like the sound of 'Charity' as to me it seems to cover all the qualities that nature posses, epically benevolence and sacrifice.

Design Process

Starter Silhouettes

To begin the design process I wanted to create a few silhouettes before researching what the 7 virtues are so I could let my ideas flow and see what I created. I started off with a few quick silhouettes, each one taking under a minutes to produce to get some rough ideas and shapes flowing. The first set were produced on Coral Painter where as the second I did using a software I am new too, called Alchemy.

 

After doing these quick silhouettes I very quickly started to warm to the programme Alchemy and decided to continue using it to produce my silhouettes as I found it very easy and relaxing to use.
My favourite  silhouettes at the moment is defiantly the one right at the bottom. I think it looks like some sort of fairy or forest sprite which gives me a starting idea to work off for now.

 

Research - Mood Boards

Zbrush Models

As I've done mood boards for different character designs and styles I then decided to have a look at models that people on deviant art have made in Zbrush. As I have a very cartoon/anime style I wanted to find models that had this kind of look to them to see if my style would work okay in 3D. The collection of images bellow are a few favourites that I managed to find.

 

 

 

 

References Images

Character Designs

 

To prepare me for the character design process I decided to make mood boards of some pieces of artwork that I really like. These are all favourites from my Deviant art folder and I absolutely love them. They have a lot of different qualities for example, such as the art style, colouring methods, lighting, the character themselves and the design. These really help to keep my inspired and coming up with new ideas so they are defiantly a key part of my preparation research.

 

BA2 - Project Summary

So recently we have been introduced to our latest project which is related to character design, similar to our first project so I am hoping the experiences and skills I gained in producing my last character will help me this time around.

The similar aspects are going through the same steps as last time, silhouettes, values, colours and the final design but this time we are actually created our character in 3D using a programme called ZBrush which I am very excited about. Also we have been given a theme which are the 7 virtues so, basically we have to create a character that portrays one of the  virtues. This can be shown by choosing the right expression, stance, pose and actual design of the character itself.  This helps us have a little more choice than last time but it does really make you think how are you going to make our designs portray the theme obviously.

Overall I am looking forward to doing this project but I am a little worried about the time constraint being a month and also my lack of experience of 3D modelling but I am just going to have to try my best and see how it all turns out.