Major Project: 2D characters Concepts

Major Project: Beggar turnaround

                    

Major Project: Beggar Prop

After gathering a few reference images for the cane's design, I have done a few design developments for the beggar's prop bearing in mind the expressionistic style. I have tried not to exaggerate the design too much to keep it consistent with the beggar's design.

When taking it into maya, I have mixed parts of the designs that stood out more and used the 1point cv curve in order to get sharp edge rather than round ones and then extruded a plane along the along and played around with the offset to get the right thickness.
I am also thinking of having the additional planes to the cane in order to achieve the straight lines in the 2d drawings.

Major Project: Beggar 2D walk-cycle

Major Project: Storyboard.v1

As I mentioned before, the beggar will be sort of the lead and will represent the audience in a way, his absence in a few panels serves as a way to show that we are lost in the experience as well. Although, I have to include a shot of him at the end.

Major Project: Project Proposal

A 2-3minutes animated short about my personal experience in Jemaa El fna in Marrakech, Morocco.
The animation will be led by the beggar, who represents us.

The environment will be minimal as a metaphor for the loss/fading of memories, which results in forgetting details of the market. The use of expressionism will be present to emphasise the personality of each character. Discontinuity editing will be used to evoke a sense of busyness and disorientation.

Slow-motion will be used in certain shots as a way to give a dream-like experience in which time seems to expand.

Concerning the outcome, the blog will show evidence of fully rigged/skinned character, 3d environment and 2d animated characters. All assets will be composited and edited.
Some of the technical difficulties include:

-Character toonshader texturing

-2d animated displacement maps

Minor Project: Orthographic

Here is the orthographic view for the beggar, I might need to revisit it and tweak the face.
Concerning the amount of details, the texturing process will involve the lines from the original sketch therefore I am avoiding including too much detail at this stage. However I will be making changes as I am modelling him. 

Minor project: Concept Art

This won't be the final concept, but rather an experiment to see how the painterly style works and how the head fits with the body.

Minor Project: Developing faces

I have played around with the features and head shapes for the characters, while some of them still need development, I am quiet satisfied with the beggar, storyteller, fortune teller and dancer.

I still need to develop the musician and water-man faces.
I will appreciate any feedback.

    Storyteller

  

Beggar

 Dancer

 Fortune teller

 Musician

Minor project: Developing Faces

It was time to work on the characters faces, keeping an eye on the influences (African masks, cubism), I am trying to incorporate the style into the features while keeping a realistic look to them.
Below is an updated influence map showing the style I am going for, specifically for faces.

These are still rough and need cleaning up and further development:

Beggar

 Storyteller

Storyteller

For the next post I will post sketches of different features which will be taken into Photoshop where I will doing different combinations to come up with satisfying designs.

Minor Project: Character walk cycle

            A quick walk cycle experiment done on Animation Desk, an Ipad app.
                           

       

Minor project: Influence and Characters

After having collected keywords about the market from family, I have started researching into the characters listed. (water men, storytellers, fire breathers, exotic dancers, snake charmers, beggars, fortune tellers)
Below are some photographs I have taken during my holiday back home, Morocco, and others I have found very interesting in terms of exaggeration and style.

These are some drawings of the characters I find most interesting, however I will be drawing the rest of the list and pick those who would be more 'influencing'.

In order to loosen up, I have experimented with ink and tried to get the gesture of the characters and went on to draw the characters in a slightly exaggerated, expressionistic style using graphite, charcoal, ink and watercolour.
Next I will be focusing on facial features using the african masks research as well as experimenting with colours to find the right textures.

Minor project: Drawings

These are some drawings done after the tutorial, however after researching into appropriate styles, the drawings will be more exaggerated in terms of gesture and face features using the influences I have gathered through research.

Minor Project: Animation Idea + Style Influence

After my tutorial with Phil, it has been suggested that a different approach to the project was necessary in order to successfully communicate the message.

The animation will be more focused on my own experience and portraying that exotic, magical feeling in the market rather than an adaptation of the "Last Storytellers: Tales from the heart of Morocco" however it will still be inspired by it and will include voiceover using extracts from the book.

This will be done through slow motion cuts*, from character to another. Some of them will be looking at the camera, others will be doing what they normally do (snake charmers, herbs sellers, storytellers…) 

* This will be clearer as I am working on the animatic.

To start I will gather as much information as possible from family and from personal experience about the market (colour, senses, noises, feelings…) which I will respond to through drawing and painting.

As for the visual style, I am aiming for a painterly style, dynamic, exaggerated and expressionistic gestures which I believe will really emphasise the importance of each pose and action in the shots.

Below are some initial influence images to get me started:

Cubism

An early 20th Century movement that aims at analysing an object, fragmenting it and reassembling it in an abstract form. The object is depicted from multiple viewpoints, thus expanding the subject's context. Some of its characteristics:

- Simplification of objects into geometrical components

- Overlapping planes

- Distortion of the figures

Expressionism

A modernist movement which originated in Germany, 20th Century.

It was developed before WW1 and is sometimes suggestive of fear and anxiety.

Its characteristics include:

- Colour is used as an emotional device rather than a reflection

- Dynamic and distorted forms to evoke a sense of fluidity and movement

- Exaggerated face features

Fauvism

It began around 1900 and focused on the use of painterly, strong colours and wild brush work to evoke excitement. It is also considered as a form of Expressionism. Main characteristics:

- Simplified drawing with dark outline around some elements.

- Bold brushwork

- Use of bright and unnatural colours.


Traditional African masks

Through further research, I have found out that the traditional african masks played a huge role in influencing movements such as Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism. It would be a great idea to incorporate that in the style, focusing on the exaggerated features and head shapes.

Adaptation Part B: Modeling progress

As I was unsure about how distorted the buildings should be, I have a talk with Phil about it and  was told to keep them as they are in order to avoid confusing once the scene is textured..

So I tried to apply a subtle bending to the assets and trying to keep the style consistent and minimum. These are some quick renders to show the modeling progress: