Lots of group work and character research

So this is second week and i dont have much to put in here because we did loads of work as a group. i think it was a really successfull week having got the script finalized, the storyboarding finished and we finalized our personal brief, which is all up on the group page.

as an individual i found some interesting images and attempted to design my character. below are just a couple of the images i found.I really like the image above, the tree's and a really nice windeing style as well as having a nice painted texture. it might be quite nice to have a painted style for the scene, altho i dont think it would particulaerly work for our brief, but it's something i could consider to use in a future project.

I really like this zombie character i found. the markings on her face are quite different, rather than having a big smudge slapped across her cheek or something. Her colour is really saturated, which makes her looks quite styleized.

Below is a serise of pages from my sketch book. The first image i was just jotting out a few conscpt ideas, like seating in the camp and a couple of storyboard shots i had in mind (befor we did all the storyboard as a group). Also to the top left is a really basic outine of my charactes head. i really want her to look quite chizled and hard, which would add to her evilness i think.

below are some more really quick sketches i tryed for her head. i tryed to take it further in photoshop by giving her some tone and a better definition, but it was taking up to much time, altho i got a getter feel for the characters look.

Below are some character designs for her clothing and hair. i really like the use of bones in her design, giving her an exo-skeleton look. i might avoid free flowing clothes though because that would take up alot of time in the animation prosess.


Below is one video i found which demonstrates some awsome fighting techniques. it's from the film 'Drunkern master 2' which shows the drunkern stance quite extensivly. I thought this style of fighting would be really good for our zombie character becuase it's very limp and bendy, much like a zombie's stance. i showed it to the resto f the group and they really liked it.

My version on the script

Having got a concept together the group tried to come up with the characters back story, so we could have a better understanding of the characters and how they might look. we didn’t want to spend to much time on it though so we tried working on a script alongside the character development, but we all had different ideas that conflicted each other so I suggested that we all go and write our own versions of a script over the weekend and bring them together, then take the best of each script and merge them to possibly make a final script. Below is my version of the script I wrote, although it’s not a full script I did what I could.

The woman walks up to the camp entrance, runs, then slows down as she goes through wooden spikes sticking out the ground, blockading the entrance and continues through the gate.

She walks into the camp, looking cautious. She looks from left to right then turns all the way round, checking behind her for anything while still walking forward. The camp is deserted as she walks around, with her hand on her holster hip. She comes to a stop in the center of the camp, near a giant totem pole, noticing markings on the floor. She inspects the markings closer, only to reveal she has the same marking on her hand. She touches the marking on the floor.

Goodie “Blood?”

She stands up taking a few steps forward then pauses, noticing a cloaked figure in the distance. The figure is moving very slowly and hunched like an old woman, with its back facing her.

Goodie “I thought this place was long deserted…who in hell could survive out here”

She takes a couple of steps forward.

Goodie “Hello?”

The cloaked figure stops moving, still with its back facing her, swaying from side to side slightly.

Goodie “Hello!?”

Baddie “what do you want…”

Goodie “What’s this symbol on the floor mean? Do you know?

Baddie “death, is the only thing that you will find here.”

Goodie “what? Look, I don’t play well with others, especially when threatened. I was tolled I would find answers here and I’m not leaving without them.”

Baddie “I answer to no one!”

Goodie “I’m not no one, I’m someone! Someone who’s come this far for something, which will help me fined answers and I”-

Baddie -“and I have seen and heard enough.”
Goodie “let truth be seen in the eye of the beholder… that’s it.”

She gets her whip out and lashes it towards the woman’s face. The woman quickly razes her hand and grabs the whip.

Goodie “get over here!”

She tugs hard on the whip jerking the woman down to her feet as she still clutches it. The cape falls off revealing her for what she truly is, a zombie.

Initial ideas

Myself, Anna, Dan.C and Jake went on to develop some more ideas as were researching, but wasn’t really getting anything that we thought we could have fun working on. Having had a day of creative block, me, Anna and Dan.C were walking home and I pointed out a massive tree which had all of its branches cut off, which looks quite wired. Anna mentioned how it looked like a totem pole and joked that we should do a Pocahontas style character... at the time I thought it would be quite interesting but didn’t mention anything, mainly because I didn’t want to be stoned on the spot. however the next morning Dan.C an I were driving to uni and he tolled me how he was thinking about this Pocahontas idea, and tolled me his thoughts and ideas about us having a dead Pocahontas style character, which I liked the sound of. When we go into uni we tolled Anna and she wasn’t to keen at first, but liked the idea of a lead female character, as did I, Dan.C and Jake. So our idea really started from there... a tree stump. So with everyone having had a bit of input on the concept we finally got something we all like the sound of.

Below is a page I sketched out rough of a random character idea that night, as I didn’t think the Pocahontas idea was going to go anywhere.

Initial research

Well well, i'm armed with a cup of tea ready for a new project, so here we go.

Over the christmas hollidays i gathered various images while spending countless hours sitting on the internet doing nothing, as usual. i didnt really look out for anything in particular, rather kept an eye out for anything that looked good, weather it be style, subject or lighting an so on. Myself, Anna and Dan.C had all ready decided that we wanted to work together as a team, so on occasion we attempted to meet up for "research" days. these days usually ended up being "playstation" days, but we did generate some good ideas.

The image above was something that i had collected because i really liked the use of colour and the approch these people had taken towards modeling a vheacle, taking a bus which already has loads of character to work with and taking it further. Rather then just modeling a smooth shiney sports car, which seems pretty generic. It's something that i would like to create myself, which is what came up in one of our get togethers over the holliday with Anna and Dan.C. To simply put it, we came up with an idea of each of us creating a unique vehicle whith a character relating to it. We thought we could style them to look like there vihcles and have them race through a scene, or have them connect in a 'Power Ranger' way (for whatever reason). alas this idea has not been taken further.

Above and below are two images of character that i really like, both for different reasons. i think that the character design above is awsome. he's really basic with lots of character. Also, i really like his texturing. Baring in mind that we previously had done quite a dark, gothic styled animation and have been labled..."goths"...jarred (we have our sources) lol. i think it would be Typical of us to make sutch a character. The character below has a relly nice sence of realism, while being quite characature, which is something that the group could look into. So these were a few of the images which i got over the holliday that really stood out to me.