Project 2: Apple Interactive Concept

Designing, Developing & Evolving My Main Character

I put a post up a couple of days containing experimental art work for my general and very early concept ideas for my main character. This is for my Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod touch app project which I have given the working title of "Animal Kid". I have been struggling to get a concept nailed that I am happy with, this is due to the fact that I have been so indecisive on style but now I have finally designed a character I am happy with.

Research

I think I will start by posting some influences and research on art styles that inspired me towards my concepts so that you can see what I was thinking.  As you know from my previous blog post on art work, I knew I was focusing too much on a more detailed style which I felt wasn't appropriate for a fun, quirky app. That is where I looked through my visual research again (posted for the 1st time below) and also looked for newer work that related to a style I was happier with. 

What is it that attracts me to Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot 3 concepts?

• The gameplay for certain levels (the animal riding ones) are what mainly influenced me to do something similar for the IOS project as nothing has been replicated in a similar style. 
• The art style is simple (this could have been because at the time graphics weren't as advanced as they are now and concepts needed to be kept simple in order to be reproduced into a game. 
• Blocky shapes and simple design is the kind of style I want my concepts to have for my IOS project concepts. 
• The characters show emotion and personality through the design, I also want to try and convey character through my drawings. 

This is a video of a level called "Orient Express" taken from the Playstation 1 classic Crash Bandicoot 3. The video was uploaded by GarlandTheGreat to YouTube. It shows one of the key levels that inspired my idea. Whilst my idea is similar to this (riding animals through levels) it is not exactly the same and there is nothing like it on the App store!

This is a video from Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Nintendo Wii and it was uploaded to YouTube by user ShiryuGL. I have used this as an example of similar gameplay but mainly for the art style of the game. Typical of Nintendo Wii games, you can see the "family" orientated graphics (which are all the Wii can really handle unfortunately) but this works. It attracts casual and hardcore gamers (well, sort of...) and the graphics, while not amazing, still please all. I feel that IOS games are generally played by casual gamers or people who just want to fill a time gap. I think fun and quirky graphics in a similar style to Mario Galaxy will work well on the IOS devices. 

"Chibi" - The Anime/Manga Art Style

Right, just to catch you up, the videos and images above are just a small selection of researched images I found whilst trying to design my main character for "Animal Kid". They are what influenced me the most for the entire game, not just the character concepts. Anyway, what I am about to discuss is a new art style I came across whilst researching. I was stuck in this awful back and forth debate with myself on whether or not to produce an anime style design or a realistic design. The problem with a realistic design is that for a small device, there isn’t much detail so to transfer a complex concept character into an iPhone game wouldn't make sense. That is why I wanted to keep it simple. Having said this, my anime art isn’t really amazing. I practised drawing existing characters such as Sora from Kingdom Hearts and whilst I was happy with the drawing, it was 1: copied and 2: hard to push into my own character design (I'm not used to drawing manga/simple cartoons).

This is when I came across "Chibi's". Chibi's are so cute. Just the kind of style I wanted for my character - simple but fun and quirky design. Standard features of Chibi characters are:

• Big, over sized heads 
• Small, under sized bodies 
• Simple shapes and features 
• Simple clothing 
• Large eyes 
• Simple line drawings
• Not overly complex in detail 

 Examples of Chibi's based on the popular video game franchise, Metal Gear Solid. The top image is from Deviant Art user Ryoshockwave, the image of Solid Snake on his own is just something I found, I couldn't find a name/owner (it's got a signature)...it's pretty awesome though.

There are thousands of websites with examples of Chibi's on and indeed, I used more than I am showing on my blog for influence and inspiration when designing my character. There is just no point in listing each and every one though. The last one that I will link is an image I found with a tutorial on how to digitally colour in your Chibi. Now, the thing that caught my eye was the fact this person has labelled the image as a "chibi character" but it's not overly "chibi". It is, however, a really good mid point for the style I want to create. I didn't want a fully chibi character, but nor did I want something over complex. This tutorial image is the kind of mid way point I was trying to achieve. Plus it has a digital colouring tutorial which is always handy to have as a reference! (thanks to http://supertoki.com/blog/tag/chibi/)

My Character Concept Development
I think it's about time I posted my work! Here is the development of art style and character...

Practising the anime style by drawing Sora, Kingdom Hearts

Continuing practising anime but using my own style/design (this is the part that didn't go so well, I did these quickly and I don't like them!)

1st character concept with high influences from anime, not happy with this either. 

• Kid loves animals so has animal clothing of some sort, here it is shown with a hat
• I was told my friends that they preferred earlier concepts where I was just experimenting (shown in previous apple app blog post) as in this concept  he still looks older whereas I need him to look like a sweet young boy
• The hair is annoying me too, I'm not overly confident with anime and I think it shows, still I am proud of this attempt and I like the hat, I just don't think it is right for my game

 

Final (at the moment) Character Design and Concepts 

Hooded Concept

 

 Chibi influence - over sized head and simple hair design

Chibi influence full boy concept (quickly drawn sketch), slightly resembles Nathan Drake(!?)...I do love Uncharted and now I am drawing it sub consciously...

The best full body concept I have done. Chibi style with simple clothes and paw print shirt to resemble the young boys love for animals. 

Early hair design (which I don't like) and also a quick back view sketch of the boy, in a hood, riding a tiger. I did this as a quick experiment to see if the character looked wrong wearing a hood. I don't think it looks right. 

As well as a hood I decided to design a face in a hat, again another quick sketch. This time the boys love for animals is represented on the hat. 

Now these I am happy with. They are examples of possible faces the boy could pull throughout the game portraying emotions of his character. I also like the face shape and hair design. I think I am onto something with this character, just needs more work!

Conclusion

Well, this was a huge blog post, I have been doing this for over an hour but I had to get it all down so I don't fall too far behind! On the whole I was really frustrated with my designs but with the last few being successful I have calmed down a bit. I feel confident that I now have a rough outline of a main character who just needs some refining with regards to his outfit, how he will sit on the animals in the game and how he fits into the short story cut scene at the beginning of the game but that will come as I keep drawing him. I think for a while I might move onto drawing some animals for the game and sorting out level concepts because I have focused on this guy for a while now, I need to keep my focus by mixing it up a bit and hopefully when I come back to him I will have been working on his design sub consciously in my head and I'll be able to draw just what I want...whatever that is!