Character Design

Minor Project

I am going to start my blogging by talking through my favourite minor project on Foundation Art & Design and it was Character Design. I was expected to do lots of primary and secondary research of animals and then we should create out own characters from that.

After observing a range of animals, like reptiles, birds and mammals I wanted to combine the features from different animals to create my own creature. So swapping and changing the body, heads and feet of each of the animals I had chosen.

 Out of my initial 10 ideas for the creature, I eliminated 4 and then added colour to my remaining basic ideas to give me more of any idea of which one I should pursue as my final. 

Then I came to my final 3 ideas for a creature and toyed around with the ideas of swapping their features with the others that I had chosen. 

Idea 1: Duck face, wings, four limbs like a feline, frog hands, and a lizards underbelly and tail.

Idea 2: Feline face and ears, feline tail, wings, fur, lizard tongue and eagle claws.

Idea 3: Croc face, wings, lizard tongue, tail and claws.

After debating my different ideas, I came to the conclusion of having this as my final piece. Mainly going with my second idea, but adding the underbelly from my first idea and the horns from the third idea. 

Rough sketch turn-around

I roughly sketched out a character turn-around which would help me with my 3D work to make sure I had all of the correct angles and proportions of my creature. I made up a backstory to go along side my character. His name is Eri, and that is Finnish for "different" because my creature is the last of his kind. From being from Finland I decided that the colouring would be blue because of the flag and the cool tones of the landscape. 

Close-up of Eri's head

Actual Marquette Turn-Around

This was my final Marquette and I am extremely pleased with it, it took a lot of patience but I love working in 3D and all my hard work paid off. The colouring, textures and overall character works well together. Definitely want to pursue this type stuff in the future! 

Eri Final

Thanks for reading! Please comment and leave any thoughts!