I told you I would be sharing some work in progress with you all, so here it is, the first of many updates on my current character project. It has been a couple of years since I've worked on a character animation and, well, I felt it was time to jump back into it. I am using this character as an opportunity to dust off some old skills and learn some new ones, too.
Every character starts back at the drawing board. For this project, I took the time to actually sit down and think of a few possibilities for potential monsters. I began by messing around with different shapes and sizes, and created a few different concepts around them. The result was a variety of creatures -some plump, some lanky, some short, some tall -but the recurring features I noticed in all of them were elements of "goofiness" and "cuteness," both of which make for a generally likable character. I decided to play off of those more and went back to the drawing board again to refine my cute army of monsters. Due to a popularity contest amongst friends, I went with the hairy looking fella with big ears, rotund figure, protruding fang, and short stubby limbs. He was going to be my star.
Before I thought about how to animate him I first had to think about his personality. He was definitely goofy and cute -at least I thought he was -but those couldn't be his only characteristics. I knew he had to tell a story. What was his personality going to be like? I started to act out some reactions he might have, how he might walk, what expressions he might make with his face and ears, or how he might talk. I started looking into how to his body would move based on a dynamically drawn line of action. Then I focused on his simple mouth. The way I drew him made him look like he was about to say something, or sounding out the letter "M." That's when I figured out his name, Minkus, he was practically saying it to me. I continued looking at him and felt as though he had a sincere face and the stature of a docile creature. He was harmless. From these musings I drafted my attitude sheet.
I'm sure I'll be revisiting the attitude sheet over the course of this project by either adding more poses or subtracting some. I have no doubt that I'll also experiment with different color combinations before I select his true fur color, too. I feel like this is a good start though, and it is refreshing to use a pencil and sheet of paper again especially because most of the work I create is computer generated. I have enjoyed going back to the fundamentals -the basics of squash and stretch, the effects of secondary motion, and the importance of exaggeration -and it has been a lot of fun reviving old skills and techniques. I hope to refine Minkus even more in this next stage and prep him for part two where I will begin sculpting him in 3D via ZBrush.
I am constantly thinking ahead around the bigger production of Minkus but I know right now I have to focus on the absolute very beginning. There's no doubt that I am already thinking about how to sculpt him, create his skeleton and animation rig, tackle his fluffy fur, etc., however, I know I need to take a step back because I know how important it is to dedicate significant attention to character development. I'm learning a lot in these beginning stages, as well as the overall process, and look forward to learning more throughout the project.
“Computers don’t create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.”