Task 3 - Silhouettes and shapes

Photoshop characters.

My Zombie Doll

Inspiration.

I admittedly find it hard sometimes to create concepts in my head to maybe design a certain character or setting/landscape.  However when an idea comes to me i still find myself challenged to come up with great ideas however i have the drive to move forward and research what it takes to make a great character.  A big inspiration to me was silent hill and specifically silent hill revelations, my first character that i designed was a nice small turtle with a walking stick and with my second character i really wanted to take my design in a completely different direction.

This outline below is my original idea plan for character, i have chosen to have his head lay back and his shoulders relaxed, this is typical of the monsters/zombies that i am wanting to design, because of the posture of his head and shoulders i had to bring his waist out as if he is standing with his stomach in front of the rest of his body.  I have made his arms simple and relaxed because again this is stereotypical of the zombie look and body i am trying to re create.  I really like this body and it is my favourite because the pre-portions are correct and i feel that personally this is my best idea because of my research of zombie body posture.

All of my research for this character has really helped my imagine the character that i wanted to create, the clothes, the posture and the overall feel of the character.  I have researched clothes and this is an important part of defining a character as the way someone is dressed within a game changes the way the character is perceived.  It was images like the person below that inspired me to create my character in a suit, i think that the way that i wanted my character to have a life before he was a zombie.  This raises questions before you speak to a character like this in a game.

Below is my final idea and concept for my zombie, you can see the silhouette, the outline, the image without the line art and my final image.  You can see from my research where my ideas have come from and how i have got from just an idea of creating a zombie to actually having a character.  I have used the suit and smart clothes because i think it gives the player certain expectations, but also because i enjoy the way that clothing as smart and clean can be corrupted and ripped and torn, creating almost an oxi-moron, seeing the two contrasts the normal and the extra ordinary.

I really love the line art and the pre portions with this image, i think that because of the research i put in, into the posture and body language of a zombie really paid off when there actually isn't any blood on my character and because i researched about what was needed, we can tell the character is a zombie because of the posture and the clothing of the man/doll.

My Turtle Guru!

I began thinking about creating a character that was not of a humanoid shape, i began looking at the most famous characters from TV from the past 20 years and i really took inspiration from characters that i grew up with as a child.  I looked at the Teenage mutant ninja turtles because they were a big part of my child hood life, i chose not to go down the ninja route however and went down the teacher/guru route.  I did this because i did not want to end up copying the teenage mutant ninja turtles just take some inspiration from the characters.

I have chosen to show the image above because i have been taught to use silhouettes as well as actually drawing a character with pre portions, i love the image and it really shows how just by using silhouettes and illuminating the background we can create certain emotions just from silhouettes, there is no detail on the image and after seeing an image like this i will be using the silhouette route from now on as well as using my drawings and pre portions.

This is my final image for my Turtle guru character, and again like with the zombie doll we can see clear areas where i have taken my inspiration and used it too my advantage, obviously my turtle would be green however his belly is yellow, with this area i could have used maybe a dark green or a very pail orange, however after looking at my research and also referencing the colour wheel, i knew this would have to be yellow, like wise with the red shirt which is the contrasting colour opposing the green.