Outcome of Character Design unit.

An update of how my character for the character design unit ended up looking. As late as I am in updating this, I'd like to reflect on how pleased I was with the outcome. The character ended up well fleshed-out both in style and substance; he's definitely a personality I feel I could write some interesting and funny short stories about in the future.

As far as translating the design to 3D was concerned, time constraints meant I was unable to fully build the character; however I was able to build the parts necessary to rig the entire body. Here you can see that I was able to give my character the reclining posture that I tended to draw him with by adding extra controllers in the spine. The only things I slipped up on were the head and foot controllers- fortunately this is something that could easily be fixed at a later date by changing the direction my character faces and re-organising the hierarchies. Overall I was pleased with how he translated to a 3D model, and was able to animate him with a basic walk cycle for the deadline.

Character poses.

I've been playing around with how my character poses and moves - having such a long-limbed creature with such a short torso has been a little awkward to position at points, however I believe I've managed to capture his personality quite well with just a few pose ideas.

Here I went for some basic poses - walking and sitting. I've decided that to have him completely reclining during most of his daily activities is a must. It perfectly portrays his lax attitude, while the elegant way he holds his legs and his long strides give that air of haughtiness that characterises him. Either way, he doesn't seem particularly impressed despite the fact he has it all. When it comes to animating my 3D model, I feel that the length of these limbs will suit more elegantly jerky movements rather than being completely smooth (á la Tim Burton, perhaps?)

For these poses I've gone with a slightly different approach - looking at how beneath the poise and loftiness Rutherford is, at the end of the day, a silly spoiled brat. The demanding poses on the right hand side show the extremes of this - very rigid poses compared to his usual languid stance in a blatant display of selfishly commanding his unfortunate butler's attention. On the other hand the pose on the left depicts a childish glee in him sneaking some extra booze after bed-time while already intoxicated (even more childish is the fact he still needs a bed-time) - however in this respect we also see a glimpse of Rutherford acting how his species would in nature: sneaking and prowling. No matter how ridiculously pampered this character is I decided it was a must that he display some fundamental fox-like movements.

These pose sketches have really helped to set my character's personality firmly in mind in a much broader spectrum than simply a snooty aristocrat. I feel like his childish side, while annoying, makes him also somewhat endearing when we consider how dignified he strives to appear for the most part.