Funky Abstract Characters and Thoughts On Muppet Character Designs

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 00:10:14 -0800

There are many things that I love about The Muppets but one of the things I love about The Muppets is the brilliant, abstract character design.

Certainly, Kermit is a frog, Fozzie is a bear, Miss Piggy is a pig and so on... ...but what about Gonzo? ...Animal? ...Scooter? ...Nigel? ...Zoot? ...Floyd Pepper?

The Muppets are full of nondescript, non-representational, abstract character designs.

So often in animation, our characters have to be classifiable in some way. They have to be a human or an animal, or even a “monster” or an “alien.” Even Sponge Bob Square Pants (one of the most abstract characters in the history of animation) is technically a sea sponge.

Can’t we design a character without having to call it a dog or a cat or whatever? And why, when designing a non-human, non-animal character do we always have to lump them into the default category of “Monster” or “Alien?”

I love monsters and aliens as much as anyone, but The Muppets, many of them defied classification. Yes, The Muppets do have their share of monsters, even a few aliens* and I love them all.

My point is, I like designing characters that defy classification. They just are what they are, abstract shapes with a few relatable appendages and face parts.

This week, I went through one of my old sketchbooks and scanned in over fifty pages of random character designs and story ideas.

In this sketchbook were a number of these abstract, nondescript characters. So I arranged a lot of them on a page and gave them a color treatment that could tie them all together in some way.

Who knows, maybe there’s a story here...

I would love to hear your comments.

Remember: NEW BLOGS or PODCASTS here at ChrisOatley.com EVERY MONDAY!

Until next week...

...go well.

(*The Koozbainians are my favorite Muppet aliens. There are also some who accept the most recent Muppet feature “Muppets From Space” as canon and would thus classify Gonzo as an alien.)

UPDATE:

I have once again attempted to allow BLOG comments. I currently host my website through Apple’s MobileMe service and there are have been a lot of problems with the comments function.

However, I am VERY interested in your thoughts on this post/ piece so PLEASE share your thoughts and we’ll try this commenting thing for the third time. Thanks!

“Sketching For Environment” At The Concept Design Academy (part 1)

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:43:43 -0800

In recent episodes of my podcast, I’ve been talking about my artistic goals for 2010. (You can also hear more about those goals on Episode 43 of Big Illustration Party Time.)

This year, I want to fill my portfolio with strong environment sketches, designs and paintings.

To be a well-rounded Visual Development Artist, one must be able to generate beautiful, original and completely imagined designs for Characters, Props, Environments (which includes scene settings, camera angles/ lenses, lighting etc...) and Effects.

I have a lot of experience with Characters and Props. I helped to design a dozen-or-so characters for ‘Hoodwinked Too!’ (click here and here and here to learn about some of them).

I contributed to the design process for a couple of characters, a few environments and a staggering number of props for the Disney Fairies franchise (you can see some of this work in my portfolio).

...but I have the least amount of experience in designing environments for animation.

To remedy that, I have done two things:

1.) I gave myself three assignments to design some dramatic environments for my ongoing ‘Wizard Of Oz’ project.

2.) I enrolled in “Sketching For Environment” at The Concept Design Academy. This is a course taught by my friend and colleague, Ed Li. You can see his STUNNING environment design work on his blog.

This class is helping to give me a stronger sense of design in general, a better eye for composition and shot layout and the drawing challenges that it presents are significant.

So, here are a couple of images from last week. I don’t think any of them are great, but its a start. I can’t wait to dive in to next week’s work because I am learning more in each class than I can retain over the course of the week. For anyone in Los Angeles, I could not recommend this class more highly. The classes are very affordable and worth far more to your overall career than the immediate financial cost of a class or workshop.

You can hear more about my aesthetic values for the resulting images in Episode 38 of my Podcast.

It has been amazing and inspiring to be in school again. ...even if it is just once per week.

I Broke My Animated TV Series Pitch

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:13:29 -0800

As many of you know, I have devoted a great deal of my creative energy to the development of original animated television shows (also animated feature film ideas, live action TV & film, graphic novels, games & interactive experiences).

I come up with new ideas almost every day. I write most of them down and most of them remain in the purgatory of my tiny secret notepad (or on my computer) forever.

Eventually, one of the ideas begins haunting me. It won’t go away. Eventually, I pay some attention to it and realize that it seems good enough to develop further.

I call a couple of my particularly clever friends and tell them about it. Brainstorming ensues.

A lot of stuff dies in this stage. Telling my ideas to my brilliant friends is a pretty accurate litmus test. Hearing myself tell someone else gives me personal objectivity (which is very hard to come by...). Having them ask me questions about the idea usually reveals whether I am delusional in thinking that the idea is indeed ‘good enough.’

After that initial brainstorming phone call, I go off alone and write and explore the idea visually (occasionally, my friends will contribute in this way as well) and when enough momentum has been built up in the ‘alone’ phase, I call up my friends again and talk through it all. We repeat this process until our heads are thoroughly bruised from all of the against-wall-bashing.

At some point, I develop enough art and story ideas to classify the concept as a ‘pitch.’ That means that I think the idea is solid enough to tell industry people about. ...but the ‘pitch’ should always be enticingly sketchy and flexible.

(I describe this process in much greater detail in my podcast episodes about pitching.)

But sometimes, I get stuck.

I developed ‘Hoagie and Moses’ over a year ago and I haven’t made any significant progress with the story since then.

Granted, I’ve been working 40 hours a week at Disney on a number of Fairy movies and I’ve been developing other things as well (two other TV shows, a graphic novel and handful of interactive ideas.)

I have the premise for this show and its really funny. As you can see in this post, I have some pretty cool art, but I haven’t yet figured out how this show could go for a hundred episodes.

This is the challenge of television, or long-form storytelling in general. “How do you keep the storytelling fresh throughout the long haul?”

The answer to this question is often ‘create great characters’ so that’s what I’m focusing on for now. But the show still needs an ‘engine.’

Since I’m focused on a couple of other projects right now, and because I’m tired of being one of the only people who can enjoy these character designs, I’ve decided to put this out there.

I’ll keep you posted as this project develops, but for now, its on hold so I can try to ride the momentum of some other projects.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

I’ll go into the details of the premise in a future post.

The LOST Revelations Podcast

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 17:21:31 -0800

For those of you that are fans of LOST, you can check out my newest podcasting endeavor: The LOST Revelations Podcast.

Follow this link to the LRP website (NO spoilers) and listen to our introductory episode. If you’re interested in winning a 16x6 print of my painting of “John Locke and The Smoke Monster,” be sure to check out the Contest Page.

‘Wizard Of Oz’ Concept Art (part 4)

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:12:39 -0800

...continued from part three.

I THINK THIS IS MY BEST PIECE OF 2009:

It represents a personal victory in the areas of spontaneity, loose-tight balance, strong drawing, appeal through silhouette and of course, character. ...ALL of the areas within which I have been focusing my efforts.

The irony of the previous statements is that I did this piece LAST FEBRUARY. Yes, I have been focusing on all of these areas ALL FLIPPIN’ YEAR, but I have not yet had a bigger win than is represented here.

I have had a few personal wins at work (Disney) in the last nine months, but those wins were based more on the improvement of technical skill and efficiency of brush. This Tin Man represents a big win for me personally because it looks the most like I WANT my personal work to look.

There is a LOT more to say about the above idea. But I won’t write all about that here. You can listen to several of my most recent ‘Collage Casts’ for more insight and I will be talking more about this pursuit in the upcoming podcast episode: “Looking Forward To 2010.”

THE DESIGN:

This is the third Tin Man design that I have shared with you. This version gives you a better look at the ‘heart hatch’ concept that I talked about in Part 3 of this series.

There is obviously no ‘buzz-saw-beard’ like I talked about in part two, but I was attempting to represent a beard here. This ‘beard’ was conveyed in essence by solving yet another design problem inherent to any ‘robotic’ or rigid character that also has a face. (That is to say that this problem does not apply to ‘robotic’ characters like C-3PO or R2-D2.)

How do you show mouth movements and facial expression when the face is made of metal?

There were some interesting solutions demonstrated in the Blue Sky Studios film Robots. There were concepts like jointed-eyebrows and bendy metal mouths. The mouths moved subtly, so that they maintained the illusion of rigidity most of the time. The animators achieved an appealing kinesis through fluid pantomime and a more global squash and stretch application.

Pixar’s Wall-E is also a very dynamic character. And though his face is expressive, the animators relied more on posture and pantomime (ie: Andrew Stanton’s ‘Chaplin’ influence seen in the animated performances) than on Wall-E’s facial expressions to convey emotions.

My solution when designing this Tin Man was to form the head (including the eyebrows) out of metal and to form the mouth out of rubber. This way, the mouth could be very flexible (as demonstrated in this image) but 80% of the head remains rigid.

The darkness of the rubber mouth makes the face resemble that of a man who hasn’t shaved in a month.

If this character were animated, his eyebrows would remain a fixed shape and they would just move up, down and rotate.

So this Tin Man, when animated, could have more dynamic facial expressions than the Blue Sky Robots or Wall-E.

This is not to say that this level of expressiveness is necessarily more desirable. Its simply another solution to the expression challenges presented by robotic or otherwise rigid characters.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The scarf and knit hat were attempts at irony. Yes, they are ‘Woodsman’ visual cues as I described in Part 2, but they are also ironic since he’s made of tin. Or maybe they are not ironic. ...maybe Tin Men get cold... The painted-on suspenders were a last minute addition.

I don’t have a favorite part about this piece because I think it all works so well. I guess if I had to choose, it would be the overall silhouette. I like the variation in the silhouette; the contrast of the skinny limbs and the massive body.

I rarely, if ever, feel this satisfied with my own work.

Art is a discipline (in case nobody ever told you, that’s VERY important truth to accept) albeit a very enjoyable and rewarding one. Art is also a battle. In finishing a piece of art there is always a tally of wins and losses. I just think that when this piece came to an end, the tally was mostly wins. And that makes me really, REALLY happy.

Now, if I can just figure out how, in essence, to do this every time...

Remember: NEW BLOGS or PODCASTS here at ChrisOatley.com EVERY MONDAY!

Until next week...

...go well.

UPDATE:

I have once again attempted to allow BLOG comments. I currently host my website through Apple’s MobileMe service and there are have been a lot of problems with the comments function.

However, I am VERY interested in your thoughts on this post/ piece so PLEASE share your thoughts and we’ll try this commenting thing for the third time. Thanks!

‘Wizard Of Oz’ Concept Art (part 3)

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 19:52:18 -0800

...continued from part two.

I have to make this post quick.

My apologies - I’ll make it up to you in the future.

Another thing that I like about this piece is that it shows the Tin Man at peace. He’s enjoying a leisurely stroll through the woods during the Fall. It seems appropriate that a Woodsman as gentle and selfless as the Oz Tin Man would be really in-tune with nature.

Of all of my recent Tin Man, I think this one is the least strong (the strongest is yet to come) but there’s something I still really like about it.

Of course, I love the heart-hatch. ...a little door on Tin Man’s chest, right over the place where his heart should go.

Although this piece does not feature the heart-hatch concept as prominently as some of my past Tin Man interpretations have, I like that this one has a doorknob and a keyhole.

I love the idea of the heart-hatch because it indicates that the Tin Man is incomplete prior to his being given a heart. It indicates that there is a destiny, or at least a hope that this space will one day be filled.

I like his knit hat and I like the proportions of the character. I think that the color palette in this piece really works.

There’s the return of the buzz-saw beard (read more about this in ‘Oz Concept Art: Part Two’) and the pose is pretty strong. It could be pushed further.

If I were to change anything, I would add more texture and loosen up the brush strokes even more. I would put dappled light all over the character - the sunlight coming through the leaves on the trees. I would also make his expression more serene.

Now that I am thinking about it, I’m getting the itch to go back in and work on it some more.

...or maybe I’ll just do another version similar to this. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.

Remember: NEW BLOGS or PODCASTS here at ChrisOatley.com EVERY MONDAY!

Until next week...

...go well.

‘Wizard Of Oz’ Concept Art (part 2)

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 13:12:54 -0800

...continued from part one.

My favorite character from the Oz stories? The Tin Woodsman.

I love the fact that he’s this sort of indestructible robot but he lacks a heart.

Who can’t relate to that? We’ve all lost heart and grown cold and rusty to the point where we get stuck, frozen in one spot, pantomiming a singular repetitive motion - like swinging an axe.

The hope of getting our hearts back can definitely lubricate the soul.

In my opinion, we commonly see depictions of the character that represent the ‘Tin’ part of ‘Tin Woodsman’ very well. But the ‘Woodsman’ part is commonly de-emphasized. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps its because artists have been too precious about the design elements presented in the original Oz books or, of course, the famous film.

Don’t get me wrong, I love those most classic depictions. Its just that if I were to design a Tin Man of my own (which I did), I would amp-up the Woodsman-ness (which I did).

I’ve been experimenting with Tin Woodsman designs for as long as I’ve called myself an illustrator. This is the first in a series of my three most recent interpretations of the Tin Woodsman.

This design, probably the least Woodsman-y of the batch, features a design element that I dreamed up while I was in art school. I often drew the Tin Man as a hodgepodge robot made of junk. Basically, I took the traditional funnel-hat idea a little further. I imagined that all of his parts had been found instead of custom-made.

If you have read the book, you will know that the Tin man used to be a real man and he lost his body piece-by-piece until he was completely replaced with tin parts. Of course, in the above design, he’s not really a junk-man, but he is still sporting the favorite element of my old junk-man designs - the buzz-saw beard.

Point is, I was trying to come up with ways to make him look like a Woodsman. It made sense that if he was a woodsman, having a beard would be an important part of his identity.

Whether he was made of found junk parts or manufactured tin parts, he would think it important to include a beard in his self-redesign.

So I thought, “what found, metal object looks like a beard?”

For years, I’ve been drawing various Tin Man designs with a buzz-saw blade instead of a beard. I’ll try to find some of those and share them in future posts.

Next post, I’ll talk about another Tin Man design element that I have used over and over (though its not shown here). That would be the heart-hatch. ...a little door on his chest, right over the place where his heart should go.

To be continued...

‘Wizard Of Oz’ Concept Art (part 1)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:08:23 -0700

Last year, I began work on a series of designs based on the story of Oz, with plans to collect them into a concept art book similar to The Skillful Huntsman.

I may still publish that book some day, but my plans were confounded when, right after my decision to do an Oz book, Marvel Comics released an AMAZING adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz that was drawn by the remarkable Skottie Young.

Needless to say, I’ve put the plans for my own Oz book on hold for now. I think it commercially unwise step with intent into the long shadows cast by Skottie and the good people that catalyzed the Marvel version.

However, I just can’t keep these designs secret any longer. So I’m going to post them on my blog, one at a time, with some accompanying commentary...

WHY DID YOU WANT TO MAKE AN ‘OZ’ BOOK, CHRIS?

Oz is one of my favorite places.

I can’t say that the original book by L. Frank Baum is one of my favorite works of literature. Although I do like the book quite a bit. And I like the classic Judy Garland movie just as much as the next guy, but it is not my favorite film of all time, as it is for many people.

What really intrigues me is the world of Oz. I love “rules” (or the lack thereof) that exist in the Oz that Baum created.

I am a SUCKER for the kind of hodgepodge character logic that also exists in every Muppet-related project (Jim Henson’s Labyrinth parallels Oz in many ways) as well as movies like Star Wars and Speilberg’s A.i.

I love a good ‘accidental family’ story, especially when the accidental family is one comprised of characters that vary dynamically in shape, size, species, color, texture and temperament.

I have a great deal to say about this topic, so over the coming months, I will be posting designs from my own Oz collection (never before seen!) and talking about the ‘accidental family’ stories that I love and what makes them so great.

Until next week, Go well.

‘Forest Demon’ Painting & Process Images

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:50:16 -0700

Last Monday, I had a couple of hours of down-time at Disney.

This happens every now and then, when there is a slight lag in the production pipeline.

Sometimes when this happens, I’ll go ask questions of the art-jedi-masters that I work with, organize my office, play a song on someone’s guitar, pet someone’s dog or play a game of ping pong. Last Monday, I decided to make another painting.

I have been talking on the podcast and here on the blog about how I’m trying to loosen up in my painting style. I attempted this a few times with little success, always falling back into my more meditative, detailed methods.

There were a few flirtations with spontaneity, however. Evidence of said flirtations can be found in the Alien Janitor painting and the development work that I’ve been doing for a client’s graphic novel project.

However, it was not until this most recent concept piece that I feel like I really found a successful balance between spontaneity and confidence.

How did this happen? I’m not entirely sure. I just didn’t think about it.

I began with a technique that I learned in a book called The Skillful Huntsman. I won’t go into detail about this book right now, because I’ll eventually release a podcast episode devoted entirely to it.

For now, I’ll just say that there is no other art book that has provided as much practical insight as that one. And if you buy the book here, you’ll be helping to support this site and my podcast, monetarily. (I receive a percentage of the profits from Amazon.com...)

I grabbed two random images from Flickr.com. (One was a photo of someone dressed up like Charlie Chaplin and the other... ...well, I honestly can’t remember the other one.)

I used the transform tool in Photoshop to scale them both WAAAAAAY up. I converted both images to grayscale and layered one on top of the other. I set the top image layer to Multiply.

What resulted was a grayscale abstraction. Both images were no longer recognizable. I moved the images around and rotated them until I found something that was interesting compositionally. I was looking for a set of shapes that would spark an idea.

This whole process is just for fun. It creates a visual dialogue. It gives the artist something to respond to, visually. It makes you think about the canvas in a way you might never have thought about it before. It gives you a compositional approach you may never have taken otherwise.

To the left is the beginning grayscale image.

(All of the process images are available only on ChrisOatley.com and not visible in the RSS feed.)

Then, I began searching for shapes, trying to make sense from the abstract grayscale image.

I discovered a large tree right away.

That gave me a strong directional shape to which I could respond with smaller accent shapes.

I placed what was supposed to be a humanoid figure near the base of the tree, just to give a sense of scale.

This figure disappeared later since it was a dark figure against a dark tree.

A few light blue strokes became the suggestion of a river.

I pulled out a few vertical shapes in the background with only a couple of gray-green strokes.

A shaft of dramatic light, a column of fog and a bunch of twisted vines came next. I moved the silhouetted figure in front of the column of fog so it would be more discernible. The dark shape in the foreground became an abstract group of plants.

I boosted the contrast and saturation.

I added more details, while trying to keep up the fast pace of the painting.

I didn’t want to get too caught up in the little details.

I added some red-orange accents to compliment the green-blues. That was a purely clinical choice, but it worked really well.

In the image to the left, you can see my signature. I thought I was done.

...but as I zoomed-out to admire the results of my own playful experiment, I felt like it needed one more interesting element.

The image needed a better story.

Every chance I get, I add a monster.

Here is the nearly-finished version.

I thought the hiding creature looked a little too much like a character from ‘Bone’ so I covered him with leaves and moss.

I changed his pose to make him look a little more ‘lurking’ and less ‘lounging.’

I also made him larger. I wish, now that I had made him larger still. (Maybe I’ll go back and change that when I get some time to do so...)

I love the looseness of the piece. It was a tremendous joy to go from blank screen to finished painting in only two hours.

Those of you that listen to my podcast and read this blog regularly know that this is a big win for me. I have been striving for this kind of spontaneity and excitement in my paintings for quite some time. I can’t wait to do another one.

To keep moving at a quick pace, I had to let a lot of things go. The composition is far from perfect, there are some real inconsistencies in the forest elements and the light is not emphasizing the characters like it should.

That said, overall, I am really happy with the final result. I have been aiming for something like this for a long time. Its so nice to hit the target on the first shot every once in a while.

Until next week, my friends... go well.

‘The Dreamer’ TPB In Stores NOW!

Sun, 9 Aug 2009 23:07:14 -0700

Friends, I just wanted to let you know that the collected edition of Issues 1-6 of The Dreamer Lora Innes’ epic comic published by IDW is now available in book stores an comic shops the world ‘round. (pictured below)

Head out now to pick up your own copy and be sure to check out TheDreamerComic.com where you can read every issue of The Dreamer online for free!

You can head to my RESOURCES page and learn about how I painted this image and you can listen to an awesome interview with Lora Innes HERE on Chris Oatley’s ArtCast!

You can also purchase a Wizard Of Oz ‘Flying Monkey’ T-shirt that I designed for the book. The main character, Beatrice Whaley wore in Issue #6 right here in my Zazzle STORE.

New Comic Book Project (part 3)

Sun, 9 Aug 2009 22:18:04 -0700

Here is a new concept piece that I did for a comic book project that I was hired to develop.

You can read more about the project in parts one and two.

Above and below are some designs for some of the ships that will populate the world of the story. You can see more of these ship designs in the SKETCHBOOK.

You can tell from the two images in this post that I work out the silhouettes first - all on a big page just like you see - and then I go back in with a second pass and add some character to the design as well as some details and dimension.

These are, of course, only sketches. I was just trying to get a bunch of ideas down very quickly - without getting hung up on the drawing. The idea is to come up with a strong silhouette and then go back in and let the silhouette shape ‘speak’ to you as you discover the smaller forms within it.

After that,I decide which ones I like and I scale them up and work out an actual color scheme, adding more details, changing parts of the design that don’t work or could work better, and I determine what the surfaces and textures will look like.

These were all generated very quickly (two hours max) in Photoshop with a generic brush.

I have more designs where these came from, so I’ll try to post more in the near future.

AND remember: New blogs or podcasts at ChrisOatley.com EVERY MONDAY!

You can see more of these ship designs in the SKETCHBOOK.

Even MORE ‘Legends Of Zork’ Development Art

Sun, 9 Aug 2009 21:53:01 -0700

I recently did some visual development for an online game. The game is another installment in the classic ‘Zork’ franchise called Legends Of Zork.

Last year, I painted twenty-two environments for the game and you can see some of those previous images here and here.

I recently took on another twenty-one environments when Activision & Spark decided to expand the game.

This time, I supplied color comps for each environment and art-directed the completion of the final images while relying on the assistance of my friends and fellow illustrators Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble. (You can learn more about this on Episode 16 of my podcast.)

Its amazing to think that I have now designed forty-three lighting scenarios, color palettes and moods for this game. It is an incredible challenge that really stretches your creativity to produce that much art for any project.

It became more and more challenging to be original and creative as the environments increased in number, but in spite of that, I think the ones that were produced last were some of the best.

More images below. (New images are only visible on ChrisOatley.com and are not available in the feed.)

I’ll be talking more about this phenomenon in an upcoming episode of my podcast so stay tuned!

The line art is by Greg Brown and the whole project was directed by the remarkable Jim Zubkavich at UDON Entertainment. Jim also designed all of the characters in the game.

There are new blogs or podcasts at ChrisOatley.com EVERY MONDAY!!

Until next week, go well.

Hulk Vs. Wolverine: Less-Bloody Version

Sun, 9 Aug 2009 21:05:42 -0700

I know I KNOW... When will it ever end? I keep telling you that this painting is done and then, like our pal George Lucas, I keep going back in and making tweaks...

But this is the real-deal, bona-fide final-final version... ...I think.

Interestingly enough, I made these changes in response to a couple of helpful critiques I received on deviantART and via email.

In the previous final version, there was too much blood on the Hulk’s fists. I could either have reduced the amount of blood on his fists or increased the amount of blood on the characters. Considering that I 1.) didn’t want to conceal all the effort I put into painting those characters and 2.) did not want to go overboard with the violence, I decided to reduce the blood.

I blurred the Hulk’s hands using the smudge tool and a soft brush so I could maintain the sense of fast motion that was originally achieved with the blood that was trailing from his fists...

However... the large blood spray to the right of the frame-of-reference worked pretty well as a design element, so I didn’t want to change its overall shape and size very much. Instead, I blurred it out with the Gaussian Blur filter in Photoshop which created the illusion that the spray is smaller in actual size, but closer to the ‘camera’ and thus larger within the frame of reference.

Lastly, I balanced out the air-blood and character-blood by adding some more blood soaked into Wolverine’s shirt. I achieved this blood-soaked look by adding red paint onto several Photoshop adjustment layers set to ‘Multiply’ and ‘Color.’

(Listen to Episode 14 of my podcast for more on how I came to these decisions...)

So I think that’s really it for this painting. I’m happy that its finally over. For my next fan art pieces? I have a Captain America, a Daredevil and another TMNT piece in the works... Not sure when they will be done, but it will all be available here on ChrisOatley.com!

Thanks for reading!

New Blogs or Podcasts at ChrisOatley.com EVERY MONDAY!

Hoodwinked Too! Character Designs (part 3)

Sun, 31 May 2009 21:49:21 -0700

...continued from part two:

This is the third part in a series of posts that will reveal some of the character, prop and shot design work that I did for the upcoming Weinstein Company/ Kanbar Entertainment production: Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil.

I have to make this brief.

I started a new job at Disney this past Wednesday (working on a sequel to Tinker Bell), I am swamped with other freelance work (children’s books, more work for Legends Of Zork, a graphic novel etc...) AND I moved this past weekend.

Needless to say, I haven’t had ANY time to work on personal stuff or put much time into editing podcasts (although I do have two new episodes very close to completion...)

So I thought I would just post another character redesign that I did for Hoodwinked Too.

This sheep appeared as a “crowd” background character in the first film. The character is still just an ‘extra’ in our film, but its role in our film is more significant. The role is also hilarious. I don’t want to spoil the joke, but it I will say that it cracked me up when I heard about it and I laughed even harder when I saw the scenes in which these sheep characters appear.

I was assigned the tasks of upgrading the surfaces and generally adding more appeal to the design. I used the face of my dachshund (Sydney) as a guide for adding more personality into the design of the sheep.

It took me a long time, working in Photoshop, to develop the right kind of brush for painting the wool. In the end, I used a combination of that custom brush and some photo texture overlays.

I also approached this redesign the same way I approached the redesign of Japeth, although I spent much more time on Japeth.

I actually love the way this character turned out. Also, I like the looseness and collage aspects of the painting. I think it has a really interesting weirdness to it - and that weirdness works because the character is supposed to be a sight gag in itself...

...at the risk of sounding a little rambly, this reminds me of when I designed the star of my never-got-finished student film, Stay Cool. People would just look at the character and laugh. I suppose that is an indication that you’ve achieved a successful character design - when people respond to an unmoving image of the character with the desired response. If that response is strong, I suppose that’s even more of an indication that you’ve succeeded.

I will try to get a podcast out this week. I have so much that I want to share with you about my life as of late. I also want to talk more about my job on the new Tinker Bell movie and about the TV projects that I am developing.

If you’ve written me recently, I apologize for not getting back to you. I will be doing another listener mail episode soon and I’ll cover a lot of your emails then.

Write me soon and let me know how things are going for you... ...creatively and otherwise.

Thank you all for caring so much.

Here’s a detail of the sheep’s face (only viewable on ChrisOatley.com and not in the feed):

Thoughts? Suggestions? Critiques? Email me at coatley [at] mac dot com. You can also find me on Twitter, deviantArt and Facebook. Go here for those links.

NEW BLOGS OR PODCASTS AT CHRISOATLEY.COM EVERY MONDAY!

Hulk Vs. Wolverine FINAL VERSION!

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:31:01 -0700

Well, my friends...

What else can I say?

I’m done with this crazy illustration.

Its been a LONG time coming, I know. But finally... Finally, its done.

I’ll be podcasting about this piece in future episodes of my ArtCast, so I won’t go on and on about it here. But I will say this: I’m happy with the way it turned out. My disconcertions with the piece remain as stated in Episode 14 of my ArtCast but I think I revived it and, in spite of the fact that it ended up MUCH, much tighter than I had originally planned, I think it works.

Not my best piece by far, but its done. Phewie.

Okay, new podcast next Monday. I promise.

Thanks for reading/ listening/ watching/ looking.

Until next Monday, go well.

Below are some detail images.

(These detail images are viewable only on ChrisOatley.com and are not in the feed.)

Hoodwinked Too! Character Designs (part 2)

Sun, 17 May 2009 13:00:15 -0700

...continued from part one:

This is the second part in a series of posts that will reveal some of the character, prop and shot design work that I did for the upcoming Weinstein Company/ Kanbar Entertainment production: Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil.

If you are interested in seeing more of the development work that was produced for our film, you can visit Ryan Carlson’s site. Ryan was the Art Director on the movie and he has posted many of his redesigns of the principle characters.

Ryan’s work is AMAZING. He is a dear friend of mine and I owe most of my success in the animation industry to him. I highly recommend that you spend some time studying his art. Pay extra-close attention to the economy of brush strokes in his work. Download his images and zoom WAAAAY in and see how much he is able to define with so little effort.

As I mentioned before, Ryan and I, along with Jeff Siergey, designed a bunch of new characters for this sequel, but it was also a lot of fun to revisit the characters from the original film and give them a sort of budgetarily-inspired design boost.

I said last week that the new characters will remain secret until they appear in a trailer somewhere or until the release of the film in theatres, but there is one exception to that rule...

Today you get to witness a resurrection of sorts. This post features a “Castaway” character that was cut from an intermediate version of Hoodwinked Too.

I did this painting over a VERY rough render of a VERY low-poly model that was provided for me by the production.

When I started this painting I had very little to go on and thus, I had to invest a great deal in the design of this character. ...and that is why I am sad that he is no longer in the film.

However, it should be stated that I completely agree with the cut. Its just sad that The Castaway had to go. I figured that since he is no longer in the movie, I may as well show you the design.

I think this character has a lot of appeal. I love the proportional distortions and the overall silhouette.

I am guessing that it was Jeff Siergey (head of story) that came up with the inital sketch of the character (although I am not certain) but whoever generated the initial concept did sucha great job of creating an intense, dynamic concept that the impact it lasted all the way through the design process.

As I was finalizing the design, I could still sense the ripple effect from the creative energy blast that was the initial concept sketch.

Thanks for reading! There are plenty more Hoodwinked designs where this one came from!

I am still working on the next podcast for this month but I promise it will be released by next Monday. Until then, go well.

:: click here for part three ::

Thoughts? Suggestions? Critiques? Email me at coatley [at] mac dot com. You can also find me on Twitter, deviantArt and Facebook. Go here for those links.

NEW BLOGS OR PODCASTS AT CHRISOATLEY.COM EVERY MONDAY!