Unit 2

Introduction To Research Skills In Art & Design

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We used shapes to help create the base outlines for an object or person.this way it helps the final product be in proportion. I used the image on the left to help with the stages.

This is an example of a binary opposition in the case of good and evil. As you can see the evil character on the left is smaller and has a slight hunch back to him making him less human like and more animalistic suggesting an aggressive nature. His skin is not smooth or kind to look at as he is deformed and has a skeletal face shape.

 

This is the Joker and is known for being a crazy and evil villain in the DC universe. he has many features that seem scary or villain like. For example he has many scars on his face to show how he has been in many attacks/fights or has taken a lot of damage which suggests he is very violent. He has pasty white skin and overdone vibrant makeup which creates the assumption he is like a clown, which are known for their horror. He has a sharp structured face which indicates he is quite physically fit and therefore more intimidating as well as being quite handsome at the same time. This shows not just heroes have to be handsome and physically fit.
The “Vitruvian man” which is created by Leonardo Da Vinci represents ratio and proportion of the parts of the body. This piece of art brings human anatomy, architecture and symmetry all in one.

we studied the anatomy of the human body to help with how to create a character. For example, knowing how large or small each muscle is will help you when creating a character and trying to make it realistic. For example the forearm is longer than the triceps or biceps and therefore you will replicate this in your drawing/modelling.

The 3D plastic model on the right is good for demonstrating how the character will move each body part. This is shown by the rotatable points which are called “joints” and your character will pivot around these.

I then drew this 3D model to help understand where the key pivot points are.

By researching the skull, we can see how the frame of a head would look like if we had no skin. Since my character is evil I will try and keep some features of the normal skull. For example I will have the jaw and cheek bones sharp and visible which might look slightly skeletal and therefore portrays evil or the spooky dead.

 

 

 

Sketches Of My Villain + back story

“Stitches” is a 23 year old male villain who is known for stitching the mouths of his victims together before DEATH. When he was a 11 year old boy he walked in to screams of his dad and to find his mum scolding his father with a red hot iron. Stitches then was screaming for help and tried to call the police. But to his surprise his mother pounces at him and knocks him unconscious. He then wakes up to being tied up and sees his mother over his head with a sewing kit. His screams then stopped and he realised his mouth was permanently sewn shut. The reasons for his scars is due to his abusive foster family he moved in with when looking for a better life after the incident with his mum. The foster family despised him and eventually his foster brother and father would an physically assault him. Until one night the foster brother got a knife and striked for him leaving scars on the left eye and right cheek. Stitches then fought back and knocked him to the ground while consistently pummeling him to the face. To leave a message to the rest of the family he sewed up the foster brothers mouth and left him laying dead on the kitchen floor!

Modelling my villain

 

I started by using the grab tool and pull strands of hair out of the head which is shown in the first picture. Then I tried making the beard that you would see in my “type 1” villain above. I then decided to change to the “type 3” figure villain so got rid of the beard and started doing the eyebrows and facial features.

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I then imported a base head and shoulder character model from mudbox to help with the head shape. I then used the grab tool but with a very small stroke to create detailed hair. I also used the draw tool to created a more structured jaw to create the more skeletal and masculine figure as said before when talking about the joker.

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I then used the draw tool to create the relief of the eyebrows, I then followed up with the grab tool to create the individual hairs on it. I also used the draw tool to create the circular shape of the eye ball, however I found a better solution to this by creating two new spheres. In addition I used the grab tool to further enhance the thickness and texture of the hair.

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As shown I added two new spheres and placed them evenly over the eye sockets to create eye shaped balls.

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I then used the draw/inflate tool to create eye lids to convey a realistic more human like eye.      

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To enhance the human like face I used the inflate tool to create the nostrils of the nose and give it a point at the front. In addition I used the inverted draw tool to create the nostril holes.

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Trying to create a mouth was difficult as I wanted to try and make him look venomous in doing so. So I thought having a open mouth may be the solution however I could not get it right and it didn’t look at all correct. I watched a tutorial on how to create lips and therefore created the lips in the second picture. Although they still are not intimidating yet.

tutorial:

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I then added the scars with the crease tool and also used the crease tool to create the stitches over the lips. Furthermore, I added a collarbone and shoulders to create more of a masculine feel to the character.

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Final Design

I downloaded a skin texture at home and painted around the face first. I then got a two shades of red (one darker than the other) to create the lips which help show the shadow from the lights. I used a grey colour as a thread to show that his lips have been shut and green for the eyes and hair.

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Evaluation

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This unit is mainly about designing an evil character and finding out how to do so. First we got asked to draw a face by using the shapes to create base outlines for it. So rather than going straight into drawing it, we would draw base outlines and shapes first to get the size and ratio right. Doing these drawings is relevant to animation and games design because if you are to create a character in a game or in an animation you will need to know how to draw and create them especially getting the right ratios which drawing teaches you, so in that case it is very relevant. The time period for my character is the 21st century because his style is very modern and no one really had green hair until this century. To make my character frightening and look like a villain, I added two scars which could be seen as scary since it shows that he has been in fights. I also made him have a strong jaw which shows his masculinity and makes him intimidating as well as having weird looking eyes and lips stitched together which creeps people out. At first I did not know how to sculpt at all so I used trial and error as well as looking at YouTube videos on how to use it and find out what each tool did. The only skill I already had some knowledge of is drawing characters so I kind of knew how to do that. The skill I had never practised and was completely knew to me was using sculptris and creating a 3D model. My weakness was definitely trying to sculpt the mouth of my character as that took me around 3-4 hours to finally get as I kept on messing something up or I did not like how it looked. I would say my strength was being able to adapt to the new tools and figure out how to use them fast. My target would be, to try and create a whole body or an open mouth in sculptris as well as animating a character.