Character designs and love

[twentyfour]

I still have that new forum user smell, so to help shake that off I'm posting some artwork for c and c

These characters are all background guys for a big hallway type room. I have another batch designed but I chose these mostly at random

I just cleaned this guy up today. I was thinkin I'd have him on idle loop indefinitely and have organs floating around. Not sure I love the mouth or eyelids yet. He's mostly transparent so the bg will show up behind him. What do you guys think?


Here's some roughs of other hallway denizens


Thoughts, idears, questions?

[rbaleksandar]

lol Awesome One question though - why are some of the organs of the big transperant dude not connected? I mean vessels etc. And is he going to have any brain (it could be very small one )?

[cat]

I don't like the brown things under his eyes, they disturb the otherwise clean look. Otherwise its great. I also like those other drawings.

[Misj']

Hay Twentyfour,

in general I like the designs. They are clean, simple, have character, and I happen to like the style. They should be relatively easy to animate...which is always a good thing.
I have a few (minor) comments though.

I feel the bob-guy would be better with less organs (also, because several of them are not really identifiable as to what they are, and seem to be there only to fill up space). I would stick to only his digestive-system. It's the most prominent of his organs anyway, it fits well within the style of the character (the blood-vessels on his heart for example are a little too detailed in comparison to the rest of the character), and it tells the 'story' of a transparent guy who's organs are visible (and not transparent). Also, the digestive-system can be nicely animated and would work well as a loop.

quick edit for comparison-reasons:


Should you consider giving him hands (he doesn't need them in my opinion, but it would add the possibility of him eating something, which would tie in with the digestive-system), then I would place them relatively low...somewhere near where the shadow ends.


The other three designs look good too, but I think the bug could do with some antenna...that would give a nice possibility of a follow-through animation.

As I said, overall the designs are good (simple but interesting shapes) and I think very usable for animation, as you can see below with a quick take on the bug (sorry guys, couldn't resist...):

I've never animated in Flash, but I suspect it shouldn't be a problem either...

Hope to see more from you in the future.

Misj'

[twentyfour]

Hey, thanks guys!

I think with the blob guy I got a bit caught up in the concept of a transparent character and skipped right over limiting clutter in the design. I'm still a bit attached to the idea of a floating heart in there so I may tinker around with that.

rbaleksandar: I had the organs floating around on their own partially for humour's sake and partially for design reasons. A fully connected circulatory, digestive and nervous system would be a bit messy looking all together I think, and maybe a bit too much to look at for such a simple lil character(and yet I still fill em up with floating multi-coloured organs...sigh)

Misj: Wow! Thanks for the lil bug animation! Your colour choices make me think he's a bit Invader Zim. I'm keeping Blobby hand free, he really is just a "stand in the background" kinda character so no reason to put much more into him.

I'll be posting a background up here soonish and probably a couple animations I think I'll have trouble with(main character is pretty much a snake so the 'walking' loop may be a bit troublesome for me) once I get a rough crack at them

[Takyon]

Wow they look great man. Interesting to see what your game's about.

[Evil]

First off, the designs are really solid. You've got a great variety of characters, unique but comparable in style, and all are very visually stimulating. Backgrounds can really make these characters, but they could also really hurt them if not done right.

The blob character is a really creative idea, but I think he's not well thought out. I love the idea of a transparent "liquid" character, but the organs feel displaced. It's hard to understand their functionality when they aren't attached. A floating, beating heart is easy to identify right away, but the stomach and intestine seem like a graphic. Perhaps fading the ends so the appear to attach to the mouth and bottom. Having him open is mouth and suck in some air that flows through his organs, like Tom and Jerry water hose style, would help identify the function of these things. Lungs would be a good alternative to intestine.

I think there are some other things you could do to the character to accentuate the fact that he's a blob. Floating organs and a transparent body help, but set aside from animations and backgrounds, it's uncertain. A terrible movie and bad example, but the main character from the movie Osmosis Jones has this white, glowing outline that really sets of the idea that he's liquid. This is a terrible image, but there aren't any better images online (surprise, surprise).



I'm not sure if an outline is the way to go, but a white tint around his body might make him look better.

And I LOVE that character in the first sketch. I can't help but think I've seen that before. It's really lovely.