Alan Character Turnaround update v2

Render test image.

I've fixed the walk this time hoping that the feet would go in sync. The walk looks fine from other angles apart from the front which looks as if he's riding an "invisible bike". I also had some extra advice from Bo, Andi and Nat (Thanks!! :D) in trying to make the character look more "fluid and relaxed", so I've added some arm, upper and lower torso movements. I've kept in the shadows and the turntable in as the wireframes and the block model both have the tables in them. 

I also didn't realise that another camera was added in the render process but thought I put it up anyway for fun. :D

Alan Character Turnaround- updated

After fixing some problems during the holidays, here's the updated version of Alan Character Turnaround with untextured and wire framed model.

Alan joints and facial movement test

A movement test on Alan's joints, eyes and facial expressions. :D

Alan Facial Expressions sheet

Some basic facial expressions that would be used in our animation:

Alan-rigged,skinned,blended= complete!!

Finally after many weeks, I've got the character all rigged, skinned and blend shaped ready for animating!! ^_^ There was a slight mishap when it came to blendshaping the model's expressions like teeth getting stuck, twitching and many other bits and bobs. Many thanks to Alan for helping to get this fixed!! 

Front and Side

Head

Alan rigging and skinning update 2

"(middle) Mouth and Jaw set to "Eee" expression"

"(middle) mouth and jaw relaxed"

Another small update this time, his arms, legs and head are all rigged and skinned with just the mouth shapes to go. So far, following the tutorial, this is my first attempt in recreating the mouth shape for "Eee". This still needs some retweaking since the mouth shape for "E" has a strange look on his face. Won't be long til he's ready to go!! :D

Alan Rigging progress

Just a small update on the latest rigging process on Alan, done the leg rigging and made changes on the spine rigs. Also added in some locators and planes as a guide. Not long til he's moving once the rigging and skinning's done!! :D

The All-American Father. Finalized Design

Character designs 2

Before our talk with Alan, I drew up some designs for our character. Based on the previous post, I went to see if there were any other ideas that I can come up with as he needs to look more "clumsy" rather than a happy man.

Later, after our talk with Alan, we were told that both Tom and my designs should merge together, in other words Tom's silhouette will have the looks from the original (top) image as most of my designs looked too "salesman" style. Here are the ones (below) where I've based Tom's silhouette and my character's looks together. 

More Character Designs

After taking the feedback from the team and Tom, I've tried out the lines of action to see would this help out with my character. So far I am liking the posture of number 6  and the faces of numbers 9 and 6.

American Man: Character Concepts

During recent meetings with Joey and Nat, it was agreed all around that our main character had to be fit and either wearing some kind of typical business suit or a sweater-vest. Through other character designs previously posted, it seems that the general concensus was that his hair would be clean and cut. However, I drew inspiration from Joey's previous character designs and kept the caracteristic flip of the fringe.

First character designs 2

Exploring different styles to suit the "American Dad" style who would fail on TV. I've mostly try to focus on the facial expressions and tried out some body shapes.

First character silhouette designs

Based on the previous influence maps, I have started making some silhouettes for our silly-serious character. I thought it would be best to give him a weird shape like a stretched out potato, or a trapezium shaped head to suit his personality as a silly character demonstrating a serious announcement on tv but fails.

Character Design and Art Style Research

The All-American Man would be the most prominent place to start in character design since the focus for most of the animation will be on him. He will also be the only human character to be animated on-screen.

The concept of the 'All American Man' can mostly be identified with the middle-class white male in his 30s or 40s living in the suburbs, often accompanied with a wife and two or three children.

One notable similarity behind most of the fathers in this picture is the fact that they wear formal suits, white shirts or sweater vests and are almost always tucked in to maintain this formal and middle-class, clean look about them.

The art and style would very much need to resemble the kind of art style that was being used in animation in the 50s. Knowing this, I also searched through 50s western animation, stumbling upon this image gallery of 50s commercial art in the process: http://theimaginaryworld.com/rayart.html

The gallery's images, likewise with the photos of the 'American Family' all have one thing in common: the characters are very simple in design, but also very stylized. This also reminded me of one particular aspect of a certain game that's become very widely known:

This is the 'Vault Boy' seen throughout the game and the unofficial mascot of the Fallout games. This simplistic style is very similar to the style of 50s animation and the fact that the story and style of the Fallout series takes a lot of inspiration from the 1950s. 

"The series is set in a United States alternate history scenario which diverges from reality following World War II. The transistor was not invented, while vacuum tubes and atomic physics became the cornerstones to scientific progress, eventually achieving the technological aspirations of the early Atomic Age and locking society into a 1950s cultural stasis. Thus, in this alternative "Golden Age", a bizarre socio-technological status quo emerges, in which advanced robots, nuclear-powered cars, directed-energy weapons and other futuristic technologies are seen alongside 1950s-era computers and telephones, and the aesthetics and Cold War paranoia of the 1950s continue to dominate the American lifestyle well into the 21st century." (Wikipedia)

In my opinion, we would do well to incorporate this type of style into our character design as well as our art style as a whole.