Character Design for Animation and Games Week 4b: Kids Media and Other Styles, Clay Head #2, Maya: Final Project Character Modeling

Kids Media What makes a character design suitable for kids media? This changes based on time and culture. In the present day, in the western world, there is a tendency to fall into two categories: gorgeously painted or graphically stylized, both brightly colored.

Kids Media: History The oldest known Western Illustrated Children’s book: 1658’s Orbis Sensualium Pictus (or ”The World of Things Obvious to the Senses Drawn in Pictures.”): 150 pictures showing everyday activities like brewing beer, tending gardens, and slaughtering animals. The first to approach a visually-centered medium.

Kids Media: History 1800s: German influence with Grimm’s Tales. Generally, the limits of the printing medium lent towards clear line art and were expressed in normally proportioned forms, with some small exceptions like W. W. Denslow’s art on The Wizard of Oz

Kids Media: History In the modern day, the landscape for children’s illustration is very wide, with extraordinary technology for precise reproduction, allowing a great variety in style and content. Books, comics, films, TV, games and other media provide rich opportunities for diversity, but there are still consistencies in what the public expects from their kids media.

Kids Media: 20th Century Classics

Kids Media: 1990’s Cartoons

Kids Media: Films

Kids Media: Books: Moe Willems

Kids Media: Books: Sandra Boynton

Kids Media: Books: Shel Silverstein

Kids Media: Books: (Munsch) Martchenko

Kids Media: Books: Peter Reynolds

Kids Media: Books: Weisner and Muth

Working in Other Styles Apprentice painters have painted in their Master’s styles for centuries, and comic book artists regularly play with each other’s modes of form, line, and expression. It is a time-honored practice for student artists learning their craft and experienced artists seeking to shake up their work to experiment with other artists styles.

Working in Other Styles Then try drawing original work in that style, using similar shapes, line weight, color, etc. Learning another artists’ style is the same process as learning to draw anything: practice by copying that artists’ work as exactly as you can, again and again, paying attention to forms, line weight, color, and shade.

EXERCISE 1: Kids Media Partner Prep 1.FAVORITE STORIES: Take a few minutes to think of your favorite kid’s stories growing up: books, movies, games, shows, plays, fairy tales, etc. 2.STORY IDEAS: Write down 3 ideas for the story you might want to design characters for this weekend. These can be a fairy tales or original kids story/game ideas. 3.VISUAL STYLE: Consider a style you might want to explore: a favorite cartoon or an illustrator you admire. Find online examples. 4.SHARE: Turn to your neighbor and share a description of one of these story and the artist you want to emulate.

EXERCISE 2: Head Clay Sculpting Following the steps in the provided tutorial, sculpt one of the heads you drew in Exercise 1. 1.Fold & roll your sheet of tinfoil into a teardrop shape. 2.Roll 2 balls of clay and spread them on each side of the tinfoil core to build the base form. 3.Apply smaller balls and strips of clay for the head back and brow. Insert a toothpick at the base for support, and build a neck around it. 4.Add smaller features: Apply a thin strip for the nose, Dig holes and add balls for the eyes, strips for the eyelids, cheekbones, neck muscles, ears, etc. Use the tools to smooth the outer edges. 5.Add hair: roll very thin or flat shapes and apply, smoothing one side into the head.

EXERCISE 3: Final Project Maya 3D Character Development REFERENCE IMAGE PLANE: Create an actual plane or an image plane to display the reference image. If using an actual plane, apply a material from the Hypershade with the reference JPG as the color channel. Hit [6] to view textures. Move the plane behind the zero line, add it to its own layer, and freeze.

EXERCISE 3: Final Project Maya 3D Character Development: Body TORSO: Start with a Cylinder: 8 sides, 5-6 divisions high. Size to fit the reference image torso from crotch to neck. FrontView: Select rows of vertices and Scale out UNIFORMLY to match body curves. Select left half Polygons and Delete. DuplicateSpecial as Instance and move/rotate to cover side view. Adjust vertices to match profile shape (bean). LIMBS: Remove center line from top and bottom hexagons in side view. Select those two faces and Extrude for arm and leg. Use Connect to add joint and curve details. EXTREMITIES: Hands and shoes are made through MultiCut and Extrude. Extrude x3 the wrist and the palm, cut finger shapes, extrude the fingers, use Connect on Edges and Scale to define joints. BODY VIDEO TUTORIAL: bit.ly/295s8h2 bit.ly/295s8h2

EXERCISE 3: Final Project Maya 3D Character Development: Head HEAD PROFILE: Using the CreatePolygon tool, trace the profile of the character head starting at the bottom of the neck. Use as few clicks as possible to define neckfront, chin, lower and upper lips, nose, forehead, skull, and neckback. Hit [Enter] to end. DuplicateSpecial as Instance and move/rotate to center in front view image reference. HEAD VOLUME: Extrude & Scale (shrink) slightly for half- nose width. MultiCut to distinguish & deselect nose. Extrude & Scale the rest to mouth-end. MultiCut to distinguish & deselect neck, and TargetWeld mouth-end closed. Extrude & Scale the remaining faces to outer-eye, then to head-side. ALL DETAILS: MultiCut & Extrude ears, nostrils, and hair. For clothing details, MultiCut 2 edges and move 1. For eyes and a more detailed mouth, MultiCut & move edge loops. HEAD VIDEO TUTORIAL: bit.ly/293HvUd bit.ly/293HvUd

EXERCISE 4: Final Project Rendering Progress Shots Surface Render: In Perspective View turn on View/ Camera Settings/ Resolution Gate to see render safe frame. Center your character to fill this space and hit the Render Icon (2 nd clapboard) at top of Maya. In the Render View File/ Save the image.

EXERCISE 4: Final Project Rendering Progress Shots Wireframe Render: Select the model to see the wireframe on the surface and on a Macintosh hit [Cmd]+[Shift] + [3] to take a screenshot (will save to the desktop: move to the thaw drive). Open both renders in Photoshop, and put them side-by side, deleting the extra space on the sides. Post as one PNG to the class Piazza forum every class rom now on.

Homework #8: Kids Media/Other Styles 2D: Choose an illustrator whose work you enjoy and a fairy tale or a story of your own design. Create the THREE main posed, costumed characters in the style of that illustrator: shapes, line weights, and color. 3D: Make progress on your Final Project 3D Maya character model: have at least the full body/ arms/ legs/ hands/ feet/ head roughed out by the next class (feel free to start on clothes, hair, and face details if you have time). Post to hw8 folder in Piazza by noon Thursday: piazza.com/class/ippn0kwpb904xh piazza.com/class/ippn0kwpb904xh

Post-Class Viewing: 3D Animated Features Clips from 4 3D films featuring detailed and stylized characters: Rango by ILM, Inside Out by Pixar, How to Train Your Dragon by Dreamworks, & The Good Dinosaur by Pixar