Out of Class Assignment #1 Skeletons and Proportions

Find 4 character designs that you like and admire:
Skeletal Structure: In photoshop, on tracing paper, or colored marker on paper, draw the skeletal structure of the character.
Proportions:  Map out the character's Main Proportions
Head Height: note the character's head height.

Post to blog and Label with your name and "Out of Class Assignment #1"
This will not be critiqued.

Due Thurs Sept 12 midnight

Skeletal structure


Proportions and Head Height

Assignment #1 - Proportion

Character Design - An Interplanetary Pizza Deliverer

Due Thursday Sept 12th (due to tuesday - visiting artist)

Assignment Focus:  Experimenting with Proportions
Assignment Details:  You will experiment with a character's proportions in designing an Interplanetary Pizza Deliverer.  Provide at least 3 versions showing different extremes in proportion - Have fun, don't let yourself get stiff, and avoid your common ground. Post all WIP.
Post a Skeleton Draw-over for each of the 3 versions. (pending- if we get to this)



Just a Few Things:

for our purposes - that is to say, presenting a new character design for consideration

Pose -
-avoid straight on poses,
-The ideal pose is a simple 3/4 view
- avoid a boring or stiff T-pose, BUT don't do anything extreme or complicated with the limbs. find something that simply portrays some personality but is a quick and clean read
- avoid any extreme perspective
- No hiding hands - don't get in the habit - face your fears!

Level of finish I am expecting - this may vary according to ability or if you are experimenting with new mediums or style.  Bottom line is, I want to focus on your design, not your polishing.  It may take several revisions before you want to put the effort into laborious Inking or coloring.
BUT
design should still come across as finished - all parts accounted for and readable

Here are some examples:

Nick Watson

 - the hiding hands part

Glen Kean

Glen Kean?

Sarah Mensinga

Mael Gourmelen

Sherie McGraw - Visiting Artist Lecture

Tuesday Sept 9th
7:00 HBLL Library
Room 3714

attendance Required

Proportions

Scottie Young

CHARACTER DESIGN PROPORTIONS

The character’s head is used as a unit of measurement.

Exaggerating, stretching and squishing the character away from the standard naturalistic proportions will  communicate something to the audience: for example, Big head and small body is often a fast read for “cute” whereas a big body and small head can communicate “strong” 

Notice*** how Vanelope, and Ralph's Heads are the same size, yet each of their bodies are in different proportions to their heads. (Vanelope - 2 heads, Ralph - 4-5 headsish).  This was Likely a deliberate design decision due to the close interaction between these two characters in the film - it subconsciously links them together because they feel more natural together, and it feels less awkward, for example if Vanelope is sitting on Ralph's shoulder, then their features are not bizarrely different from each other.

 This is a great Recourse.  All of Andrew Loomis's Books can now be found online.  He was a master at studying the standard proportions of a figure.  Remember,

if you want to break away from the "Norm", you need to understand the "norm".

VARYING PROPORTION

RULE #1 

when it comes to Proportions - unless you are purposefully going for a very realistic*or stiff feel, avoid equal proportions. Or in other words, ANYTHING being the same size.  ORGANIZE by establishing a CLEAR BIG, MED, SMALL.  Exaggerate and make it obvious, or it will fall flat and just feel "off" enough to be weird.

*In my opinion, even if you are going for a realistic feel, some exaggeration is still essential in order to feel "right".  there is a natural watering down process that happens in 2d that if there is no exaggeration, things start to feel uncanny.

NO NO NO NO!

YES!

Norman Rockwell's characters are what one would term "realistic", yet see how he still varies his proportions.

There are various degrees of stylization (We will cover this more later), with Realistic on one end and Abstract or Super stylized on the other.  The entire spectrum of different kinds of stylization and styles benifit from varying your proportions.

Its Called GOOD DESIGN.

Sarah Marino 

Jin Kim

Wouter Tulp

Posting on the Blog

When posting an assignment on the Blog:

1)  Label your post with YOUR NAME, & ASSIGNMENT only.
(when you click "New Post," Labels are found on the far Right of the screen just below "Post Settings") You can name the post whatever you like.

2) Post all WIP (Work In Progress) involved with the assignment.

3) If there are multiple drawings to a page (for example- 10 head designs) please label them with small numbers - this is professional and efficient as it makes it easier to refer to a specific drawing in a critique.

4) Be a Professional - Post ahead of class and don't be late to a critique.  This is discourteous to yourself and your Peers.