Current Character Line Up & Natty Modelling...

 Here's how the characters look currently:

The multi-coloured maned character will be finalised next, the only real change will be making the mane more child friendly and less pointed.

Below is the blocking out for Natty:

 

All going well I should have her almost completely modelled by Monday. It's exciting to see her working so well in 3D, I can't wait to get her polished and ready to come alive! :D

Character Tweaks and Turnaround...

I've now started refining the shapes the henchman has on his chest:

It's tricky but I think I still prefer the simplicity of 5 & 6, maybe if 5 had the wider tie from 11, but I'll go away and come back to it. Let me know what you think too!

I've also got my first orthographic turnaround ready so I can start modelling Natty here:

Exciting times! :D

Henchman Colour Tests...

After some feedback I've taken the previous design, as well as a new tweaked one, and tried out a few colour schemes based around a 'duller' version of the main villain:

Colour-wise, I think 7, 8 and 5 work quite well. I think his bulk being purple with a few coloured highlights works but I also quite like the green chest with purple everything else.

I've also got a third design for his chest, here are all three together:

This isn't the final colour scheme, it's just helping to see which design is most successful.

I like designs 2 and 3 the most. He still matches the lead villain but 2 distinguishes himself a little more from him than 3 does. Any feedback is much appreciated! :)

New Henchman Design...

After knowing that the henchman should be more lovable than he is currently, and after looking at Nanny from 'Count Duckula', here is my new henchman design:

He's much more lovable and clumsy looking than before, and I think they make a pretty cute pair. Colour-wise I think 1 and 4 work well, but let me know what you think! :)

Character Update...

I had a chat with Justin on Tuesday and he gave me some really great advice.  So, after this meeting I've decided to refrain from referring to the characters actions as 'dusting' and 'polishing'. They will still be called the 'Dream Cleaners' because that's still their job, the characters will still have the same abilities, but it will be kept as a metaphor, rather than something central to the narrative.

I was advised to think more about the characters personalities as it would help with their final designs because, although most of the characters work, they don't have much to set them apart yet.

Below are the changes I've made, along with a few previous studies:

To make her more unique, this character now no longer has goggles, but a home-made alarm clock she wears on her head to not only clear out the Nightmares but to irritate her fellow teammates.

I like the idea that this character enjoys being the centre of attention. Not only is it brightly coloured but it can light up it's lamp to illuminate itself further,

This is a new design for the villain's henchman. The smaller villain looked more intelligent so the longer owl has been changed to a bulkier henchman to provide the physical side of things.

Here are a few colour options for the villain as he is now, I think 2 is the most successful so far.

I decided to tweak this character to make it a little more unique.  His power is more defensive as it has a very shy and modest personality. I like the contrast between his meek exterior that, when it gets scared or needs to protect itself, suddenly changes to a vibrant, disco-like appearance.

This is a study to try and portray his shy side and I think it's pretty cute.

Below are a few rough turnarounds from my sketchbook to try to see them in a 3D way:

The sort of profile I'd like the characters to have,

*After my tutorial with Alan it's clear that the henchman design doesn't fit my world, so I'll be looking at designing a much clumsier and cuter henchman.*

Dream Cleaners Colour Groups...

I've put the line up together now, alongside the villains, to see which colour group works best. Apologies for the list of images, Photobucket doesn't currently have a slideshow feature:

1

2

3

4

5

6

I'm drawn to 6 because of they feel the brightest in comparison to the villains, I do also like the pink theme in 5 though. They both link the characters through similar colours which is a plus, and the pastel colours also happen to look quite tasty! Let me know what you think though :)

Refining the Villain...

After having a good look at Maleficent, Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Nosferatu, I think my villain's finally coming together:

He's definitely much more effective and sinister now, both in his outline and silhouette. I also took the previous colours he had, desaturated and darkened them so there was more of a contrast between his side-kick and himself. Good stuff though, onto 3/4 views and colour groups! :D

@Alan, Colour Palette Tests...

I currently have the character line up HERE with amendments to the Villains shapes HERE.

I've started making sheets of colours for the characters now, starting with the goggle-wearing and coloufully-maned characters HERE.

It was mentioned that the fluffy creature was a little generic so I added a few extra fur tufts and hopefully his addition 'glow-in-the-dark' ability and patterns make him a little more unique.

Below are the colours for the rest of the 'goodies' with the villains to follow after:

I like 17 and 6.

I like the idea that he's a little plain so I quite like 11 or 8.

But when a light source is near him he, and a pattern on his fur, light up in a brighter colour, such as 12 or even 6.

Similarly, I like the idea that he's a little plain but lit up by its mane and lamp, so I  quite like 16 and 8.

I think my favourites here are 5 and 6. They definitely make a good pair though :D

I didn't want to use any black in my world so I decided on the navy blue outline and a dark purple to represent darkness.

I'll be moving on to turnarounds next so I can start seeing them in 3D space, providing all the characters are up to scratch, design-wise.  Any feedbacl is much appreciated! :D

Playing with Colours: 01...

A few colour experiments for one half of the inventing duo:

I'm a little torn between bright colours that will appear to children and darker colours that would suit them as nocturnal creatures.

Next is some experiments with the vibrant mane for the lantern wielding character:



I think my favourite is 1, but I'll get some more rainbow colours in there and see how that looks. I'd really like the mane to be super vibrant because even just seeing these colours lit up chases the Nightmares off.

I'll get a couple of sheets done for each character and then see what combinations go well together, but for now I'm just enjoying playing with them! :D

Tweaked Villain Designs...

The line work is still messy but here is how they're looking in the line up now:







I haven't refined the patterns they have on them yet and they're not going to have claws, they'll have these long round toe-like things. I think they go together a little better now though but are also different enough from the good characters.

Character Development So Far...

After my meeting with Alan we came to the conclusion that I should have 5 characters, 3 good and 2 villainous. I did include one extra possibility for the good guys, so here's a little presentation of them below:
Character Presentation 

New Character Sheet...

Here I've got another selection of characters:



The round up is:
1. A big ball of fluff that rolls around on the floor to clean up left over Nightmares.
2. A plant lady with very convenient vine hair to carry any extra cleaning utensils/products.
3/4. Inspired by night blooming Jasmine, 3 grows these flowers that attract fireflies to light their way. Likewise, 4 also blooms Jasmine but only one large flower on its head which glows at night.
5. Its head piece opens up into a large colourful fan that it sways back and forth to blow away the Nightmares.
6. A frizzy little guy that, when concentrating, can fire off a set of colourful sparks that chase off Nightmares.
7. Is a smarty that wears clever goggles which allow it to see even the most hidden Nightmares.
8. Looking a little flat, this creature jumps into a headstand and spins around to polish up after the Nightmares have gone.

I like the idea behind 3/4 but I think my favourites are 5 and 8. They're all pretty charming though, so let me know what you think! :D

More Character Development...

A little bit of rough faced development:

Lead to some cute, rough creature ideas:

Each one has a function that I think is represented by their appearance. Here's a quick summary:

1. Rolls around with the 'go-faster stripes' on his scruffy ears.
2. Big ears to detect nearby nightmares.
3. A multicoloured mane that it shakes gets illuminated by the tiny lamp hanging from its quiff to shoo away nightmares.
4. Large hair that can be controlled and used as wings.
5. takes in large gulps of hair into its expanding throat which it then uses to propel a large bubble to clear away nightmares.
6. A little ballerina that has a fluffy dress which expands outwards when she spins, polishing away any lingering nightmares.
7. Similar to 6, this creature has huge fluffy ears and feathers that are kept tied up but are let down and spun around to create a giant feather duster.

I like them a lot and I think they have a sense that there's something collectible about them. I think 1 and 3 are my favourites because of the unusual silhouettes and the ideas behind them work quite nicely. Let me know what you think though and I'll hop onto s

Playing with Faces...

This has been trickier than expected. The original face was cute but people had seen it before, and it wasn't really original, so here's the first attempts at changing it up a little:

The bundle of eyes at the top are a selection of types I found on the toys in my influence map. I tried to then create my own versions and I think 6 is successful and I still like that sloping shape on 3 but none are particularly cute.

There is a lack of variety when it comes to face shapes here. I let myself get a bit caught up because I like the original so much so to correct this I'll be going back to the animals on my influence map and just having a go at throwing some new faces together. Gotta try and make them a little more cute but weird :)

Chibi's, Chibi's Everywhere...

I've decided to go in more of a 'Chibi' direction (large heads and very short bodies), so I grabbed a few images to draw from:

And had a go at translating them into two characters:








Some work and some don't. I wanted to have one boy and one girl character, and I think 3 is cute, but it's much harder to create a successful male. I think they'll both be the same type too as the head shape works, it's just making them charming enough and working out how his body should look. I feel like the male character is still missing something that the girl character has. I'll have to have a think about his character some more and go from there.

It's still coming along though and it's also given me a style to look at which is great, just have to avoid it being too 'anime' :)

Working Out Body Shapes...

I've got a rough idea what I want for the head shape so it's time to start tackling body shapes. Here are my first ideas:


I then quickly made some shapes using circles and the previous silhouettes from the hoovers:



I then used these shapes, and my favourite previous drawings, for the next concepts:

I think the two designs I continued above are my favourites so far. Not only do they look adorable when they're bigger but also when they're made teeny. I like the dress shape that the littlest one has, as it is a girl I'd like her to be feminine but not too different uniform-wise to the others. I also like the idea of the slightly hunched sloth-like character with the wonky ears. He'd be carrying the heavier cleaning equipment so his long arms, big hands and stocky body will help him with that.

There's a lot of refining that needs to be done, as I don't know how the arms and legs should look yet and I'm not entirely sure what they're wearing, but they're starting to come together now which is great! Now I can begin to see them and understand their characters I can start deciding what their Natty-Tech should look like and who will be using what. Onwards! :D