Logo Variations...

I'll start putting them onto the cards tomorrow to see which works best. I do like 4 though :)

Rough Trading Card Designs...

I'm going to change the logo but here are some rough attempts at the back of the trading cards:

I used various children's playing cards for inspiration, and it's hard to pick, but I think I like 1, 6 & 7.  I'm not too keen on the pale blue colours used in 12-18 now I can see them all together. I'll change them to the deeper purple colours from the earlier images. Good stuff though! I'll get to work on the logo next and get the next set up soon! :)

The Land of Nod!

Here's my first illustration of The Land of Nod:

Here, B.E.D HQ (Bringing Equilibrium to Dreams Head Quarters) can be seen on top of a lovely bright hill, with the North Star directly above them, so they can always find their way home. The star also provides an extra defence against the Nightmares that live in the decrepit tree, deep under the B.E.D HQ.

Below are some of my rougher workings:

Final Image

I first wanted a pillow fort for the team because it's something children can make at home, but I couldn't portray it in a clean enough way. I then tried a rather cute lighthouse idea, but it didn't feel quite right either. So I ended up going super simple and it turned out pretty darn cute! It's also a really nice contrast to the villains spiky, rotten home.

This is going to help me no end when it comes to designing the cards and packaging. Excellent stuff! Onwards and upwards! :D

Introducing...the Dream Cleaners! *Now With Added Flossy!*

Alistair Nightmare!

Clarissa!

Natty!

Walter! 

Flossy!

And not forgetting, Nigel Nightmare!

I love these guys! All I have to do is Flossy's Disco texture and they're ready to go! I'm trying to decide on their final poses for their trading cards and I think I'll be taking one of the poses from here, but I'll still be having a little fun with them on the way. :D

Once that's decided I can start thinking about branding and how the card will be presented. I'll get a 2D environment concept down to help with that and then it'll be onwards to 3D printing! :D

2D Character Exploration...

While keeping their expressions in mind, here is a collection of all the rough sketches I've got so far:

I especially love the flossy drawings, but I put them into Photoshop and here's what they look like:

These have been super helpful as I've been trying to work out what poses work the best for the characters. Each one will have their most character-ful pose presented on their trading card. I'll be popping up a full explanation of what the final piece is going to be but for now, on to more modelling! :D

Character Progress: 05...

 All rigged and ready to go, Nigel Nightmare, at your service:

How Flossy currently looks:

She's still a little lumpy as she's still at an early stage of modelling, but I'm excited! :D

Nigel's Progress...

Here's how he's looking:

There's one or two minor tweaks with his texturing but the bones are ready to be rigged so, onwards! :D

Character Update: 04...

Clarissa's ready to go:

And Nigels' starting to take shape:

Good stuff! :D

Character Updates: 03...

I'v finished modelling and mostly texturing Clarissa:

I'll be rigging and skinning her next.

Below are a few newer renders of the previous characters, using the lighting and ambient occlusion textures that Alan showed me:

Onwards! :D

Alistair Lives!..

Well, he's skinned at least:

I haven't given Mr. Nightmare's face any blendshapes yet but the skinning went okay in the end. Only a couple of odd bits to get fixed, but they shouldn't be too noticeable :P

Character Update: 02...

Here's how they're looking at the moment:

Walter is almost finished texturing-wise, his eyes/lenses still might need something extra though.

Alistair is looking very bold at the moment and with a couple moretweaks will begin his rigging and skinning process too :)

New Research...

After a good think I've decided to move my audience to 3+ instead of 2+. This allows me to still have the same characters and abilities but when it comes to the toys they can be much smaller and more intricate than they could previously be.

The next change is that the final outcome will no longer be animated (unless there's time for one little interaction scene between Flossy and Natty), it will instead be focused on creating a selection of stills of the characters and of posed scenes for the card game I will also be designing. I'm unsure whether it will be a simple game of Snap or Go Fish, or whether I'll turn it into top trumps and give each character stats. Either way, below is the research I have so far:

This choice has also lead me to think about the packaging for the toys and how they could be presented to my audience.  Below is a selection of the most appealing packaging I've found so far:

I'll get a little more research done tomorrow so I can start interpretting what it is I want for my characters, but it's a scary new world for me so I'm looking forward to exploring it and making the 'Dream Cleaners' become a reality :D

Character Update: 01...

Here's what I've been up to recently:

Walter's been textured and modelled, but not rigged yet. His eyes and some of the textures still need some refining, but he's steadily coming to life.

As a break from Walter I've been modelling the newly named 'Alistair Nightmare'. He's getting there nicely too!

And, as a welcome break from modelling, I've started work on my 2D character bible, starting with some of Natty's expressions and poses.

It's all been very exciting so far, I've also made a few tweaks to my final outcome and audience but a new research post explaining it all will be up shortly :)