Character model sheet - YOUR WAY !

[kayoto]

I wonder how you are working on a character, I’ve never worked organized and that’s the time to start work on a character model sheets and Libraries

*These days I started to work more orginized and still working on the best way I can to build my character model sheets... (I used to have a mess and it was a waste of time when it comes to the production coneder deadlines).

(using flash it’s very comfortable saving each character model sheet on different file, and add stuff to the specific file every time to get a nice Library of each character grown)

Anyway, I wonder if you can explain the process when you come up with a character.
From the moment you imagine it in your head to the moment you are animating him/her/it.
I mean, how you come with the different angles, keep the volume size, from side, mid, front views.
How do you get to know your character better, so you will be able to animate it later from any side and do any action you need him to do ?

All those answers will be very interesting to know how do you plan you characters with explains, also screenshots if you have.
A future tutorial on such thing will be nice on the future, If I’ll get a nice pipeline I will sure post one but for now I’m working with a mess…

Feel free to share your workflows and give any tips related to character model sheets and general plan of a character from start point to the animation.

[Terro]

Those are some very interesting questions Kayoto. I for one can't answer them because I'm no where need being experianced enought. Hopefully we'll snag a few top notch animators so they can drop us a few hints once we launch this beast.

[NOOB!]

I created a specific sub forum for this in the concept forum.i'm gunna move it there.

First off kayoto,u gotta think of what ur character is about and what needs to stand out.Designing a character for animation takes allot more care than designing for say..a comic book.

You have to make 100% sure that u will be able to animate the character you design,theres a reason why the characters in the programs u see on T.V. don't have masses of detail,because its easier to animate,and doesn't take forever.

There are a few things u need to produce for character sheets.

1.Turn arounds (frontal view,back view etc.)
2.Facial expressions
3.size comparisons *line up all ur characters next to each other to see how tall one is compared to the other.
4.colour swatches-about three different colour ideas for ur character.
5.props-does ur character have weapons? draw them all out on a sheet.
6.action pose-a few poses to test the flexibility of ur characters

This may seem like allot,but trust me u'll need em,its important to keep all characters consistent,u don't want one scene where *superguy* is taller than *villianboy* then in the next scene they are both the same size.

I visual tutorial on character sheets will be done eventually.

[kayoto]

Great stuff NOOB!

it's almost like the way I used to work, but I wasn't organized so well and what happened is that in some sort of animations I didn't KNOW VERY well my characters.

I don't think it seem like a lot of stuff, the more you're organized, the less problems you'll get (or not problems at all).

What I do actually is NEVER-FINISH my character model sheets, sounds weird I know, but I keep on develop it as long as I animate the character, and add the new stuff poses new weapons etc...

I will post a character sheet screenshots (or maybe video, since My character sheets included cycles for RE-USE such as Lip-syncs, eye-blinks etc..) I will do that as soon as I will have it more organized as I already mentioned, I'm now working better then used to.

Thanks for the tips NOOB! Those kind of stuff are really important.
I also think we should discuss on something like a Pipeline of working on a animation series (or short) from scratch to final, making a list of "basic rules" (each one have his own rules, his own workflow, his own Pipeline).

it will be great to read on each one way, and read some tips from each one to improve it, that's where this forums is a great part.

[NOOB!]

yep,we'll get loads of people and sum pros down here to talk about their workflow.

in time though,these things take sumtime to organise.

[kayoto]

I just got started today work more orginized, and I decided to show the format I start to use for Chracter model sheet inside Flash.

there is nothing much to see but maybe it will give you guys an idea of how I personaly work on my characters, I just got started so... most of it is rough or sketched, but still I focus on show the format not anything else since nothing much to show yet.

Please ignore the music it's just something stupid I composed real quickly so the video won't play silence.

I used Xvid codec and then compressed using WinRAR so you may need to install the codect and WinRar to watch the movie.
(that way the movie is now small size about 50% from original file size).


I hope it helped in a way:

ATUR'A - Model Sheet (http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3Q8MK77TBPS061A3UURJYTMN6D)


Have a nice day :)

[NOOB!]

good pointers: damn kayoto,that looked pretty excellent,i like the way the lips and eyes moved and everything.

bad pointers : wheres the finished model sheet? lol.......what u really gotta do now,is finish everything about the model sheet before u start anything else lol.colouring,lip testing etc.

overall i'm pretty impressed.ur layout is pretty good.whats the name of the video capture program u used?

i did find it funny that u just moved the mouse over the drawings and didn't actually draw anything hehehe :p

wudda been better if it was in quicktime format though.

[kayoto]

good pointers: damn kayoto,that looked pretty excellent,i like the way the lips and eyes moved and everything..
Hehe, Thanks man... I didn't ment to show the Animation, I just flow with it since Lypsinc in Anime is the easiest thing on earth to do...


bad pointers : wheres the finished model sheet? lol.......what u really gotta do now,is finish everything about the model sheet before u start anything else lol.colouring,lip testing etc.
That's the thing, as I said in the original message I just got started, you saw only ROUGH, since I wanted to show the FORMAT I start to use, I wanted to point on the layout, not on the models, I know nothing much to see, but it was really few moments after I got started... hehe

overall i'm pretty impressed.ur layout is pretty good.whats the name of the video capture program u used?
I used Camtasia Studio 2 (there is already version 3 or up I belive) but this is the version I own and I feel comfortable with it, it's the best capture program for such purposes and easy to use.

i did find it funny that u just moved the mouse over the drawings and didn't actually draw anything hehehe :p
Hehe... you're right my friend, I just wanted to show something about the thickness and I FORGOT, so I point on the small "wrinckles" and wanted to zoom in and show that it will stay 1:1 ratio if I'll zoom in (for any future shot)
but stupid me.. I forgot to show it hahaha... sorry.


wudda been better if it was in quicktime format though.
It was.. but the size of it was about 64 MB... so when I used the "magical codec" Xvid... the same quality smooth frame rate became into 14 MB, so it was faster for me to upload, and faster for you to download.


Thanks for the reply NOOB! I hope it helps in any way, maybe somebody will like the format... even that I barely show a model (as you already mentioned)
but I didn't want you guys to wait... LOL !
I'll do my best to show MORE (I rather Video then stills... it's more clear to understand stuff)

thanks :)

[NOOB!]

well if u do another one ,do one of finished character sheets,and show lip synch again,and we cud front page it for when we release the forum.

[Mistchiff]

http://photobucket.com/albums/a63/Mistchiff/?action=view&current=charactersheetkinda.jpg


like this????

[NOOB!]

http://photobucket.com/albums/a63/Mistchiff/?action=view&current=charactersheetkinda.jpg


like this????


yeh,but thats only one part of it.