Thursday 8 March 2012

Unit 5: Character Design

 I wanted my pepper mill to be male and after a talk with Phil It was decided that it would be funnier to make him kind of european, spanish/italian style to bring out an air of flamboyance to his "sexual nature."



I wanted to design my character around male flamenco dancers so I collected a few images for reference. I also looked at Matadors (Bullfighters) and fictional characters from film such as The Mask and The Mask of Zorro.

I started out just playing around and experimenting with different proportions but it wasn't really working so I decided to actually look at some of the images I'd collected. Using my influence map for reference I started to draw out certain poses that I wanted my pepper mill to stand in and then tried to fit the shape of the pepper mill over the top.
I've gone for the old style pepper mill with the hand crank as I feel it'll help me to show more emotion. I've turned the top of the mill in number 9 into a flamenco style hat and given him a classic spanish, chest out shoulder's back, pose. I like this one the most but I'm not sure if it's too humanoid to be recognised as a Pepper mill. I am also fond of numbers 8 and 7.

4 comments:

  1. I love this idea - the 'Flamenco dancer' - but you should look at Argentine Tango as specifically lustful!

    also!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s12XiAOtjcg&feature=related

    The other very male dance to research and view is the Paso Doble! I think going for a 'dance-as-sex' metaphor is the way to go - and I love this character sheet, Fred; I think you have a knack for character, which I really hope will get the chance to flourish - and I like number 9 too!

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    1. thanks Phil, I just did a bit of research around some of those dances and The Argentine Tango and El Tango de Roxanne from the Moulin Rouge that you linked me are exactly what I had imagined when designing my character, the sort of strong, powerful, Alpha male aspect of the dance suits my idea perfectly. I can see him in my head dancing with a smaller more decorative, female salt shaker although there is alot of leg movement in these dances I might have to rely quite heavily on squash and stretch if I see this idea through.

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  2. I agree with images 8 & 9, they hold satisfying proportions when thinking of a male dancer. Probably 9 the most.

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