Captain Character: Edrik, The Flamboyant King of Vladya

He came to be, Edrik, The Flamboyant King of Vladya! I have always been interested in the self-righteous "facetious" egoists among us on this world, and how characters have been created to reflect that phenomenon of traits in society. I chose the name Edrik by browsing the Internet for names that mean "ruler", whereas I added a suffix title to his name to promote his most prominent trait: flamboyance. Inspired by the brilliant character development of Archer and Johnny Bravo, I wanted to make a character that piles up all of the human ego in the 21st century and combines it with metrosexuality, narcissism, and pretentiousness, a real absolute extreme of character traits!

Captain Character: Initial Iterations

Creating a strong character is a time-worthy developmental process as one must implement an aspect of his own self into the character, making it radiate vivacity and energy. With this study task, we are to create a character based on an archetype, develop it, give it life, make a story, let it shine with emotion, artistically conceive. However, nothing's pragmatic when it comes to creating a character, as I firmly believe that a character designer or animator must broaden his or her horizons when trying to invent a new character and try multiple times before finally settling which appearance of the character is to fit the most. I chose to expand on one of the Jungian archetypes based on their signature emotion, assets, and visual aspects. I could not decide between the Sage and the Ruler, thus I resolved that by drawing iterations for both. After a lot of thinking, drawing, re-structuring, it seemed to me much more plausible to go with the Ruler, hence the Sages have signature beards which limit their possibility of expressing versatile emotions, along with the limited world of backstories they have (intelligent, eclectic, but passive). Choosing the Ruler gave me the opportunity to focus on facial features, because I wanted to make a rather arrogant king, one that is disrespectful towards his people but self-loving and narcissistic, and with that comes a fitting face. In terms of body shape, I only attempted two constructed out of basic shapes - one circular small one, and one trapezoid big one. I tried several designs of faces, interlaced with different facial hair and contours, but made them all by just combining basic shapes together, then following them to make a figure, a shape. Aside from that, the first thing I always draw in a character is their eyes, because I believe they are the most important part of emotional expression. For example, wide eyes can insinuate a childlike wonder, whereas smaller ones give off more of a depth and seriousness to the character, and for my own I needed the upper eyelid a little closed, because semi-open eyes along with a smile give off an assured certainty. Out of the several I did, I'll give it more thought and see which one fits!

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Animating Movie Clips and Elements

Referential Drawing

As in animation made during the Golden Era, as well as now in the Digital Age of animations, some actions and movements of a character, background, or miscellaneous are often repetitive. In other words, they occur more than once during the entire sequence. Except in stop-motion, these actions need not be drawn or created individually every-time they are in queue, thus animated templates are created. This was the next stage in my animation. Primarily, I imported the digital versions of my character and design sheets onto Flash, and then used them as a reference in order to digitally draw the characters and elements and create the color palette for each. Taking into considerations all of the scenes, I first created the repeating movements of the characters, one being the jumps that the main character makes, another being the gliding dragon, and yet another the miscellaneous which lie in the background. In order to effectively use onion skin and preserve time, I first drew the outlines of every single frame, and then followed up with coloring and shading, and finally finishing up with specific detailing (one such are the eyebrows and wrinkles on the main character).

Colored reference, drawing in use, sketchbook reference

Set, Series, Sequence: Storyboard

Now came to create the final narrative for this project. I used the 12 sequential images of the second step as drawing practice and individual possible scenes of a story which was then in-progress. For example, one of my drawings featured the "Broccoli Brains" character (which I named Jack) getting shot, which completely splatters his brains into plentiful chunks of "viscera". I wanted to include that scene in the story if the character were to be killed before achieving the final step of the parasitic transformation, however, in the end I decided to leave that out as I considered it to be a story without an appropriate culmination - one with no pizzazz. In terms of drawing practice, I drew several of the scenes in my sketchbook as to see whether they fit, and whether the imagery is correct for serving as the key-frame.

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Creation of Backgrounds

Taking into consideration that the main emphasis of my future animation will be placed on the actions occurring in the foreground, as well as the midground, I altered images for my background. My background is extremely minimalistic, as it is the embrace of the cosmos, thus, I thought that I needed not to elaborate on the details. Seeing that there will be rockets, levitating islands, and ambiguous creatures in the background, I considered making the background posterized (on 9 levels, to be exact), as I want it to differentiate from the rest of the animation (as that part will be graphically-drawn). I took an image of space, rendered and altered it through Photoshop, and for the fast-moving scene added a motion blur - the background will be animated at all times, hence I despise static backgrounds as I consider them to take away from the vivacity of movement within the animation.

Understanding Animation: Rotoscoping in Early and Modern Animation

Rotoscoping is a technique in animation which uses live footage as a foundation upon which animators draw frame by frame. In other words, with rotoscoping animators are able to create animation using live video as onion-skin, where they trace over the projected images. The rotoscope had been invented by the American inventor and animator Max Fleischer, and got patented under his name in 1915 with his debut "Out of The Inkwell" cartoon series. Initially, the rotoscope that Fleischer had invented used recorded live-action film images and projected them under a frozen glass panel - a complex mechanism that was quite the size. However, ever since its creation, the rotoscope had gradually advanced and its conventions of functionality had simplified, while still being used over the years to this day. Ranging animations from the Golden Era of Animation up to modern animation series, the rotoscope is still among the prevalent animation tools that help animators create life-like characters, as well as practice live drawing and tracing of lines. For example, A-ha's famous 1985 song "Take on Me" features a rotoscope animation which encompasses the story of a comic book character coming to life. In the music video, both live-action and animation are combined to create a phantasmagorical essence between what is real and what is not. Furthermore, according to Richard Shicklel, many sequences in Disney movies are rotoscoped, as actresses' performances were filmed and then used for lip-syncing and gestures. It goes without saying that the rotoscope still influences modern animators and has revolutionized the way we bring something still to life, as creators, as artists.

"A-ha - Take on Me" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

Set, Series, Sequence: Symbolism and Derived Concepts from "Broccoli Brains"

Whilst creating the 12 images that follow-up the project, I was simultaneously thinking about the short narrative and what it will encompass. Thus, among the 12 images I was also creating key-frame scenes from my still-in-production narrative story. However, these images were not pure visuals from the action in the story, but also included the hidden thoughts of the main character from different perspectives. I created a backstory behind "Broccoli Brains" - broccoli feasting on the character's brain, like a parasite, becoming a menace. Taking this into consideration, I made the 12 images in relation to narration, but also in relation to drawing practice and styles of drawing.

Set, Series, Sequence: Sequential Imagery of "Broccoli Brains"

As part of this project, I have chosen to elaborate upon the drawing "Broccoli Brains". I have chosen to explore this image through perspective, concept, and style as to produce a whimsical variety of 12 images. Primarily, since I thought it would be effective practice, I chose to further develop the image from different perspectives: one profile, one from above, one from up close, etc. I do wish to develop my sense of point of view, with which I will utilize the principle of Solid Drawing effectively.

Perspective from above, with inkpen for accuracy.

Perspective from profile, no color.

Close-up.

Set, Series, Sequence: Practice of Depth with Charcoal

"Fear of Broccoli"

Sometimes, the absence of colors portrays so much about the essence of a drawing. No colors, no life, no hope, darkness, or so I see it. I attempted at creating several drawings by using pure charcoal, without the pencil outlining of the drawing. What I found most intriguing about charcoal was its dry residue on the paper, which could be purposefully smudged to create effective gradients which depict perspective and depth. This is exactly what I was aiming for while drawing and sketching with charcoal, and unexpectedly, they turned out quite effective. For example, in "Fear of Broccoli" (one of my drawings), the gradient that protrudes from the background serves as a shadow and effectively portrays depth - darkness insinuates depth. Furthermore, I created the smudges on the floor to simulate roots of a tree (due to broccoli's similarity to oak trees), as if they were creeping upon the 6-eyed being who is suffering from a severe case of fear. Nevertheless, this part of this project helped me in drawing practice and the correct portrayal of depth. As I go on I can notice a distinct development of my drawing skills, something that will help me in fully embracing 2D animation - something that I have not YET had enough experience with.

Set, Series, Sequence: Character Design

"Frustrated Broccoli Chef"

When it comes to character design, I personally prefer creating and drawing characters using an ink-pen, because it calls for accuracy in portraying facial detail and body shape. In compliance to this project, along with my initial ideas, I created several characters associated with broccoli, be they of a "broccoli-kin" race or just connected with the plant in some way. However, I also tried creating a character using charcoal, which can be prominently used for the application of shadowing (most commonly used for the emphasis of facial contours). In both cases, the characters I created relayed emotion effectively, appeared to have "life-like" facial expressions, and were in compliance to Solid Drawing, one of the 12 Principles of Animation. Sequentially, the creation of one character fueled my ideas for the next one, the first one being "Frustrated Broccoli Chef" (which was the initial idea of a broccoli character's cartoonish profile, written in my sketchbook), followed by "Broccoli's Hair", etc. Luckily, this project assisted me in developing my animation skills in terms of character design, something I had found quite difficult in the past due to misunderstanding of relaying emotions through expression.

"Broccoli's Hair"

"Broccoli Flawless"

Set, Series, Sequence: Pastel Style

Now for coloring I used a new tool: pastel. Rarely have I ever colored with pastel (maybe in Elementary and Middle School?), but I had forgotten the wonders it can bring. Pastel is perfect for smudges and creating gradients of color, which is exactly why I chose this element for several drawings. Because pastel cannot define outlines (well, the light colored pastels), I only used them for coloring by following the shapes I had created with pencil. After laying down the colors, I used my fingers to smudge the residue left on the paper, either to create a gradation effect or to blur the colors, with the soul purpose of removing visible rough texture (as is the case with watercolor). However, only pastel was not enough, because it looked like a bunch of patterns inarticulately mixed together. Thus, after the color was put, I outlined the shapes and forms with an ink pen to add contour to the composition. Overall, it turned out successful, and I am glad that this project was assigned because now I'm trying out different ways of drawing which could be applied in traditional animation in the future.

                                                                                                           
This is one of my pastel drawings, named "Broccoli Forest". In it, due to the outlining of pastel, the broccoli seem to have an outer glow, adding the notion that they are haunted. Emphasis is placed on the color and absence of it rather than on the outlines of the shapes.

Set, Series, Sequence: Watercolor Style Development

Following up with a new technique, one I had never used prior, came the ink pencil + watercolor drawings. Same as the previous technique, I drew the outlines of the picture with pencil, and then overlapped them with an ink pen. However, this time I took "frantic" swipes with the ink pen instead of careful and pedantic ones. What I hoped to achieve with this was a whole new different atmosphere, one more dark, one more inky, less precise. But, instead of just pencil shading or coloring with wooden color pencils, I used watercolor. The reason I used watercolor was that with it I can manipulate the visual texture of the color instead of drawing inner contour lines. With watercolor, every brush swipe can be seen after the color dries out, which gives an artist aesthetic flexibility. Finally, for finesse, I sprayed ink on the drawings as to further strengthen the dominance of the color black and add to the murky and shadowed essence of the drawings. And finally, for the sake of experimentation, I mixed gold ink with black ink, took a piece of broccoli, dipped it in the ink, slapped it on a piece of paper, let it dry, then drew around it. Instead of copying the outline of broccoli using referential images, I let the broccoli do it's own form, natural in a way. Kinda post-modern, but hey, wonderful ideas sprouted!

The initial ink blots made with broccoli.










The final drawing, named "Cosmic Broccoli"