Looking for your thoughts on this character...

[Dr. Nick]

Greetings Folks

This is no epic 'toon or anything but a character design I've worked on for one of my favorite fables. I'm interested in any constructive criticism anyone might have concerning the design.

http://www2.bc.edu/~nagelh/exploring.an ... pSynch.mov

Thanks in advance...

[funksmaname]

Hey Dr.Nick

I like it... but i have a couple comments.

The main thing that i think looks odd is his position... you've managed to capture his weight/volume in the drawing, but he's neither up on two feet or down on all fours, he's sort of suspended in an inbetween position.

Regarding mouth shapes, i noticed some problems - for example, where he says 'AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaiii' at the beginning, i would expect the 'iii' part to have the corners of the mouth pointint upwards, and a wider mouth than the Aaaaaaaa part - make it more of a smiley shape imo...

Hope that helps... good work so far

[Dr. Nick]

Thanks for the feedback. Now that I look at it again you're right ~~ my turtle guy character does sort of seem suspended between a biped and quadro. It's a tough angle to capture. I was going for a perspective that sort of has him looking up at the character he's talking to (which fits the animatic), but it turned out to be tough to convey that view.

Thanks also for the tip on the mouth articulations. I was actually pretty surprised at how far you can get with just lipsynch ~~ forget about bringing papagayo into the picture.

[PatrickS]

Could you post some sketches and maybe a modelsheet of the character? I find that working on paper gives a more intuitive and lively design and I am wondering how your turtle looks on paper.

[funksmaname]

maybe its the shadow that is throwing off the perspective? i understand the view you are trying to make, it could be the shadow that is making him look like he's at 45 degrees?