Moho Forum

Hey, guys!

My brother and I have decided to get into a little friendly competition with one another...

The short story is that we each have to create an animated short by a certain deadline, and it must be done primarily in Anime Studio.

While my brother is learning Anime Studio, I am using that time to cheat a little and start working on character design.

This first character is a Russian Scientist for a surf rock instrumental song I wrote and recorded years ago called The First Cosmonaut under my virtual band named The Capacitors - a song about a dog named Laika - the world's first being sent into orbit around earth by the Russians.

The song can be found on my old surf rock listings at the following link for anyone interested in checking it out:

http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/THE-CAPACITORS/

This is my initial design of the Russian Scientist character:


Copyright 2008 Dave Stevens

Please feel free to critique the character. His arms are a little stiff looking, but it is only because he is not holding the clip board and pen he will eventually be equipped with.

P.S. To hear some of my newer tunes:
http://www.mp3.com/thecapacitors

I love the design, especially the face, buttons, and feet.

This may seem a little nitpicky but the 3 grey spikes in his hair break fluidity by ending in abrupt downward angles. It might help to sketch each spike as a simple stroke before fleshing it out.

But overall, fantastic looking character.

Heh! The hair was kind of a carry over from a few design changes back (prior to posting the last version here) where the character had a more beak-like nose...the hair kind of matched then because it gave it somewhat of a rooster tail appearance, creating a more bird-like character overall.

I then softened the nose when I decided I didn't like it's harsh angles...not sure why I didn't notice it in the hair as well.

Although I didn't take your advice per se, it did help point out my overall design gaff.

Hopefully this new hairstyle works better. I also cleaned up his shoulders, elbows, extended his nose slightly, added slight perspective to the buttons, and rounded his chin more.


Copyright 2008 Dave Stevens

Thanks, Darth Furby!

OK, guys, watch how this fellow uses inkstrokes with graceful tapers to outline his character, and how his ink colors are closely related to his fill color.

Look how he keeps his color palette in discipline, slightly muted in saturation and not too many hues.

That's the way to do it.

My feedback would be that the face is somewhat lacking in character.

Get a bunch of photos of famous Russian composers... and dictators... and see if you can capture that "hawk" look.

I would agree that the face could be
exaggerated a little more, maybe
bushier eyebrows?

Thanks for the comments guys!

Actually, it's possible that I may have given this character too much detail in the face.

My original intent was to make this character as deadpan and emotionless as possible - so very clinically detached from his subject - the subject being the polar opposite of the scientist - a very cute dog.

I'll have to post my storyboards so everyone can see what I have in mind...I will try to do that late today or tomorrow.

Your second image looks great! I wouldn't change a thing.

I only would add some age to the hands. Now they don't match the overall style.
Quite good. It reminds me the old 60's style. Nice!

Well I don't have much more to comment about the artwork, except to say that I'm looking forward to seeing more designs. Nice decision on the hair, much better than my suggestion.