Latest character design

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:23 am

Here's my latest efforts, but I'm having a little trouble finding balanced line widths that looks good close and far. It'd be nice if, along with scale compensation, there was a global line adjustment. What looks good close up quickly vanishes when zooming out.

I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas. I could do separate stroke styles, but this would still require adjusting many separate styles.

The big one is the original, the top left is point scaled, and bottom left is layer scaled. The point scaling seems to maintain the details better. I'm kind of surprised that I like this better. It's the same effect as turning scale compensation off.

But overall, I'd still like more control.

DK · Post by DK » Sat Sep 20, 2008 4:21 am

Wow!!!! I love that character. She has real attitude!
Nice work synthin75.

EDIT: I always do two versions of my characters to work with.....One for extreme close camera work and one with slightly thicker lines for longer shots.

Cheers
D.K

madrobot · Post by **madrobot** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 4:38 am

That's a good tip DK
Thanks

Springymajig · Post by **Springymajig** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:06 am

She looks awesome!

It can be tricky with line widths... I usually leave my outlines black... and I'll make sure they look good when the characters are small because I find that black outlines still look really nice even when they're BIG and thick, so close ups still look good.

But that might be different for your colouring style.

I suppose one option would be to make two (or more) identical designs but with different line widths for different shots. But of course, that would be tedious to create.

I agree it'd be a nice feature if there was some kind of global line width parameters.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:17 am

She looks great synthsin.
What about creating an action that has the lines thicker, then you can use it a bit, like scale compensation but to your specs, also you could chose anywhere in between from the two extremes, with the added zoomability. ?

DK · Post by DK » Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:24 am

Hey nice suggestion Chucky. I just tried it and it works but great but i'm not sure I could stand making actions for evey line in a character. You can't really create one line thickness action for all lines as it would have the same results as the already existing line thickness tool which is currently problematic. From my experience making Erectus, a long shot of your character may need exta line thickness for areas like eyes, nose so the unique features stand out better in your smaller character version when reduced.
The other suggestion would to use fills instead of lines but this option again has it's bad points as you have no control over line thickness at all.
If you can stand the extra work load, actions is a great option but double versions work well too and is probably less work overall.

Cheers
D.K

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:07 am

Ooh nice

I also like the point-scaled version.

Looks really fab. Would be interested to see her moving

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:48 am

Hmmm it's a pity we can't select all layers,in a group as we can select all shapes per layer. I wonder if it's a scriptable thing?

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:51 pm

DK, remember that using actions (1 frame actions) you only need to do it one time. If the action is recorded at the top level hierarchy all the children would do it automatically. This kind of things should be done at the end of the animation because (unfortunately) actions cannot be moved in time for the parent and all its children. If the character is going to change its point of view several times it is worth to record it in an action as chucky said.

Beautiful drawings synthsin75, btw
-G

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 4:04 pm

Wow, I didn't expect that much response. Hopefully I'm getting closer to a more distinctive design style.

Thanks for the ideas DK and Chucky! I'll probably end up using both ideas. I can make a meshinstance copy to use at a second 'standard' scaling, and then use action line widths for any tweeking.

I'll see if I can put her in motion in a bit Mikdog.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 12:06 am

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 2:36 am

DK, remember that using actions (1 frame actions) you only need to do it one time. If the action is recorded at the top level hierarchy all the children would do it automatically.

What I meant was you really need to be able to tweek each line thickness individually with a seperate action as sometimes a characters "UNIQUE" features need to be enforced by bolder lines when the overall size of the character is very reduced, ie,

Thicker eyebrowse and nose lines as well as a resized eyes,nose and mouth.

This was a major problem I struck when making erectus. A global line increase in a hierarchy does not work. This is something that needs to be tweaked to suit. I must admit...I am talking about EXTREMES here.
I sovled the problem with 2 character versions then....but n future I am going to use actions to set up all my line work.

EDIT: Here's a good excercise in linewidths and character design. Try making a recognizable desktop icon of your character.

Cheers
D.K

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 2:50 am

Hey ya'all,
So you're saying DK that only a few lines need specific thickness tweeking?
I think I can live with that.

Erectus, he funny.

DK · Post by DK » Sun Sep 21, 2008 3:02 am

Yes... It depends on your character. Like I said...try making a desktop icon or render an EXTREME reduction of your character and see what happens.

EDIT: Actually...I think I would still need two character versions with Erectus. The extreme smaller version would have larger eyes, nose, mouth and eyebrowse. I would definately still use actions for both versions.

Cheers
D.K

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 3:14 am

It's Ok DK I totally get you.
I'm just trying to be optimistic about the extra work.

Hey Synth is your character for any particular purpose.... is she for a larger project?