Assignment - Thematic Focal Points

Lesson by

207

Assignments 21Lesson NotesDownloads 1

Assignment - Thematic Focal Points

Lesson by

Scott Flanders

in Character Design Monster Lab

207

Assignments 21Lesson NotesDownloads 1

Assignment

Choose some elements from you character that signify something thematically important to that design and then fill out a sheet where you further iterate on those ideas.

The element you choose is up to you. It can be heads, hands, pieces of costume...what ever you think is an important element for communicating the theme of that character.

If you are happy with these new ideas, try implementing these new elements into your existing characters and then post your sheet of thematic focal point explorations with your updated character design in the assignments tab for a chance to be included in the next video critique.

Kassjan Smyczek

•

2mo

I redrew some focal points and I will als update my characters and post underneath it.

Richard Featherstone

•

7mo

it took forever but I am so satisfied with how these turned out and I feel like I really found these monsters

Cody Brisco

•

1yr

Here is some more ideation on my Harvest-men. I tried to further my thematic focal points by exploring alternative variations I could give to my characters. Again, the word harvest evoked a lot of familiar imagery for me because growing up in CenCal I was surrounded by a lot of harvesting/manufacturing equipment. Hope you enjoy viewing these and any feedback would be very appreciated.

Charlie Nicholson

•

1yr

I really like these! Digging the industrial theme, seems like there's a lot you could pull from that

Baptiste Desvaux

•

2yr

I've fused my favorite ideas together in a new sketch for the pumkin-bull. After that I just wanted to clean him up in Procreate but I lost track of time... Sorry...

Erik Oehlke

•

1yr

These are amazing! I really like how you worked them to be evolving. I feel like this creature could be seen in a stage fight in a dark souls type game.

Baptiste Desvaux

•

2yr

I managed to stop with the second one ;)

Andrew Schlageter

•

2yr

Need to get on posting my HW more often. I decided to go digital this time so I can get better with a tablet. For the most part I like what I explored with my focal points but I'm not totally satisfied with all silhouettes in my lineup. I also feel I need to get more practice with structure, proportion, and prospective as my "hived canine" and "rat kinged beast" feel a bit too exaggerated. I do however feel my thematic focal points are starting to shine and am proud of my "Rat Man" (though I wish I made a more detailed silhouette of him) and my "symbiotic tree". I notice that even the designs I don't feel have reached their potential are feeling stronger in their focal points so I feel I'm grasping what I needed to understand with this assignment.

James Connolly

•

2yr

didn't want to get overwhelmed so grabbed onto a few techniques and simplified it to one character. sorry

Will David

•

3yr

Sorry I’m posting a bit late, but I finished these off a while ago and only just got around to the posting part. Hope you like them Scott. P.S. Really liked your sculpts this year, especially your “wild hunt” one. Always inspiring.

Samuel Lemons

•

3yr

Here are the rest of the thematic focal points and updated character designs.

Samuel Lemons

•

3yr

Here are the thematic focal points and updated character designs.

Andre Camargo

•

3yr

@Scott Flanders I have a question for the assignment. I realized just now, that the assignment includes the updated characters as well. I somehow missed this part during the first view of the assignment video. Are the updated versions to be done on a new A3 sheet in pencil as well? Would this be another iteration to the chosen characters from the development assignment? Or should this be a digital mix and mash to test the explored focal points? I am unsure about how much time I am supposed to spent on piecing everything together... Are we not going to redraw the final characters digitally later from scratch, or is the goal to develop the pencils to an "almost done stage" where we transform the scans into a digital shapes? Maybe you can help me here and elaborate a bit on this question. Wishing everybody the best, Andre

Andre Camargo

•

3yr

@Scott Flanders Hey Scott, I got to push this question from above. Sorry for bringing it up again, but the videos following the assignment also did not really clear this up for me. After the development I cannot see the clear path through digitalizing and thematic focal points. I am somewhat confused about the process and transition from pencil to digital. We did the development of the characters and after that the exploration of details such as heads, arms, etc. The assignment here asks to include the explorations in details to the final designs, but the follow-up videos seem to jump this point, or am I missing something? Are the focal points only something to keep in mind during the shapecarving process? Best wishes, Andre

Andre Camargo

•

3yr

@Scott Flanders I guess this could be one of my favorite assignments :) Is there a deadline for the critique video? I started with my focal point sheets but had to pause due to other work issues. I would like to take my time with these but also want to get a chance on being critiqued.

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Scott Flanders

Chief Creative Officer at Little Bang Inc. I'm especially passionate about character design, creature design, and sculpting.