So, we’re pretty far into the course now and I think there is a slight lull in the torrent of work we have to complete. Theoretically we are currently drawing an interesting 70’s character for 2D, and have a texturing competition for 3D. I have been finding lots of the lectures recently slightly irrelevant or redundant – Think I may just be a bit arrogant but gonna state my opinions.
Lots of the lectures on character design seem very fundamental – Make the character interesting and original (very basically). The example used in critical studies “No one lives Forever” is pretty good, but I can see that the character and theme is not so original… First of the organisation H.A.R.M is stolen from a crap 60’s spy movie called Agent from H.A.R.M, the femme-fatal protagonist looks amazingly like Dianna Rigg from the 60’s show “The Avengers” (and many other female characters from that era), and the patterns used could be referenced off a quick google image search. I’m not disputing that Cate Archer isn’t cool and that the universe isn’t coherent, what I’m saying is that it isn’t original. I’m getting the impression that students are expected to not generally take influence from far out of their immediate comfort zone, and so their work lacks strength from that.
Everything is inspired by something. I recently watched an Anime called “Cowboy Bebop” which is a weird mix of sci-fi and noir with heavy musical influences. The intro to this show I loved… Looking into it a bit I saw they also ripped of 60s/70s spy shows (The Saint/The Pursuaders for example), which has also been duplicated for the recent adult animation “Archer”.
I ripped off this image to present a quick pic of a character. On one hand it looks striking and suits the character, on the other hand it is not original in any way.
I guess the more shit you pay attention to or if you are lucky have an interested the better. I don’t think I’m in danger of my work getting too stale as I have lots of influences and a general idea of why it works. It is also very boring churning out the same old crap, especially if you have to spend a lot of time on it.
Here is an example of ripping off a character. Street Fighter’s boxing character… Originally called M.Bison and looks a lot like Mike Tyson who was most famous during when this game was produced. For obvious reasons they switched his name with another character for release outside of Japan. It is almost a caricature of Mike Tyson and it works really well, clichéd but some reason very appropriate – The character plays like a big bruiser and now says dumb stuff to suit.
Anyways on a more casual note… the film “Get Carter” (1971)… The character Frank Carter… Brilliant!! I have a soft spot for Michael Cain and even enjoyed the film “The Swarm” thanks to his passionate role as the world’s leading bee expert. The character Frank Carter is great in so many ways, first off look at Cain – he don’t look like a hard man, he’s no Chuck Norris or even Pacino but his role in this film depicts him as a badass mother fucker. The fight scenes are basic and reminiscent of old Star Treks – Cain even slaps a man but he somehow pulls it off. He is merciless in this film as he returns north and seeks revenge for his brother. My band mate watching it for the first time with me was a little upset and said he doesn’t like this character as he’s too mean, this is exactly why I love him. There’s a part when he shags a slag, gets information from her, and puts her in his car boot – Later on in the day he gets into a gun fight and the posse push this car into the canal… The emotionless expression on Cain’s face as his beautiful car (slag included) sinks is priceless – He is too cold and only cares about his vengeance – amplified in this one moment.
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