SILHOUETTE AND SHAPE ATTEMPT

          In the most recent lecture, I learned two things - how shape can define a character and two, how using silhouettes can be an effective aid for good character design.

    The first of which was shape. In this 30 minute lecture, I learned how different base shapes (triangles, square, circles etc.) can define a single character because of how as humans perceive shape. For example, a character designed using the triangle as a base shape will reflect a villainous character, because of the harsh corners where as a character designed using a circle as a base would be a nice, trusting character because of the elegant shape and ease on the eye.

    One of the best examples of good character design using shape is Silent Hill's iconic villain, "Pyramid Head" or "The Bogeyman".

    There is a clear focus on triangles here, with the head being the obvious vocal point. What is interesting (as my tutor stated) is that the body itself is very elegant. His theory for this is that the Pyramid Head is quite a sexual character, as the game has many sexual themes. It is because of this blatant but unique take on a character that Pyramid Head is so recognisable - the use of shape has resulted in great character design.

     With this knowledge in mind and this example to solidify its effective use, the tutor moved onwards to the use of silhouette in conjunction to shape and how developing a silhouette based of a single shape can help in practising good character design. I was tasked at using shape and silhouette to design a character - I chose the circle as a bases. We had to draw the silhouette, use that silhouette as a bases to develop a full line drawing and finally, colour and light him. The result is below.

    Yes, the drawing was awful and yes, the character is generic and boring, but never the less the technique worked. I had created a character with circle as the bases and successfully represented the shape's common associations when used in character design - a happy go lucky, trustworthy person.

        Now that I had practised the techniques taught to me with success, I was set the next task - to use silhouette and shape to design and develop two different characters using two different shapes as a bases. This task would take my vague experience and knowledge of shape and silhouette in character design and develop and refine it to the next level.

NEXT POST: TASK 4 - DEVELOPING SILHOUETTES