Plan for environment and how character will interact.

For my environment I had two ideas.
1. It be based inside a home and the character has to go round the house to turn off the taps.
or
2. It is based outside houses on the street and the character has to turn off taps and hoses that people have left one.


I have decided to go with my second idea. To create my background I will either draw it from scratch or I will take a photo and edit in photoshop to get a cartoony look to it so it matches my character.



For my characters movements he will have to be able to walk both left and right (hydrated and dehydrated) and go from hydrated to dehydrated and vice versa. I am also considering having him jump on the hose in order to turn it off but will wait and see what makes more sense when im putting it together in stencyl.

Also for added effect I am considering adding animation to the hose. Such as water moving and hose moving. Then once the character has collided with the hose, the water will then suck up and disappear. I think this would add a lot more to the one scene that I will be creating.

Controls will be pretty self explanatory:
Left Arrow - Walk Left
Right Arrow - Walk Right

Improving Gumboots

To get a more realistic gumboot shape I am going to use this image and trace it in illustrator. This will look much better than my current gumboot.

Improvement journey:

Final Gumboot:

With outline or without

Although this is such a small difference they both have a complete different look. I do really like it without the body outline as it really makes the face and colours used stand out. However it looks good with the outline as well. I will ask for others opinions in order to help me decide.

Improving character further

After receiving feedback today in class it was suggested that I make the water droplet seem more like water so I have added some detail with colour which has improved my model a lot. He is much better colours now and the white reflections look much better.


Other features I need to improve before I can animate are:
- The Droplets  Gumboots. Make them more gumboot like.
- Make the dehydrated character even more dehydrated looking. 


Before:

After:

All characters completed with Gumboots

Gumboots or Shoes?

I came up with the idea of giving him gumboots as it really fits my theme well and they also had more colour, fun and personality to my little character. After asking many for their opinion on whether I should choose the shoes or boots, a large majority of them said to go with the gumboots. I have decided to have him wearing the gumboots as my final character.

Characters Smoothed - Dehydrated

Im really happy with how this character is looking. I think the dark blue really suits his facial expressions and just overall looks much better after I smoothed all the lines, facial features etc.

Characters Smoothed - Hydrated

Different Body Colours

Because there are many different shades of blue I though I would have a look and see what a light, medium or dark shade of blue looked like on my character before I choose the final colour. For the hydrated character I feel I will go with the light blue. It is brighter and more appealing to children. For the dehydrated character however, I feel I will go with the dark blue. This will help show both the anger my character is feeling and also the difference between the hydrated and dehydrated character.

Smoothed Lines

Have smoothed out his body, face and hands. Am deciding on whether to give him gumboots or just plan round shoes. Looks much better with smoother lines. More professional.

 

Different type of Stroke

I really like this. Adds detail to the character. 

Dehydrated Character

 Sad dehydrated character.

Angry Dehydrated Character.


I obviously don't need to make a happy one of these as he will never be happy when he sees water being wasted. Im also happy with how these ones have turned out as well. I really like the body shape of them.

Drawn in illustrator using pen tool

Happy Character

Angry Character.

Sad Character.


I am really happy with how these have turned out. It took me a very long time to get use to the pen tool in illustrator. For my first time using it I am happy with how the characters look. There facial expressions definitely show the mood the character is feeling. I also did different body stances for each mood.

Different Views of Character.

Normal body to Shrinking Body

Two different body shapes. One big and hydrated. The other smaller and weak looking.

Chosen Character for Game

After asking many others for their opinion on which character they thought was the best to go with, I have decided to go with this one. He is very appealing for a younger audience and would work well to be informative for children as well. I will now begin drawing him up in illustrator.

Combining Bodies with Facials

Possible Facial Expression Sketches

Here is a large range of different facial expressions my character could possibly have. I have sketched heaps as I want to have many to choose from when I have decided on my final concept. Took quite a while to get them looking right but these are my best sketches for facial expressions. 

After thinking about my idea, the different emotions would character would need to have would possibly include:
- Happy
- Sad (when seeing water being wasted)
- Angry (after watching water for a while)


And maybe a couple others.
I will place these faces on my already sketched characters and see how they look.

Favourite Sketches

From my sketches these two are my favourites. I feel the one with the droplet as the body is quite cute and certainly appealing, especially to children. With colour added to him he would look even better. He would also work if I went with using the shrivel up idea. His arms and legs would still stay the same but his torso could start shrinking and become deformed.

This little dude is also very appealing. Although he doesnt completely look like a droplet, with colour added I feel it would have a lot more detail and would make it look more like a droplet. He gives of a very friendly feeling even though he has a sort of little creepy body. With the shriveling up idea, he would work really well as I could make just his big droplet head shrink and become angry.

Both of these concepts could work well as a informative, appealing character. I will experiment with different facial expressions in order to make my final choice between them.

Feedback from Ben

After showing Ben my sketches and telling him about my idea he gave me the idea of maybe having the droplet sort of shrivel up and get angry when he sees a tap running and water being wasted. It would sort of give the sense that his friends (other water droplets) are being wasted.
I do really like this idea and am definitely considering it.

Game Concept and Inspiration

What inspired me the most for this concept was the fact that the game is meant to be designed for children aged between 7-10 and inform them about sustainability of some sort. When I was that age, the only sustainability I really knew about was the environental side of things. From there I wanted to base my character design on saving one aspect of the environment. And the one that appealed to me the most was water because it is something that all children can help to save in a small way.

As for what my character will be doing I have thought of maybe creating a game in which my chosen droplet character has to go around and jump on taps that have been left on. By jumping on them the droplet would be turning them off and saving water. 
For environment I could have it outside and have hoses that have been left on, or I could base the environment inside I home and the droplet would have to turn off taps in the house.

Different Bodies

Ive have drawn a few concepts that have different bodies and have the droplet as there head. I have given a couple of them little professor jackets and will maybe enhance them more but I have done this to make them look clever and informative - like they are the smart droplet who is trying to save water.

Out of these three this body is my favourite. It has a sort of grinch feel to it. But once colour is added I feel this character concept could be quite fun and informative.

I do like this concept. The body seems like it fits the head very well. He feels like a squashy  fun character who could also be very informative towards children.

Personally this is my least favourite from my sketches with bodies. To me it just doesnt look right. He doesn't feel as fun and appealing as the other concepts do. Although I am glad I drew it as its shown me what I like and what I don't. 

The Faces

I am keeping the faces the same at this stage because I want to focus on getting the body shape of the character right before I go into adding facial features.

First Character Concepts

No limbs. Although very simple I think the kids would still get the idea of a water droplet. I would not use this as my chosen character.

With arms. I really like the droplet with arms. Adds more personality and seems more interactive and fun for children. To more it would have to jump and squash.

Arms and Legs. This concept is very fun and friendly. Could really get a message across to children. This is my favourite concept so far. I like the idea of using the droplet as the body.

Chosen Idea

For my character I have decided to go with the water droplet idea as I would like to get the message across of saving water and sustaining water.


For different sketches I am going to base them off the following shape:

 From this basic water droplet I am going to make different sketches with different bodies, faces etc.

Brainstorming

The character has to appeal to 7-10year olds and inform them about sustainability. So I googled the exact meaning of sustainability to get the correct meaning and on the right track.

From here I have chosen to focus on the environmental side of sustainability as I reckon children could relate better to that side of things rather than having an economical or social theme.


Environmental Brainstorm:

From here I have thought of different character ideas that I could possibly use to get an environmental theme across:


- Rubbish Bin
- Tree
- Globe
- Water Droplet
- Professor
- Light Bulb
- Cloud (Pollution)
- Animal of some sort

Project One - Variations 30%

Design a character that can serve as a communication tool to persuade an audience to make smarter choices about energy conservation. This character should be more than an educational tool - it should be a provocative design piece that incites us to ask questions about our habits and ourselves.

Research a Game Designer - Robert MacBride