Summer Project AX2001Character Design: MisanthropeBy Kyle A. McDonald

1. Brief and Initial Ideas.My brief for this project was to design several characters based around the theme of being outcast in some manner, be it socially or otherwise. I first set out to give myself a few guidelines for the project, this was to not only limit what I could and couldn’t do to keep continuity between my designs and to explore a particular theme/aspect without straying away from this. As a result of this I decided to limit myself to only design non-human characters as they would create more interesting, unique walk cycles. Mostly I looked at movies such as Monsters Inc. James and the Giant Peach, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I also drew inspiration from various Mythologies and Folklores such as well-known monsters and spectres.Mainly I decided on 3 main character types, one small waddling character (much like a goblin or troll), one tall, lanky character (taking long strides as it walks) and finally one large character with throws its weight around as it moves.

Along with The goblin creature design, I had an idea for a slug like design which drags itself along the floor by a combination of caterpillar-like movements and arms dragging and pulling on the floor but ultimately decided on scrapping the character since the movements wouldn’t work together and having only one of these I felt would not have been interesting enough.I also added the design for my long legged, tall lanky creature, I found it best to look at grasshoppers from both “A Bug’s Life” and “James and the Giant Peach” who both walk with very authoritive long strides. I best decided a station of importance for the character would fit best, military or government figure etc.

I decided on a Character resembling Mike Wasowski from “Monsters Inc” I kept the image of both character's from the movie in order to use Sully as a reference for the large character I had planed. I thought working with monsters and unique creates would be more interesting to work with as I would be able to make the walk cycle anything I wanted while still exploring interesting movements.

On this page I have included the large troll-like creature who throws its weight around, I included a large heavy weapon such as a club or a tree branch just to show its strength also I thought It would be good to show the added weight in the animation through the dragging motion. Another idea I had came yet again from the world of insects also from watching “Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams” in which a spider-monkey hybrid creature is seen, this one I saw more as an alien creature but I ultimately decided that the 6 legs would be too much to animate in the time I had.The last idea I had is one of the more unique characters I had in mind which has no legs, walks of its knuckles and has a tail emerging from its lower body, this creature also has no face but has a hidden mouth with opens from the slit in the middle of its head. This idea came from the character “Sebulba” from “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”

Admiral Trek - Front

Admiral Trek - Side

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p8H1U3TbAcAs an added note, I realised that I could have added more movement to Banshee’s shoulders to show the transfer of weight.

Banshee - Front

Banshee - Side