Frontal fatman

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:01 am

I can't seem to get the arms to look right on this odd shaped toon. On the 45 and side view they look ok, just on the front view I cant seem to make it look right.

Any ideas?
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jose1984alberto · Post by **jose1984alberto** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:40 am

i made a quik try, just cus im in a good mood, how about that?

http://www.mediafire.com/?advjmyhtzuc

i hope its useful for somethin

by the way... that character design just looks awfull for me... nothing personal... if you make a story for him, it had better be good...

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:52 am

jose1984alberto wrote:i made a quik try, just cus im in a good mood, how about that?

http://www.mediafire.com/?advjmyhtzuc

i hope its useful for somethin

by the way... that character design just looks awfull for me... nothing personal... if you make a story for him, it had better be good...

Yes it's taken personally. I did not ask for comments on the design, If you have been reading the forums you would know that we all know it's a tough toon to animate and with help of this forum we all managed to make a nice walk cylce for him.

And second. I do not have to make story just to please you.

jose1984alberto · Post by **jose1984alberto** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:38 am

sbtamu wrote:
Yes it's taken personally. I did not ask for comments on the design, If you have been reading the forums you would know that we all know it's a tough toon to animate and with help of this forum we all managed to make a nice walk cylce for him.

And second. I do not have to make story just to please you.

yeah, but im not talking about the animation... just the character design... and i said "for me", and im not asking you to do anything for ME, i was giving you an advise.

And if you even think of taking this as a serious career, or even a hobbie, you had better learn to take that kind of coment, specially when it comes from someone thats trying to help, cus i just spend more than an hour of my time on trying to solve your problem. And i do it cus like you, i also had some problems with my stuff, there were people willing to help too, and, with all they know, if they came up to me with something like "your character design looks like cr$p" i would have said "haha, i know, im just a beginner".

and i didnt even say that, i was actually more polite

i think you should grow up and be more humble... but thats me...

and i would reconsider that "a nice walk cylce for him"... but hey... thats still just me...

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:48 am

Is this guy for real?

swrecordings · Post by **swrecordings** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 4:14 am

i think so

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 5:31 am

jose1984alberto tends to come on strong, but you should at least thank him for taking time to answer your question (and furnish a file, to boot), even if you don't agree with him.

You can take what you need and ignore the rest. Getting defensive will only discourage others from posting.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:06 am

April 1st - I don't believe anything today ...

sbtamu - the reason why it doesn't look right in the front view is that you placed the shoulders exactly to the sides. But if you have a look at some real heavy men (I bet there are some around at your place) you'll notice that the shoulders are placed more to the back, because muscles or fat will need place at the front. Also the arms will hang down behind the belly when standing straight.

Good design, no matter how stylish it is, always starts with careful observation of the real world. Nowadays an image search in google or a video search in youtube can help you a lot. I would even recommend to you some special interest sexual image sites, to study anatomy in the nude, but I don't since I don't know your age.

A word about colours: right now (I assume this is only a sketch and the real colours will come later?) the colours are just too bright. I made it a habit to turn down saturation to 50% first whenever I colour something. This way I get a more harmonic result right from the start, and one which is more pleasing to the eyes.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:04 am

I will study Fat Albert later today.

2nd. yes these colors are purely just random selections and have nothing to do with the proccess ATM.

SpaceBoy64 · Post by **SpaceBoy64** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:17 pm

Are you saying he doesn't look fat from the front? just wide?

Try some shading on his stomach. That might help.

Looking at Fat Albert and other fat cartoon characters is a good idea.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:43 pm

We had that gimmick posted here several times where you can see a walking human, or more exact, just some white points at the main joints. You could change the walk to that of a man or woman, or a thin or a fat human. Only the point's relative position and the movement change, but you will recognize the body type immediately.

The same should be true of your characters. Try to give the impression of a heavy man just with the bare skeleton! If you need to use shading to deliver his weight, you have lost.

Back to this model: his shoulders are a bit narrow, compared to the belly. At least arms and shoulders should connect with one straight curve, as jose already indicated. Try to lower his head, and thicken his neck. Again: observe real people if you want to create good characters.

muffysb · Post by **muffysb** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:45 pm

Here's the gimmick:

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

You can rotate the figure, change its sex, turn on the connecting lines, etc.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 2:47 am

Here is what i did this afternoon.

Thank all for the comments and help. It really does help me tons.

One question tho, When I animate this i find his forarm is still behind his body. Do i just make a copy of the whole arm and make a stitch layer for arm movement infront of body?

jose1984alberto · Post by **jose1984alberto** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 3:30 am

@neeters:

thanks man, and i do recongnize that i should have provided some humble advice on how to improve the character, sorry about that sbtamu... you still neet to learn how to take it though...

@slowtiger:

"Try to give the impression of a heavy man just with the bare skeleton! If you need to use shading to deliver his weight, you have lost."

thats one of the best advice you can give, i could not have said it better...

@sbtamu:

although you have basicaly just added texture and shading, it looks way better...

by the way, here is an example of butt ugly characters that succede thanks to a funny story (im not a big fan though) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6nmNXOHJjo
a bunch of people love those episodes in latin america cus of the story...

@Toailite:

WTF!!! where are the spam busters when you need them...

SpaceBoy64 · Post by **SpaceBoy64** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:19 am

sbtamu wrote:Here is what i did this afternoon.

Thank all for the comments and help. It really does help me tons.

I think it still looks flat. It's the lines. I know he's facing directly forward, but the line of his shirt is too straight.

Take a look at some pictures. The belly should look round:

Try turning his torso slightly to one side for more of a 3/4 view. He can still be facing the camera, just not dead on. If you watch most cartoons, this is the way they are drawn most of the time. It's more dynamic, and it provides a better view.
Here's two cartoon examples.