New character concept

[Lumpy]

Started sketching the head at work today, ended up roughing out the whole body; put the whole thing together when I got home.



I'm still working on the hands and feet, but everything is fully rigged. What do you guys think?

[neeters_guy]

Are you interesting in getting feedback in the form of a drawover?

[Lumpy]

For sure. I like the way he looks, but something just looks... off. I can't explain it.

[neeters_guy]

I'd say the overall problem is stiffness and lack of volume. The general advice would be to draw more curves; in specific terms:

1) Make the hair fuller and avoid "sawtooth" hairline.
2) Curve the shoulders.
3) Thin the neck.
4) Use curved lines of action to add interest to his pose.
5) Curve the edges of shirt, sleeves, pants to give a sense of volume.
6) Place the eyes, nose, and mouth solidly on the perspective lines.
7) Place the shirt logo in perspective.



The trick is to start with basic volumetric shapes, such as a ball or pear shape, then build on top of that. For more thorough examples, check out the Preston Blair books.

Keep in mind that this is just my interpretation. You can apply the same ideas and come up with something uniquely yours.

Hope that helps.

[slowtiger]

I wouldn't skew this design into a more general classic cartoony direction. But I'm not sure how this design will work within AS' ability of doing smooth movements. A character like this is, in my experience, often better done in a crude frame-by-frame fashion, more jerky than smooth.

Let's see some animaton, then we can say more!

[SvenReyter]

I like it. I love the eyes. The only thing that stands out as a little off to me is the hair and the shorts. The hair line looks a little busy, the 2nd layer beneath the top is the first thing that caught my attention. And, the shorts kind of looks a little like he has an erection. Not a lot, just the horizontal line at right leg.

Neeters drawing is fantastic, it's all really good advice, but to me that looks like a totally different character. The neck is a bit thick like he said. Maybe, If you lowered the neck over the chest a little it would look like the neck coming through the shirt collar.