Differentiating Characters

When we were discussing our group ideas, we decided that I would create the default character that everyone would use to keep consistency between our scenes. Once I had created the man which was distributed to the group, I thought about how I could edit him within my scenes to make him into different characters, without having to change too many details.

Looking into this it all came down to the face and the hair. Due to the bones and skin on the model, it would be far too much work to change his anatomy and alter his height and weight etc. I decided that I would easily add some extra facial details to the name with the use of the link tool, not effecting the skin of bones.

Sausage Vendor

To create the sausage vendor, I decided that I wanted him to have facial hair, just to make him that much different from the main character. I also gave him different hair and eye colours to make him look even more different. I created a moustache for the man out of a box with a few cross sections, a mesh smooth modifier rounded off all of the edges nicely. After doing this, I thought that for the sake of the comical nature of our animations, I would also give the man large, bushy eyebrows. It then hit me that I could use the same model I had just created, and by simply turning it upside down, I had a very effective looking pair of eyebrows, which I found very amusing. Here is a picture of the man, I think whom now looks very different to his default counterpart.

Cider Vendor

I went about creating the cider vendor in much the same way I had with the sausage vendor, I thought that the best way to mask any similarities between the two models would be with a hat and facial hair. I decided to give the man a hat in the shape of an apple, as I thought it would fit well with our comedy ethos. This also cut down on work as I could use the apple I had previously created to top the stall. To create the beard for the man, I used a box with cross sections, which I pulled about until it fit the shape of his face and was a reasonable length. Again, I feel that this man looks very different to the default man, and am happy that it will work well within my scene.

Crowd

To form the crowd of people sitting on chairs behind the action in my scene, I felt it wasn't necessary to change too much detail on them , as they wouldn't be in a close up at all. All I did to these people was to change the hair to make them look a little different to the main characters, and changed the colours of their clothes. I feel that this works quite well within our cartoon styled scene and am happy with the outcome.