Advance ‘Mice’ Class Scout Ships

One of the things we were challenged to do while developing the characters for ‘Three Blind Mice’ was to come up with some iterations that weren’t mice. My thought was to make them space ships.

Three different ideas for the ships.

What I thought was the final attempt on this idea, the ship became the head for a character I developed further.

This guy started as a ship.

Shortly after, we were given a new assignment that would use our designs to create a storyboard for a game, so I revisited the ship idea.

To make the ships individual, I gave them different damage.

But I once again moved back to creating actual characters.

Character Interations

For the project D1-1 the class was given the task of designing characters for an animation based on the three blind mice that was marketed for mature audiences.  The image had to evoke empathy for the mice and the scene had to be tense and uneasy.

These first iterations were to see what type of mice I could draw best.

This set of drawings are an exploration of personalities.

When asked to create a hero iteration I developed this one more.

Researching my Characters

For the project D1-1 the class was given the task of designing characters for an animation based on the three blind mice that was marketed for mature audiences.  The image had to evoke empathy for the mice and the scene had to be tense and uneasy.

The first thing I looked into was the origin of the three blind mice rhyme. Then I looked at ways other artist have approached this task. Below are some of the images I found during my search.

After that I looked into cartoon depiction of other kinds of disabilities and came across the following images.

Bad Character Design

I don't know who this is.

I don’t know who this tiger is or what he was meant for but he was given to me by my lecturer as an example of bad design. Why did he do that?

Firstly the proportions are all off. HIs hand is bigger than his face, and if he were to lower that hand, it would come down to his knee. Beyond that it’s a little hard to judge because, as stated, I don’t know what this tiger was made for.

The assumption I am making is that this was aimed at kids and young teens. That is only an educated guess, but it is on this that I base the rest of my critiques.

The shades were probably put there because the designers thought it would make the tiger cool. Not only are his eyes now hidden, the shape of the lens’ was a terrible choice. If a person is to appear friendly it helps if they have large round eyes. The shades make his eyes uninviting. In fact his whole face it rather angular and harsh.

His shirt just looks stupid. The colour a poor choice.

In the end, I think this character was created based on a grown ups belief of what he thinks a boy would find cool, on not on research into the market. Instead of the funny and hip character I think they were aiming for, we have a rather intimating figure.

The Rules of Ratio

Bugs was designed with adult proportions

In character design ratio refers to the proportions of the body parts in relations to the rest of the body. Take Bugs Bunny for example. All of his limbs, including ears, are the same height and are in proportion to his head, giving him the look of an adult human. The proportions are based on;

The Golden Ratio – 1.618. This is a ratio that appears not only in design, but nature itself. It is the ratio between any two element. When the smaller section is compared to the larger section it should create a ratio of 1.618. And when those two elements compared to the next larger element you should get the same result. In Bug’s case – Hand x 1.618 = Face x 1.618 = Arms x 1.618 = body. Ergo the section of a person’s leg, the distance from waist to knee and knee to foot, should reach this ratio with the leg itself.

Edna From The Incredibles

Fibonacci Sequence – is another ratio with set mathematic but is a little easier to understand. If you measured up Edna, starting with her feet and worked your way up, you might notice that each section is equal to the sum of the lower two section. This is the Fibonacci Sequence, where every number is equal to the proceeding two numbers, (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, and so on). This sequence also naturally occurs throughout the universe and is very close to the golden ratio. If you divide the larger numbers in the sequence by the proceeding number you will get approximately 0.61. Some of the equations will come out at 0.618, but not enough to claim these as the same rule.

You may be thinking that Edna is a very strangely shaped woman so the Fibonacci Sequence can’t be good for character design. On a normally proportioned character the largest number of the sequence would be used for the distance from the top of the head to the waist. But when Edna was designed, the animators wanted to emphasis her face.

Why?

Face-ism Ratio – which is the ratio of face to body. In photographs where the face takes up most of the frame, (high face-ism ratio), the viewer focuses more on the personality and intellectual attributes of that person. If the photograph has a low face-ism ratio, (the face only take up a small part of the frame and more of the body is shown), then the viewer generally focuses on the physical aspects of the person in the picture.

They want you to want her.

Pixar wanted Edna to appear highly competent, intellectual and worldly. Which they achieved by making face stand out to the audience. Unlike this final character, whose name I don’t know, whose face is proportionally small. The animators have made her legs the main focus as long legs suggest full maturity. They have tried to make this character desirable by giving her long limbs and using the;

Waist to Hip Ratio – which has created a prefered ratio of 0.7 for women and 0.9 for men. This is because of estrogen and testosterone and their effect on fat distribution. High estrogen level result in a low waist to hip ratio, while high levels of testosterone result in a higher waist to hip ratio. We respond to this ratio because they are reasonably indicative of health and reproductive ability.

If you want to know more, the following sites have great information about the mathematics and biases of human proportions;

• Images of Faces; What do they mean?
• The Math Behind the Beauty
• Drawing the Human Form

What’s in a face

The unusual use of the baby face bias makes us uneasy.

Baby Face Bias – We tend to see people with baby-face features as being more naive and helpless, innocent and honest, than people with mature facial features. ‘Baby-face features’ include round features, big eyes, small nose, high foreheads and high chins.

If we look again at the band Gorillaz you can see that the baby-face proportions are in place but it has been deviated by the replacement of certain aspects. Some have beady eyes, others have low foreheads or big noses. This throws us off because of another bias.

Princess Clara

Attractiveness Bias – In Gorillaz the have been given asymmetrical and exaggerated features which is in contradiction to the baby-face bias. This puts us off because of the attractiveness Bias. Attractive people have a tendency to appear more intelligent, moral and friendly. Inversely, unattractive people come off as shifty, slow and unsociable. It’s these things we see in the Gorillaz’s characters that make us uneasy.

So we know that people tend to like attractive people more, but what is considered attractive? Just take a look at Princess Clara o the left. Would you say she looks innocent and friendly?

Most Average Facial Appearance Effect. People with facial features closer to the average of the population are considered more attractive. In Princess Clara’s case, she was given big eyes to make her appear innocent, (baby-face bias), and the rest of her features are underplayed and of average proportions, (attractiveness bias). This has created an apparently trustworthy and moralistic character. This is because of yet another bias.

Would you approach this guy?

Classical Bias – You may have figured out that Clara is a conglomerate of classical Disney princesses. She is in fact a send up of those character from a show called Drawn Together which takes her to many dark places Disney wouldn’t go near. The reason this is so strange is because we are classically conditioned to see pretty young woman as sweet and innocent, (and most times in need of protecting). Another example is big, unattractive men being seen as menacing and slow-witted.

Classical conditioning is something we learn from social input at a young age. Much like the attractiveness bias and average facial feature effect, the biases it produces are culturally different. What is considered average or attractive changes around the world. So know the mindset of your audience.

Creating a Distinctive Character

Mickey's ears are always the same shape

When you watch Mickey Mouse you can notice that the shape of his ears are consistent no matter at what angle Mickey is standing. This distinctive shape allows Mickey to be quickly and easily recognised, even at a distance.

When creating a character, keep in mind that it wont always be front and centre. If your characters are in the distance, in shadow, or otherwise impeded, a viewer should always be able to tell which character is which.

Another example of using distinctive features and consistent shape is the virtual band Gorillaz. The music is created by real people, but each member of the band is presented to the public as a two-dimensional illustration, (the characters are also animated for the music clips). Thought not as well-known as the image of Mickey Mouse, these characters are unmistakable to the fans. Individuality is in the form of hats, hair styles and other accessories. These thing are also smaller details than Mickey’s ears, (other than some of the hair), but when put in combination which consistency of shape they mark each character.

Gorillaz Album cover

Invader Zim

Somewhere in the galaxy in an advanced race of green men, whose military hierarchy is decided by height, are waging war on the universe in their new campagne – “Impending Doom 2”. That’s right, the first one failed but the brought out a sequel. This one’s sure to work since their leaders, The Almighty Tallest, has banished the Irken solely responsible for the failure of Impending Doom 1, Invader Zim, to the other side of the galaxy.

But to convince Zim to leave and stay far away from anything important, they told him that there was an inhabited planet somewhere in that area and his ‘mission’ was to prime it for invasion.

Little did the tallest know that there actually was an inhabited planet there. It was called earth and the humans don’t know, (or care), whats coming.

After building his base, Zim decided that the best way to learn about earth is to enroll in High School. There he met his classmate Dib. Dib can see through Zim’s disguise but everyone else thinks Dib is just crazy and Zim is just ugly.

Zim with his Disguise

Zim without his disguise

I once described Zim as that one kid who always took the game too seriously. Though he is slow-witted, unlucky and physical weaker that the beings he plans to conquer, Zim is ludicrously sure of his superiority. He takes credit for other’s misfortune and has a train of logic that goes way beyond delusional.

The earth presented by the shows creator Jhonen Vasquez would be easily conquered as the humans of the near future are dull and unobservant. As Dib once put it – “It’s almost as if earth wants to be taken over.” They can’t even see through Zim’s disguise. The addition of pupils and hair, make Zim seem less dangerous, but far more evil. Also note the change from ignorant to stupid when the disguise is put on.

Dib. Why is his head so big?

As mentioned, there is one human that is on to Zim, his archenemies Dib. Dib is a budding paranormal investigator with an overly large head. This is a metaphor for the weight Dib feels he is carrying on his shoulders. He is the only one that can foil Zim’s plans, (not that Zim’s plans ever come close to succeeding). With the addition the hook-ish hair style, (which he did once use as a hook), Dib’s head is a highly recognisable object from any angle.

Professor Membrane

And it’s not only the coming alien invasion that no one believes in. Haunted gummi bears, spell drives, Mortos Der Soulstealer and the foul curse of the Shadow Hog are but a few things that not even Dib’s father, Professor Membrane, is willing to believe. That’s Membrane to the right, the guy wearing a lab coat as though it were Superman’s cape.

Dib's Sister Gaz

In spite of all the evidence Dib’s collected, he has only ever convinced two people that Zim is an alien. One left the earth and the other is his sister Gaz, who doesn’t see Zim as a threat and so still doesn’t care. In fact Gaz has come closer to killing Dib than any of the monsters and aliens he has encountered. Gaz is a serial gamer with very little concern with the world outside her game screen. The hair style they gave her makes head square from every angle. Almost like she’s boxed in.

Though most well-known for Invader Zim, Jhonen Vasquez created one of my favorite comics book called Johnny The Homicidal Manic, as well as some other titles and different projects.

Johnny The homicidal Maniac

For more on Invader Zim or Jhonen Vasquez click one of these links;

• The JtHM Page
• Irken Philosophy

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

From left - Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is an Adultswim cartoon featuring Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad. These three work as detectives, though they are yet to successfully solve a crime.  They spend most of their time dealing with monsters and aliens, most of which are of little power or consequence, and bringing misery and woe on to their neighbour Carl. The show is animated by Radical Axis. Though the illustrations are simple, the character design is quite well-developed, (much better than their original appearance on Space Ghost Coast to Coast.)

Frylock is most definitely the brains of the operation. He’s the only one to be given eyebrows, which allow for a wider range of expressions, including thoughtful, doubtful, concerned, surprised and gives him a very unconvincing ‘lie’ face. The fries that stick out the top of his head are made to look like his hair, (he has styled them in the past), but also have a variety of functions from arms to radar antennas. The goatee gives Frylock a nose and mouth without actually needing for them to be drawn.

Master Shake considers himself the leader of the team though he is the least powerful and no one ever listens to him. Indeed his main power appears to be the ability to make anything exploded in a ball of fire when he throws it to the ground. He can also force out some kind of green liquid from his straw, but that has never come in handy. The more important aspect of the straw is to give Shake more expressive ability, much like Bugs Bunny’s ears. The lid of the cup always comes over Shake’s eyes much like a protruding brow, highlighting the aggression and stupidity of this character. Though they move much like eyebrows, they are not as expressive.

Meatwad is the junior member of the team, as can easily be told by his baby-faced appearance. In fact he is nothing but a baby’s face. His chubby checks are the only thing that stop his eyes from being perfectly round. And the one, oversized tooth drives home the character’s naivity.