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.