ALTER EGO I - CHARACTER DESIGN

 

ALTER EGO - ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

Choosing a character from J. Ward's series Rocky, Bullwinkle & Friends, or Total Television's Underdog series universe, students will construct an alternate biography by tweaking the formative years of their character-of-choice to determine a radically different outcome. Students will then redesign their character, choose a live-action movie clip (contemporary or classic), and build an animated performance – all based on the new character outcome.  The final animated performance will be based on an original reenacted sound clip by emerging voice talent.

 

ALTER EGO I - CHARACTER DESIGN BREAKDOWN

1. Character Research

2. Alternate Character Proposals

3. Character Pose Sheet

4. Character Redesign & Color Pilot

5. Alternate Character Hand-off

Go here for a complete step-by-step series of demos for this project

 

ALTER EGO - EXAMPLES

Example 1: Russian Agent as Hippie

Classic Character: Boris Badenov

Biography Tweak: Grew up in a hippie commune south of Seattle in the mid-sixties. 

Cross-over Character: The Dude from the Big Lebowski

Movie Quote: (8 sec) "Wait, wait, let me explain something to . . ah. .  I'm not Mr. Lebowski, you're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the dude."

 

Example 2: Canadian Do-gooder Mounty as Criminally Insane

Classic Character: Dudley Do-right

Biography Tweak: Made some bad choices in his youth and ended up in reform school where he was soon identified by his peers as a criminal genius.

Cross-over Character: The Joker

Movie Quote: (8 sec) "Do I look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am?. . I'm a dog chasing cars.  I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it."

 

1. CHARACTER RESEARCH

A. CHOOSE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS & CONSTRUCT ALTERNATE BIOS (x3)

  1. Choose two characters from the two classic cartoon series.
  2. Watch Youtube videos starring your characters.
  3. Construct an alternative biography for each character that forces a radically new personality outcome.
  4. Present to the class for feedback on which character to move forward.

Submit to Discord #320-alter-ego for comments: Post original character image along with the character's name and a one-sentence alteration of your character's biography.

Example: Boris Badenov - Grew up in a hippie commune south of Seattle in the mid-sixties.

B. BUILD A PROJECT FOLDER STRUCTURE

  1. If you haven't already, this would be a good time to build a Project Folder Structure with separate folders for, <Original Characters, <Original Movie Files, <Edited Movie Clips, <Edited Audio Clips and <Premiere files. This will expand as your project grows.

 

2. ALTERNATE CHARACTER PROPOSALS

A. CHOOSE NEW DIALOGUE FROM THREE LIVE-ACTION MOVIE CLIPS (8-10 seconds each)

  1. Choose three lines of dialogue from contemporary or classic live-action films for a character that fully embodies your newly altered personality.
  2. Download clips from youtube and use Premiere to edit them down to just under 10 seconds each.
  3. Export an edited movie clip and an AIFF audio file for each of the three scenes.
  4. Save the original Movie downloads, 8-10 second clips and audio files in your project folder.

Submit to Discord #320-alter-ego for comments: Post original character image, one-sentence alt-character bio, and all three edited movie dialogue clips.

 

3. CHARACTER POSE SHEET

Below are examples of pose sheets used to explore the animated character's physical range. We will be doing a short-hand version by using thumbnail sketches of your character in Harmony to explore possible poses and gestures inspired by your chosen audio track.

 

WORKFLOW:

    1. Open a new Harmony project 1920 x 1080. Save the project to your AlterEgo/harmony folder and name the project characterName_lipsync
    2. Import your chosen audio clip and spend time getting to know the lines.
    3. Get up and act out the lines making note of how your body moves to underscore certain points in the dialogue. Try a few variations.
    4. Draw a series of thumbnail drawings exploring your character's range and delivery of the lines. Work small and focus on gestures. I recommend that you draw more than you need.
    5. Come back around and refine the poses you like, arrange 8 to 12 on the page.
    6. Export using Export Layout Tool. File/Export/Layout image. . . Scale the image 200% for better resolution.
    7. Post to Discord #320-alter-ego for comments.

SPECS:

  • 8 - 12 images on a single page
  • jpg at 4K resolution (3840 x 2160)

SUBMISSION & NAMING: 

Submit jpg. to Basecamp 320 DropBox/Alter Ego - Lip Sync Animation/personalFolder/simpsonb_poseSheet_donald.jpg

 

4. CHARACTER RE-DESIGN & COLOR PILOT

A. CHARACTER TURN-AROUND

Create an alternate character design/turn-around, based on original model sheets, reflecting your character's new personality. 

WORKFLOW:

    1. Set up Harmony

    • Open Harmony, click new and browse to your Alter Ego Project Folder Structure and make a new folder named "harmony". Choose 1920 x 1080. Name project: peabody_turnAround
    • Make a Background layer and add a white background with a rectangle tool. Turn on fill in Tool Properties.

    2. Draw Character Views

    • Add a new layer and draw front and side views in consecutive frames using onion skin for comparison.
    • Draw the 3/4 pose by adding a frame in between the front and side frames. Use onion skin and the F & G keys to make sure your views are consistent.

    3. Ink & Paint

    • Add a new layer for ink and paint. Use the Pencil Tool on the Line Art level to draw an inked-line over your three character drawings.

    • When all three views are inked, use the Create Color Art from Line Art Tool to transfer vector lines to the Color Art level. Select the line art, click on the Create Color Art button and go to the Color Art level to see the transfered strokes.

    Press K to show invisible strokes.

    • Create a Color Palette for your character and use the Harmony Paint Tool (alt I) to fill in the colors on the Color Art Layer.

    TB Tutorials:

    3. Arrange Color Drawings in Line-up

    • Add guidelines to the BG layer to help line-up your characters. Be sure to compose your guidelines within the camera frame.
    • Make a new layer named character_Turnaround.
    • Use the selection tool to copy each drawing and paste it onto a single frame in the Turnaround layer. Be sure your Selection Tool is set to Apply to Color Art and Line Art.

    4. Create Character Library and Export Turnaround as TPL File

    • In the Library panel in Harmony, right click in the folder window and choose Open Library.
    • Browse to your project folder structure and create a character Library. AlterEgo/harmony/_peabody_library. No spaces with an underscore in front so it stays at the top.
    • Right click on the new library folder and choose . . . Right to Modify.
    • Now select the turnaround layer and drag it to the new _library folder. Harmony will create a .tpl file and ask you to name it. Name the file character_turnaround: peabody_turnaround.

    TB Tutorials:

    5. Export JPG of Turnaround

    • Export your finished turn-around using Export Layout Tool. File/Export/Layout image. . .
    • Change the format to jpg and scale to %200.
    • Browse to your project folder and create a new folder "modelSheets".

TURN-AROUND SPECS:

  • Front, three-quarter & Side view Line-up (visible guide-lines optional)
  • Save a .tpl file to character library
  • Save .jpg to project folder 4k 3840 x 2160

NAMING: 

simpsonb_peabody_turnAround.jpg

SUBMIT:

Submit to Discord #320-alter-ego for comments.

 

5. CHARACTER HAND-OFF INSTRUCTIONS

Go here for instructions on creating and submitting Character Hand-off package for Voice Talent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephan Leeper/Central Michigan University 2022