Week 5 - Pinterest Research and Character Design

I completed the gathering of visual references for this week. I used Pinterest and collected many visual references for urban decay which included abandoned shopping centres, old derelict factories and plants taking over streets, growing through collapsed concrete. The underlying consistency I saw across the examples was a constant tension between solid, geometric forms and the smooth, organic shapes of nature. I was able to incorporate this tension into my environmental designs.

I compiled a character design brief for Kat using the series of characters known as Hinoro who's artist is named Lang. Hinoro characters have a head to body ratio of 1:3, round, tubular limbs, a block colouring of clothes and flat face designs with dot eyes and a smile or frown curve of the mouth. I documented this and had Kat work to a design brief document that I created for her, a primary emphasis was put on the colour blocking, to avoid UV unwrapping a coloured gradient this is a very straightforward technique to map with texture.

Reflecting on the week I feel that by allowing Kat to choose the design she wanted, allows the team to move quickly and effectively throughout this project. This also allows Kat to alter and change whatever she thinks is right or not.