Sunday 21 October 2012

Character Designs -Ghosts

The ghosts were a bit tricky. They had to be roughly human, and also children, but there would be a kinda unwanted creepy/bleak factor which would be there if I went for something too realistic. After all, this is a story where some of the main characters are essentially dead children being ferried to hell. That's pretty dark when you put it like that. I wanted them to be something which registered as children without becoming uncanny or spooky. Primarily I wanted them to be charming and easy to sympathise with, hence the heavy stylisation and the big naive-looking eyes.


Where Charon is tall and skinny, these guys are squishy. They look like they're made of marshmallow. I liked the idea that all three ghosts essentially had the same design, since that way it initially seems like they have no real unique identity - which, obviously, they do have, and comes through very much in the animation.

The girl is the oldest of the ghosts, about 6, or she was in life. She's initially scared of Charon, but on the whole she's carefree and adventurous.


The twins are a bit younger and more timid - they have most of the same mannerisms and react to things together. They're scared of most things on the Styx, especially Charon. 


Inspirations:


Sunday 14 October 2012

Logo Design for CDIH

Hard at work on modelling over here, so hopefully we'll be posting that soon, but for now - we have logos! This is pretty much my first stab at logo design ever, so it was a lot of trial and error, but I like the result. I'll probably be doing it up in 3D sometime too.

 I also made a logo for the team! We're likely to make shorts together in the future if all goes well with Cold Day, so I thought it would be nice to establish a studio name so people remember us.


Wednesday 3 October 2012

Cold Day On Facebook

We're now on Facebook!

Cold Day In Hell Facebook Page

Please do give us a like, we would really appreciate it. :)

Monday 1 October 2012

Character Design - Charon

Charon was the first design I got down for this, the ferrymen who takes souls across the Styx into the world of the dead. He's a character from Greek mythology, though he's usually represented as an old man or else the classic Grim Reaper style design - though for some reason I've always imagined him with the bird head, something more along the lines of Thoth from Egyptian mythology.


Charon is more or less the antagonist of CDIH, but I wanted him slightly comic all the same - he's a bully, but at the same time a bit pathetic, hence the totally useless wings which are also quite expressive. He takes his job very seriously, enjoys routine and gets very upset if something unexpected happens. After all, the same job day in day out for an eternity, you sort of get used to things being just so...
 
Basically, he's just a big ol' line of action - he acts with his whole body.


Influences: