Drawing up Characters

From my research and inspiration I decided on three out of four of my concepts to draw up. I decided against using my snooty Englishman any further as I felt the design would be way to complex needing a lot of time and energy to produce where this assignment is focused more on the animation side of things. 

I used the old looking teapot as the base design for this character concept and added elements that would be more relatable to an old man. The top cover of the teapot (or the hat) was inspired by a typical plaid styled flat cap that is easily connected with a granddad or old man. 

My first drawn out idea I found was too jagged and sharp, looking more like an evil or witchy character. I wanted my teapot to look old and act grumpy and mean but I want there to be some curved edges or softness to the character so show he does have a nicer side deep down. 

This character was inspired by my teapot research of the sleek, modern teapot that I found. To start with I tried creating a model that was only slightly based on the original teapot but I found that the shape I used for the body was too rounded and full to communicate the sultriness that I intended.

I came up with another design that was more similar to my inspiration teapot. The difference between the two is the handle and spout are rectangular in my model rather than the cylindrical of the original.

My final character design was loosely based around the idea on a villain. Looking at the teapot design from Alice: Madness Returns I got the idea to do an evil witch character. I made the base quite rounded and feminine to hint a women person, juxtaposed with harsh jagged lines and edges to associate with witch like characteristics.

CONCLUSION:

I enjoy the character and personality behind my first concept the best and I feel it has the most opportunity to develop this idea within the animation. This will be the design I take forward from here.