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Monday 11 November 2013

Pre-Production: Young Barnabas Costume Tests

Hello Everyone,

We have been taking a few days to get our dissertations checked and double checked so you will have to excuse a few delayed posts here and there for this week at the very least. While I am doing this I thought I would take the opportunity to post up a couple more costume test things. This may not be the most interesting topic but it is never the less a development step for the key characters. This post particularly focuses on Young Barnabas where I tried to go away from the traditional norms as he is a mischievous child at this point in his life.

I decided to shy away from keeping him too done up but I wanted a kind of formality to his attire. I wanted the thing that defines him to be a paint splotch or two or a paintbrush in the silken lining of his hat. I had quite a bit of fun with his design for this reason. I still put the normal undertakers attire in to appease what I envision to be Sammy's vision but these ones were probably more for me to show that I fleshed him out a little. Of course then you randomly mix and match and you never know what might work in the end... I just want to provide everyone with options.

Anyway below are a couple of costume variants for the Young Barnabas form.
The image above shows the randomised costume variants available (which I kept limited to 10 once again). I could have sat down and picked out my favourite but I always think its better to post randomly here. After all the girls can always say to me I like that hat but I don't like that it has a paintbrush in it, etc. I also want to make my mark on the character, something which is solely my influence but I figured I'd get that opportunity in the modelling process. I just want to make sure that I have explored the earlier steps fully before going into 3D.


The video above shows the process I undertook for all of these costumes tests, I thought it would be an interesting thing to document into a doodler video. Most of these videos have been based around Sammy so I thought I'd give people a little look into my domain for this particular project. Everything began as sketches on a light box which I then scanned in to explore digitally before committing them to an animated wardrobe. It was fun to do as I have never attempted to demonstrate costume options in this way before, I may do this in the future for other characters... Its a good idea.
The image above shows the hat designs I knocked up for Young Barnabas. I wasn't sure how playful we were going so I tried to keep everything simple. The big addition to this particular set of hats was the option of the paintbrush which I found to be quite a nice idea. It hadn't dawned on me at this point that Sammy had Barnabas without a hat in the flashback of his childhood so I'm still not sure if a hat is relevant here. Never the less I had to explore the design for my own curiosity and I have to say I am quite pleased that I did here...
Next I decided to explore his jacket/shirt, again there is only so much I could do with an undertakers attire. One thing I have to keep considering is if this is the girls vision at all but then I tell myself that these are to provide options for us all. The main things here are the tie and the bow tie which I got from Chrissie's earlier research. I put the tie in the mix because it did exist in the earlier Victorian times and undertakers wore them. I also wanted it because it allowed me to mix the designs up a little more making things interesting.
I found myself at a bit of a crossroads with the trousers, I found myself looking at painters attire which kind of gave me a bit of a baggy vibe. I know the ladies are kind of dead set on shorts for our little tykes but again I wanted to explore. I had fun with the really baggy paint stained trousers and even more with the braces. I may have to include the braces in one of the designs just so I can mix it up a little. You cannot appreciate them on these tests but I think they would be a fun thing to include underneath someone's jacket.
The shoes on Young Barnabas were my favourite variety as I got the length just right to constitute their size. I also had a lot of fun looking at the socks (paying special attention to the fact that Chrissie and Sammy want one down and one up). I even experimented with putting a dab of paint on them although you cannot see it on the ink renditions. I especially loved the tip of the shoe and the way its isolated (i.e. a different colour). Of these I loved the biggest shoe which was shoe 4 (sorry Chrissie and Sammy I had to confess my love for this pair of shoes).
Finally I sat down to knock up various coat tails to try on this particular form. I actually found these a little boring but when placed with the jacket they make sense and its nice to try the different variants at random. I tried to colour them the same as their respective jackets for the colour tests below. I have to say I have enjoyed this process and will probably look into doing it more in the future albeit with lesser harsh lines. The trick with these costume tests is everything has to be interchangeable and cover the gaps of the former, that's what makes it kind of tricky.
Last but not least are the initial 4 costume tests I made. I didn't mean to post my signature there but I was playing before hand and completely forgot to turn it off when I shot out this image. Anyway these costume tests show the formal with the more fun painterly undertaker artist. We have a nice range here so if there's anything the ladies liked particularly we can consider that for the final model. I might add some of these details anyway when in the middle of modelling just to see what I find works and what doesn't.

Anyway I only have one costume test to go and I will probably post that tomorrow just to complete this little set and to hopefully apply some varied ideas. After that I will follow with expression sheets and turnarounds for the final characters. I also have a couple of videos in the pipeline but they will have to wait till I have completed my workload for this week. The priority for all of us at the moment is to get our draft dissertation finalized so we can move on. In the meantime we appreciate everyone's patience, I will also get some concept art going soon so be ready for that!

take it easy
xXStItChXx

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