The Art of Adaptation B: Periodic Elements as Characters Danny Rollings

30/04/15

Pre-Simplification Originally my plan was to adapt the Periodic Elements as Big Brother contestants, allowing their base designs to be human yet varied in art

style, with their personalities and appearance based on the characteristics of the elements themselves. Below are my first thumbnails, which attempt to achieve this with Diamond…  

A New Way of Thinking Having received valuable advice from staff members and alumni, I completely changed my tactics. Rather than sketching out human characters, I began to build character silhouettes from basic vector shapes created within Photoshop. Incorporating the characteristics of the elements

into these shapes remained very important. My method changed, but my goal remained the same.

H 1.00794

1

C 12.0107

6

He 4.002602

2

Helium Character Development

Helium is a noble gas, resulting in a lack of reactivity; making it useful for food preservation. Helium is lighter than air so is commonly used within party balloons and blimps, it is Helium’s lighter than air nature that causes a person’s voice to go squeaky after being inhaled, which can

be dangerous due to Oxygen displacement and deprivation. When electrically excited Helium glows a lilac shade purple.

Helium Part 01: Info & Influence Map

Helium Part 02: Silhouette Stage After I had completed thumbnails 01 – 32, I was advised not to draw in features at this early stage of the process.

After establishing 19 as my favourite silhouette, I moved onto the details stage…  

Helium Part 03: Details Stage

Helium Part 04: Posing 01; Influence Map

Helium Part 04: Posing 02 After the creation of the superhero inspired designs, I was advised to pair Helium down. These first two pose tests became a valuable

resource for establishing part of the character’s nature; that they are unable to touch the ground.

Helium Part 04: Posing 03 At this stage I decide that Helium would be 4 meters tall, taking inspiration from blimps and hot air balloons. I also tested different designs

for the hands and feet. The most successful thumbnails were 70, H-07 and F-01.

Helium Part 05: Colour Stage 01 & Influences Helium’s colour scheme was pulled from the real life colours of the Element, and needed to remain visible on a sky blue background.

I also tested out a neon-like glow within Helium’s chest. My most successful thumbnail was 89.

Vial of glowing ultra-pure Helium

Helium discharge tube

Helium Part 05: Colour Stage 02 To make sure Helium stood out enough with her purple colour scheme, I placed her over a photo of a blue sky.*

*Photo source: http://dinesh-musiclover.deviantart.com/art/Blue-Sky-Sun-409387402

Helium Part 06: Front & Side Orthographics

Helium Part 07: Modelling 01; Head

Helium Part 07: Modelling 02; Wireframe

Helium Part 07: Modelling 03; Smoothed

Helium Part 08: Rigging 01

Helium Part 08: Rigging 02 Because of Helium’s bulbous eyes and the low amount of eyelid edges, it was necessary to create extra joints to support her blink.  

Helium Part 09: Textured, Skinned & Posed

Hydrogen Character Development

Hydrogen Design V1 & Influence Map My Interim Crit indicated that this character wasn’t designed as successfully as my other characters because it didn’t contain the same logic they established e.g. vertical symmetry. The logic behind Hydrogen’s colour scheme in relation to emotions also proved confusing to the viewer.

Hydrogen Part 01: Info & Influence Map Hydrogen is the most basic Element, leading to it being highly reactive at high temperatures, while having a low reactivity at low temperatures. It is extremely flammable, with large quantities used in rocket fuel. It joins explosively with Oxygen to make water (H2O) via Platinum, or an

electric spark. The largest ever bomb was a Hydrogen bomb called Tsar Bomba; its mushroom cloud was 7x the height of Mt Everest.

Hydrogen Part 02: Silhouette Stage My most successful thumbnails turned out to be 01 and 12.

Hydrogen Part 03: Details Stage While the body of 65 was successful, the hands required re-designing. I chose H12 as my preference, and used them for 67.

Hydrogen Part 04: Colour Stage & Influence Map My most successful thumbnails were 78 and 79. At first I wasn’t keen on 79’s mouth, but after feedback I discovered it actually worked.

Hydrogen Part 05: Front & Side Orthographics

Hydrogen Part 06: Sphere Texture Test It was suggested that Hydrogen have a hot incandescent glow, I tested this idea via a textured sphere in Maya.

With glow and mock-incandescence (preference) With incandescence

Carbon Characters Development

Carbon Part 01: Info & Influence Map Carbon comes in a few different forms known as allotropes, these include Diamond and Graphite.

Diamond is the hardest common material, because of this it  is an excellent abrasive; it also has the highest thermal conductivity. Diamonds are used in jewelry because of their beauty when cut. Graphite is one of the softest substances, and is the ‘lead’ of pencils.

DNA’s double helix is made by Carbon’s ability to form long molecular chains. As coal, carbon is used as fuel.

Carbon Part 02: Thumbnails My most successful thumbnails were 18 and 31.

Carbon Part 03: Details Stage In many of these thumbnails I attempted to combine the Graphite and Diamond aspects of Carbon into one character.

Favourite Thumbnail

Carbon Part 04: Graphite; Colour Stage & Influences I separated Carbon into two characters representing its Graphite and Diamond allotropes. One bouncer-type Graphite character (48) and a

small, precious Diamond character. Vectorising the characters made colour testing easier; my most successful colour scheme was 65.

Carbon Part 05: Graphite; Front & Side Orthographics

Carbon Part 06: Graphite; 3D Model

Carbon Part 07: Diamond; Thumbnails 01

Size Comparison

Carbon Part 07: Diamond; Thumbnails 02 My most successful thumbnail was CD 22.

Carbon Part 08: Diamond; Details & Colour Stage

Carbon Part 09: Diamond; Front Orthographic