Goodeye Mate!

Hello again!

I'm gonna update the crap outta this blog right here. I've been working hard on some visual development work for my senior studio project. Because I don't want to make a gigantic post, I'm just gonna throw some different work in separate posts over the next few days.

So a bit of background on this project. I've been doing work focusing on development for an animated story and one geared towards a video game. This post is going to feature some stuff for the animated short that will later be made in 3D.



My story concept takes place in a fictional 1930's USA. The story revolves around Rufus, a traditional boxcar hobo, encountering and befriending a young adventurous girl named Piper. While Rufus is heading out of Big Windy City to catch his train, he helps save Piper from an oncoming car. Piper is at first scared of Rufus because of his height and mangy hair but she realizes that he reminds her of her favorite stuffed lion doll. Rufus helps Piper find her way home but she becomes quite in trouble with her parents when they find out Rufus is of a different class. Heartbroken, she must say goodbye to her new friend. Rufus makes his way back to the train yard and while he safely boards a boxcar, he notices he has a follower. Piper made her way onto the train with Rufus and is now joining him on his adventure. Rufus must abide by the Hobo Code and follow the tenant to entice all runaway children to return home or he may face trial at the Hobo Court.  Although he can't get her off the train in time, Rufus' spirit for adventure is rekindled after seeing Piper's joy for it and decides to go along for the ride...


These are some of the developmental sketches I did for Piper just trying to figure out the look for her and capture her character. She is young, imaginative, cute, naive, and adventurous in a small package.

 

Here I did some colored versions of some of the designs I got the most responses from and felt matched her personality the best.  Although the final film will be in 3D, I really wanted to take a more Mary Blair approach with some of this initial 2D work. She has been a big inspiration to me as an animation artist and you can definitely see her influence on these pieces. 

Early on I had a better picture of what Rufus would look like compared to Piper and already had some design goals for him (you can see this in the painting a few posts back). I knew I wanted him to be very shapely and his hair would be a prominent feature for his design. It wasn't until later that I decided to add the resemblance to Piper's lion doll so that she could have an instant connection with him.

Stay tuned for more updates!