#jamesdaviscourt

[jamesdaviscourt]

"We never would have upset you if we knew you had super powers."

Dustin fan design!

[annadaviscourt]

Hey hey! 

I haven’t posted in awhile and wanted to catch you up on why. I went on a trip with James for our one year Anna-versary! We went to Long Beach, WA and had a blast! We went on our first bike ride in years, watched the sunset while eating amazing desserts, discovered the Willapa wildlife refuge and of course ended it all with the traditional twist at the Dairy Maid. 

Now I’m back in action and will post art again soon! 

Check out James’ art blog!

[jamesdaviscourt]

"...but if there is something out there, I'm going to shoot it in the eye--and blind it!" A little fan design of Lucas for everyone!

[jamesdaviscourt]

Believe it, a Naruto sketch!

[jamesdaviscourt]

I hope you're ready for an a*mage*ingly bad pun...

[jamesdaviscourt]

Video Tip #4: *05:10* Quickly hack in an implied cast shadow with a brush or the lasso tool. Use one of the major colors of the subject, then tint it by mixing in white. This will instantly help ground the design and make it pop on the page! That's why I call it the shadPOW!!!

—————–

I recorded another video! In this demo I wanted to show you my process for designing a cast of background characters! With Leaf's turnaround finalized (click here to see the turnaround) I have an established visual theme to base the rest of his groups' design language on. Say hello to the ~Forest Sprites~! Now, in general more time is given to more important characters during a production--more time designing, refining, and polishing. Background characters tend to be pumped out fast, with simpler designs, and generally go through very little feedback rounds--I call it a "One and Done"! For Dallas and Robo we eliminated as many assymetrical elements as possible to speed up the turnarounds. On my own project, note how symmetrical Nut and Sap are, as opposed to Leaf and his second in command Twig. This is going to save me quite a bit of time on these extras' turns!

I'm using my color concepting technique again for these designs. This is a very fast working method that locks in about 80% of a design in the first pass, so it has some advantages over other design techniques. You'll see me jump between the lasso tool and paint brush a lot because both tools are more efficient at different things, but my main focus is always shape! Is it going to be a big shape, medium shape, or small shape? Where do I want it to start and end? Can I give the shape an action, a strong direction, a mood? These are questions I ask myself as I work.

If you want to see how I took Leaf from color thumb to final design, click here.

If you want to see Leaf's working turnaround, click here.

If want to see more video demos of my color concepting process, click here!

[jamesdaviscourt]

  Alright, here is the finished turnaround with local color! This is a posed character turn for my own project, however for 2.5D animations like Dallas/Robo we would stick to unposed turns with the character’s arms resting at their sides. 

 As a general rule the more important characters should have more views in their turn. Not all characters need eight point turns, but even the most background character should have a well designed out front and back 3/4 view. The storyboards will clarify what angles these characters will be seen at, and more views can be added as necessary.

If you would like to see my process for character design:

*Click here for video tutorials on how I concept in color.

*Click here for a tutorial on how I take this character from color thumbnail to final design.

*Click here to see the drawthrough of this turnaround.

And let me know in the comments if anyone would like to see a tutorial on how to efficiently turn a character around!

And I’m sorry for splitting the turnaround into two files! Tumblr’s size cap is so small that I couldn’t fit all the views in one file!

[jamesdaviscourt]

  Here is the linework for this character turn--the color will be up shortly! This is a posed character turn for my own project, however for 2.5D animations like Dallas/Robo we would stick to unposed turns with the character’s arms resting at their sides. Over the course of the production I found it was useful to denote asymmetrical elements in red to help the riggers out.

  As a general rule the more important characters should have more views in their turn. Not all characters need eight point turns, but even the most background character should have a well designed out front and back 3/4 view. The storyboards will clarify what angles these characters will be seen at, and more views can be added as necessary!

*If you would like to see my process for taking this character’s color thumbnail to a final design, click here.

*If you would like to see video tutorials of my color concepting process, click here.

And I’m sorry for splitting the turnaround into two files! Tumblr’s size cap is so small that I couldn’t fit all the views in one file!