Visual Research: Howletts Wildlife Park Visit

A few weeks ago now I went on a little trip down to Kents, Howletts Wildlife Park. As this zoo has the worlds largest captive collection of gorillas I felt that I had to go, to get all of the essential footage and photography I needed for reference in my final animation. 

Upon arrival the Gorillas were pretty sleepy and so we left for some lunch and upon our return they had all sprung to life and were performing acrobats, swinging on ropes and best of all play fighting. 

This was great to watch as I could see the bond between the animals and how they interact with one another. I will be paying close attention to these actions with my two gorilla characters, (mother and child) so that I can show the importance to protect these animals, not only because they are becoming extinct, but also because each death of a gorilla is breaking a bond with another, much like how we would be distraught if one of our family were to suddenly be taken from us. 
It was clear that the animals had the same emotions us and so I think this shows that they really aren't at all different to ourselves.

Below are some pics taken from the day:

It is very clear to see the resemblance between gorillas and humans, they have all of the same features as ourselves, as well as the emotions we have between one another. From the images I can really develop/enhance my previous characters which can be seen a few posts back.

3 Down 1 To Go!

Another one of my backgrounds has now been completed, this was by far the hardest one to design and draw as the perspective of the camera is quite unusual, I think that I have managed to keep the style flowing through all 3 designs so at the moment I am happy with what I have produced. 

The below images are of both my initial concept idea as well as my final background design, as said in the last post have a look back at the development from my initial ideas to my finalised designs.

1: Initial

2: Final

Final Background 2

This is another one of my finalised backgrounds, as you can see I have managed to keep the style flowing between this background and the previous background which can be seen in the last post. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about my work so far, it would be really helpful to have some constructive criticism from a different audience.

I have used my research document to design these backgrounds ensuring that I use foliage relevant to the congo jungle.

Final Background

This is one of my final backgrounds for my animation, I created it using photoshop with a variety of different brushes. I think that I have managed to create a stage that will compliment my character's performance, the colours have been carefully chosen as well as foliage to make the scene look as real to life as possible. 

To ensure that my animation has smooth flowing transitions I must ensure that I include the style in my other backgrounds. I will also need to ensure that the characters fit in with this style so that they don't look out of place.

This image has been developed from the the previous background drawings which can be found in my previous posts.

Keep looking out for some more background developments in the next few days!

Initial Panda Digital Drawing

This image is of the panda that will be in my animation, the reason for its design is because I wanted the style to be fantasy. The panda is called King and is protector of the forest symbolising the WWF's efforts to protect the animals that are becoming extinct. He is a cute cuddly panda bear but when he is confronted with conflict then he can turn into a raging force that won't ever back down until the culprit, in this case a poacher, has been defeated.

More panda sketches will be posted up soon as well as further character developments for both King and Darwin and final background designs.

Gorilla Models

To allow me to develop my character designs I produced some clay models to allow me to fully understand the anatomy of the bodies that I will be animating, below are some images of my gorilla model, I decided to call him Darwin as I thought the name was quite fitting for a primate, I also think the name gives him a personality too and I think this would be intelligent and wise, as well as trying to represent a characters personality, another reason why I chose to create 3D model versions was so that the project became that much realer as the physical object could be interacted with, and now has a presence that I can keep on referring to if need be. 

These models were created using air drying clay and supported by a wire coat hanger skeleton. To finish off the model I painted it using acrylic paints, I also used wood glue on the mushrooms to create a slime effect to bring some more realism to the model, this was a last minute experiment that thankfully gave the desired effect. 

New Gorilla designs !

Here are some more initial designs for my gorillas, as you can see I have now begun developing body shape to allow me to understand the form of my characters. The standing gorilla is made up of 4 main circles: Head, Chest, Belly  and Bum, these shapes will make it easy for me to animate and will also allow the reproduction of the character much easier to understand and in proportion.

I thought about playing about with the characters facial expressions as well as their head shapes and designs to see what types of characteristics I could give them, as you can see from the bottom design the gorilla has a large quiff hence the name elvis. However I believe that having a design that doesn't look natural detracts from the overall aesthetic that I am aiming to achieve.