Introduction

To design and animate some characters for us for a potential animated advertisement for London Zoo. The characters should be worked up from
the following list:

1. Willie Billiams – A hyperactive nine year old on his first
visit to London Zoo with an obsessive interest in creepy
crawlies.

Potential - Alot. What are hyperactive 9 year olds like? Constantly all over the place, always talkative, always moving around a lot, they're pretty much restless. How can this be conveyed? <- Favourite option thus far.

2. Pocahontas Billiams – Willie’s sister, she’s seven
years old but much more relaxed and more knowing than
her sibling. She wants to be a gorilla.

POCAHONTAS!!! On a serious note, seven years old, but much more relaxed and knowing. Mature, intelligent, calm. However, she wants to be a gorilla. This doesn't mean she has to be human, which leaves quite a bit of potential. However, how can a seven year old normal human girl which is seemingly calm be used to create an outstanding character design?

3. Wilhemina Billiams – Willie and Pocahontas’s
grandmother, she thinks everything smells bad and is
worried that a chimp or one of those nasty bonobos
might escape and Poo in her hat.

This one could potentially be very funny to replicate, as I'm sure we all have an aunty which is pretty much exactly like this, or extremely similar. However, for this brief, I think this one is my list favourite. Old, stuck up, righteous. That's pretty much where it ends.

4. Wee Eck McGlone – London Zoo’s long suffering head
keeper sixty, bald, curmudgeonly, Scottish, fiercely
patriotic and obsessive about sweeping up dung.

This one is potential gold. I guess they all are depending on how it's actually pulled off. This one isn't going to be hard to pull off. But what are the aspects which could be exaggerated to make this a really good design? Mood? The way he looks? Posture? Attitude?


5. Cornelius – A middle aged silver back gorilla, the most
civilised and sensible occupant of the zoo by far.

This is probably the one that I'm actually going to do. This or the boy. Why? A middle ages sensible occupant of the zoo by far. 'nuff said.

The characters should be fully modelled to a maximum resolution of about 100,000
polygons, decent texturing is vital, we won’t accept a model alone at this stage. The model should be skinned and weighted to a skeleton for posing.

We expect to see:
Support work
Sculpted models
Armatures
Development drawings
Character sheets that should include orthogonal views, i.e. front, back, top, and side
More expressive drawings of the character in a typical pose.

Students are required to submit digital sequences, character turntables, and produce a 3d printed character to be creatively displayed and presented digitally online in blogs.

Whatever decisions you make, you should make them quickly as time is of
the essence. As well as generating this piece of work to demonstrate your
specialism, you will be generating an online journal.

Goooo me yaaay!