Ed Week 2: Freder

This week I began on an actual named character. Where week one had focussed on producing a mass style that could be adapted to fit an entire population, week two was about narrowing that style into a personal image, changing it so that it would fit a single personality.

 

The character I’ve been designing this week is Freder; the son of the master of Metropolis and therefore one of the wealthiest people in the city and also one of the most idle. Though later on in the story he realises that his way of life has consequences, at the stage I've been designing he's firm in his belief that he's entitled to everything he has. He's a product of his society and his clothing reflects the wealth he has.

Practicality was of a minimal concern to this character design and instead I focussed on creating a silhouette that showed just how much the character meant in terms of his status in the city but also to himself. Growing up at the pinnacle of entitlement his self-assurance is a key part of his image He knows he’s wealthy and he knows he’s important. A good portion of his power may be derived from his father’s position but that’s not something he wants to admit and with this in mind I chose a traditionally regal silhouette of the flowing cloak.

 

The large amounts of heavy fabric in the tunic, coat and cloak give the character an imposing weight that perhaps he wishes he had a little more of. When he strips down to the workers clothes later on I wanted to make it feel like he really had lost a lot of that entitled bluster that he displays in the earlier parts of the story and I aim to show this in the physical appearance of his clothes; in the beginning his silhouette is solid and with it's triangular shape it's rooted and confident. The colours are rich and it reflects his self assurance. Later on I want to unbalance the silhouette as the character himself is shaken, making the silhouette of his working clothes more top heavy.

 

What ended up taking the most time this week was his face, starting off with sketches and moving onto photobashing before returning to the sketches helped, but it took me a long time to get anywhere. I'm still not finished with the face and some of that will be. I'll be spending some time next week finishing it off.

 

 

This week I put together a test book containing a selection of images and text. The purpose of the book is to test out how our images will look once they’ve been printed so the book actually consists of many variants of an image in order to test out Brightness, Contrast and Saturation, In order to test out how it will look in the book compared to on the computer screen.

Despite a few false starts with PDF creating and getting payment to the site that will print the book we’re expecting the copy to come through in the middle of next week.