The Environment

In keeping with the simplicity of my ideas for the branding I have made a very minimalist environment for my character so there is more emphasis on him. The colours of the textures are bold and stick to the brand identity quite well and also of this allows for pure focus on the character and the simplicity of the narrative. Overall I really like the look of this layout. The only thing I may work on more is the lighting so it brings out the character better from all angles that I may end up using.

Rigging the Character

Rigging has been a very tedious part of the process or this project. Luckily to save time I have taken a rig from a previous project and adapted it to fit this character mesh. Unfortunately I have still had to spend 1-2 days painting the weighting on the character but it seems to be working well now after many hours weighting the rig. Also the blend shapes are working very well in conjunction with the movement of the character and generally I think I will be able to animate this effectively for my final pieces of animation.

Texturing the Character

Above are a couple of images to show the texturing I have done on my character. I have kept the colours quite blocked out and simple to fit in with the style of the animation I want to portray. Generally all the textures are plain block colours and I have finished him off with finer details on the eye balls and on the t-shirt which shows the PIXEL logo. Generally I like this subtle but vibrant look and I think it will fit the persona of the character.

Rough Graphics Mock-up

This is a rough TV Graphic I made up in illustrator to give an idea of the look on the ident. I think I will rethink these ideas and especially the positioning of the etc but I think its a good starting point especially with the use of the space invader graphic and font from the logo. Also I would like to animate these graphics like tetris pieces falling into place as I think this would work really well and obviously with the Pixel idea.

Revised Production Schedule (Weeks 5-9)

Now we are at the half way stage I have decided to set out a clear set of tasks that I will need to keep to for each week. This will mean I come in with the finished product on the deadline.

Week 4 - Character Rig

Week 5 - Character Rig and Texturing Complete, Set Modelling and Props

Week 6 - Ident Animations

Week 7 - Rendering and Pixel imagery, Animate in After Effects

Week 8 - Draw up After Effects Pixel imagery and Animate Up, Draw up graphics and record dialogue.

Week 9 - Sound, Editing, Final Renders and Graphics

If I stick to this schedule I should have no trouble coming in on time. I think I may be able to save some time in Weeks 7 and 8 as this could be a quicker process if my 2D After Effects imagery is made more basic and pixelated. This then may allow for more time to spend on graphics and finishing a nice set of idents.

I will re-assess this production schedule weekly from now on.

Channel Branding Research

As additional background research I have decided to look at different channel brands that in one way or another use a character to brand themselves. The main three I am looking at are BBC 2's robotic 2, Sci Fi's Geekboy and BBC Three's Animated Blobs.

I like the subtlety on these idents. The robotic characters does comical things which sometimes you dont really expect and the shock of the humour is a good feature for the idents which dont last very long. It entertains the audience for that short period of time effectively.










The BBC 3 Blobs I think are a better identity than the BBC 2 robot. I generally think this is all people think of when they associate BBC 3. The brand of the blobs is well known and again the quirky animations work well for the short timespan of the idents. I also like the more relaxed and cartoony feel to these.



The Geekboy idea is probably the most suited to the theme of my brand and I like the way this is done. The styling is not quite what I would go for as I think its a bit wild. I prefer the subtleness of the BBC animations but these are quirky in another form. The animations are very imaginative and extremely cartoony but I think the BBC ones show more character. Definitely this theme is a good starting point for my brand idea but the way in which it is portrayed would not suit me or my audience as I feel it is too 'Trekkie Geek' rather than 'Chic Geek'

All the brands have their strong points and weak points. But the main thing is their strong consistency and brand values that relate to their target audience. I need this kind of strong link to make my brand work for the people seeing the work.

Character Animation - Blend Shapes

This image shows how I have worked belnd shapes into my character for facial animation. As I am not lip syncing this character I havent got to worry about every single visome or phoneme for the sounds but I have done some basic eyebrow movements and happy and sad and excited looks so I can work some good expressions into the animations and show some good emotion.

To do this I have basically made duplicates of the head model and then altered the duplicates to different shapes. Maya then creates blend shapes between the base and the duplicate to give me a slider which can be altered at different levels to change the degree of animation. Also I can mix individual movements together to create new ones.

Character Modelling / Texturing

Here are some image screenshots from Maya of my character modelling. I have developed this design from my Illustrator drawing from earlier on. I have used polys to create my model. Basically I blocked out the shapes and then mirrored the geometry. I then smoothed the model to get a better finish and remove the obvious 'blockyness'.


I have also started to experiment with some basic textures to see what I like. I have played with the idea of toon shading and maybe giving my character a toy like look with very plasticy textures. This could keep in with the idea of retro and geekyness and geeky toys!

Ident Storyboards

Here I have started to storyboard up some ideas for my idents. The three main ideas I am going to work on are a Medieval game, a Ninja game and a Zombie game. These are some rough storyboards for each along with a basic description of the narrative.


In this ident the Geek is playing a Medieval Game. In the game he is faced with a dragon and the dragon kills the player. Flames then shoot out of the screen and scorch the Geek to charcoal! The Geek then moves slightly in charcoal form as the graphics are overlaid.


In this ident the Geek is playing a Ninja game. The Geek is defeated by the Ninja enemies in the game and then Ninja throwing stars come out of the screen and pin him to the couch so he cannot move. As the graphics are overlaid he tries to squirm free.


In this ident the Geek is playing a Zombie game. After killing a few enemies the Geek is attacked and killed by an angry pack of Zombies. The shot then returns to the Geek on the sofa. He is passed out and 'zombified' and he gets up and walks like a zombie with his slightly severed head as the graphics are overlaid.

I think these are 3 good idents that stick to a similar format and layout and style so that they all look generic and part of the same brand. It will show continuity and people will be able to identify the brand on each individual ident.

Ident Ideas

I have had several ideas about my Pixel idents. The main one I started
with was thinking about my Geek character doing generally 'geeky'
things such as reading comics, playing computer games or making models.
I then thought about this idea more thoroughly and considered having
the Geek character in a plainer environment to emphasise the animation.
Then I started to think about the title of Pixel and how I could
stylise a pixelated animation. However I have already started
developing a 3D model which i think will work well.

My idea now is to have my Geek character in 3D playing computer games. The idents will
then show the computer game to look like a Megadrive style game and the
Geek character in a different game situation. The ident will then cut
back to show a reaction to the game that has been inflicted upon the
character. For example: The Geek will be playing a medieval game where
he fights a dragon, the dragon will scorch him with flames and the 3D
character will then be sitting playing the console but will b still and
'chargrilled' due to the dragon's flames. This will tie the pixel
themes together and then solid 3D animation.

Here are some videos I have found for inspiration for the pixel look: -







Going for a style like this I think will reflect the ethos of my brand whilst still focusing on 2 good styles of animation. Whilst the 3D will be powerful I think this will demonstrate the different styles of animation that can be considered.