Fundevogel: The Chef (Iteration)

Hello again,

as I mentioned a couple of weeks back, during my third progress presentation, my "Chef" design was criticised for not being very carefully designed.

(Reminder of points made): 

• Skin tone darker than "Forester", who works outdoors all day. 
• Design is too friendly. For a children's animation this wouldn't cut it as a villain design. 

At the time, and upon reflection I completely agree with these statements. But, his only goes to highlight the fact that I should have a critical framework document. These sort of mistakes would less likely greet me should I run each design through a critical, appropriate set of rules and interrogations. 

Also, today myself and two others were asked to present a sort of summary of our Honours projects to a third year class to inspire them. Hopefully I didn't fail too miserably at that. To return to the point, during this class a student identified the "Chef" design as not being as effective as my original line-up sketch; These sketches were done before I began doing the character model sheets. 

Initial line-up sketch designs. Designs rooted in basic shapes. 

I felt as thought I needed to redo this chef design straight away, and have spent about 4 hours starting from scratch on the "Chef's" design. 

Refined design. Return to "triangle-based" character.

Ultimately, I feel this design is far more effective as a villainous character for a children's animation. Although the initial, almost Jack Skellington-like design works on certain levels, like Skellington, he just doesn't seem like an evil character, despite the design suggesting he should be. 

The Silhouette for The Chef (minus the toque) and Jack Skellington are very similar. 

I finally managed to incorporate some woodland symbolism in this design also. Subtle, though it may be, I think it does add to the resonance with the story setting itself. The eyebrows of the chef are inspired by the antlers of Red Dear Stags. I feel this symbol adds a certain harmony to the character within the story. I also incorporated the shape of an eagle into the beard of the character. In the story, it's an eagle which steals Fundevogel from his Mother, and places him in her nest. This symbol is a nod to the fact that this character also plans to do wrong against Fundevogel.  

I haven't really discussed the basic plot to Fundevogel throughout this blog. But there is a reason for this. The main focus of this project is the design aspect. So the illustrative side of things is not paramount. In the original short story, the Chef is an old, witch, spinster-type character - the kind you find in almost every fairy tale.  She also has 3 servants, which come into the story later and attempt to carry out her evil demands. When I was brain-storming the first character sketches however, it just seemed more interesting to have the character be this sort of deceitful, rodent-like person. 

Hopefully, for this project, I shall have the time to design the 3 servants, as they are indeed a large part of the story, and use these in the final illustration pieces for the exposition.