Responsive- Character Design Challenge- Maori Warrior

Character Design Challenge- Maori Warrior

This month I again took part in the Character Design Reference Challenge. This month started out as a difficult one. The theme was Maori Warrior. These are a tribe in New Zealand. As this was a real tribe, it took a different approach to the others as it could be sensitive and I wouldn't want to do a design that is offensive, which is always a worry in animation when the topic is about real people. Yet I enjoyed it much more than any other themes so far.

This image shows the strength the warriors portray. They are a very proud tribe so this was important if I wanted to portray a male. The women are not shown as equals in this tribe as they are typical, nurturers and care givers. So this could be interesting to show but I am really taken with the theme this month.

 Here are a few mood boards of different elements from their culture. The masks, tribal symbols, clothing and personalities are all shown within these images. They let you get an understanding of what their tribe is like and their lives. The last mood board is of children. As I was thinking more on the topic and wanted to do something different, and I haven't really ever tried to draw children. This was why I was looking at poses and how they are proportioned.

This is the initial sketch of my mini Maori Warrior. She is holding the proper weaponry, correct clothing and hair styles of their culture as I wanted her to look like she belonged within the tribe. As this was the first time drawing a child, I did a few initial sketches to get the shape, size and overall apperence to look correct.

 This is the design I have done by dragging in the initial sketch into Photoshop, then going over it with the different paint tools. I am really proud of how this design turned out as it is the best drawing I have produced in a long time. This was because I have recently really liked how the overall design tends to look after keeping the initial sketch on the underneath. She turned out just how I wanted and really portrays how the tribe shows the young how strong they need to be early on.

This is how she looks after editing her and changing the lighting in After Effects. This really made the colours pop and make different elements of her stand out. Doing this monthly challenge has really helped me develop myself and my designs as I didn't know too much of how to do characters to set briefs, so this has let me learn how to approach the different tasks.

This is a screenshot of my submission for the competition from the month of February.