Character design
Clothing. we use clothing to express our innermost self. for some, clothing is the essence of their being; I know for me personally fashion is something I use to express my inner self and desires, we dress attractively to be seen as attractive, much the same with dressing provocatively to provoke. The forerunners of your favourite martian are no exception to this. Their full design tells every detail about their characters and I'm here to tell you how. firstly we must take into consideration 3 factors. shape, colour and social connotation, these three things are key elements used in analysing personality in costumes.
The main personality of the band; Puff Puff Humbert has a very simplistic design, a red hoodie with blue jeans and white sneakers. firstly we should focus on the shape of each of these elements, the hoodie hood puffs up around his face framing it, the round shape is inviting and easy on the eyes, his whole lower torso is rather large, filling a majority of his whole body though this is balanced out by slight widening of the hips due to the hoodie pockets, the rest of his legs are barely a third of his final physique which are finished off with white well-structured sneakers. most elements of puff puff are round; implying an approachable character which would be hoped for in the lead singer of a band. the colour plays into his character traits well too; from what we know of puff puff, he can be a romantic (ala yfmts bus arrest and pity f*ck) but also lusts more so (ala tig ol bitties, booty store, dookie fresh) the colour red covers both of these connotations beautifully, the rich warm red also feels inviting to the view and draws interest to him out of all the other characters when grouped. the blue of his jeans was most likely used to keep a tie with 2010 fashion and give the whole look a timeless feel. the royal blue and red give an almost primary colour scheme and give a rather striking appearance; the jeans tie into the connotations of a masculine 2009 to forever appearance.
In this project I have decided to change the gender of these characters; to find out why check out my blog here.
For my first set of designs, I wanted to keep the original colour palette. The first outfit was referenced from chibicmps and her outfit for her OC Luna. I wanted to add the colour of green to add as a good compliment to the red and give less of a contrast. I also saw that heart-shaped chest cut out/ "cold shoulder" designs were extremely popular in 2017 along with ombre gradients and long airy trousers; The cool to warm blue ombre gives a cool and gives warmth to the outfit. The third outfit was heavily influenced by Pauline from Mario to give a classic but also sexy feel which would be integral to a gender-bent Puff Puff, this could also be linked to the sex symbol "Betty boop" from the 1930,s with her iconic red dress. I also thought of Lola from the musical "Kinky Boots" for the sex appeal she gives. The final outfit was my test to use as many of the original elements I could whilst adding my own flair, This gives a very casual look.
With my final set of designs I wanted to reach further from the original concept and use warmer, happier colours while still keeping the sex appeal. the first and third designs still kept the denim element but the first is more fashionable with a crop top with lace (lace to keep the femininity) I tried to keep in mind modern fashion and the fact that America is warm most of the time (in places like California). The second and forth design I veered rather far away from the initial palette. I chose the forth design because the bomber jacket is infamous in American fashion and was popular around the peak of your favourite martians run. I chose orange and green because they contrast nicely and give a bright approachable look without looking too harsh. Both together still give a striking feel and the white adds interest to the jacket. I chose a skirt to give a stronger silhouette and give her a modern but definable look.
I decided to go with the last design and it had all the elements I wanted. Also psychologically, Puffett as a performer would need a lightweight jacket that can be removed easily but keeps her warm, The skirt would encourage flexibly and movement but would show her femininity which would be a link to Puff Puffs masculinity being a big part of his character.
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to truly understand what I wanted to use for my style influences (here) I decided to draw her in some of the respective styles
I used promarkers and a Pilot G tech rollerball pen. The exercise helped me to figure out which parts of each design I liked the most and wanted to implement in my own design. I really liked the the hair in lolirock, the expressive eyes in lavanders style. I found I didnt like the robotic style of Steven Universe and I wanted my style to connect more with audiences. Although I love the Panty and Stocking style with its abstract sharp edges but it comes across more aggressive than id like so I haven't use anything from that style. The Monster High style is one I really like the face style for; I love how modern the face looks with the dramatic eye and bold lip.
I intend to use these things in my own design to create a style that is inviting, warm and can appeal to a wide demographic of people.
This is my digital interpretation of Puffett. I kept a consistent width throughout the piece to make a really strong figure, as well as using a black outline to give it the same feel as the original source. I used red for the lips and blue for the eyes to give interest to the face with the boldest colours drawing the eye to the face as intended. In the future Id try to give her more personality in the way I draw her digitally and control my lines better to be more professional.
This is my improved image. I decided to incorporate more of the shape shading with the stars and I controlled my lines better by using longer strokes and moving from my elbow as the tattoo artist from the last project advised. I kept my DPI (Dots per inch) very high as well as my resolution and worked largely to smooth out my lines the best I could. I think this piece looks more professional and clean and I feel I have improved from the last piece, she has alot more personality and looks more inviting in my opinion.
For my scene, I have decided upon the episode from YFMTS 'Road Raged' linked here. I like this scene specifically because I can make a stage design that embodies the warm cool 70's vibe of a recording studio while having humour and interaction from all characters. The set consists of warm green walls to compliment the accent colours of magenta and orange. All colours are warm and I chose green as it is usually associated with money and the thought of recording something brings ideas of creating revenue. I chose a wooden style floor for an executive feel and beanbags for a laid back and cool feel. The colours of orange and magenta were used to show happiness and an 80s fun vibe. The set will be split into 2 pieces with a back recording studio with a window connecting the two. The main piece of furniture will be a separate piece, The control panel will be finished with a metallic paint and beads for buttons. Below is my stage research and final design. To draw my design I printed a perspective grid and used 2 pieces of layout paper; one for the room and wall fixtures, the other for furniture to create a clearer layout and for my perspective to be cleaner and more accurate. My other set design experiments can be found in my sketch folder.
Progress Shots
Making the beanbags was a challenge as I couldn't seem to make a pattern to the right size, I did make a small prototype out of fabric using a pattern found here but scaled down. I finally decided upon creating the silhouette out of clay and covering with paper mache to make the clay reusable after the project to try and keep my project as eco-friendly as possible. I also felt using an unconventional material would be a nod to the stop-motion filmmakers PEZ In which use odd materials as stand-in for real materials. I also felt the use of mainly 1 material would give the same look of the show which lacked a lot of texture. The floor was covered in masking tape before being painted to resemble the colour of wood better.
I struggled a lot with mixing the right magenta and green, to improve in the future I would research colour theory better and possible add more texture like films such as "Wallace and Gromet" designed by Nick Park whom also worked on the show "Shaun the sheep" and "Chicken run". in Future I'd like to incorporate more fabric for a more grand feel, allow for some draping like with a curtained back drop.
Whilst creating the stop motion I used a technique that was used in the muppets show in which the puppeteers used holes in the floor to move the puppets on sicks and the sticks to not be seen. Below is the finished piece consisting of 23 pictures.
The final piece ended up being much shorter than intended; however, if looped it would create the majority of the piece, The piece I missed out doing was the last 3 seconds of the piece "crinkle cup your little nose and put it in between your toes". I ended up not adding the other characters due to time constraints and the face didn't move, In future I would like to add the other 3 characters or at least attempt sketches for it. I would have also like to improve on the overall quality of my pieces and use clay instead of polystyrene and cardboard, it would have allowed for more detail and they would have looked more smooth like the sketch and thus would have made the character blend better into the background. I ran into problems such as the split pins being weaker than on the prototype not allowing for the full extent of movement which was most likely due to the type of paper or not testing the specific split pin. In future, I should probably scale down the figure or make the set larger to make the look more immersive. I would also find a way to cover the gold of the splitpins which would make the motion less distracting. I do realise that I could have used straws to move the arms however that would be distracting and I wanted it to look as much like independent motion as I could get it. While making the piece I used a tripod and tried not to move as much to limit the noticeable shadows and lighting changes; as there was a glare on the printed figure it made it more difficult to change this but I kept it in mind while making. Overall I enjoyed making the piece but I may want to revise this in the future to improve the movement and may become ambitious with blinking.