MONKEY NINJA!

Just thought I'd share another character concept. My next project in my Animation I class is to design a character to use in our upcoming projects and eventually the final.
At first I was thinking of using past character ideas, but thanks to a friend's advice I decided to take a challenge and create an entirely new character from scratch. There isn't really any restrictions on how we can design a character other than it has to be on two legs, so the sky is the limit as to what I can think of. I came up with a few basic ideas, but a lot of them were far too cliche. This guy isn't that original either (I keep thinking of Kung Fu Panda), but I just kinda felt the urge to develop him a bit more and see what happens.
I'm probably going to give him a generic Asian name ("Ping" or "Toshi"). His personality might be a wise-cracking, cocky, but at the same time very clumsy and dim-witted, ninja wannabe who wants to make a name for himself.
I'm going to keep coming up with more ideas and share the interesting ones, as well as the one I choose to use for my project.

Augustus McBarkbark III

Augustus McBarkbark III
"'Money can't buy happiness', you say? Oh Please! Have you ever driven a million dollar yacht and NOT be happy!?"

I was bored and decided to redesign the dog character from my Principles project. And thanks to an earlier comment I finally decided on a name (thank you, Amanda). The reason I wanted to name my character first is because the name can be really important when designing a character. I figured that the personality of the dog would reflect the name I chose. So when I heard "Augustus McBarkbark", I envisioned him being a total, spoiled douche. He'll probably be the pet of a millionaire living in Beverly hills. I wanted to keep the "science" aspect of my original cartoon, so the owner could be a famous scientist/inventor. Of course a pampered dog who loves to mooch off his owner wouldn't go and mess with scientific experiments. In order to spark conflict he would need a sidekick who got him into wacky situations. I thought the sidekick could be another pet, one who was more into his owner's line of work than his paychecks, making him another mad scientist. I can't think of a definite name, but since Augustus has "barkbark" as a last name I thought I would add "meowmeow" to the sidekick's. Another idea is to have another character, one who was experimented on by the owner/sidekick, like a chimp or mouse with some kind of science-related defect (mechanical arm, missing brain, radio transmitter connected to head). I'm looking forward to touching up the concept sketches and messing with the designs a little more. Suggestions for character ideas/names would be great. More concept art coming soon!

???
"Mad Scientist is such a harsh term. I prefer to be called a 'Sanity-Impaired Engineer.'"

Space Dog

The Space Dog

Just thought I'd share some of my own character designs for some constructive criticism. Hopefully after working as a regular animator for a few years, I can eventually start my own series of cartoons. A lot of my current ideas range from cute and cuddly toons (like my blog mascot Liz) to some edgy, stylish action heroes. This guy is between the two and is also one of my oldest ideas. I always wanted one of my characters to be some kind of superhero, not just a wacky slapstick cliche.

Since I was a huge fan of Underdog growing up, I thought I'd make a canine hero. A few of my first concept sketches looked very similar, a labrador with a cape and insignia on the chest. So I decided to turn to the one thing that can provide infinite inspiration; the internet. After looking up some photos of dogs I came across this guy.

An Akita (badass name amirite?)

Once I figured out the general look of my character, I had to figure out something that he could wear to help him stand out. Sort of like how Batman has the pointy ears and Superman has the big "S" on his chest. So I searched for cool icons and found this picture from an old Pokemon episode.

Awww Yeeaahh!

I loved the "V" shaped glasses and when I put it all together I got this. Anyways I'm not sure what to call him yet other than "Space Dog". I don't know why but he looks like he belongs in a sci-fi/western/kung-fu setting. As for the color scheme I just decided to stick with the basic primary colors with a little black thrown in for a nice, edgy look. But any suggestions for improving the basic design/color scheme/decent name would be great.

Cool Dog is cool

Bad Electronics

My first fully rendered cartoon for my Principles of Screen Design Class. As far as animating goes this is pretty simple stuff, every limb of a character is a separate layer that's animated on it's own in After Effects, making it a lot faster than drawing each character's position as it's own frame. I was fairly happy with how it came out, although I would like to redo this in the future as a hand drawn animation, making the movement much more exaggerated and fluid than it appears here. But for now, I'd say this was a success.
I'd like to have the dog character appear in my future cartoons, maybe give him his own personality and tweak the design a little more. Of course I'd have to think of a name to give him first... any suggestions?