Originally for my evolution theme I started with researching different type of video games characters, from RPG games like Terraria and Dragon Quest, I decided to make a slime character but to make it different from other slimes I decided to mix it with an animal, originally I asked my friends for random animals and shortly after deciding on a rabbit one of my tutors suggested a Jackalope, from this suggestion I decided to make a rabbit slime evolve into a Jakalope slime. I started with sketching, in blue non-photo pencil, different size some bodies, and then adding key characteristics of rabbits onto the body, I then drew over these characters in a regular pencil to help define their overall design, after I designed characteristics of a Jackalope on another page, such as antlers, however if I could redo this I would add other Jackalope characteristics, such as wings and fangs, that some myths have but others don’t. Next I started on designing my stop motion character, for this I researched and sketched, in blue non-photo pencil, different cell types, such as immune cells, bacteria and fungi, after basic designs I started to make own own cells from mixing and matching different cell parts and exaggerating cell parts to make it look like that are growing/developing/evolving. After I started on my environment designs, I first researched other environments in 2D mobile games for inspiration, I decided to design a ‘evolution station’ where the background would be an old book or stone tablet, that would have runes on and sections/spaces for my characters to go like in some mobile games.
For my time theme I started with designing my environments, in Photoshop I set the page size and resolution to match a 1080p screen and set the background colour to grey, next I sketched with a low opacity brush the rough layout of the environment, next I refined each part on different layers, for example the walls or houses or clouds or doors, once I had the outlines I started to add colour proceed by textures and after I then removed the outlines, later on I decided to further develop some environments so that I could add some in-between frames when the character interacted with the environments as well as a border to emphasise that the scenes are a memory. Next I was going to design a Staffie character but a tutor recommended a Jack Russell, so I first gathered research on Jack Russells and different body positions, such as sitting down and walk cycles, after I done basic sketches with a low opacity brush followed by the refined outline, next I worked on the fill and spots for the dog, I decided to keep the outlines on the Jack Russell because it helps it stand out from the background, after I merged the layers so I could copy and paste my character onto the background which I would then save as a new file in another folder, I repeated this for all scenes and positions.
Animations and Research 