SKY ISLAND PROJECT
Dragonfly Kid
Using insect based flight technology, this curious adventure-loving kid explores the mysterious scattered jungle islands!
I designed this character based on my partner's idea, so much communication was necessary to get them just right. Designing adventurer's equipment whilst trying to maintain an animation-friendly level of detail was a fun challenge here! They were also much cuter and more friendly than some other characters in the world, so it was important to make sure they all maintained a reasonably consistent style. Some elements, such as the hair proved to be complicated to turn, so I found it useful to make a lose 3D model for reference,
In the sequence below, the kid explores a cloud jungle; a setting inspired partially by chinese pillar mountains. The kid ventures into a mysterious temple, where they are observed unseen by curious cat spirits. Alongside designing, I also created the backgrounds for these shots from boards to finished paint and composited the final shot. All character animation was handled by Elina Burykina.
Environmental Concepts
For me, this project came with an added step of learning a new environmental design style. Having always relied on lineart, I decided to challenge myself to learn to paint!
You can find all of the completed backgrounds to date, alongside breakdowns of the layout process, on my backgrounds page. Below are a number of the early environmental concepts which helped me to establish the final look of each background region.
"Blackbeak"
A menacing figure, our pirate captain swoops onto the decks of airships, taking advantage of the unexpecting and un-armed!
I knew this character would need to loom over others, and that he would strike with his clawed feet, so these were the things I gave consideration when designing him. Earlier designs had him looking humanoid and uncanny, but he progressed to have the bird of prey appearance you can see below! Grimly, his weapons are inspired by cock-fighting spurs.
Below is the shot sequence in which Blackbeak appears. The character animation for this shot was created by Elina Burykina, whilst I created the backgrounds from storyboard through to painting and composited together the final shot, taking care to enhance the dramatic evening lighting of the scene as our pirate returns home from a day's raiding. A more detailed breakdown of the background process is on the backgrounds page of my website!