His work is very rough, drawn very skecthy. As you can tell from the lines qualities below. Yoji uses vigerous brush/pen strokes to adapt to a tactical, military feel. It brings out the guy characters sharp, manly expressions. Enhancing their features by stylizing them with rougher strokes as the lines blends into the shadows. Giving this style a very unique look.
I attempted the same style after consulting our clients. They were happy to accept the nature of this style. And here is the result::
As you can see I never got to the shadows. The lines were very hard to control using a brush pen. I obviously need more time to master this technique.Laura also agreed, The both of us wouldn't have the time to MASTER then HAND DRAW the animation out on cel even if we did. Keeping focus on our goal of integrating 2d and 3D elements together, we needed to explore a style in which was easier to animate in a 2D software like flash.
Will deciding this style was too mature to be animated in 2D. We needed something more stylized. More BLOCKY.
...Something with sharper, MESSIER look for the band. Yet just as strong in presence. So we continued to research into other artists with similar brush strokes we all adored so much, with a BOLDER feel.
after some time...
We came across the ROCKBAND artists.
Matt Perlot. http://www.rockband.com/zine/perly-sketchbook
As you can see. The colour wheel for this picture was very bland. He seems to like the vinatage, worn out look. Something we're not looking for. However, the line quality in this is very blocky indeed. And the muscular curves help to bring out a tough image. Kind of reminds me of a tree trunk. Strong, old yet firm. Which also reminded me of Thai paintings they usually have in restaurants, and carefully cut out/ chiseled and compressed wood art they have in the asia.
I then moved onto experimenting.
As Laura suggested, we went back to basics, using pencil and paper.
And here are are the results::
Our clients were very pleased with the design. It had the Fusion feel you get from Yoji's creations. I was pleased my drawings gave a rougher atmosphere compared to my usual. We DON'T consider this as manga since it doesn't have the stereotypical bouncy roundness of a chibi character, nor does it have the pointy chins.
Our clients also asked for still shots for the scene, with a more mature shot, something like a streefighter style fued with these characters angry-ness.
So I went through my nearly bought: Street Fighter :The Complete History By Chris Carle. (Something nice I picked up while on a break down central London with Laura =D)
I loved the images from Polygon Pictures inc. I wanted to express the feeling of vigerous head banging, and came up with this: Its similar to ::
This is a picture of Guile from street fighter IV. As you can see, The outa brush strokes AROUND the character is would brings out the tense, powerful presence in the picture.
Things I placed close attention to:
-Paint splattered,
-angry, hard brush strokes,
-a water coloured, smudged colour around him to represent the aura hes giving out.
- And the faces angle is very important.
I drew a few illustrations which failed. This was the best outcome:
And heres the result! Pete, the Band leader, LOVED this picture. So we decided to go for this style for the still shots. So worked more on this illustration. I redrew it in photoshop then coloured it using different types of virtual brushes.
We needed it to cover a widescreen. So an empty background like guiles illustration would'nt be appropriate.
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