One of my favorite aspects of the creation process is to create characters.   For me I use them to drive my story.    For me characters come first.  Usually  I’ll scribble up some character and then it inspires me to think about that characters life.

Below are some of the characters I have created over the years.

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One key for me when creating a character is to keep them simple.  For example the guy below.  Not much to him but a humanoid snail.   But for me I think he is awesome.  When I see him I start thinking about what he is like, where is he from, what kind of life he would lead, etc.

cgtalksnailo_by_themightyflog-d6k0pfa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally I like characters out of the norm.  I get tired of the good looking guy or girl being the main hero ALL the time.  I always wanted the monsters to be the good guys.  I wanted the little side kick like character to be the main hero and so for me I’ve always designed characters that were a little off and I would give them a weakness of sorts.    That weakness would be part of their character.

Another thing I think about when I’m creating a character is to give him a goofy name that just fits. Here are a list of some of my characters names.

Kalimar, Sasquatch named Joe, Snailo (pictured above), Flog, Alienboy (Raimi is his real name) Low-Key, Spoon, Taco, Soft, Poke, etc.

While some are stupid they are recognizable and say something about the character.

For example SOFT.  Pictured below.   Soft’s father gave her up when she was only around 2 years old.  She was bought by a robot from a planet similar to Cybertron.  Basically it is a planet that was taken over by robots.  Being advance technologically they joined the Galactic Federation as any other alien race would.   This robot is a criminal and has brought Soft to his home planet as a show piece and to have fun torturing her.  She endures being frozen and released for over 100 years.    However being the daughter of her powerful father she escapes the clutches of her robotic owner, she wreaks havoc on the planet and ends up taking over the robot planet all on her own.  Her name is Soft because she is a soft thing in a hard world.   This is really where her story begins.  She learns her father has taken over several planets over the years and has put her younger siblings in charge of these planets.  Her goal is to undermine her siblings to make her way to her father and prove she was the daughter that should never have been thrown away.

SOLF copy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that just to tell you why her name is SOFT.

SOFT is actually a part of my Bigfoot Vs Nerd Universe.   I’m thinking big.  LOL.  Make sure when creating characters that you also copywrite them.

That is just a side note.

Now if you can tell I’m about to start creating my own anime and show you step by step how to do it.  Step 1 is creating great characters.   Some folks go story first but I go character and let it organically go from there.

 

Okay so my favorite type of story is good old fashioned “heroe’s Journey.”  Most if not all Shonen fall under this story type and I love it.

Here is a breakdown of the heroes journey.  When making your anime you have to think about what you want to do.  Remember story is key.  You could have horrible graphics but if you have a great story it will capture an audience.  Story is the most important part.

 

Wouldn’t it be cool one day to create your own anime and folks dress up like your characters?

Truth is…it is possible.

Monty Oum made his own anime and built his brand and well….

Boom!  Yup it is possible.  What are you waiting for?

blake rwby2 rwby

We talk about making anime.  Truth is that year after year it is getting easier and easier to do it on your own or with some friends.

For example check out the latest trailer for Gantz 0.

Here are some behind the scenes.

So maybe combine Poser, Iclone or DAZ3d with one of the packages below.

Personally I’ve used IPIsoft but I’ve recently been thinking about Iclones Mocap or Iclone mixed with Perception.

Hey Perception if you want to give me a mocap suit and Iclone you want me to start making my anime using your stuff that I promote please call me.  LOL.

Seriously….call me.  Perception Neuron looks awesome.

Okay back to our story.  Did you know the creator of Gantz actually used Poser in creating his comic?

Yup!

So why not use something like POser, Iclone or DAZ to make your stuff?

Now I need to find some cheap facial capture software.  If you know where to find it please let me know!

I love it.  Reallusion please get me one of these.   I will tell everyone about it till the end of days.  :)

Here is an artist showing us how to use Sequencer to make cinematics.  First let us show you the level of work you can do in UE4

 

Here is the making of this awesome looking cinematic and here are some videos that can show you how to do it yourself.

Here is the making of…

I hope you can see the possibilities.  This animation was done in real time/live.   They used characters and motion capture.

Motion capture is getting a lot cheaper.  .  I showed a video in the posts that shows just how much cheaper they are getting.  So the question is can you combine Cheap motion capture, with say Poser, Iclone or Daz characters?

http://kadaj777.deviantart.com/

Imagine using something like the characters below.  Popping some mocap ln there and using Ue4 for the render?

jia_by_kadaj777-da94u80 aiko3d

This has a sort of an Appleseed, Final Fantasy feel to it.

 

Here is a CGI Breakdown.

I was thinking could you make a Final Fantasy looking Anime, Cartoon or Manga using Poser or Daz 3d?

I was thinking you could take a few elements like this and do something similiar to the above without having to create every single asset.

1destroyedcity 1robot 1motorocycle 1postapolaypse victoria7

 

Get to it folks.

Also why are almost every short animation out there about someone getting chased by something else in a weird world.  Do we like being chased?

Hey ya’ll.  I was doing some research on making Anime style backgrounds.  After all your characters have to live somewhere.   Give them a home and place to interact with in this awesome tutorial.

Here is a link to a whole boatload of tutorials

http://www.mclelun.com/

There are tons of tutorials that you can use for your manga or your anime series.

I really love his work.  I like how he uses 3d as a reference and in some cases as a render.    His website has extensive tutorials.  Go visit today and give your characters a place to live.