Original Animated series - "Aram"

#1

Okay, originally this thread was for a short film titled “Aram”. However, for various reasons we had to shelve that project for the time being. That was the birth of the “Heavenly Escorts: Original Anime Music Video” project. Heavenly Escorts also originally started as an idea for a series and slowly evolved over the course of the last year into a short music video project. I have already learned so much in the time I’ve spent on this project and I’m really excited for future endeavors. Now with that out of the way let’s get a look at the art!!

For simplicity’s sake I’m going to be posting most of the artwork on the front page so you don’t have to go searching through the thread for it. I’ll leave the old Aram series work up in the chronlology of the thread, but this first post will be reserved for new artworks.

I was able to complete a trailer for Anime Expo in July, you can view it below!

//youtu.be/fWeq_l4XWSM

PRODUCTION ARTWORK:


//youtu.be/AakBjMnqn2g

#2

Looks pretty cool! I wish you luck on this and hope to see some more of your progress soon. :stuck_out_tongue:

#3

Thanks man! We’ll be working on more 2d stuff this week. Probably some expression sheets, a full turnaround and some color studies. Stay tuned!

#4

The guy looks angry!

Cant wait to see more

#5

He is angry! Blocked some expressions and angled poses in tonight as reference for the final 2d character sheets.

#BeUnrealistic

#6

Ugh, one of my personal pet peeves…the dreaded modeling. I really like your character’s structure and it makes me rethink my approach to the art. Really cool sir, this adds to my incentive to practice my low poly and high poly modeling skills. Thanks!

#7

Thanks man! For reference I don’t usually triangulate my meshes. However because we’re using this character as a base to draw over I had to add a few triangular faces to hold the shape at certain angles like 3/4. I actually work as a rigging td so I’m fairly familiar with what good topology should look like. Thanks for the feedback.

Stay tuned!

#BeUnrealistic

#8

Costume Design

#BeUnrealistic

#9

Hmm, are there different colors for different roles or are these ideas for his main costume? Either way looks cool, keep up the good work :slight_smile:

#10

These are ideas for his main costume. I was originally using the blue/gold combo but it felt too x-men to me. So I moved towards the color scheme of the Glaucus Atlanticus. Thanks for the comments, sorry it wasn’t clear.

#11

I meant no offense and there’ no reason to be sorry. After all, this is pre-production and nothing is meant to be finalized yet. I love the idea of taking inspiration, at least in part from nature. As generic and cheesy as it sounds, it’s often our greatest resource and it’s nice to see the renaissance ideal still practiced. ./thumbs up

The costume looks good and I didn’t mean to imply it didn’t, I was just unsure.

#12

Don’t worry I didn’t take any offense! Thanks for the feedback and stay tuned!

#13

**Update: Character turnaround and final 2d expression sheet

Also for fun, the current costume design top contender:

#14

Wow, what you’ve done so far looks really impressive. I love that video clip in your first post.

So, am I understanding correctly that you are actually using the 3D models as tracing/reference and then you actually create the rest conventionally? I think that’s a fantastic idea.

#15

So, am I understanding correctly that you are actually using the 3D models as tracing/reference and then you actually create the rest conventionally?

You got it! Originally I wanted to try and emulate the anime style using conventional 3d rendering. One day my wife turned to me and said, “Why don’t we just draw over the CG?” The thought had never occurred to me but the more I considered it the more I liked the idea. My wife has a background as a traditional 2d animator, having started her career in the Japanese anime industry. We decided to combine both of our strengths and try to create something unique. I’m glad you like the results!

#16

It rarely happens that one finds 2 people in a single household who so clearly has great talent. I will be following this thread.

#17

Alright, a little update on the project is in order. Unfortunately we hit a snag in the story and we decided to shelf the project. Fortunately we stumbled upon some inspiration and I’m happy to say that I’ve been proceeding on a new pilot episode. The flavor is a bit more realistic sci-fi, but it’s definitely and edgier concept than before. I’m really excited to bring you some updated wips.

After stopping the previous story, we were pretty distraught about what to do. That’s when my wife showed me this wikipedia article about a french female pirate from the 1300’s. We both really enjoyed the potential for the story, so I wrote a 10 page script that became our pilot. From there I got to work designing the characters:

Our main character Jean:

#18

cont’d from previous post…

The weathered pirate captain:

The Villain, a perversely wealthy aristocrat:

Finally before I had worked out a schedule, I did some design work for one of the ships used in the pilot. With the help of my friend and fellow CGtalk user svmaerospace we produced this concept:

#19

finished the villain’s model sheet, on to the rest of the cast!

Keep going guys!

#20

Another character done, The tech savvy engineer:

Keep rockin people!