The Fennec Charecter Development &
Logo Company Research
Im going to look up major game studio's so i can see the sort of competition i would be against in terms of logo's and their charecters.
I found an unofficial list of the top 50 Game studios around the world, this is a good staring point because it means i can look at each of them and pick the most recognisable, and take the positive points from each of them.1. Nintendo
2. Infinity Ward
3. EA Canada
4. Ubisoft Montreal
5. Foundation 9
6.Sega Studios Japan
7. Capcom
8. Treyarch
9. Yuke's
10. Level-5
11. Traveller's Tales
12. Neversoft
13. Konami Digital Entertainment
14. Turn 10 Studios
15. Codemasters Studios
16. Bungie
17. Slightly Mad Studios
18. Vicarious Visions
19. Visceral Games
20. Rockstar North
21. The Sims Studio
22. Valve
23. Namco
24. Rocksteady Studios
25. EA Tiburon
26. EA Bright Light
27. Ubisoft France
28. EA Black Box
29. Naughty Dog
30. Sports Interactive
31. SCE London Studio
32. Guerrilla Games
33. Bethesda
34. Radical Entertainment
35. Volition
36. Maxis
37. Gearbox Softworks
38. Harmonix
39. 1st Playable
40. Pandemic Studios
41. Game Freak
42. Bioware
43. Enemble Studios
44. A2M
45. Sonic Team
46. Kuju Entertainment
47. Cat Daddy
48. HB Studios
49. Ubisoft Romania
50. Raven Software
I have listed The most recognisable of the game studios below, if i want to create a competative logo in this market i need to see how the most successful companys have advertised th name through logo.
Microsoft
Microsoft - Arguably the biggest company in the world , and a fierce competitor in the games studio industry, Its logo is very simple but effects and very recognisable all over the world, its bold and portrays a strong, confident, and expert vibe. This has been created in two tone, effectivly meaning that it would be easily recongnised under the use oany two colours and wouldnt look bad.Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games - This has been shortened to "R" in their logo to simplify it, this would help should the it be downsized for boxs etc.They also incorporate a generic star into the Design, the eye catching Yellow contrasts with the bold "R", having the text bold is something im finding alot of the logo's are doing, i will defonatly look at using this in my own logo.
Blizzard
Blizzard - Again a simple logo, id debate weather it would still be easy to read should it be down sized , but it uses colour very well to link with its name. slight use of 3d and it has been arched very slightly , these again are possible ideas i could look to incorporate, The font is hugely important in this as it is the point in what people will remember, particually like the way the i,z and a sit on the larger letters.
Nintendo
Nintendo - Recognised everywere, would look fine in greyscale and is more often than not seen with its generic charecter "Super Mario" which i will look further into when i look into there charecters later on.
the bold red curved edged box complement the uniquely font'd text. Again very Simple.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft - This is the Re-made ubisoft logo, after it sold its 100 millionth game it changed its logo to this , its an abstract logo which is there to look good, isnt really a meaning, they changed it because they wanted to take it from just a font to a recognisable image people wll instantly connect with. I do really like this because its aesthetically so much nicer to look at , and it comes across very futuristic and modern.
EA Games
EA Games - this logo is a great example of how a great design can be used in any colour, they have even edited the standard layout in one of the above, to suit a game, yet if you asked 100 people , everyone would instantly know what this logo represents. It again uses Bold lettering, and incorporates a circle to with a light effect , to make it more intresting.What Ive Learnt.....In order for me to design a logo which will look proffesional and modern i will look at incorporating simple shapes into my designs, using Bold lettering and shortening my Studios name. I will work in greyscale in my designs so that it is simple and effective , then look at using colour later on in the developing process.
Character ResearchI need to look at Characters that are instantly recognisable to a Games Company.
Sonic the hedgehog & SEGA
Sonic - based on a hedgehog, a creature generally thought of as quite cute and lovable, so the hard work of getting the audience to like the charecter has mostly been done. Heavily Characterised , so he stands on two feet instead of realistically four, hes blue, probably chose blue to push it towards boys. He was also given trainers/Sneakers and gloves to almost humanize it. His manorisms are that hes quite cheeky, shown with a little grin and amazingly fast.
Super Mario and Nintendo
Mario , a charectised plumber, Created in 1985, is instantly recognised as a symbol for nintendo, with his bright coloured clothing he is definatly aimed for kids - teens, but over the years has become an all round family favorite.
Crash Bandicoot and Sony
Robin Hood : Disney
Secondary Animation
I look at the Disney film Robin Hood and look at how it has been animated, looking at the secondary animation of the tail and ears .
Squash and Stretch
as the Character bends down, the actions are over exaggurated. its the same when he jumps, his whole body squash's with the impact, arms Flaring.
I particually like how disney have given the Fox a human like stance allowing it to connect more with its audience.
Possible Ideas to base Character
Fennec Fox
To start the Developing process, im going to try three ideas in which i can build and move forward with, il try using an animal, an object, and a human.
An Animal - Forrec Fox
Foxs are generally Sneeky Charecters, so to bring that out of my own, i should look at the claws in pictures like this, by over exaggurating this , ill get that likable elemant.
I haveto incorporate the large ears.
So in order to create this into a likeable Character, I use the ferrec fox's main stance, it makes him look rather shifty, and sneeky. To improve this id look at using a cape and maybe a hat, id want to push this into a simular direction to sonic/Crash Bandicoot.
Added Slight Colour
Using Photoshop
Added Slight Colour
Using Photoshop
In an alternative world, the Fennec's are a dominant species.
They are mostly peacefull and believe very much in there god.
In order to stop any unwelcome visitors and possible enemys from attacking, They choose three Fennecs which will protect the race.
These fennecs are made to sacrifice one of their sense's to become stronger. They choose the sense of hearing.
As their technology moves on , they learn to build a suit in which gives there hearing back, and ultimatley makes them a fighting machine
Possible Design
This design looks like an evil villian.
I draw a front and side view for the developed head, At the moment I think it looks too child like, id still pefer it to be more basic and less emotional, but i will havto look further into this.
I want to look at alternative clothing aswell.
Anouther game which uses Fox's as a main Character is "Starfox", Developed by Raweware and Published byNintendo, they have took a standard Fox and humanized it by giving it a human stance and human hands and feet, aswell as this they have given him props such as gun,cape etc..
I particually like this this ribbed effect which is around starfoxs arm, but would like to try it around my charecter.
Below i have mad a small tester in how i could apply the ribbed effect to my character, I like it because its intresting and would offer me a good option to use textures, I need to watch it doesnt look like hes wearing a jumper.
Overall i probably wont be using this on my design.
Rocket Racoon
After reseaching into Rocket Racoon, Im intrested in making a design which is slightly more realistic and more like a Comic character. I should include some sort of armour, whichwould be a prop for my charecter.
I come up with this human/ Fennec fox design, I REALLY like the unique horn across the head, this could possibly be the technology in which helps him to hear? I should look at other ways i can incorporate it into my character though.
Anatomy
The Fennecs give up one of there sense to become sronger and ultimatley more muscular, if i want to develop this idea of have a strong human body, i MUST look at human anatomy.
Below are a few sketches That i made during classes i attended.
On the picture above, I mark out all the muscles which are situated in the back of a human, I think the shoulders , in specific the trapezius and the deltoid are going the be very important the capture if i successfully make the Fennecs look muscular.
Again i tae a further look at the Skeleton structure, and importantly the front of the human body and their muscles.
Again to make this charecter more realistic i should include muscles like Pectoralis major.
Above is just a small sketch i created of the complete body covered in muscles, and it does portray a strong being, i should perhaps try exaggurating it maybe though.
Logo Design Work
I Started by creating the initials IA in sleek block letters but felt it wasn't obvious enough to look at , so i kept a similar idea and tried it using a basic circle which i quite liked, but now the enclosed lettering looked more like an R.
Next i came up with this more developed idea where the I and A would sit together both slightly slanted.
Above is a Slightly different Logo i tried.
So I added it in Photoshop and came up with the White design above. I was happy with it, but looking back on the all the research i had done , this wasn't simple enough for people to instantly remember.
So I took the Center piece of the other developed design and edited it, so that it looked athletically pleasing standing alone without any of the other parts.
Further Facial Development
As i was Searching the internet i came across the Pharoah Dogs, Which i think would be good research for my Characters head. Its not a totally differant shape from the Fennec Fox so it links in with my idea.
The Long eyes really catch my attention, as no emotion is shown, so in the storyboard it will all be about my skills to show through expressions.
Picture Brain Storm
In order for me to get the Ideas Flowing i find a Range of differant images i particually like from the internet, By research around this area of charecter i can also see what simular characters have been portrayed as and make my own design look even more unique.
The Body structure of fire storm is exackly what im after, the stereo typical huge muscular body.
Also next to it is a picture of a random Chinese character, I liked this free-flowing cape, i would like to look at maybe including a cape in my own designs.
Again i found the figurine on the internet and liked the cape, i should look at creating look differant though and not just making it look generic.
I made a quick line sketch below. I looked at how i could incorporate the horn from my past design and the cape for these brainstorms. Not Happy with the area around the head at all.
I should look at alternative hands and feet?
I would also like to include having fur legs, like the thorn, this would make the character more intresting and visually more appealing.
Syther - PokemonI want the charecter have a differant hand pose, so i have picked Syther because its hands overhang a little which is what id like to portray in my own.
Design
Im actually really happy with this design, i like the vague look of the face , because the fennec's are supposed to be warriors and lack emotion. The hand stance's are perfect the way they hang down, which is how the syther reminded me. The cape looks good , but too generic, like to see what i could change to make this look more like a warrior cape and less like the matrix.
I attempted to mix the bottem half of the thorn in there and its worked quite well, the charecter has a good balance.
Developed Final Designs
After Looking at the previous sketch I could see exackly what I did and didnt like.
I really liked the one sided hood to the jacket which sways to one side, this unique jacket would be the piece of technology which gave the fennec back its hearing.I had the cape/jacket sweep around the left arm to exaggurate the fennec's muscles.
Got rid of the hooves, and stayed with human feet, the bance just looks more even without them.
The muscular apperance looks good, the pectorial and bicept muscles look enhanced.
Front View
Side view
Action View
Colour Scheme
Dark Blues, Blacks,Reds, Purpes portray evil.
Viberant Greens, reds, yellows blues portray the good happy characters.
quite neutral/nateral colours portray neither.
I want My fennec character to be quite neutral, so id like to stick to quite faded colours and earthy greens and browns.
Coloured Characters in Autodesk Sketchbook Designer
After blocking in colour in Adobe Photoshop, i took my designs into Designer and shaded them in.
I kept to the neutral green and browns as i specified.
Im happy with both the front and side and if i was to have more time I would have put abit more into the action position, all that said im very happy with the outcome.
Final Annotated Version
Final Merchandise and Logo
For my merchandise/Freebies i chose to use popular items like an iPhone case, t-shirts and hats. But at the same time gave away generic free gifts such as key rings and pin badges.
In order for the target audience to start recognizing my brand, i needed to keep a similar theme throughout so i inserted the Inspiring Artz theme into the background of the magazine cover, also added a faint Inspiring Artz logo onto the chest of the character as extra advertising.
Web banner created to the standard size of 468 x 60.
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