Inktober 2018 – Day 15

Summer Work 4

Here is another blog on my summer Work:

Most of these drawings are attempts at expanding the work I did on Ploceidae The Weaver by working on his team. Team Breeze most of the images are my attempts at introducing Pounder the Bull. I started my work on him by attempting the to draw his shoes and gloves at first the work for the shoes and gloves came out awfully. But the the gloves weer the worst part because I couldn’t get the proportioning of the hands right until the final image where I managed to get them to look more like hands enough to present how his gloves would look him. The shoes developed quite quickly, a lot quicker then the gloves. The downfall of this section was Pounder’s actual face for a while I couldn’t get it right because when I drew his mouth he came out looking moire like a pig because I couldn’t capture his mussel correctly. Eventually I did get it right after looking over several characters that had similar problems within the Sonic Universe. One of the images is one of my attempts at developing the appearance of Swoop the Nightingale which I only have just started working on. The images at the top of this blog are of Team Breezes base of operation called Atmocity, which when I first attempted to draw knew I had captured it’s essence.

TPPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver

Here is a Size chart to help show the height of Ploceidae The Weaver:

This took me a while, not the actually drawing though due to the fact that Mobians are various sizes just like humans but a majority of them are half the size of Humans so I had to look at various height charts done both by SEGA/The SONIC Team and fans to come to a suitable height. Look Below for proof.

TTPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver

This section is based on various sketches of either certain parts of Ploceidae doing certain actions such as his fist been clinched, as well as his entire body performing an action such as jumping.

 Now this image mainly focused on his facial expressions at first but later developed into his actual body movement such as him running as seen on the image or him practicing his Sky Fu which can be seen at the very bottom of this image. Some of theses sketches work really well and help bring out who the character actually is and what his characteristics are, for example the two bottom images used for his Sky Fu display that he is quite skilled and well trained in the art. All though they could use slightly refining due to the fact that one of them does look like his is showing of his muscles but they still came out look decent. The facial expressions also came out quite well because you can see the general emotion that Ploceidae is displaying.

Now this focused more on what Ploceidae does in his free time, such as building things, this image also somewhat focuses on making Ploceidae look like his head isn’t connected to his body without a neck. This can be proven by the various sketches that are scene of him building objects with his spanner. Some of this sketches cam out right the first time, such as the top right sketch which shows Ploceidae standing on top of a box to either build or repair something with his tool box next to him on his right. One of the sketches that needs tweaking ever so slightly is the bottom right one due to the fact that you can see Ploceidae is trying to repair something from underneath but there is no object there, so next time add an object of repair. When I attempted to fix the neck problem with Ploceidae i tried using either the side of his Aviator goggle to hide the joint or his arms, theses worked ever so slightly but couldn’t cover it completely so this left me at a blank for a while, so I looked at Ploceidae at different angles, which some of the sketches are.

  This image was focused on his joints actions and again the neck problem. First though I drew an image of Ploceidae doing another one of his hobbies which is Extreme Gear Riding. This sketches came out perfectly it shows of part of Ploceidae Personality and his animal nature which is that of a bird and to be free. The arms and shoe sketches where drawn in attempt to help me understand how they would work when he was using them either in a fight against Eggman or Swarm or just running. The shoe sketches cam out quite well though due to the fact that I managed to display what actually happened to the show during it been used for running or walking. The neck problem has been solved no in these sketches by making the edge of his top of his jacked taller it covers the joint between Ploceidae’s head and body, I got this Idea from looking at various images of Mobians as well as talking to one of my fellow students Bethany Morley about this problem.

TPPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver Inspiration

SEGA/Archie Comics: Unfortunately when I attempted to look up some of the artists that produced the concept art all the images where placed underneath SEGA/Archie name, this is due to the fact that sonic was one out of several different character designs that was sent in by SEGA fans to be SEGA’s new mascot for the company. Over the years the artists who developed and designed sonic and other related characters grouped together within SEGA to form the SONIC Team, the group that solely responsible for the sonic games. Later on SEGA sold the rights of creating comics to Archie, with yet again a wide range of artists that brought sonic and his world to life in comic form. Over the years the styles of sonic have changed both in the games and comic due to either the change in modern society (what is acceptable) and due to the artists changing.

Click here to see some examples

I chose this company as one of my inspirations due to the fact that when I did research on the name Weaver it seem to connect to this style of animation effectively and it makes the character seem alive with this sort of name. But this was not the only reason why I chose this, it was also because due to the vast amount of artists that worked both for Archie and SEGA over the years have produced there was a large amount of concept art that I used as inspiration for Ploceidae The Weaver for example:

Sonic’s redesign for the first successful 3D Sonic Game, Sonic Adventure in 1998 by SEGA and the SONIC Team. This was the opening point for various designs for various characters from Sonic’s World, sonic included. This image inspired me to create Ploceidae in similar style, when I saw it, this was due to the fact that the name seam to clack with this sort of art style and it would make it a nice match for his name and characteristic that came with it, as well as presenting it.

Sonic’s redesign for Sonic BOOM in 2014 by Big Red Button Entertainment and SEGA. The game may have not have been very popular due to the fact that had a long list of glitches, but the reason why it inspired me is that the new style for sonic and the other characters gave me an idea, mainly the sports tape, due to the fact that Weaver birds are known for been quite territorial and ferrous fights,s o this gave me the idea to make Ploceidae a Martial Arts expert (Sky Fu) and to present this I would use sports tape.

The Babylonian Rouges from Sonic Riders 2 in 2006 by SEGA and the SONIC Team. This piece of concept art inspired me due to the fact that it was a piece of concept art that focus solely on Bird Mobians and this inspired some of the shapes used for Ploceidae in a sense for his bird like features e.g his beak and eyes but the features on Ploceidae are my own the image only inspired me.

Tracey Yardley: One of the current artists that is working on Archie’s Sonic The Hedgehog Comic series as well as Sonic Universe and the old Sonic X comic. I find this artist inspiring due to the fact that when he draws the characters from Sonic’s World, he captures the essence and personality of the characters perfectly. This can be seen in the image below:

Sonic The Hedgehog from Sonic The Hedgehog comic by Archie Comics and Tracey Yardley. This style of sonic first appeared in issue 160. This style by Yardley inspired me for Ploceidae due to the fact that not only again does his style focus on Mobian Body Styles but he capture the emotions and characteristics of the characters perfectly and now how to display them effectively, so this gave me an idea on how Ploceidae might display his emotions to other around him such as anger and happiness, so I used this image to help me create the facial expressions on the 3D Character Sheet for Ploceidae The Weaver.

Yardley hasn’t just worked with Sonic and his world but also some of Archie’s other comics that are based on other video game characters such as Mega Man and is also the original penciler/inker of the manga series Riding Shotgun.

Click here to see some more of his work:

Aardman Animation: A famous British animation company that is known to favor claymation as the form of animation for their productions. The company has produced various animated series and films since 1972, Some of their most famous works been Wallace and Gromit (Films and Series), Chicken Run, Flushed Away and Shaun the Sheep (Both Series and film).

Click here to see examples of their work:

A found inspiration in the movie Chicken Run and in it’s concept art.

Early Concept Art from Aardman Animation’s Chicken Run by Model Artist Michael Salters in 2000. This piece of concept art was useful and inspiring because it gave me the idea on how to capture the beak design for Ploceidae the Weaver in a 3D Setting mainly for the character Sheet but for also later on for the actual producing of a 3D animation. I found this more then enough to capture Ploceidae beak p[perfectly due to the fact that I was having trouble with it in the early stages of his design, due to the fact that I couldn’t seem to get Ploceidae beak to work on the bottom half of his face.

This can be seen in the original 2D Character Design Sheet, the beak doesn’t cover his lower half of his face completely.

This was changed though for the final 3D Character Sheet for Ploceidae The Weaver, you can see this if you look carefully enough you can see all the changes to the 3D versions that I got from looking at my inspirations again. Such as the the beak now completely covers the lower half of his face now and that it appears more 3D like in design. The Chicken run Concept art also inspired me some of Ploceidae other features such as his hands, which by most Mobian standards should have gloves on but Chicken Run gave me the inspiration to make his hand from his wings giving him a more bird like appearance.

TPPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver 3D Character Sheet

Here is 3D Character Sheet for Ploceidae The Weaver.

This 3D Character Sheet for Ploceidae is Designed to show Ploceidae of at three different angles as well as showing of several different facial expressions that he can perform with his face. There are several changes that have been made to him since the 2D Character sheet such as his beak covering the entire half of his face instead of just a small parts and that his beak and eyes stick out more on the sides making him look more 3D. There are several facial expression there for Ploceidae, Basic (His Design Face/Emotionless), Tired, Shocked, Sad, Goggles (The face that he uses when wearing his goggles), Happy and Angry. I am quite happy with this final design 3D Character Sheet because I believe that Ploceidae has come out quite well and shows all the characteristic of not only the Weaver Bird but also the personality I set him. He is also appealing to the eye and is certainly not of putting to the eye.

Ploceidae The Weaver: Face Expressions

Now You are probably wondering why there is another section to Ploceidae The Weaver and the reason is that I have to also draw Ploceidae in a 3D pose for the Character sheet so these sketches located within this post are my attempts at putting Ploceidae in a 3D form as well as tweaking his final design a bit. E.g. seeing how he looked with hair (Not a good Idea – see note on first image to see why). The Second image both again focusing on a different position for Ploceida to be in during the 3D Character Sheet and another task my tutor asked me to do which was to show various facial Expression with Ploceidae’s final face design. I chose the new pose think it would show some of Ploceidae’s Personality of to the target audience when he was in his 3D Character sheet, although in retrospect this made him look some what ridiculous. The facial expressions seen on the various faces seen in the second image where early attempts at Facial expressions for Ploceidae The Weaver, a majority of them came out look really well even if they were just prototypes, especially the Goggles one.

TTPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver Final Concept

Here is the final Design or concept art for Ploceidae The Weaver:

TPPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver Complete Character Description

Ploceidae The Weaver Character Description:

Forename: Ploceidae

Surname: Weaver

Birth Place: Atmo City (Home of the Grand Sky Fu Council)

Nicknames: Plo (Friends and Family Only), Freedom Fighter, Master of the Sky, Master (Students, Sister, Swoop The Nightingale and The Grand Sky Fu Council Only), Bird Brain, Dodo, Dodo Brain, Warrior of The Sky, The Winged Warrior, The Winged Freedom, The Freedom’s Breeze, Air Master, Spirit of the Wind, Knight of the Sky (Arthurian Realm Only), Twerp, Pain in the Talons and The Beak Breaker.

Age: 19

Parents: Para and Site Weaver (Currently Missing/Presumed Robotized)

Siblings: Perch The Weaver (Younger Sister, Freedom Fighter/Warrior of The Sky In Training and Scout of Team Breeze).

Other Relatives: Uncle/Master Beakerly (Member of The Grand Sky Fu Council, Resides in Atmo City) and Aunt Talon (Resides in New Mobotropolos).

Height: 115 cm (3’9″)

Weight: 30 kg (66 lb)

Feathers: Orange with a Green hue at the tips of them.

Eyes: Sky Blue

Appearance: A average sized Weaver bird that wears a storm grey Aviators hat, with green glass tinted goggles on top and a blue short sleeved jacket with blue and white shoes that have green circles and birds eyes one them with birds feathers surrounding the opening. Orange and Green tipped feathers, the orange parts cover a majority of his body while the green tipped feathers cover his tail wing and the side of his arms, which are wrapped in Sports tape/bandages and has a  long grey beak.

Friends: Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonia the Hedgehog, Manic The Hedgehog, Mile “Tails” Prower, Knuckles The Echidna, Blaze The Cat (Parallel Universe), Wimbo The Whale (Parallel Universe), Princess Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot/D’Coolette, Antoine D’Coolette, Rotor The Walrus, NICOLE The Holo Lynx, The other Knothole and Sonic Underground Freedom Fighters, Pounder the Bull (Muscle of Team Breeze), Geeky the Gecko (Medic and Researcher of Team Breeze) and Swoop The Nightingale (Main Love Interest, Fellow Master/Warrior of the Sky and SIC of Team Breeze).

Enemies: Swarm The Falcon (Arch-Nemesis and X-Warrior of the Sky), Dr Ivo Robotnick/Dr Eggman, Snivley, Egg Legion, Storm Fighters (Swarm The Falcon’s Team/Empire), Dr Eggman Nega, Purge The Weaver (Evil Alternate Version), Suppression Squad, Team Typhoon (Evil Alternate Version of Team Breeze).

Afflictions: The Knothole Freedom Fighters, Sonic Underground Freedom Fighters, The Grand Sky Fu Council/Atmo City, New Mobotropolos/Republic of Acorn, Team Breeze (Founder)/Sonic Heroes, Knights of the Round Table (Arthurian Realm Only) and The New Freedom Fighters.

Allies: Team Dark, The Chaotixs, G.U.N.,  Babylon Rouges (Out of Respect for Ploceidae and The Grand Sky Fu Council), Blaze’s Kingdom (Parallel Universe) and The Master Council of Sea Surfers (Parallel Universe/Masters of Sea Fu).

Skills: Skilled Pilot, Natural Flyer, Skilled Engineer/Architect, Master of Sky Fu, Skilled Driver, World Class Extreme Gear Rider, Leader, Chaos Sensitive, Master Swordsman, Parkour, Skilled Runner and Teacher, can also turn his feathers semi hard allowing him to combat robotic enemies with ease as well as other bladed weapons.

Personality: Ploceidae The Weaver is kind and caring and nature making him an instant like able character, he is extremely loyal to the Freedom Fighter Cause as well as his Friends/Family and the code of Sky Fu. Often Nervous and shy around people and is often pessimistic when it comes to himself but when it comes to others or their cause he will managed to find a Optimistic point within them. He also has a strong bond with both his family and his friends especially the Royal Triplets, Princess Sally, Team Breeze and his Parents (Who disappeared when he was Eight, which brought him into contact with both the Knothole/Sonic Underground Freedom Fighters and Grand Sky Fu Council). He can also be quite firm and willing when he is leading and when he is relaxing due to the fact that he has trained in Sky Fu from the age of three. He is also Fiercely protective of his Sister and team mates, making the perfect type of person to lead Team Breeze. Plo also has a strong hatred for Swarm (Because he betrayed the Grand Sky Fu Council) and his Evil Alternate Dimension Self, Purge The Weaver (Because he is the opposite of Everything Plo stands for). He also a somewhat sense of humor, which he only finds funny to his shame, except for a few joke that actually are funny to others.

Likes: Training, Flying, Been with his Friends and Family, Freedom, Honorable Deeds, Extreme Gear (Mainly his own e.g. EG Model FB 1), Building Things/Inventing, Swoop The Nightingale (Love Interest), Sky Fu, Trashing both Eggman’s and Swarm’s plans, His Team (Team Breeze – Pounder The Bull, Geeky The Gecko, Swoop The Nightingale and Perch The Weaver), The Royal Triplets (Sonic, Manic and Sonia – Close Friends), Princess Sally Acorn (Close Friend), NICOLE The Holo Lynx (Close Friend/Technological Adviser), Atmo City, The Grand Sky Fu Council, Perch (Younger Sister), The Ancient History and Legends of Mobius and His Plane/Carrier The Hurricane.

Dislike: Purge The Weaver (Evil Parallel Self), Swarm The Falcon (Arch-Nemesis), Eggman, Egg Legion, The Suppression Squad, The Storm Fighters (Swarm’s Team/Empire), Team Typhoon (Evil Parallel Team Breeze), Dishonorable Deeds, Restraining of Freedom, Betrayal, Disrespecting of The Grand Sky Fu Council, Disrespecting of The Knothole/Sonic Underground Freedom Fighters, Disrespecting of his Team, The Disrespecting of The Acorn Republic, The lose of Life, Losing His Friends and Family, Not been able to find His and His Sister Parents, The Destruction/Damaging of The Hurricane and His other Creations (EG Model FB 1) and Bullying.

History: Born to Para and Site Weaver in Atmo City and later trained in the ways of Sky Fu from the age of three by them. Ploceidae later met his Sister, Perch at the age of six, as well as got along well with the rest of his family including his Uncle Beakerly and Aunt Talon, as well as already been a well known student of Sky Fu. He had already met both The Royal Triplets and Princess Sally Acorn at the age of five due to his parent all ways going to the United Kingdom Meetings as representatives, but later fled with the Royal Triplets, Princess Sally and His Sister when Dr Ivo Robotnick/Dr Eggman took over Mobius to Knothole with his Uncles and Sally Nurse’s guidance. For years Ploceidae trained hard in the Ark of Sky Fu and his piloting skills as well as assisting the newly founded Knothole/Sonic Underground Freedom Fighters hoping to make his parents proud. Over the years Ploceidae made many friends (The other Freedom fighters, Geeky, Pounder and Nightingale) and Enemies (Swarm). Some of his most famous achievements been the founding of Team Breeze (The Freedom Fighters Airial Strike Force/Atmo City Negotiators), The building of both Team Breeze’s Extreme Gear and The Hurricane (Teams Breeze’s main transport), The taking on of the Sky Egg Legion and The Storm Strikes with just Team Breeze and keep up with Swarm The Falcon single handily in a Sky Fu Fight.

TPPA Appeal: Ploceidae The Weaver Colour Scheme

The Image below shows all the different colour schemes I considered for Ploceidae the Weaver. The where several different colour schemes for Ploceidae that I could have used and I did reference half of them with the actual colours of that of the Weaver Bird. The first colour scheme was based on a green weaver bird and a standard mobian shoe colour scheme, this came out looking nice but the shade of green looked very similar to  the colour that a wide range of bird mobian use. The second design was focused on the more tropical versions of the Weaver bird, which is applied for the rest of the colour schemes, I like how his feather came out in orange it sort of suited Ploceidae personality and again I used the standard mobian shoe colour scheme with a slight twist. I went through several colour schemes hoping to see which one would match the final design and eventually I have found one.