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.