For my final year studying Animation at Ulster I took this year as a way to push further into my career after I graduate. Unlike other students, my career path isn't solely studio focused. I intend to not only look for studio work but also continue my small business and create multiple streams of income. Thus my project was born;
Project; Hazel The Cloud Cat / V-Tuber Portfolio
My project this year will encompass both of my goals; building a portfolio for studio work while creating content to enhance the income of my small business. The main area of studio work I'd like to go into is Pre-Production focusing on Character Designs, so my portfolio will focus on creating and exploring this area. For my self-employment, I want to create an extra stream of income through live-streaming. However I'd like to do this by creating a 2D rigged character that utilises motion capture. I will use the software 'Live2D Cubism' to do this.
What is a V-Tuber?
V-Tuber, short for Virtual Tuber, are 2D or 3D characters controlled with motion capture. They act as Virtual Avatars for people who wish to hide their faces or take on a new persona in the content-creating world. Since V-Tubing was first developed in Japan the influence of Japanese art styles is prevalent in V-Tubing which is why my main avatar will be in the Japanese Anime style.
What is Live2D Cubism?
Live2D is a Japanese software that allows creators the freedom to rig 2D characters with warp and rotation deformers, allowing a variety of movements that can be pushed to look 3D. I am the first person in Ulster University to use this piece of software for a project. This means I have been completely alone in learning Live2D as my lecturers had not used the software. The only guidance I could receive from them was similarities through the Duik plug-in for Adobe and Henrys' guidance on Character Design and Story-Telling. I was tasked with becoming the master of this software and becoming as proficient as I could within the short time period I had.
At times this was daunting and scary, I remember sitting down with the software and a wave of anxiety rushing over me, I wondered if I was really capable of learning something like it. But I pushed through. I wholeheartedly believe by learning this software from scratch in a matter of months proves to employers that I am diligent and hard-working. If I don't have knowledge of the software they need, rest assured I can learn it in haste.
(Fig.1 : Limseca Logo featuring Hazel from 2021/2022)
How will I tie in Studios?
V-Tubing is primarily Anime styled and most local studios are not creating content in this style, myself and Henry decided to push the project further than just Anime. The small business that I started over my Placement year features a store mascot called Hazel (Fig.1), I wanted to keep using her as the basis for my project this year. I was designing her to be appealing to both Western studios and East-Asian studios with subtle nods to anime but also keeping it simplistic enough for Western studios to like.
Initially, the idea going into Final Year was to create an anime model of Hazel and re-vamping the mascot in a more 'Chibi' Anime style, however...
Henry and I decided for the studio portfolio we would explore four designs;
Anime Human
Anime Animal
Western Styled Human
Western Styled Animal
By tackling these 4 designs not only can I show studios that I am well versed in adapting my art style to their needs, but it also shows I am proficient in both humanoid designs and animal designs. All of which are perfect for kids' TV/Film or Indie Video Games. Once we had decided on this I started to get really excited about the project as I had a lot of creative freedom to explore as many design styles as I wanted for Hazel.
Creating Hazel
Creating characters involves a lot of thought into narratives and story-telling so this is where I had to start before I could even begin concepting designs. Hazel is a version of myself so I began all the way in the basics; What do I like?
Astrology
Cute Aesthetics
Space; The Moon + Stars
Art
Gaming
Watching sunrises and sunsets.
Cats
From here I went onto good ol' Pinterest and started chucking ideas together to make a moodboard of colours, themes, clothing, hairstyles and general characters I liked the look of;
(Fig 2. Moodboard 1 ; Pinterest images)
During feedback with Henry we liked the progress I was making but we were still missing the narrative behind hazel. I was getting a bit frustrated. We had rough ideas to base her off of but no solid story-line to influence the overall design. So we went back to the drawing board and I brainstormed a storyline for her character.
The Story / Narrative
I came up with a species called Cloud Cats. These cats could transform between both humanoid and animal forms. The cats live in their own universe and travel to multiple different universes including our own to make the skies. They work hard to create the colours in our skies, paint the stars, place the moon / the sun. They are artists and creators giving our skies a unique look each and every day.
Hazel is one of these cats and is studying at University to become a 'Star Painter'. Just like me, Hazel will be graduating this year and going off into the working world. But she also has a love for video games which she stumbled upon in Earth one magical evening. Now she wants to meet like-minded gamer friends so she has decided to become a live-streamer in her spare time once she graduates.
Further Narratives ; Following Seasons and more
Now that we had a solid storyline to work with Henry and I started to discuss the idea of following the narrative of changing seasons. This would help Hazel become more life-like. We decided she should alternate outfits and play along with stories relating to the current seasons like Summer, Winter, Halloween, Christmas etc. I really liked this idea as it followed what a lot of other V-Tubers do. As we we're working through this idea process in October I was watching a lot of V-Tubers on Twitch who had started to debut their Halloween outfits and play spooky games.
Since Hazels Debut will be in the summer we wanted to explore additional outfits for Hazel to wear that could relate to summer.
We spoke about different things that happen in the summer along with other interests I hadnt yet explored;
swimming
beaches
long days
fireworks
Japanese festivals
summer evenings
being a painter (of the stars)
astrology (what zodiac could she represent; Cancer which is my sign)
To further this I even went as far as to give Hazel a quick personality that would reflect the kind of clothes, hair, eye styles, etc. that I would give her;
Bubbly
Mischievous
Bright
Funny
Caring
Childish/Moody
Once we broke down her narrative and personality I found it easier to visualise her character. There was a wave of relief if I'm honest as I was fumbling around a lot before with so many ideas that I wasn't sure what direction to take with her. Thanks to Henry I was able to narrow her down and get a solid idea. From here I made new moodboards for general ideas and design choices for clothing and hair styles;
(Fig 3. Moodboard 2, New Themes)
(Fig 4. Moodboard 3, Exploring Formal Clothing)
(Fig 5. Moodboard 4, Exploring Casual Clothing and Hair)
Character Design Concepts
With a solid narrative and moodboards, it was time to finally put idea to paper. For my first designs I started out with the humanoid version geared towards local studios. I find it easier to push the boundaries of anatomy in more simplistic ways so I thought it would be a nice way to ease me back into the flow of drawing humans since I hadn't properly drawn them over my placement year. I made another mood board of western studios + fan artists I liked and used that to influence my designs see below;
(Fig 6. Moodboard on Western Studio Styled Characters)
I liked the styles of Bee and Puppycat and Owl House the most. I like the more expressive and detailed eye shapes they use for their characters which would benefit Hazel as she was going to be a very expressive and emotion driven character. With these style references I went ahead and sketched up several different designs that showed a variety of hair and eye styles.
It was at this point I had decided Hazel was going to have multiple outfits; Official Cloud Cat Outfit, Casual Outfit, Summer Outfit and Graduation Outfit.
(Fig 7. Western Styled Human Designs)
Since I was aiming for studio work with these designs, I stuck to simple shapes and lines that would be easy to translate into both hand-drawn or 2D rigged animation. I made sure to give her big bright eyes to look innocent, a short spikey hair style to indicate a mischievous childish nature and small rounded eyebrows to soften the face further. For her clothing I was trying to show girly innocence with frills and skirts featuring star motifs to link back to her job profession.
Looking back on the designs they're still cluttered and the eyes too detailed. If I were to tackle this again I would spend more time simplifying the shapes further and go as far as cleaning up the sketches more to get a better look at how a cleaner design would've looked.
Since these designs were done first if I had more time I would've used the finalised anime designs (see further below) as a reference and translated them into this simpler style.
I should also note that these designs we're not made into a Live2D model due to time constraints with my project (Learning a software from scratch is a big feat and trying to do 4 models would've been too much to take on). These are purely for pushing a portfolio of designs.
Next, I went ahead with the Animal Designs geared for studios. Like the previously, I started off with brainstorming and researching into local studio styles and also my own personal likes from original artists. I tried to look at a variety of styles here for this version. Ranging from small squished bodies, to more longer limbed animals too. I really liked looking at shows like Amazing World of Gumball along with the Video Game Night in the Woods. What was most important was finding references that allowed its characters to be as expressive as they could while keeping animalistic features.
(Fig 8. Moodboard on Western Studio Styled Anthropomorphic Characters)
(Fig 9. Western Styled Cat Designs)
A main feature in Hazels designs are her bow with moon jewel. For the human designs I've kept it on the hair while for the cat designs it's around her neck like a collar. For these 3 designs I liked the short and stubby versions the most.
- The first design I liked the dynamic pose I gave. However the small defined limbs and naked body combined with the pose seemed to appear like a heroic male stereotype. I liked how the pose gave personality but not the kind I'm aiming for.
- The second long limbed version was giving the wrong personality again. It looks like she's a laid-back or lazy, mean-spirited character which is the opposite of Hazel entirely. If I'm honest, the word I would give it is... Caveman?
- The third design I think captures Hazel the most. Its got rounded stubby limbs, a poofy dress, big bright eyes and perky ears. All of which symbolise Hazels fun-loving, bubbly and hyper personality. The pose was looking a little bit static however and the face wasn't proportioned the way I liked.
(Fig 10. Combining the first and last designs to make better version.)
Henry and I discussed in our one-to-one about combining both the first and final design together to see what we could get. So I went back and created this new version, Fig 10. I'm much happier with the look in comparison to the others. It keeps the cute stubby features and the pose adds to her bubbly personality. I pushed the face closer together like in the first design and which gave an innocent child-like look that I wanted.
I do think this style is still some what reminiscent of anime but I think its close enough to appeal to local studios. However to further interest studios who come to the EOYS Henry and I decided to use the Western Cat as one of the rigged models for my showcase and show them Live2D can be more than anime.
At this point I should note that due to time-restraints I didn't do any designs for an anime version of the animal cat so I moved straight to the anime model as I knew I would be making a Live2D rig of her and getting her designs right would be more advantageous.
(Fig 11. Sketches of Anime Version)
The anime model took the most inspiration from moodboards on Fig's 2, 4 & 5. I begun with trying to design a main outfit that reflected on her species (Cloud Cat), her job (Star Painter) and personality. I put emphasis on having clouds be a large part of her design along with plenty of star motifs. I decided ribbons would be a good indicator of child-like innocence but I balanced it out with a lower neckline and thigh-high socks or shorter skirts to imply a mature age. I should also note that I tried adding asymmetrical pieces to her design so that the eye wouldn't get bored while looking at her. In the end I felt a pull towards the final design I made and opted to do colour variations.
(Fig 12. Coloured versions of main outfit)
Originally I wanted the evening sky be the inspiration for the colour palette with peach pinks and vibrant purples but these didnt compliment her hair which I wanted to be brown. The colours seemed to clash and there was little breathing room left in the design. I went back and looked at the original colours in Fig.1. Using this I tried to go for a subtle warm pink and brown palette with purple being an accent colour through her top and eyes. Having some more desaturated colours and off-whites allowed each piece of clothing to breath.
(Fig 13. Casual outfit sketches)
For her casual attire I used Fig 5 as the inspiration with oversized hoodies and shorts to show a care-free attitude. I liked the long sleeves on the first design but realised they might be too difficult to rig correctly on Live2D especially if I wanted to try doing some hand-movement animations on the software for audience engagement. I liked the third design but it seemed a bit too formal to be an out fit for casual wear. This left me with the middle design which kept the theme of stars and clouds while keeping a cozy vibe.
Below are coloured variations. Again I felt a pull to pinker hues rather than purples. Her skin-tone is on the warmer side so the saturated cool purples didnt go well with her. Diving into colour theory, purple is a more regal sophisticated colour whereas pink can symbolise childhood, nostalgia and playfulness. I opted for the final colour in this line up.
(Fig 14. Coloured versions of casual outfit)
The last outfit was the summer attire. I took reference from Fig 3 and 5 for the designs. I also took the shorts from the casual attire and re-used the ruffles from the designs on Fig 7. My first idea was to keep it simple with a swimsuit and sheer cover but not only was this a boring design with no links to Hazels story but it also wouldn't have been allowed on Twitch due to their rules and regulations on 'Nudity' which are strict for V-Tubers. I thought more about the summer events like festivals and firework shows. I wanted to make an outfit that looked well put-together to attend events like these. I opted for casual shorts, a ruffled top and high-top sneakers. And for an additional summer vibe; some starry sunglasses on top of her head which allowed me to move her signature ribbon from her hair to her neck.
(Fig 15. Summer outfit sketches)
I really wanted at least one purple colour palette to nod at a night sky so I settled on this design being the one. I mixed saturated purples with navy hues and cooler muted purples. I then made sure to use the warm yellows on the stars as an accent and pull the look together. These darker tones of purple go quite well with her overall aesthetic so I was happy to leave this design the way it was. By this stage I was also running out of time to start getting the rendered art ready so I had to make the quick decision to move on even if I wanted to explore more ideas.
(Fig 16. Summer outfit colours)
Overall I was happy with the way the sketches and designs ended up looking so I was happy to move forward and start working on the rendered versions and get into rigging as quickly as I could. If I wasn't learning Live2D from scratch on my own I maybe would've allowed some more time to work on these designs, especially the ones geared to local studios but you have to make quick decisions when under time constraints.
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