This is a VERY exciting moment for me. Today I’ve decided to show you one of the character redesigns that I did for Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil (The Weinstein Co./ Kanbar Entertainment).
My art director on the film, Ryan Carlson has posted many of his redesigns of the principle characters on his new website. Go there and be amazed.
…so I figured that I would follow his lead and post a couple of the redesigns that I did.
Ryan and I, along with Jeff Siergey, designed a bunch of new characters for this sequel (the new characters will remain secret for now), but it was also a lot of fun to revisit the characters from the original film and give them a sort of budgetarily-inspired design boost.
Japeth (above), the cursed mountain goat whose supernatural affliction compels him to sing everything he says, was an audience favorite in the first Hoodwinked. He will, of course, return for the sequel.
I began my redesign process by reading about and looking at photos of real mountain goats. I realized that there were a couple of “goat” visual cues missing from the original design, so I addressed those first.
Below are some detail images (these can only be viewed in this post on ChrisOatley.com).
I spent the most time on the horns, since those swirly horns are a mountain goat’s most iconic asset.
The horns on the original design are much more mechanical and I wanted to see that organic ripple pattern.
I added a goat-appropriate nose and adjusted the silhouette of the head and beard.
Another improvement that our increased budget allowed was better fur.
Though I redesigned the look of the fur (I made it appear softer and designed a growth pattern similar to that of an actual mountain goat) I maintained a lot of the colored markings from the original Japeth design.
Those markings are second only to the silhouette in their importance for defining the character visually.
I gave his arms and legs gradating dirt stains (an idea I stole from the design of Sid, the sloth from Blue Sky Studios’ Ice Age films).
I referenced actual goat hooves for his hands and feet.
I gave his vest a dense fabric weave and made it look like he had worn it every day for the last twenty-five years.
So, I will post a few more of these in the future. I hope you enjoy seeing these. I certainly enjoy sharing them with you.
I am hopeful that my contribution to the Hoodwinked franchise will serve to “plus” the characters and the story. The original Japeth character was already a hilarious looking design. The visuals alone can incite a chuckle. The main goal for me was simply to make Japeth more believable, relatable and appealing.
Thanks for reading! There are plenty more Hoodwinked designs where this one came from!
I should have a new podcast episode up next Monday. Until then, go well.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Critiques? Email me at coatley [at] mac dot com. You can also find me on Twitter, deviantArt and Facebook.
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