Some more work on paper!  Just experimenting with what will be Max’s personal tag.  I wanted to incorporate the letters of his name, but they don’t need to be extremely obvious since the monkeys are MONKEYS and don’t speak English, and a monkey face.  The colored tags are the favorites of the bunch.

A small element of the story has changed, such that there will be no subtitles. Then the question rises as to whether or not it is obvious that the story is about a father and son. Thus, it has been decided to add a family photograph in the store to signify their relationship. I’ve been working on the blendShapes for both characters, as you can see:

Experimenting with realistic lighting in final gather…here’s Max’s new look!

The following clip just shows some early experiments with blend shapes and eye blinks with Max’s face (done in December). From this I know his mouth needs to have more geometry so I can easily open/close and maybe add more of an actual eye-socket so his blinks look a little bit more realistic.

Early stages in Max’s development. Texturing and accurate skin weighting need to be adjusted.

Still needs textures…working on his walk cycle. 

Just modeling the head to attach to already modeled body.  

Jamie’s most commonly known for his illustrations for the music group the Gorillaz. I admire his funky style and referenced his images when creating my characters. The following illustrations were done for the modern opera adaptation of the traditional Journey to the West monkey king story.  

Max’s new design is made to reflect an edgier, modern look to go with his interest in graffiti art.