DESIL358-Fall2016: Silhouettes

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Silhouettes

Silhouettes: help the artist...
1) thumbnail a large quantity of ideas
2) find interesting dominate shapes that work well together w/out getting caught up in the detail
3) Make a character easily recognizable at a distance
4) create well designed, understandable and interesting poses

Lots of Ideas:

Silhouettes allow the designer to try a large quantity of variations of concepts within a short period of time.
One of the best things about this quick design method is you don't need to focus on hands, feet, fingers, eyes and all the little intricacies that take up time. As seen below in some examples, you can produce broken shapes and ghost line effects while you let your mind fill in the gaps. You can worry later and work out the missing elements once you have chosen a strong dominate shape.

Dominant Shapes:

Use silhouettes to begin designing the foundation of your character. experiment with different simple shapes that will define the "feeling" behind your character. be sensitive to Shape function. Once a strong overall shape is found, begin adding smaller shapes that will make your silhouette more interesting and recognizable. This is also an important step to begin working out shape proportions as well. seek out interesting Big, Medium and Small shapes - avoid at all costs shapes of equal sizes.

Easy Read

This is especially important in Video game design and Comics. Characters must be a fast read when seen in the distance or when very small on the page. A quick glance should help the viewer know that this character is NEW, FAMILIAR, AN OPPONENT, A FRIEND, AGE, GENDER etc.

important characters should have striking ICONIC shapes that help them stand out among multiple characters.

Putting your Pose IN THE CLEAR

You should be able to completely fill in your character design with a solid color and still have the pose clearly communicate what the character is doing. This means important parts of the pose should be out away from the main mass of the body and "in the clear." Unimportant details should be blocked in with the main mass so as not to detract from the important parts.