Course Profiles: Character and Creature Design
By Will Dryden
Southern Virginia University Art and Design Professor Brandon Gonzales has over a decade’s worth of experience as a matte painter and concept artist in the film and entertainment industry. This semester, he’s bringing all that to his students with the newly added Character and Creature design class.
In this class, students are taught a variety of processes and techniques used by professional artists to design characters and creatures for films, games, and television.
To get a better idea of what the class is like, we’ve asked 3 students to showcase their latest projects!
SABERED ROO
Katie Kerr
“For this bipedal assignment, I thought a kangaroo would be visually appealing because of the stark contrast between the long, straight legs, and the curvy teardrop of the body. After I understand the qualities of a kangaroo that make it so unique, I am then able to begin to explore new ideas to make this Creature my own…I chose to make this originally vegetarian kangaroo into a mammalian inspired T-rex with a smilodon’s head capable of giving their Creator nightmares. Visually, this may seem like an overstatement, with a mamma Roo and her child, but that is where their cuteness stops. These vicious Sabered Roos cannot walk asymmetrically, meaning they bound to their prey in seconds. Jumping on their victim, they dig their singular, clawed toe in order to attack their sabers into the flesh. I finally chose a serene pose of a mother and joey to render, juxtaposing it to the aggressive predator characteristics.”
UGLY DOG
Nikki Jensen
“I really enjoyed using biology to make an accurate and biologically accurate creature. It was really cool to make up a creature at all, but to create a bone and muscle structure made it feel like it was just a step further from drawing a made-up creature.”
MANATEE SLUG
Miranda Hanley
“For this project I was tasked to create an aquatic creature by combining already existing animals into one. I chose to combine a couple of different species of sea slugs, a shrimp, and a manatee. It was quite a challenge to integrate invertebrates with a vertebrae in a compatible way, so in order to make them appear more natural, I took the structure of the exoskeletons and incorporated them into the design of the creature’s actual bone structure. I decided to give it vibrant colors in order for it to blend in with coral reefs, which is the type of environment I believe it would inhabit. It took a lot of work, but I am quite satisfied with the ending result!”
Feeling inspired to craft your own critter? Character and Creature Design will be available next fall. In the meantime, Professor Gonzales recommends you prepare by taking Digital Painting I and at least one drawing class, either Drawing I or Viscom I.
