Wednesday 25 October 2017

Antagonist Inspiration



Here are some antagonists from Cartoon Network cartoons that are similar to my idea for my antagonist. Something I only just noticed when I put them all in a moodboard is that they all use strong red colours and have yellow eyes. I think I'll incorporate that into my own designs. I love the design of Father (bottom left, Codename Kid's Next Door) and I'll be using his face shape and eye shape, I may even keep the eyes pupil-less and glowing or have very small pupils like the other two. Him (top right, Powerpuff Girls) and Katz (top left, Courage the Cowardly Dog) has the kind of eccentric, yet sadistic personality I would like my antagonist to have. Like Him and Father, I'd like him to be somewhat laid back but explodes with rage if something doesn't go right.



I want to have my villain lanky and tall with quite shrunken, gaunt features, very similar to the designs of these characters from World of Warcraft. The reason for his condition could be due to his sugar diet. He may have become sugar dependant and will wither away if he doesn't get a fix. It's the same concept with these Warcraft characters except its arcane magic they crave. This could be the case for all the regular folk in the setting; Everyone could be after sugar as it sustains them.



These are some cartoon images I'm using for inspiration for my antagonist's headquarters/base of operations. I really like the stacked, clustered look of the top right (Dexter's Laboratory) and the bottom left (Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack). I think it makes the areas appear very complex and interesting. I also love the simplicity of the top right (Powerpuff Girls), the observatory lair is iconic for villains. I will try to create something out of the two different styles, such as having a large luxurious observatory tower (where the rich villain resides) spouting out of an agglomeration of sprawling factory parts. I wanted to have big tubes plunged into the ground, sucking all the nutrients from the earth. I'll be using similar colours also, there seems to be a trend of using neutral and dark greys and browns with small, bold areas of colour. I could use this for my factory: the main chunk of the building would be grey and black with bright reds and pinks. Like in the Powerpuff Girls image, the factory could have bright red lines running up the building where the sugar is being harvested.

These two concept art images I found that could be what the factory headquarters looks like, although the bottom image is a little too clean and orderly, there would be a similar setup inside. The top drawing is perfect for a smaller base for villainous sugar operations that could be found away from the main HQ. The main base will be massive.

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Protagonists and the HQ


One of my favourite cartoons when I was younger was Codename: Kids Next Door, so I draw a lot of inspiration from that. Above you can see the various headquarters of the different sectors in the show. I would like my the main base/home for my characters to look similar- lots of random objects haphazardly held together by a massive tree. I think it would suit the post-apocalyptic setting well.


These were the five main protagonists of the show. I'd want something similar in my own cartoon. Although I was thinking of maybe having four protagonists and an animal that tags along. They'd all likely fit the stereotypes that come with teams like this, i.e the leader, the nerdy/clever one, the strong one etc.

Landscape/Setting Inspiration


Here are some references of the kind of landscapes I wanted to go for in my cartoon. Like these images, I want the scenery itself to look quite dystopian but using a pallete of appealing cartoon colours. There would be different areas with differing levels of desolation, so not all of the setting looks barren and inhospitable. There could be something at the epicentre of the wasteland and as you travel further away the land gets more pleasant. (References are Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, Epic Mickey and https://martonantal.deviantart.com/)