Practice texturing / furthering first concept

With one first small model made I also felt like it would be a good idea to play around with the texturing and take that model (once UV mapped in Maya) into substance painter. I wanted to give the model a simple texture design so that it looked like a vinyl figure.

Below are the final renders of the concept, this is a very early concept and alot of improving needs done but I liked the process I used to get to this point. More models and ideas to come but i’m happy with this small grounded idea as a starter.

 

 

Jumping into a modeling concept

With concepting I prefer jumping straight into Zbrush before sketching espeically when i want to establish quickly if my idea is good and is something i can really see working for the entire project.

I chose to do a sticky toffee pudding as my first idea as i wanted to see if I could turn something sweet and sticky into something gruesome and gross while still keeping its cute and toy like properties.

This was just a quick idea to see how i can develop it and for myself to create a starter model to get other ideas flowing

SWEET GONE SOUR

So while researching and thinking about a theme for my toy line I have come up with the idea of “Sweet gone Sour” and in that i will take sweet treats like cakes and sweets and turn them sour. So an idea was to have a cute marshmallow but hes all melting and burning or, a cupcake that is all moldy and half eaten. Its a mixture of cute and sinister which is something I think would be a fun and creative idea to play about with with the toys because the possibilities for figures is endless.

On top of that I want to make the toys all have a cartoon stylized look about them so that they all fit within the same series and look like they belong in the same line. (What was done with the round black eyes with the Funko Pop Series) Some sort of distinguishable feature they all could have.

I will continue my research into this idea of sweet things gone sour as I really like this idea and think it could do well.

Market research in the toy store

With wanting to go down the vinyl toy figure series line I had to figure out whether my toys would be more suited from adults or children. There are hundreds of toys on the market from children but i wanted to go in myself and see what Symths Toys Super stores in Aberdeen had on display. To my surprise and delight I found the shelves were full of blind toy series. The selection was endless, some of which were own independent IPs like Lost Kitties, Hathimals and LOL Suprise. On top of that there are also well known brands like Nintendo, Five Nights at Freddies, Slither.io, Dinsey and Minecraft who had also brought out there ow versions of blind figure series. The popularity of these toys on the market right now is at an all time high right now for adults and children. I think the genuine attraction to these toys is the element of surprise and a gamble that is taken when buying them that gives the consumer the extra added kick in buying these types of figures. Below are a series of pictures i took of the toys that were available on the shelf, the majority are blind figure toys, while others are small vinyl figure series which i also liked the look of and would like to take inspiration from.

Original IP brands-

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Well known companies who also bought into the blind figure and mini figure idea- 

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From this i found that most figures ranged in the size of 3-6 inch depending on the brand. The price also varied a lot between them but the majority were around the £7-£10 range.

I also found that it appeals to both genders male and female with some toy ranges having a more masculine line with gross looking figures and a much more feminine line full of pinks and cute chubby designs.

General toy series research

Delving deeper into the idea of creating my own toy figure series I began to explore what was on the market and look into different toy lines that I personally enjoy and could take inspiration from.

Funko

Funko more recently is most well known for there POP figure series which are small 4-5 inch figures (with larger limited edition sizes also available) depicting different characters from popular movies, games, tv shows and even famous celebrities. POP figures are most distinguishable from there large black eyes and large square heads that all the toys sport no matter the series. These are definitely my favourite toy line to date as I love how they all follow a very similar design pattern and all have the large black eyes in common, I would like to create a common feature for all my toys to have like this figure series to really set them apart from what’s on the market today.

Kidrobot

Dunny Series-

This is another one of my favourite designer toy companies, this was the company that got me interested in designer and collector toys. Their main series I enjoy the most is the Dunny line. What I like about this toy series is that every figure follows the same initial shape of a rabbit/bear-like creature but the design on top is different for each one. Each series normally follows a certain theme which I would like for my own toy series too.

Most Kidrobot figure series are blind box toys this is when each toy is in a sealed box and it is a gamble which one you will receive in that series, each toy has a rarity rating meaning some toys can be worth a lot of money once revealed which one is inside the box. This is also another idea I would like to explore doing with my toy series.

 

BFF- Best Friends Forever 

Another toy line brought out by Kidrobot was the BFF (Best Friends Forever) series. What attracts me to this series is the cute chunky shapes they use for the figures and also the bright colour and cute simplistic facial expressions. This toy series screams CUTE! but what makes it even more intriguing is the sinister side of the series in that in each box it contains 2 sets of figures both of which are not good together like cheese and a grater or a brain and a needle and a balloon, hence the ironic name for the series Best Friends Forever. I absolutely love the cute yet sinful style to this toy line and I think its incredibly interesting to take something sinister and spin it onto its head and make something completely opposite out of it. I want to use this idea in my own toy line as it not only adds interest and sets apart from a typical toy line, It also adds a slight level of controversy which would attract people to my product and overall make the idea more fun for myself to create.

 

Toy sclupt idea first thoughts

Moving on from my original idea I wanted to explore something I was really interested in and have always had a passion for. I also wanted to make sure I was going to enjoy working on this idea so I looked into ideas that bring me joy and was something different to what I had explored in my previous years.

I always collected toys from a young age it is something I am very much still interested in. I mainly have a fascination with designer toys- toys for collectors type thing- I collected Dunny series and lots of other toys by Kidrobot company. This is what first gave me an interest in the toy industry not just for children but also for adults.

These sorts of toys by the likes of Kidrobot and Funko were created with adults in mind and enthusiastic collectors who adored the toys not for there play like properties but for there artists and aesthetic appeal. This is an idea I would definitely be interested in delving into and creating my own figure series.

Early ideas for the project

Over summer I wanted to use my new experience of my new diagnosis of MS as part of my project, I had a few ideas to create cartoon characters who had illnesses and bringing the realism of disability and illnesses which are all real and big things in the real world into the world of cartoon and creature creation. I had a look at characters in film, tv and games who have disabilities and looked at how they are portraid, many I found had very visible disabilities like being in wheelchairs and some I found were characters like dory from finding nemo who had short term memory issues where the disability was more invisible- meaning it could be quite difficult to show that in a static sculpt. What I had to figure out was how to show these disabilities from the sculpt of the characters I created.

 

In the end after more research and ideas I honestly went off the idea pretty quickly. I didn’t want to push the MS thing into my work, yes it was a significant thing in my life at the time of the ideas but as soon as I began to accept it more I realised I was more than that and wanted to move on to creating something that didn’t just show the MS side. I do think this is something I will peruse in the future but for now I wanted to do a fun project and take my mind off the MS while also expanding my portfolio an pushing my skills.

 

On to the next idea…

Honours project 1st post and thoughts

For my project i have been exploring different ideas and what I think would be a fun project I would like to peruse for the year. Honestly my ultimate aim is to make the project as interesting and as fun for me as possible while also pushing my self to create something I will be proud of at the end of this year. 3rd year was incredibly difficult and I honestly did not like the majority it was stressful and a mess but i can say I am happy with the work i produced back then, with this new year I want to make sure I have learned from the mistakes I made last year and make sure it is a project i will enjoy to do for the whole year and something that will not stress me out to the point I wanted to drop out of university.

I want to enjoy my last year at Abertay, build a portfolio piece I can be proud of while also making sure not to push myself over the edge like last year. I’m unsure what to expect of this year but hopefully i can keep on top of it and better my skills.