DS3 - ANM 375: WEEK 6

Struggle of a week! First off I wanted to address the tweak notes from last week. Cutting back the ears though, that was ugly. I hit the armature and had to do some serious surgery on it to cut it back and then rebuild the ears again. I also felt like the pupils in the eyes were too big for the character. So I dug those out and spent several hours rebuilding his eyes over and over, never really finding a look that felt right. Along the way my clay collected a ton of dirt, one of the things I'm not liking about this translucent pink clay. You can really see the smudgy stuff on the left side of his face; he almost looks like he's got a shiner :(. Live and learn I reckon -- Gotta wash those hands thoroughly and regularly!

Other progress this week: Cleaned up the hat, remodeled his turtle neck, added some fur detail at ears and generally tried to rake out as many blobby areas as possible.

Bernard REF:

Bernard Maquette Analysis:

1. A Disney Collectible, ostensibly approved by licensing! The pose is terrible; blocky feet, wide body, eyes too small and ears too big. He's actually cross-eyed! Just doesn't fee like Bernard at all. The nose is wrong and his snout has an over-dramatic split in the middle.

2. Another Disney Collectible. Proportions are starting to get better on this one, at least in terms of appealing eyes and a slightly off-kilter angle to the head. Still, the pose is very mirrored and boring. The nose is too big for Bernard and his cheeks poof out too relative to the film reference.

3. This is a rigid doll model with cloth clothing from Applause, though licensed from Disney. I suspect it might be modeled more based on the Rescuers Down Under version of Bernard, which has a slightly more 'youthful' take on the character than the original. Still though, this characterization seems TOO youthful -- maybe it's the perky ears and overly delineated teeth that make it seem so. It just doesn't have have the feel of the original movie character.

4. Very different take on the character -- more 'mouse-like' with emphasis on the whiskers, more realistic eye scale and delineated eyebrows. The ears are smaller and more realistic is scale, though the feel are extremely exaggerated, perhaps to allow for figurine stability. It's appealing as a mouse character but because the eyes are so tiny and the whiskers so distracting, it just isn't Bernard.

5. Very detailed Disney Collectible. Nice pose with much more attention given to the legs / feet as well as the details of the character. The ears seem a bit small, but the eyes are decently large and cartoony. Interesting the physical whiskers choice. I think they distract from this piece being 'on-model.'

6. This character looks more like a Don Bluth character than Bernard. The odd color choice on the hat doesn't help but I think the whiskers are the biggest distraction and fail here. The pose is compelling and varied and overall the appeal is high even if it's not 'Bernard.'

7. The mirrored pose and blocky limbs don't help this version, but the face proportions actually aren't that bad. The shape of the ears are pretty close to my film reference, and the eye forms, snout and cheeks have a good structure for the character. The teeth are a little off -- kind of snaggle tooth-ish rather than solid and mouse-like.

8. This is a Disney collectible Christmas ornament. I really like the detail and proportions of this one, though I think I would have not painted on the whiskers. The mouth is pretty appealing, as are the eyes, though the pupils might be a bit large relative to the reference.

9. This one's another Disney collectible Christmas ornament, but high-action! Great pose and composition along with Bernard's expression. The paint job isn't as good as #8, but overall this is a wonderful tableau with a ton of personality. Definitely a plus that this one doesn't have rendered whiskers.

10. Another 'action' shot. Great pose and from what I can tell the proportions are generally good except for the snout and nose which are too sharp and pointy.

11. Interesting maquette created by ??? The pose and expression are really sound - fantastic angles and contraposto. What I struggle with here is how 'middle-aged' Bernard seems. Clearly Bernard's not a young mouse, but he shouldn't be 'too' old either. The movie character is voiced by a slightly stuttering Bob Newhart and this lends one to typecast Bernard as older than maybe he might be cast based just on his visuals.

12. Latest Disney collectible and definitely the best figurine of Bernard I found. Great pose overall and lots of nice energy in the face. Bernard definitely seems older, but he doesn't feel 'middle-aged' per se. When I compare this model to the reference imagery captured from the film, this rendition seems the most 'on-model to me' in terms of proportions and also the most appealing overall.

Bernard's a tough character to solidify as a single representation. As a 2D drawn character he got a ton of visual incongruities from frame to frame. Even in the 3 screenshots shown above the shape of his ears moves from pointy to rounded. He's a challenge to nail down!

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

looking really good!

I know you mentioned fighting with the eyes, but eye focuses don't match. Screen right eye is looking higher.