Anime Show: Shaman King

Shaman King, originally created by Hiroyuki Takei is a manga and anime mainly based on Yoh Asakura's journey to heroism. The main reason this is featuring on my blog is because while watching it again, I thought more about the character design for this manga & anime. The anime version is very nicely done.

This is because:

• The image above has the characters Ren & Bason who at the beginning are rivals towards Yoh, the big armoured guy is Bason, Ren's guardian ghost. This character has been designed to help mirror Ren's character traits. Ren's see's himself as the biggest, bestest and baddest shaman so his guardian ghost will equally portray that. This is done by the armour he wears and its big body build.

Same idea applies to Yoh's guardian ghost 'Amidamaru'. Amidamaru is a human type ghost, he shares opposite qualities to Yoh. He was once a samurai when alive and performed a deed that he has regretted since his death, however Yoh, who is laid back and forgiving has helped Amidamaru's spirit forgive itself. Also, Amidamaru was a samurai and samurai's are determined. This helps to fuel Yoh's laid back side. Also, both characters like to help people in need which gives them a guardian archetype.

Basically besides the physical appearance of these characters, Hiroyuki Takei has put much thought into the whole background of these characters and their guardian ghosts.

Artist: Mauricio Ruiz

Mauricio Ruiz living in Los Angeles, above is the drawing he created for the theme Wretched. The creature looks gruelling and ferocious. 

Cliff Hope's comment stating ''Mauricio is right to be pleased with how his Wretched creature concept came out. Its angry expression is reinforced by the heavy brow, while its mouth looks suitably nasty. And there are some great skin textures going on here.''

• the colours and lighting used to create this character works in its favour, the skin texture comes across as slimy and gooey so the viewer gets an idea of what this character would look like realistically
• the vampire like teeth adds to the ferocious expression of this character instead of normal humanlike teeth
• the creatures head has a human-like shape but is then distorted with its enlongated ears

Overall the creature has been drawn well and the detail not over or underworked.

Artist: Rune Bennicke

Rune Bennicke's character designs are illustrative and expressive. They instantly help the viewer to understand the theme that's being portrayed. Above is an example of his illustrations. These are the character designs for Brother Bear.

• the colours used such as tan, pink and red tones help to convey that the scenery these characters are set in is in a cold state
• the use of historic facts are linked here, the humans are drawn in the style of tribal influence and eskimo like state
• the drawing style is simple yet realistic, the proportions are not accurate as this project is a cartoon so it has to be able to relate to kids
• though these are small thumbnail drawings, they get the ideas across quickly, the characters have been drawn in a range of poses which helps to provide more information about them

This project he did was for Toon Disney, which a children's tv channel.

My Character: Aiyana

Final design of my character Aiyana Kaleska. I worked hard creating this character, I used a Wacom tablet to draw it, this was hard as before starting this course I had never used one before so adjusting to drawing straight onto the computer took a while. It is a skill I definitely want to work on.

I came up with my character having the idea of a guardian in mind, and I have watched many foreign films based in Asia and wanted to add influence from that. I also wanted to simplify my character too with only certain features that are distinctive to her.

Collect, Copy & Paste

 From our trip to Royal Armouries and Leeds Art Gallery, these are the final images of what i created. The collage piece i did in photoshop above, tried to blend in the colours and texture to give it a rough look.

 If you look closely  you can see outline of the human body, thought it would go nicely with the painting.

I created these two characters from the idea of a pinecone which I think turned out well. I wanted to create a character from an in-animate object.

New to this...

Hi


My name is Munirat. I am currently studying a Digital Film, Games & Animation course in Leeds, North England, which so far two weeks in is very interesting.
On my blog you will be seeing what I engage in on my course and where my interests are in the media industry.