Assignment - Basic Character Concept

So I had my robot... now normally this would be the time where I started to storyboard my ideas for the 3 idents and prepare them. However, in this case, I couldn't do that just yet. The crux of these videos is DiscoverBot. The little tyke holds the key; and needs to be animated well. As such; the important thing here is to make sure he's designed as efficiently as possible. Once he's made and animated; I can then start to work him into things. However; until I know the limitaitons of what I'm working with; it would be unwise to plan the idents now... otherwise I stand the risk of designing an ident that would just be too difficult; if impossible for the robot I have to work with. It's best that I make DiscoverBot first; and then work the ideas around what I can do. Back to the sketch-board...

The first important change to DiscoverBot was that he needed a screen. On paper; the initial idea of just the eyes on the head looked good... but in practice; the eyes would blend too much with the grey of the metal. Therefore, placing a light-coloured screen at the font would allow the eyes to become more prominent. It was also around this time that I decided to scrap the arms and instead go for a more 'Ray-Man' style idea and have floating hands. This is partly for looks (Less flailing limbs and allows more freedom on where the hands can go; without the arms being too long/short/getting in the way) but also for practicality. If you go back and view the Worms 3D clips; the lack of arms adds a lot more freedom to them. Their hands can hover by their sides, but can also stretch and scratch their heads/grab stuff... etc etc... for that to have been possible with arms; they would have needed to have had exceptionally long arms; which just wouldn't look as good as floating hands. It's the same here... I can stretch DiscoverBot's hands good distances without having to make him trail lengths of cable behind him (Basically he's going wireless!). The sketches below shows some of the initial developments.

Another vital development here was the removal of the body segments. Creating a torso and hip segment, linked by a spine would be more hassle than required. In addition; a small round body is much cuter (I really need a stronger word than this...) and more versatile... so win-win in my opinion. And thus; a few more scribbles later:

We have DiscoverBot Mk I! Cute! Big round head, small eyes, tiny body, massive feet. Just the look I'm going for. I also finally sorted out the hands; which had been giving me some grief (Bottom right). It was hard to get robot hands that worked with the image of DiscoverBot... and the round orb with little floating fingers and thumbs suited it best. A few more tweaks needed; but this was roughly what I was firing for.