Final Character

This is the final HI-RES vectored character concept. At this stage I had brought him into flash and animated a list of cycles for the character's movement. With his head, tail, body and four legs moving in time it created a very believable walk cycle. 

The colouring for the Rhino was under much debate. After many iterations I settled on this kind of navy-blue and light brown tail. I made this choice because I wanted him to be recognizable as a baby Rhino. There are many dark skinned Rhinos in the world and also many light skinned. Their colours range from a very dark grey to the lightest of browns. This gave me a lot of real-world information on the natural colouring of Rhinos.

Final Character

This Rhino is meant to represent the baby Rhinos left abandoned in the wild motherless and defenseless. I wanted to encapsulate the colouring and aesthetic of baby Rhinos and I think this colour is a great colour that is not too over saturated but also not too dull. The characters skin can be noticeable at very small resolutions and this is thanks to the high lights on his upper legs and back.  

In terms of personality and individuality of the Rhino I really tried conveying his pain, sadness and helplessness through his face. This is another reason for the proportional scaling of the head and body. By having his head much larger then his body the viewer studies the face longer then the body as it is more imposed on the character then the body.

With this observation I gave my character large eyes, perked up ears, a worried mouth, frown lines and eye bags. These were all intentional characteristics given to the character to convey the point of animal cruelty and sadness emanating from the character itself.

 This is the sprite sheet used to create walk, jump and idle states for the basic animation of the platform style game. (CLICK TO SEE ACTUAL RESOLUTION)

This is the model of the mother Rhino I created to link the story of the baby Rhino to the real world issue. The mother stands motionless in the corner of the screen. Bruised and battered it links the idea that this mother has been poached or attacked. Her giant horn dwarfs the babies immature horns.