Super Hero intro sequence/Animated series pitch brief and first sketches.

For my Showreel and Engagement course at the University of Salford I decided to create a self directed brief for myself to build up a portfolio and showreel for my desire to be a Visual Development artist. 

The brief I came up with was to create and design characters and environments for a super hero television aimed at kids 10-16. The animation style would be 2D animation using a combination of Toon Boom/Adobe Animate CC and Photoshop software and the end product would be a title sequence and a portfolio of artwork for future employers in animation or to pitch the show idea to potential clients and animation studios. 

The origin story for my characters is while on a school trip to a major science lab the four classmates accidentally come into contact with an experimental formula which affects them differently giving them amazing powers to fight crime and stop the plans of a mad scientist who wants to create an army of enhanced beings. 

Here are the first sketches of the character designs. 

Concept sketches Stretcho and Streak

The super hero team would consist of teenagers inspired by television series such as Stretch Armstrong and The Flex Fighters and DC Super Hero girls.

The first two characters I designed were a speedster and a stretching super hero. The speedster I decided to name Streak given it linked with speed and I didn't want it to sound too much like the Flash. Her alter ego would be a student named Zara Williams who is a track runner at school and has a need for speed, in essence she would be the Rainbow Dash of the team.

The stretching super hero I decided to name Stretcho as when writing some clever catchphrases one spoke more to me 'Stretcho chango" and so it was set. The alter ego would be a young science student who is also a comic book nerd and favourite target for bullies at school as it wouldn't be a super hero team without a more logical sense would it. The name of his alter ego was Nathan (Nate) Mcgovern.

Concept sketches Bulk and Phantasia

A super hero team wouldn't be complete without the muscle and so I created a hero with super strength and named him Bulk and I gave him a good catch phrase "Its Bulk and pound time!" This I knew would be a good phrase for him to use. His alter ego originally was to be a football quarter given this seemed to be the right persona, as well as his name Brick Rodgers. 

The fourth member of the team I decided would have ghost powers and I already had the perfect name for it I named her Phantasia. This I felt was original and described her powers. Her alter ego I decided would be rather quiet and distant from the other students in school not really interacting with anyone else. Another aspect would be having too perfect parents who try too hard to get her to come out of her shell even if she doesn't want to as they didn't understand her. This would be one of the character developments her opening her life to others and be more sociable. 

I decided to name this character Anastasia (Ana) Stewarts a good name and I had an idea that Nate would have a small crush on her in the series but not having enough confidence to tell her. 

Alter ego first designs

Comic scene idea

I sketched the alter ego character designs using ideas I already had in my head and would develop them later down the line, I even had an idea to make a small comic book scene using the current design ideas inspired by a scene from the film Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle. 

I feel rather immersed in this story idea and has given me a brief to work from for the remainder of my third year in University and I may yet make this into a small comic in the future too.