ARTIST'S STATEMENT

For my capstone, I have created three original character concepts with corresponding art, music, and voice over demos. Art forms such as animation and video games continue to be on the rise, and I grew curious as to what goes into the process of building characters.

Question: How do you introduce the same character through different mediums? How does each aid in the overall development of that character?

Influence: My capstone idea changed a lot over the course of this year, but when I decided to add an art component, I knew that I would be taking inspiration from the artist Toby Sharp (@tobyjamessharp). He is a freelance illustrator and concept artist that I have been following for a while online. Most of the time I don’t even know what video games or stories his character designs are from, but he does them so well that their personalities are conveyed incredibly clearly, all with a unique flair. I wanted to take inspiration from his pseudo-cartoon style and light rendering methods, as I am still new to the world of digital art. 

Subject: This project would not exist without Critical Role (critrole.com). Aside from being the most popular streamed Dungeons and Dragons campaign in the world, I adore all of the voice actors in the cast that devote so much to their characters and story. The nature of Dungeons and Dragons invites players to create unique characters out of thin air, which has inspired things like art and music to go along with it. As for Critical Role, their one-shot birthday game from several years ago has now evolved into an Amazon-ordered animated series! This is because they know their characters, they truly embody them. I wanted to see how I could channel this creative energy into creating my own well-rounded concepts. 

Methods: My capstone involves voice acting, illustrating, and music composition. For voice acting, I have been taking coaching sessions with Shelby Young, a professional VO, MoCap, and ADR actor, ("Shelby Young." IMDb). I’ve also been doing outside research on my own, with my favorite book so far being Voice Over Voice Actor, by Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal (also both professional voice actors.) As for illustrating, I am utilizing the app Procreate on my iPad, and I have been doing various figure drawing studies as well as experimenting with different styles to see what feels best for me. Lastly, for music I use GarageBand. My music methods really just involved experimentation, though I definitely listened to a lot of video game soundtracks along the way.

Audience & Impact: This project is for lovers of all fiction, whether, animation, video games, or Dungeons and Dragons, as well as fellow budding creatives in the industry. I hope people take away that the process of building a character involves telling an entire story with various unrelated mediums that can come together and create something spectacular. 

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References: 

Critical Role, critrole.com/.

Lowenthal, Yuri, and Tara Platt. Voice-over Voice Actor. Bug Bot Press, 2018.

“Shelby Young.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/name/nm1648492/. 

Toby Sharp Illustration, tobysharpillustration.squarespace.com/. 

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Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank Heather for helping me through my various capstone shifts, and my parents for being a constant source of support. I’d also like to thank all of my dear friends for putting up with my incessant capstone text updates from throughout the year. :)