Thief Film - Concept Art for Thief Character

I might not be able to make my animated character have these type of cut-out shadows but I do like how it looks. I think I'm pretty close to a final look for the thief that I'm satisfied with. He's not always going to be just happy anymore, he's somewhat resembling a vulture and his body will be completely seen now - no more gaps because of the stripes in his clothes. There are still unresolved issues but they'll heal with time. Now I need to start placing the design with different backgrounds and getting him to move to see which combination of character over background is readable but still pretty.

p.s. I like that this pose makes my thief take the form of a question mark, which was actually an accident. He is a bit of a mystery to me and I still don't know when he's going to settle down into a design! Hurry up Numair, get with it!

Thief Film - Background Stylistic Choices

Ok anyone checking these out is definitely going to have to click each one to see them properly. The black base color makes all the detail vanish so fast. Hmm.. I'm going to have to keep that in mind for the film too.

I'm trying to experiment with as many styles of brush strokes for the backgrounds before I decide on the final look for this thief film. In the process I'm able to test out possible techniques for the characters too. I'm not sure I can make any concrete decisions with these experiments alone just yet. Unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to lay out all my options once I feel like I can't come up with any more/get tired and then mix and match with the options of the animated thief. I only know the feelings I'd like to provoke in the viewers so I'm going to have to use that to make my decision. Errr... I might need to hurry soon if I want to have something viewable in time for the Prom!!

These illustrations above are all made with vectors in Freehand. The textures are scans. I don't know if that would make it easier to animate with. That's to be thought of later on anyway. Right now I need to focus on a nice look.


And these two are the same as above but in day situations. Somehow I like how they look in day situation more than night. They're just so much more readable. I can't change that in the story though so I'll just have to be happy looking at them here in the meantime.