Jason Chan: Character Design 2: The Hero - AVAILABLE NOW!!

[MassiveDVD]

In the next part of this infamous character design series, infamous character designer Jason Chan tackles the hero archetype. There’s a surprising amount of diversity to this basic character, and the main thrust of this video is to explore how different approaches can work to draw a viewer into a particular game or movie. As Jason paints three different heroes, the diligent viewer will be able to watch and learn from Jason’s technique while listening to insightful commentary about the real heart of a making a compelling design.

purchase:
http://www.payloadz.com/go?id=895184

trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-1PzteXSc

[Liffey]

Woohoo! As it would happen, I've been struggling with the design for the hero for the comic I'm writing. I'll pick this one up for sure. :)

[Brun]

looking forward to this one

[PieterV]

All this awesome stuff comming out, I'm going to do a massive (lol) buy one of these days...

[aaro_n]

yessem

[zweiDee]

nice! more character tutorials, yepahh. picture lookz great, I see here some popular game character designs. chan's kung fu are always great. thx!

[Chauncey Pierce]

I've got the 1st one, I'll definitely be getting this one.

[Droid]

Looks very nice indeed!

3 awesome characters, one DVD...

How could I resist?

[Lotet]

sweet!

[SteFlack]

It’s nice to see you’re expanding on the last download by Jason, can’t wait.

[Muz]

I will be highly dissapointed if there is no bubbleheaded jason :)...

:D

[GHudston]

Ooh, yes please! This looks like it will be incredibly useful for me!

[Cthogua]

This will definitely be a cool one. I do think it's funny that 90% of video games can be summed up by those three main characters.

[Liffey]

Heh, so true... guess it's a good idea to at least know how to draw them though, and hopefully use that knowledge for something more original.

[MassiveDVD]

One of the more interesting subjects of this video deals with why certain types of characters crop up again and again. :)

[Darktwin]

can't wait for this one

[AhChu]

Sign me up, will be keeping an eye out for this one :)

[Cthogua]

Heh, so true... guess it's a good idea to at least know how to draw them though, and hopefully use that knowledge for something more original.

Oh yeah absolutely, I didn't mean that as a knock against the download or anything. In fact I'll probably buy it. I'd say the next most common down from those is probably a realistic "real world" soldier type.

One of the more interesting subjects of this video deals with why certain types of characters crop up again and again.

Now I'm definitely going to buy it. Many thanks to you and the crew.

[Liffey]

Oh yeah absolutely, I didn't mean that as a knock against the download or anything. In fact I'll probably buy it. I'd say the next most common down from those is probably a realistic "real world" soldier type.

That and the naive, high-spirited anime teen.

[Theking78]

I'll buy this for sure!
I love to see Jason Chan at work!

[Brushcommander]

Can't
wait

[Liz Edwards]

Ooh this one looks awesome

[Liam Harvey]

*like the cool aid guy* "OH YEAH!"

is there a villains one in the works? everyone loves to love/hate the badguys.

[Liffey]

^ That's exactly what I was about to ask. :)

[Ryuartyi]

Looks really exciting. Loved the first one, so I should be picking this up.

[Molly]

Christ! I've been away too long! (faulty laptop) looking forward to purchasing this, love the Chan-meister! Mx

[janni]

aaaand bought!

thanks (again), looks fantastic (as usual) :)

[MassiveDVD]

It's out!! Looking forward to hearing your guys' thoughts on this one. It was a pleasure to edit... lots of great insights on making compelling characters.

[Liffey]

Awesome! Downloading now, waking up early to watch before work. I can tell just from the trailer that this going to be very helpful. :)

[Theking78]

Just downloaded, I'll watch it after launch!
Thank you Jason Chan!
Thank you Massive Black!

[Liz Edwards]

Downloading! Thank you for these, I can't wait! :D

[Ghostbrush]

just purchased, thanks again Jason Chan/Massive Black crew for puttin out another exceptional education video, priceless info for $20, cant go wrong :D

All the best

Alex

[teho]

The trailer is pretty informative, thank you!

[Ryuartyi]

Just paid for and downloading now. The trailer looks very nice too.

[SteFlack]

Its great to come home from work and have it to watch tonight, cheers guys :)

[Jason Manley]

Thanks everyone. You should do some studies after the vid and see how well you can do. I am happy to give a crit or two...maybe we can get some user crits going too.


jason

[KarylGilbertson]

Woo! Bought and paid for... just waiting for download to complete. An awesome excuse to try out my new business MasterCard (and I can totally write it off as an educational business expense)

Thanks to the Jasons, and the rest of CA as well!

[danlambert]

Fuck! I need a job

[Liffey]

Just finished watching! Very informative, but perhaps more importantly, it puts you in a good frame of mind to design all aspects of characters intelligently. Now I'm working on a couple of my own designs that I'll hopefully be able to share soon. :)

[ShroudStar]

Bought! :) Can't wait to see it - want to see how he tackles the hero concept.

[ibloat]

Aaaand bought.. as soon as Paypal starts working again.
Am a sucker for Chan's videos so there is no way of not buying it.
A useful info you could add to the description though is the length of the video.

[KarylGilbertson]

Okay, I just finished watching it...

For those who are wondering, it's an hour long (it does say that on the MB DVD page).

I would have to give it a thumbs up... Jason's flexing his amazing skills, and that's great of course (he does have some pretty good tips and tricks), but the real meat in this video is his discussion on Character Archetypes.

I recommend!

[jubjubjedi]

Will purchase when not broke... :P

[digital_zombie]

This looks awesome. Def. going to have to get this one :D

[Studio Colrouphobia]

Bought, downloaded, watched.
Had difficulties hearing Jason when the fake-snowmountain thing was going on but otherwise this was mint.
Explanation around the charactertypes was gold. Also like how he explained some variations of crating the characters (i.e. why he used certain layers and so on) as this helps a lot.
Usually, playing with layerstyles gives a crude and uninformative sensation for the uninitiated. In this video Jason takes us through why he uses Darken, Overlay, Soft Light (and I believe also Linear Dodge over Soft Light?). He shows how he applies it and the subtetlies are clear.

On top of this, he explains why certain characters look and act like they do in movies and games, covering three types.

Looking at this I realized that quite often in MB downloads it is said "normally the client would [insert various things here] but since I am my own client for this vide I wont..."

With that in mind, it would be utterly cool to get a MB production-pipeline video. I have seen the ones from the steambot-crew but it woudl be very cool to see MB pipeline ( 1:Character, 2:Creature, 3:Environment, 4:Props, 5:? etc )
I have seen Marko's dvd which is gold for character creation, but it doesn't show the pipeline, just one step in it. Kemps vehicle-series seem to be a pipeline-video though. (I lack the last part)

Just to get an idea over the possible ways.

I can easily see paying 50 USD for each of those...


studies coming later today or tomorrow.

[JasonChan]

Hi guys, thanks for the support. Those of you who have watched the video, let me know if you have any comments about what you would like to see or hear more about in these character design vids and I'll see what I can do.

Thanks!

[-Zer0-]

After watching that demo, one thought came to mind, Jason: you should go hijack RX-78-2 from Japan in the name of CA. In all seriousness, thanks a lot! I really enjoyed the demo.

[el coro]

i have a view of the chan-mans monitor here at work, and i look over from time to time when i want to feel emasculated :). being someone very familiar with his approach and body of work, i cant recommend this video enough. chan-man is a cham-pian.


c36

[Studio Colrouphobia]

Okay, so I posted this in my sketch-thread, but it is made with the Video in mind.
I'm trying to get rid of my strong darks and strong lights and trying to get them more middleground-value, not just yet with this one but better then before.

I was wondering something though, when you fill in with grey, do you always use darken(/multiply) on a layer above, or do you sometimes also paint with less flow/opacity over? The reason why I ask is because I find myself looking at paintings/sketches in tutorials where people manages to get a solid(not differentiating in value) grey that still is see-through so you can see the lines underneath and whenever I try doing something like that I end up with spots where it's darker or lighter or something. The only time this wont happen is when I paint on another layer with multiply or darken, but this is not always possible to do...

anyhow, C&C is welcome...

[aaro_n]

loved it.. Learned a great deal technique wise, and professional wise ;) Trying to keep things in order :) Lagging a little on the armor w/ my #2 guy But a little research has helped a lot :P It's the whole operative point Jason made..anyways heres the first dude with the insight taken. bbl with the second hero :D

[ShroudStar]

Studio Colrouphobia and aaro n, those are great! :) Hope to see more!

My second hero, whom is the twin brother of the first and a revision of the first hero. It does seem easier after working with the first character for days to work out all the issues and kinks.

714673

[RogerAdams]

Another great video. I always learn something from Jason Chan's downloads. This one's got some time saving PhotoShop tricks and some more solid character design info.

[Liffey]

Here's a quick concept for the protagonist of a graphic novel I'm writing. He would fall somewhere between the first two characters shown in the video. He's not unrealistically strong, but he is one of the best at what he does. In the story though, he's put into a situation where his old strengths won't help him, and he becomes more of a wary, yet still determined character. He's also a mix of someone the audience wants to be and someone they can relate to.
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs47/f/2009/188/e/c/Almond_Concept_2_by_theoryC.jpg

[Nibras]

Downloading this right now :D!!

So goddamn excited since it's my first massive black download.

Can't wait now!

[jordyskateboardy]

THis was my first massive black download and o boy it was great!

Been wanted to pick up these downloads like forever since I love Jason but just never got to it until the whole CA Black Out started which frankly I'm now thankfull for because without it I'd never purchased this dvd.
It really helped answer some of my questions regarding character design. I loved how he went in and told us how to have the viewer relate to the characters. That was a great insight and never thought of that before. It's all very coherent and you get a great overview of how to design a character. Both technique wise as well as how to convey your ideas. And that trick on how to draw flames was just totall badass.

Anyway this was superb learned so fricking much and can't wait to do some characters once I'm regained for my fever. I'll guess I'm just gonna lie in my bed and absorb every little bit of information in this vid over and over again. Will keep me occupied.

Thanks Jason and Massive Black. Will be sure to pick up the third one this afternoon!

Cheers,
Jordy

[sohfia]

Awesome, can't wait to see it!