Blog Post 1 ♡ I Never Thought Scribbling Would Feel So Weird to Me?

Introduction

Hi friend, and welcome to my first blog post for GAM3432: Character Design! I’m not an artist by any means, but I’m SUPER excited for this class. In this blog post, I will showcase some of my gesture and scribble figure studies. I will also talk about the Uncanny Valley, and show an object that likely avoids the Uncanny Valley.

Gesture & Scribbles

Gesture refers to the movement between all things; it is not the contour or tone, but rather the movement that connects the form (Proko, 2013). Gesture is really important to understand the skeleton of the drawing, because otherwise the details and proportions will tend to look off. The idea behind scribble drawing is that it “loosens up” the artist while they're drawing.

The Uncanny Valley

The “Uncanny Valley" is the observation that as robots appear more humanlike, they become more appealing—but only up to a certain point (Caballar, 2019). Upon reaching the Uncanny Valley, our affinity descends into a feeling of strangeness, a sense of unease, and a tendency to be scared or freaked out. 

I spent a few hours walking around campus looking for objects or animals that could be video game characters that would avoid landing in the Uncanny Valley. At the Wanek Arcade, I saw the Step Maniax machine and I could see a video game character in it. The speakers look like earmuffs or headphones, and the “Step Maniax” panel at the top of the machine looks like a hat. The two metal pipes also look like arms, and it kind of looks like both "arms" are carrying something.