WhoSprites: The Lost Who Animation Project

[garrettgilchrist]

Francis de Wolff played Agamemnon of Greece, in The Myth Makers. No telesnaps exist for this story, and very few photos [certainly no closeups of anyone].

Quite proud of this one. De Wolff also played the villainous mountain man Vasor, in The Keys of Marinus.

[garrettgilchrist]

Ivor Salter played Odysseus in The Myth Makers.

I almost didn't do this character, because I knew it would be a real challenge to get his look right.

There are a few photos of this character, enough to show the basics of his beard and hair.

I wound up looking at this image:
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/classback/mythmakers.jpg

and several images of Ivor Salter in other roles, looking very different.

I was careful about how I drew his beard and hair, and after a while it came together.

It goes to show that even without telesnaps or good photos of a character, you can still get good results.

[garrettgilchrist]

A few of the many faces of William Hartnell [version fourteen].

I've also drawn the alternate heads for the new versions of Ben and Polly, and some material to update the old version of Polly [#5].

My method for drawing the alternate heads is surprisingly simple - I really think and agonize over that first head, to get the look right, but once I have the design, so to speak, the alternate heads are drawn quite quickly. I take out a bunch of images of the actor [in this case William Hartnell] and draw what I see, using the proportions of the first head. I don't do pencil roughs or anything, I just draw them straight onto the paper, and draw a ton of them.

[garrettgilchrist]

Some of the many faces of Ben Jackson [Michael Craze], number sixteen.

[garrettgilchrist]

Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. All three of these drawings are based on reference I've previously drawn her from, from The Enemy of the World, Evil of the Daleks, and Tomb of the Cybermen. I wanted to see if I could do a better job nowadays. This is a usual trick of mine, to draw the character several times in a row, and pick the best of them.



Jamie, from The Enemy of the World. Again, reference from a photo I've used before. I wanted to see if I could improve on the old version.




Patrick Troughton. Twenty-four. Colored.

I've drawn Troughton twenty-six times, more than any other character, and I still find him difficult to capture sometimes. It's also hard to find good reference that captures the character - he has a great variety in his expressions, and isn't captured easily in a pose.

I went for a more extreme expression, to get his character into the drawing.

I used an unusual bit of reference from The Mind Robber, as he's facing the Karkus, and I had to tone the expression down, as well as tighten up his jawline, which was originally pushed down into his collar and neck.

I shortened his hair - perhaps too much! - taking inspiration from Tomb of the Cybermen, which also provided the reference for his clothing here.

I think this is the first version of Pat I've drawn which actually includes, albeit subtly, his black bottom tooth.

[garrettgilchrist]

Some of the many, many faces of Patrick Troughton #24. He has 66 alternate heads - more than any previous sprite. I used to consider 20 alternate heads a good number.

[garrettgilchrist]

Some of the many heads of William Hartnell version thirteen. He comes with 36 different heads in total.

[garrettgilchrist]

I thought Polly #6 - a sprite from last year - needed much more dramatic looking hair. So I redrew and darkened up that portion of the sprite.

[garrettgilchrist]

And here's a more dramatic take on the hair for Polly #7.

[garrettgilchrist]

An over the shoulder shot of Polly. Drawn entirely in Photoshop, from some fairly poor reference from The Tenth Planet.

[garrettgilchrist]

Made some minor tweaks to the Lesterson sprite from Power of the Daleks, which dates back to 2008.




Anneke Wills as Polly, number thirteen, colored. An attempt at another side view - This was from a small, low quality photo from The War Machines, where she has long hair. However, I have a policy of doing my Polly sprites with short Macra Terror style hair whenever I can, so that any longer hairstyle can be added in later. So, I drew her with short hair instead. For reference for the short hair, I didn't use Anneke Wills herself - I happened to have some low quality photos of an actress with essentially the same hairstyle - so Polly got that actress' ear, neck and hair.

I don't think it really worked in the end, as well as I wanted it to.



Peter Purves as Steven Taylor. Version two. Colored. Reference was from The Daleks' Master Plan.

[garrettgilchrist]

Some very hard work the past few days as I've completed the complete set of color animated heads for Troughton 24, Hartnell 13 and Hartnell 14. I also created a full body and partial body for Troughton 24 and partial bodies for Hartnell 13 and 14.




I'm extremely proud of Patrick Troughton version 24. He comes with 66 alternate color heads - a huge, huge number, and the range of expression he has is remarkable, really capturing the character in many, many moods.

The complex body was based on an extremely poor quality photo from Tomb of the Cybermen, and a lot of artistic license. His lower body, including his pants, belt and shoes, was based on a CGI version rendered in Poser, but this was very carefully made to match with the parts of Troughton's pants visible in the photograph I was working from, and with a lot of artistic license I gave the CGI pants a very rough and more realistic look.

[Here's a copy of that reference pic:
drwhotht02.xtreemhost.com/2m/d2-2m-017.jpg]

Each leg and arm was created separately from the main body, so that the entire body is jointed in seven parts, and completely animatable in Flash, After Effects, Toon Boom, Anime Studio, or any 2D program.



William Hartnell version 14 has a very nice range of expression, with 44 alternate heads, but due to his rosy cheeks, he always looks a little amused - so this will be most useful for when Hartnell is cheerful.



William Hartnell version 13 is another excellent sprite with 36 alternate heads. I've used him here on a tweaked version of a body originally created for another version of Hartnell. He is particularly good at looking worried and sad, as well as grouchy and defiant.

With the excellent Hartnell #9 sprite already in service, and the side view of Hartnell which is also quite good, This is about all the Hartnell sprites you could need for most purposes .....

[garrettgilchrist]

Finished Ben Jackson, number 16, with 37 alternate heads, and a jointed Power of the Daleks style body.

The body parts were made separately as usual, and don't fit together perfectly in this image, but will animate well, as in animation I can shift bits and move them around.

I should have made it so the legs were pointing in the same direction as the head .... it became a gradual thing, where the various sources I was using started pointing that way .... I shoulda changed it before I started drawing. Still ... he can do the twist.

Most of the upper body is based on a telesnap from the episode, and the rest is based on a CGI render.

[garrettgilchrist]

A new version of Polly -- Number 11. This sprite is very similar to my Polly 12 sprite, as it was made from similar reference, and then I put a similar hair and costume style on the character. However, the angle of the head is not looking up quite so much.

I've also given her Power of the Daleks/Tenth Planet style long hair, as you can see.

For a comparison, here is Polly 12.



Though the sprites are quite similar, I made Polly 11 from scratch. I just made sure when drawing her that the two had a similar look.

I was partway through finishing Polly 12 for animation, but might finish Polly 11 instead ..... not sure I'll finish both ....



I've worked hard the last two days, finishing two other characters for animation, with many multiple heads .... I wonder if I should say who they were .....!

[garrettgilchrist]

Lesterson. Supporting character played by Robert James in "Power of the Daleks." Finished in color with 28 alternate heads! Also has removable glasses.



Governor Hensell. Supporting character played by Peter Bathurst in "Power of the Daleks." Finished in color with 11 alternate heads!