about those dead-corps characters by stephen woowat
the characters from Dead Corps are from a grim with no prospects corporation that's corrupted and consumed everyone who's worked within it's grey walled office - turning them into anything from demonic beaurocrats to brain dead robots ...
Dead-Corps are designed by UK-based Graphic Designer; Stephen Woowat and are characters that have not been made, with neither any specific plans to make them (as yet) and were developed "for the heck of it" - they are computer models of a concept range of characters that Stephen would some day like to see realised in vinyl. Stephen has published them online (including individual profiles!) to gauge interest and response for them (do feel free to leave comments and feedback in this post as well) ... hell, im always down with zombies and the undead (LOL) and so i had a quick chat with Stephen about his Dead-Corps-rising ...
/// CLICK HERE TO READ
TOYSREVIL: what was the genesis of this project? you mentioned developing for the heck of it, but how did it all start? what was your inspiration?
STEPHEN WOOWAT: I've been following vinyl toys for a while, and really just fancied a go at creating a couple myself. I'd had a random idea for a threadless.com t-shirt where a poor office worker was hiding from a beaurocrat brandishing a reel of red tape. The design went no-where, but I decided to develop the idea anyway - the character Cartwrite being the immediate offspring of this. Building on the idea of how consumed and corrupt someone could become from working in an everyday office environment – I expanded the concept into other characters.
TRE: the lil birdie pickin' on Fred's brains is hilarious! besides the banality of the corporate-world, what were your influences for the characters?
SW: I really liked the idea of the office workers having a 50's horror B-movie feel to them, so I drew a lot of inspiration from that area. Many of the characters are rooted in classic horror monsters such as zombies, demons, beasts, possessed items, poltergeists, robots and so on. A lot of influence probably came from the computer games I played as a child (and still do!). I remember playing Harry the Handsome Executive quite a lot (which I loved), and an old SNES game called Zombies, which probably fueled some of my love for the B-movie feel. The character Gerry is a bit of a homage to the rampaging purple beast from the latter. Obviously there are lots of vinyl toy creatives who I really admire too: Pete Fowler, Touma and tokidoki being a few specifics. I also really like the eBoy Peecol stuff which has recently been shown off.
TRE: what's next for Dead Corps? besides online 3D-renders, are you pursuing any proto-typing? sculpting?
SW: The whole project really was for the fun of it and anything that comes from here is a bonus. The models are not 100% locked down, and I still see some room for development and refinement. I decided I had to just come to a point where I was generally happy with the models, and sit back for a while – it felt like I could of gone on forever developing them. The 3d computer models don't account for a lot of things that a physical model would, and I can imagine that a lot of technical changes would need to be made should they be prototyped. The next thing im hoping to do is develop the world of Dead Corps a bit more, and bring more life to the character stories. I've got plans for a flash site which will allow you to explore the grey office world in a little more detail.
As for the models themselves, once I'm happy with their forms prototyping would be the next logical step. From what I've found out so far, rapid prototyping would be ideal as the models could be built directly from the 3d files. My knowledge of the whole prototyping area is still pretty limited, so I'm still doing my research. Cost is obviously the big issue.
TRE: with it also mayhap an opportunity to explore artist-collaborations, yeh? if given a choice, what would you hope Dead Corps can be turned into: vinyl toys? mini-figures? plush? etc
STEPHEN WOOWAT: Toys and mini figures would be the holy grail - so I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens!
TOYSREVIL: cheers for your time, Steve! and good luck with Dead Corps, wherever they may lead to :)
Dead-Corps are designed by UK-based Graphic Designer; Stephen Woowat and are characters that have not been made, with neither any specific plans to make them (as yet) and were developed "for the heck of it" - they are computer models of a concept range of characters that Stephen would some day like to see realised in vinyl. Stephen has published them online (including individual profiles!) to gauge interest and response for them (do feel free to leave comments and feedback in this post as well) ... hell, im always down with zombies and the undead (LOL) and so i had a quick chat with Stephen about his Dead-Corps-rising ...
/// CLICK HERE TO READ
TOYSREVIL: what was the genesis of this project? you mentioned developing for the heck of it, but how did it all start? what was your inspiration?
STEPHEN WOOWAT: I've been following vinyl toys for a while, and really just fancied a go at creating a couple myself. I'd had a random idea for a threadless.com t-shirt where a poor office worker was hiding from a beaurocrat brandishing a reel of red tape. The design went no-where, but I decided to develop the idea anyway - the character Cartwrite being the immediate offspring of this. Building on the idea of how consumed and corrupt someone could become from working in an everyday office environment – I expanded the concept into other characters.
TRE: the lil birdie pickin' on Fred's brains is hilarious! besides the banality of the corporate-world, what were your influences for the characters?
SW: I really liked the idea of the office workers having a 50's horror B-movie feel to them, so I drew a lot of inspiration from that area. Many of the characters are rooted in classic horror monsters such as zombies, demons, beasts, possessed items, poltergeists, robots and so on. A lot of influence probably came from the computer games I played as a child (and still do!). I remember playing Harry the Handsome Executive quite a lot (which I loved), and an old SNES game called Zombies, which probably fueled some of my love for the B-movie feel. The character Gerry is a bit of a homage to the rampaging purple beast from the latter. Obviously there are lots of vinyl toy creatives who I really admire too: Pete Fowler, Touma and tokidoki being a few specifics. I also really like the eBoy Peecol stuff which has recently been shown off.
TRE: what's next for Dead Corps? besides online 3D-renders, are you pursuing any proto-typing? sculpting?
SW: The whole project really was for the fun of it and anything that comes from here is a bonus. The models are not 100% locked down, and I still see some room for development and refinement. I decided I had to just come to a point where I was generally happy with the models, and sit back for a while – it felt like I could of gone on forever developing them. The 3d computer models don't account for a lot of things that a physical model would, and I can imagine that a lot of technical changes would need to be made should they be prototyped. The next thing im hoping to do is develop the world of Dead Corps a bit more, and bring more life to the character stories. I've got plans for a flash site which will allow you to explore the grey office world in a little more detail.
As for the models themselves, once I'm happy with their forms prototyping would be the next logical step. From what I've found out so far, rapid prototyping would be ideal as the models could be built directly from the 3d files. My knowledge of the whole prototyping area is still pretty limited, so I'm still doing my research. Cost is obviously the big issue.
TRE: with it also mayhap an opportunity to explore artist-collaborations, yeh? if given a choice, what would you hope Dead Corps can be turned into: vinyl toys? mini-figures? plush? etc
STEPHEN WOOWAT: Toys and mini figures would be the holy grail - so I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens!
TOYSREVIL: cheers for your time, Steve! and good luck with Dead Corps, wherever they may lead to :)
