Summer Project: Fusion Fighters

Finished Poster

Over the summer I'd been assigned the task of pitching an idea for an animation and produce a poster to help with the pitch that would showcase the animation style of the animation.

I decided to go with the idea of an animated television program, as even though the animation isn't as higher standard as with movies, due to much lower budgets, I like the serialised storytelling and that audiences get to spend along time in the world created and with the characters.

Due to my love of comic books, I wanted to create my very own superhero. Being that my favourite superheroes are Spider-Man and the Robins, I chose to make my hero a teenager and have him in a High School setting, but chose to this time have it set in a British Secondary School rather than in the USA, as this is something I would find much easier to relate to. And as I enjoy reading, and some of my favourite comics are titles such as Young Justice, Teen Titans and the Justice league I also decided to give my hero a team to fight crime with. My initial concept has each member of the team joining slowly, with my initial hero getting powers, and then though different ways would transfer powers over to his teammates as the series went along.

Initial design for Commander Justice

Here is my first design for my main hero, who I knew would have both superstregth and the ability to fly; to represent the strength I gave him a large muscular physique, however due to his flight, I also wanted him to be as lightweight and aerodynamic as possible and so was sure to make him lean and not overly bulky. Additionally I didn't want to make the character look too big as he is around 15-16, but I decided to not worry too much after a quick search for 15/16 year old bodybuilders and found that some were pretty hench, as well as that the muscles are derived from his super strength.

Initial design for The Eagler

For my heroine I knew that she would be dating the main hero and that she would get the power to fly after kissing her boyfriend, but that it would only last for one hour. The idea came when I imagined them kissing and them both just floating off of the ground a little. For her design I wanted to keep with the lightweight aerodynamic feel which I used with the main character, and although there was no need to give muscles as she does not have super strength, I did not want her to appear weak by coming across as too thin, and so muscles are there, but they are not too bulky.

Initial design for Fist Pound

Next I went on to design my hero's best friend, who would receive the power of Super Strength after fist bumping his best mate, and like with the girlfriend, he would only receive super strength for an hour. For his design, as he only receives super strength, I decided to make him as big as the hero, but come across more bulky and less lean as he doesn't fly. For his costume I wanted it to feel very DIY and so it is essentially a T-Shirt (with an emblem to be added), cargo pants, Converse shoes, and a mask which is just a cloth tied around him with tow holes in it for his eyes.

Initial design for Retributioner

The final character I designed is of the mysterious masked hero who doesn't seem to have any powers but is very adept at crime fighting. For this character I knew he would have to be in shape and so I made him athletic and gave him some muscles, but not as big as the heroes with super strength. His costume features a lot of padding to protect him, but with breaks in between the muscle groups so that he can still move about easily in the costume.

When it came to naming the characters, I decided to ask my friends for their opinions; after telling them the story for the characters, one of my friends came up with the name 'Fusion Fighters', coming from the idea that the powers fuse together, which was much better than my own idea of 'Crime Busters'.

Rough draft for Poster

When it came to designing the poster I looked up different poses and did a rough draft of each character and their average positioning. I also chose to showcase a piece about the characters and their powers in a comic strip format at the top of the page. The first panel depicts the main character being zapped by a ray of some kind, giving him his powers, with the next two depicting him sharing his powers with his friends through the kissing and fist bump respectively. And the final panel showcases the fourth hero's training as he has no powers.

Commander Justice posed and in colour

I settled on the name Commander Justice for the lead hero as he would be commanding the team. His real life alter-ego is known as Cameron Justins, giving it a tie into his super name.

The Eagler posed and in colour

As I wanted this character to soar through the air as majestic as an Eagle, I chose to give the name of The Eagler to her. The pose she is in is based of that on Eagle in flight.

Fist Pound posed and in colour

I came by the name of Fist Pound as this is another name for a fistbump, which is how he gains his powers from Cameron. The logo is meant to be an F and a P with the P upside down, however I have since realised that the P just looks like a lowercase D 'd', and so I may need to go back and rework it.

The Retributioner posed and in colour

I christened my powerless hero as the Retributioner who is out seeking retribution for the things he has lost. I wanted the polygonal shape of his padding worked into the logo, however I feared that it looked too similar to an angulated version of the logo of Robin, to rectify this I chose to keep it in outline  and not fill it in, as well as to place the emblem on his shoulders rather than his chest.

The target audience for the show would be Boys Age 6-14 as this is the most marketable audience for an animated action show when it comes to advertising and toy sales, however although this is the key target demographic, the show will cater to all ages and both genders, as at it's heart it will be trying to tell a good story, rather than just try to water it down for kids.