Considering Transmedia and Merchandising: Live Action Movie - Ambam

When considering this as a live action movie, I decided the best way to communicate the idea is via a poster, where I could photoshop a few characters to how they might look in a poster. Firstly, I choose Ambam, as he was my favourite and main character.

Firstly I choose this image of a Mountain Gorilla, as it had long shaggy fur like Ambam, and was stood upright, (although there is a real gorilla called Ambam that learnt to walk upright that would've worked - where Ambam actually got his name - but he has shorter fur and looks less like my design). This photograph was actually taken just before the animal punched the photographer as he thought the photographer was threatening his band. I felt this showed Ambams personality quite well which made it a great image to work with.

 First thing I needed to do was level the image and make his fur look less 'blue'.

 I then got an image of his tricorn hat and added to the image erasing the rest of the image.

 I then started to make his shirt - a wrinkled cream colour.

 This took a few images of trying before I could find one that I felt look authentic and believable. The same went for his green waist coat.

 This took alot of colour correction and adjusting levels to help it fit in the scene.

 I then used a completely new image for his shirt as previous ones hadn't worked, and this proved far more successful.

 After adding both sleeves, I looked at the collar and ensured it sat behind his fur convincingly, so I used a brush tool that I felt could do this well.

 At this stage I knew the image would work, and the character was starting to look alot more like my design.

 Added a strap where he holds his machete, and erased his background, also adding a picture of the badge I had from his Prop Replica project:

 I then made his forearm out of the original images upper arm, and started to select gorilla hands to use.

 Eventually I found one that looked as if it was grasping something.

 I then experimented with which weapon I thought looked better in his hand:

 Added a belt:

 And another belt buckle:

 Trousers were harder to find than I thought they would be. They had to be for muscular legs from a difficult angle, and after a long unsuccessful search of images, I settled with this, knowing I

 I felt with this image his position should be changed, so he was slouched against something, such as a table or a post.

 Added a gun holster:

 And cigar:

 I then had to search far and wide for a picture of a post. Which was unexpected as at this stage I felt the worst was over, but this image turned out to be very hard to find:

After levelling and erasing, him and it started to look like they could be in the same setting.

 I then had to find a backdrop. I like the idea of the open West behind him, and settled with this image.

 After further colour correction and levelling, it was near complete. I did however feel the clouds looked to strange and eye caching, which distracted from the character.

 After an attempt at flipping the sky, I still felt something needed changing...

So in the end I added more clouds from another image and added the logo, the end result of which I am very happy with: