Character Design (SUMMER PROJECT) Reference Sheets

FELMAN

PRINCESS

ALEX

Character Design (SUMMER PROJECT) Research

Three Character Designs

Over summer we were given the brief to design three characters with the theme of "misanthrope". A misanthropist is someone who doesn't fit in with society due to regarding other people with distrust or hatred.

IDEA ONE:

My first idea was for a large and intimidating warrior who views other people as punching bags. I had an idea of what I wanted him to look like so I did a little research into warrior clothing, particularly the viking style.

Watching the Thor films was also essential to this research.

I then sketched my character based on what I had found in my research:

IDEA TWO:

My second idea was to have a character that serves as a comment on teenagers who know little about the real world and are overly attached to the internet/attention seeking over Facebook and tumblr.

This character is needlessly aggressive and anti-social; rejecting society in the belief that "no-one understands them". These are some of the things I looked into before designing the character.

These are some sketches I did for this character:

IDEA THREE:

My final idea was for a very stuck-up and spoilt cat who sees her owners as servants and other cats as dirty and undeserving of her attention. I looked at a lot of breeds and coat colours when researching for this character.

I decided on Ragdoll for the breed and sketched her:

Group Presentation (DD1000)

Our class was split into random groups and had to choose a topic from the contextual studies lecture to discuss in a presentation. Our group (Roger, Ankush and I) chose to talk about Semiotics as it is a very broad and engaging topic which can easily be found as an aspect of animation.

First, we talked as a group about symbolism and icons then decided to make a presentation about advertising. The core ideals of an advert is to get a message across to an audience in a limited time, so animated and graphically designed adverts are perfect for this as symbols (such as colours and simple, memorable designs) can be taken advantage of.

Separately, we researched animated adverts that we thought made good use of semiotics.

Here were my findings:

This ad makes use of colour as a symbol.

This ad takes advantage of a viewer's emotional response.

Together we then built the PowerPoint; here are the slides that I had the largest input on:

We discussed who should read what part and ultimately I convinced my group that it would be best if each person spoke to the class about the slides they had made, as each of us would have a better understanding of the part we had made/researched.

9 Week Project

 

We shared the making of the models between all of the group members as we had more than 3 characters. I made the individual mouth shapes for characters that need to be lip-synched.

 

 

The character I had the most input on was Count Spatula, who serves as the narrator for our advertisement. His name is a play on words and we wrote his lines to have puns in as well so he appeals to both children and adults. As our theme is similar to a stage play, this character narrates on stage in front of drawn curtains which is an instantly recognisable image.

 

 

We created the set together and chose the lighting by taking test photographs until it looked right.

 

When animating the piece we split the characters and worked on the ones closest to us so we didn't obstruct each other or knock anything over. This also made it easier to keep track of how each character was moving and how to move them in the next frame.

 

 

Frances and I chose to edit the frames using Sony Vegas as we both have a lot of experience with it. Myself and Dec (another classmate) provided the voice acting which I edited, added sound effects and music to in Audacity. I animated most of the lip synching and am pleased with how my part came out.

 

 

This is the final version of the video. It's a lot longer than we wanted it to be but we struggled to cut parts out whilst making sure the story made sense. I think it is very funny and entertaining to watch and the characters and effects look good. The animation is very simple and a little jumpy at times, such as when the Bat Scourer is flying off screen. It came out well and all of our group shared work and gave input towards the final piece.

 

 

 



1 Second (Week 10)

I liked doing the abstract shapes last week so for this animation I tried the same thing but with a character changing shape. It's quite strange and humorous; I like the way it came out.

Essay Draft 1: JOANNA QUINN & THE QUAY BROTHERS

I will be writing about the directors Joanna Quinn and the Quay Brothers as I enjoyed Quinn's 2D hand drawn short film "Body Beautiful" but not the stop-motion piece "Street of Crocodiles" by the Quay Brothers.

Body Beautiful was created in the early 90's when women were slowly becoming accepted as director's and respected in high positions in the creative industry. It is not strictly a feminist piece, but it breaks the mold by being a story for women and expressing the voices of women who are even today still widely not catered for in the media. It is written like a slice of life piece in the way it follows a normal woman with body confidence issues who has a normal blue-collar job. The way the characters banter and interact with each other is relatable and quite humorous.

Street of Crocodiles, however is a much more abstract and intensely metaphorical film. The protagonist is a silent puppet who wanders a dark world and becomes tempted by commercialism, only to find that trivial and material things are not as desirable as he once thought.

The style of animation used by Quinn is more relevant to my own work as I prefer 2D animation over CGI and stop-frame. Her work is captivating to watch due to the constant movement of her characters, which are almost like rapid life drawings made into caricatures of real people. She occasionally uses repeated sequences to show the monotony of working in a factory line, then bursts of exaggerated motion to show the excitement of her characters. I like how the colours are not overbearing but still with hints of bright colours such as red that keep the piece fun. Quinn uses many traditional methods from cartoon style to show movement in the film such as rapid lines and overlaying frames. Her characters are all very individual and instantly recognisable which is very important for following a narrative.

I dislike Street of Crocodiles because I find the models creepy and the doll eyes uncanny. The animation is overall quite unsettling and I struggle to enjoy watching things made in this way. The animation itself is well done as the Quay Brothers made inanimate and bizarre objects full of personality and life but to be honest I wish their characters would just stay dead. This film was made in the mid-80's so animation was not very advanced or perfected, but the film is revered for the way in which the brothers express movement and emotion, especially considering that the models themselves have no facial rigging aside from the eyes.

From researching both of these director's I have gained an understanding of the themes behind their work and the historical context they fall in to. I can appreciate the use of animation in both pieces, but I feel more strongly towards Joanna Quinn's work as I am naturally more attracted to 2D animation as well as her use of humour and narrative. In conclusion, I find a director to be more successful if their work is relatable.

1 Second (Week 9)

I decided to try something more abstract instead of the animal and human characters I had been drawing for this project. I chose to do several simple shapes all moving at once in different ways and directions and beginning to interact with each other. It is not necessarily a good animation but it was an interesting experiment.