4.Planning a character

SLIDES

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IN-CLASS TUTORIALS AND ESSENTIAL RESOURCES

Adobe Animate: Walk and blink cycles

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

• “Inside Out: Designing Characters for Pixar”– Video by Variety Artisans
• “Aaron Blaise Reveals The Seven Steps to Great Character Design”– Article and video on CartoonBrew.cow
• “Stunning Disney Character Transformations from Concept Art to Final Frame”– Interactive Gallery from ohmy.disney.com
• “Learning Character Development and Design”– full course on Lynda.com (follow these instructions to Log In for free)
• Great examples of character design:
  • “The Old Lady and the Pigeons”– by Sylvain Chomet
  • Bill Plympton’s Reel (2015)

ASSIGNMNENT: ANIMATE PROJECT – CHARACTER DESIGN

Brainstormideas for your character – write down ideas on a sheet of paper and gather visual references/sources of inspiration.

Sketch ideas for your character. These sketches can be rough but there should be plenty of them. You will be working with this character for several weeks – don’t settle for the first idea. Explore different possibilities before making a final decision.

Write a biography for your character. This doesn’t need to be long – just a short paragraph including its name and essential traits. Here’s an example:

“Agnes is a distinguished older cat. She walks on two legs, like a human, and is very smart. While her bones are frail and her vision a bit blurry (she has to wear thick glasses) she loves to stroll around the city with her pet snail. Her artistic disposition is reflected in her choice of clothes and unique haircut. She is on the shorter side and a bit round.”

Once you’ve decided what you want your character’s essential traits (design and personality) to be, create a character sheet: this is a document often used in animation showing different views of a character on a single sheet of paper. Make sure you include its front, side & back (tip: start with the front view and draw horizontal lines at the height of each important elements (i.e: top of head, chin, feet, hands etc.) across the width of the sheet of paper to align all views). I recommend using pencil and paper, but you may also use your favorite Digital Imaging software (i.e: Adobe Photoshop) and a tablet.

Deliverables (on Blackboard before next week’s class):

• (At least) 5 sketches (scanned)
• Your character’s biography (in Word or PDF format)
• Character sheet (scanned)

(Scan your drawings at home or in the LRC)

For the full project guidelines, grading rubric and examples, go to the Animate Project page.