Applied Animation: Refining Characters

Whilst I was drafting an initial script, Katy set about designing the characters we had chosen for our animation. Although Katy was the leader of this process, we wanted to make sure that we were on the same page and decided to each create a mood board for the characters so we could compare our ideas and then decided what kind of line style and aesthetic we wanted to work with.

My Mood Board

Katy's Mood Board

We had very similar ideas when it came to the character design and I was pleased that we were on the same wavelength and I was happy to let Katy go ahead and start designing. Once Katy had completed her initial sketches of the characters, she sent them to me so I could have a look and give her feed back on what she had done. I think she has done a nice job of designing the characters and I am pleased with her progress. 

Wolf Feedback Sheet

For the wolf character,  I suggested that Katy needed to look at the shape and proportion of the her character more and attempt to keep the character within the confines of a rectangle. This is something that I noticed happened a lot with the characters in The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, which are both influences to both Katy and I. This would make it a lot easier for us to animate the character, and it would also help Katy to make the character symmetrical and focus on her line work and keeping it simple. I also suggested that she work on the eyes a little more, as I feel that they are going to be very important to portraying emotion. I also encouraged her to look at creating more finalised version with clean smooth lines.

Boar Feedback Sheet

For the boar character I suggested that we used the bottom character design, as I found it more appealing. I also suggested that she attempt to draw it sat down, as this is how the character will be positioned in the animation. I feel that Katy did really well with this design despite the fact that she was struggling a little with the main characters. 

Robin Feedback Sheet

Katy did a great job with this character and I feel that she was very invested in the design of this character, I'm pleased with her designs and I feel that these are her strongest out of the three. I much preferred the blue and red designs however, I suggested that we went for the red designs simply because I like the contrast that it will create against the boar and the wolf.

Katy's Final Wolf Character 

Katy's Final Boar Character

Katy's Final Robin Character

I'm pleased with Katy's final character designs and I feel that  we can work with them in our animation. I also feel that she has done a great job at refining her designs and I'm glad that she took on my advice and adapted it to what she thought was appropriate. All the characters work well together and the lines are nice and simple and clean, as we discussed in our progress meetings.