Chapter 9 : Animated Character and background

1. Chapter 9 : Animated Character and background

2. Learning Outcome Understand the guideline for character design Understand Character Development Understand interactivity between character and background

3. Character design & development Keeping it simple Knowing what to exaggerate Knowing what to reduce Know what to give a hint of background and depth Know what to develop personality

4. Research and evaluate try and deconstruct why certain characters and their characteristics work and why some don’t There is no shortage of research material to be found Study these character

5. Design and plan Where will the character be seen and in what medium? This will have a direct bearing on how you design your character E.g – mobile-phone screen – there is no point designing it to have a lot of details and features

6. Who is it aimed at? • Target Audience • Working clients • Predetermined • Clients have specific needs but also want to designer to use his own creativity • Young Children • Focus on basic shapes and bright colours

7. Visual Impact No matter what design you create there are going to be a hundred other similar creations out there Character needs to be strong and interesting in a visual sense to get people’s attention The Simpson – Yellow skin

8. Line qualities and styles Drawn lines of your character composed can describe it Thick, even, soft and round eyes – suggest approachable cute character Sharp, scratchy and uneven lines – point to uneasy and erratic character

9. Line qualities and styles

10. Exaggerated characteristics Exaggerating the defining features of your character will help it appear larger than life Exaggerated features will also help viewers to identif y the character’s key qualities. Exaggeration is key in cartoon caricatures and helps emphasize certain personality traits.

11. Exaggerated characteristics

12. Colour Colours can help communicate a character’s personality. Typically, dark colours such as black, purples and greys depict baddies with malevolent intentions. Light colours such as white, blues, pinks and yellows express innocence, good and purity. Comic-book reds, yellows and blues might go some way to giving hero qualities to a character.

13. Colour

14. The third dimension • Work out on what it will look like from all angles. • A seemingly flat character can take on a whole new persona when seen from the side if, for example, it has a massive beer belly. • 3D world character (as an animation or even as a toy) • working out its height, weight and physical shape is all important.

15. Conveying personality its personality is important. A character’s personality can be revealed through comic strips and animations, where we see how it reacts to certain situations. The personality of your character doesn’t have to be particularly agreeable, but it does need to be interesting (unless your characters is purposely dull). Personality can also be expressed simply in how the character has been drawn.

16. Express yourself Expressions showing a character’s range of emotions and depicting its ups and downs will further flesh out your character. Depending on its personality, a figure’s emotions might be muted and wry or explosive and wildly exaggerated.

17. Goals and dreams The driving force behind a character’s personality is what it wants to achieve. This missing ‘something’ – be it riches, a girlfriend or solving a mystery – can help to create the dramatic thrust behind the stories and adventures your character gets up to. Often the incompleteness or flaws in a character are what make it interesting.

18. Building back stories If your character is to exist within comics and animations then developing its back story is important. Where it comes from, how it came to exist any life-changing events it has experienced are going to help back up the solidity of, and subsequent belief in, your character.

19. Quick on the draw Don’t be afraid to experiment and ignore all the rules and tips about planning and crafting the look of your character. Going against what is supposed to be the right way of doing something could create unexpected and exciting results.

20. Show people you design Show people your creations and ask them what they think. Don’t just ask whether they like them or not. Instead, see if they can pick up the personalities and traits of your characters. Find who you think is the suitable or ideal audience for your work and get feedback specifically from them about it.

21. Beyond the character In the same way that you create a history for your character, you need to create an environment for it to help further cement believability in your creation. The world in which the character lives and interacts should in some way make sense to who the character is and what it gets up to.

22. Fine-tuning a figure Question each element of your creation, especially things such as its facial features. The slightest alteration can have a great effect on how your character is perceived. “Think about the meaning of the word ‘character’. You’re supposed to breath life into these things, make them appealing and give them the magic that will allow people to imagine what they’re like to meet and how they might move. I think it’s strange how creating characters for the sake of it has become a distinct branch of graphic design.”