Character Design Weekly Tasks

Week 1
For the exercises this week I was given the 1980’s as a time period to focus on.
Firstly I researched and drew some 1980’s weaponry:

Secondly I researched and drew some 1980’s furniture and then some 1980’s clothing:
The next exercise was focusing on caricature. On the left I was adapting one of the things I
had previously drawn to fit different sorts of characters and settings. On the right I took a
picture of a person ( see picture below) and tried out multiple different ways to caricature the
face.

Picture for caricature

Week 2
We were given a TV show and were told to focus on its specific style, I got Gravity Falls.
Gravity Falls is a Disney Animated TV series. Alex Hirsch's (creator) inspirations include:
The Simpsons, Twin Peaks and X-Files.

The specific character style for this show include:

• Rounded head/face
• Big round eyes
• Strong lines
• Simple shapes
• Little use of detail e.g. the ears
• Eyebrows that can go on top of hair etc.
• Faces look like caricatures of real life humans
• Colours- dark hues, with some bright colours

Two main characters and the logo

 Gravity falls inspired faces

We were then told to create our own character in the style of the specific TV show. I created
a tourist visiting Gravity Falls. She is a victim of a dangerous incident where she is weak and
scared. But she is very friendly to the family and is obsessed with cameras and taking
photos.
Week 3
Firstly I was given the building 'Chateau Frontenac' in Quebec City, and I had to
exaggerate it as if it was going to be used in an animation:

Chateau Frontenac
Then I was given the character '1950's musician' and I had to design an environment for this
character
Week 4
In groups we were given characters to pose for while the other people drew them
and vice versa. We had to draw the poses as stick figures so that we could focus on
body language.

The characters I drew were:

1. Dr Jekyll transforms into Mr Hyde

2. The vampire hunter defeats Dracula
3. The evil baby and the loving parent
4. The Gangster shoots the bad guy
5. The rock star and the super fan

1, 2, 3

4, 5
Week 5
Firstly we had to take two different emotions and try and combine the two. I was
given grief and wonder:
Secondly I was given a house has my object and I had to bring it to life with facial
expressions.
Week 6
In this lesson we focused on props and sidekicks. The exercise was to take a specific time
period- I was given Ancient Aztec, and design some futuristic props that a character would
use in this time period.

I ended up designing a sort of watch/data hub device that my character would wear around
his wrist. The idea was that my character is a warrior who is the good guy that gets the
upper hand by using technology. The design of the gadget is based off of Ancient Aztec sun
stones which they used as a sort of calendar/clock.
Week 7
In this lesson we focused on storytelling and staging. The first exercise was to copy the
shots used in a scene in a film of my choice and then analysis why these shots were used. I
picked the ending scene in Tangled when Rapunzel meets her parents. I believe these shots
were used as they build tension, shows a lot of emotion and shows the relationship between
the characters.
The second exercise was to storyboard a chase scene in a specific location- I got
a hospital. My idea was to have a patient that escapes from their hospital room and a staff
member goes running after them. The establishing shot is shown through the recording of a
security camera. The staff member then runs after the patient, but the patient pushes things
over and tries to get away but the staff member catches up to them because they are quite
weak.
Week 8
This week I focused on getting everything in the right perspective. I started off by drawing
out the key elements onto a grid, but I realised the grid needed to be portrait not landscape
in order to create enough distance, between the key elements.

I then put the grid into perspective using two point perspective, I found this quite difficult to
get right but I think it turned out ok.
I then took the grid and perspective grid into photoshop and cleaned them up

I then started to work on using the grid in perspective to draw out my composition, this is
how far I got:
Week 9
In this week we focused on designing our production design bibles. In order to think about
designing the pages of our own bible we got given a theme which we then had to design
some pages for, I got given Ancient Arabia.
Week 10 (‘Final Exam’)
In a group of 3, we were given the animated show 'Trollhunters Tales of Arcadia' as a basis
for designing our characters. We had to design a mentor, a villain and a sidekick (for the
hero).

I chose to design the sidekick character, deciding that a good sidekick for the hero in
Trollhunters (Jim- shown in the middle in the picture above) would be a troll.

In the group, we imagined that the mentor is a new school teacher, who used to fight as a
knight, and in this particular episode she is kidnapped by the villain, who is an alien, so the
hero and his friends go on a quest to find the teacher.

When they run out of ideas they come across the troll. His lives in a secluded part of the
underground troll world in a cave. He is a hoarder, and keeps everything he finds, storing it
all in his cave. When the hero and his friends meet him they realise he has the key that will
let the teacher free, the troll tells them that he found it and it is his most prized possession,
which is why he wears it around his neck.

These were my initial ideas for the troll:

I liked the troll on the bottom left and so I developed it further. I described him as looking
unfriendly but is actually friendly and helpful.

These were my initial ideas for props for the troll, that would also be made into a toy for
children by the client. I chose the pendent/ necklace that the troll would be wearing around
his neck, as the prop that will be developed.
These are my sketches for the environment, which is the cave where the troll lives and
keeps all of the things that he finds

I then developed the toy ideas more. My ideas were that the trolls pendant would be a toy for
children that would light up and also that you would be able to open, for children to keep
things inside. I also had the idea of making the trolls cave into a toy, which would come with
something like Playdoh which would allow the children to sculpt their own little objects to put
inside the cave just like the troll has.
Then, these are some gesture sheets for the troll. On the first page the poses looked a bit
static and so I tried them again on the second page, trying to make them a bit more alive.
The pose on the left is when the troll is happy because he is able to help the other
characters by giving them the necklace. The pose on the right is when the troll is lonely and
sad in his cave.
Finally, this is the turnaround for my troll character: