Explorations Unit Introduction
In the Animation Explorations Unit, we were challenged to explore our own passion and improve upon a particular skill set that addresses 21st Century Skills.
For my particular project, I wanted to research character design because good looking characters can convey who they are in just a single look– you can tell the character’s personality, characteristics, what they do, and more by changing different aspects of their design. For example, color can be used to convey personality and a very good example of doing so is the movie Inside Out: Joy is yellow, Envy green, Anger red etc. Humans associate certain colors with emotions and placing those on a character immediately links them to the emotion, creating relatability and a connection.
Infographic
Ever need some tips to improve character design? Look at my infographic that I made from compiling many research sources into one!
Final Product
To practice character design I wanted to make a cast of cartoon characters that could belong in the same universe while still looking vastly different. I made a setting that would fit a kids/teen show (steampunk heist group) and assigned them all personalities. I found it most difficult to make a character that looks like a loser. I wanted to make a character that screams: “I have an overinflated ego and that’s it!” and it was really hard to execute that without that character looking overly buff or outlandishly out of place. I ended up giving him clunky features, skinny arms and legs, and a big head to make him look childish. Here’s the final product!
Process Shots
Experimental Music
While learning reason, I wanted to make some sort of electronic music. I don’t really like how it turned out, but you get better at doing something by making mistakes and stumbling on the way :).