Extended Practise: Final Film Character Exploration

 Extended Practise

Final Film Character Exploration

• This week:
• I explored possible designs for the main character of my short film.
• What went well:
• I started by creating a visual board for bird characters in media, specifically geese and ducks. I found this particularly useful when designing characters, as I had initially struggled to stylise Geese. It also gave inspiration for designs that are much more simplified and those that are more complicated, allowing the character design process to be fully explored. 
• Here is the visual board:

• I kept my initial designs very lose and experimental. I didn't have a particular style in mind, other than something that could be animated quite easily. I found that my first page of designs were quite varied and allowed for a lot of further refinement.

• I sent this to my group for feedback. Some things they noted were:
• As a majority, designs 1, 2 and 4 were favourites, as they felt this looked more like a goose and had a better balance in design.
• The floating eyebrows of design 5 were also appealing to them.
• They found the larger, bushier eyebrows more fitting for the character.
• They preferred webbed feet, over the smaller feet.
• Taking on board this feedback, I made another page of designs, with some variation. Some designs took on board their feedback, such as the thicker brows and webbed feet.

• Of these designs, I found numbers 12, 15 and 16 most appealing, although I did consider number 14, also. From feedback, my group believed that 15 and 16 were the most fitting. Despite their similarities, their face features are different, so I drew them side by side in similar poses to compare.

• What could be improved:
• Taking on-board the feedback previously given for the designs, I need to refine these final two further or find a compromise which balances them both. 
• The designs also need to be considered for animation purposes and whether they could be simplified further or could be more detailed, depending on feedback and how I choose to finalise them. This will be through more experimentation and adjusting poses.
• I also need to consider whether the character's design fits the personality and the world, which will be discussed alongside the storyboard, script and background designs.
• Next time:
• I will be refining these designs and starting concepts for the Air Hostesses and background characters.