BA3B Week 2

The decision has now been made to set our story at christmas time, so I implemented feedback into the animatic about adding an establishing shot next to a christmas tree and adjusting the timing. 



In order to begin making the puppets, Corey needed some character designs, so I began sketching some ideas.


When designing the father, I thought about the old semiotics trick of characters made of round shapes conveying innocence and square shapes conveying stability, and I thought that might be a good place to start considering I'd need to make these characters work in stop-motion. I also rather enjoyed making him look quite battered and leathery, as if reality had worn him down and taken the colour out of him.

I'm not sure why I made the eyes wide and blank, but I think it had something to do with the simple but effective stylistic choices of animators like 'LemonyFresh' (whose style is pictured below):
Image result for lemony freshImage result for lemony fresh


Coming up with a look for the child was tough, after all I had to figure out a way to convert the dull, square-ish art style I'd developed for the father into a more colourful, rounded and happy looking appearance. I got the face shape down with inspiration from cutesy looking Disney characters first, and then decided to try out a variety of different looks for the child. The only requirements were that it had to be universally understandable as an ordinary child of around 6-10 years old, and that it had to convey a personality of non-stop energy and creativity. My personal favourite was the first one I drew, the top left, as the plasters, scrapes and wild hair carried a lot of personality in themselves, identifying him as a kid who likes to run around outside and get into trouble. Corey's favourites were the top right and bottom left, as he was excited by the challenge of a hairstyle that could produce a secondary action in his animation, such as a swaying ponytail or bouncy curls.


Upon discovering a voice acting website called Casting Call Club, I have also gotten involved with an online voice acting project for a fantasy RPG called 'Veyrra' on the side.

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