Character Evolution

Ok so I've finally hit upon some character designs that I like. Thought I'd share the design process that led me there. The girl first. I’ve been sketching her for forever and she’s certainly undergone a crazy transformation.

Early character design from storyboards

There are more crazy designs than this...but I won't post them...as they are far too embarrassing.

Awhile back, I tried turning my music video into more of a narrative. That necessitated more facial expression and more realistic anatomy. While I eventually scrapped that notion, there are still elements of the character on the right that I like and tried to retain.

Recent sketches

Also trying to contrast the other passengers with the girl by giving them more square and rectangular heads as opposed to her more organic circular head.I decided the really boxy head looked kind of elderly from the front. So I tried to make it more octagonal. Then I started making it look more childlike and before I knew it... I had a design that was appealing but...not quite what I wanted. I realized not only was it kind of detailed, but it was really individualistic...exactly not the direction I needed. The passengers were supposed to be robotic and almost zombie like. They needed to conform.

The image on the right looked so simplistic compared to the child...but that simple very clear silhouette was exactly what I wanted. So...I did what would make the most sense when you want your characters to conform...I cloned him. Then with that same line to unify them, I just tweaked the passengers to distinguish them...but not enough to make them unique individuals (Below).

This will make animating them even simpler...b/c I can simply use the same body animation for all of the characters and swap out clothing/hair secondary animation on a second level... rather than fully animating each one.

With a more confident design for the passengers, the next step was making our leading lady mesh with her peers. As it stands, the more rounded features and expressiveness made her stick out a little too much. Obviously some of her more extreme organic shapes and individuality had to give way so that she didn’t look like she belonged in another film. Also, if I was going to give her pupils (necessary for her to have any kind of meaningful facial expression)... the other passengers would need them too...so they meshed together better.

Another option...rather than making the girl expressive and more of a traditional Disney-esque design...I could make her look more like the passengers. Keep in mind that as iconoclastic as she appears during most of the bus scenes, she does conform in the end. Having a very contrasting design might make her stand out too much for those scenes. For that purpose, I tried to see what she might look like if I tried to make her look more like the passengers to begin with.

The result (on the left) doesn’t look like it would be as fun to animate. But as my teacher insightfully noted... mine is a rhythmic piece, not a character piece. So is really expressive character animation necessary?

Then it occurred to me, why can’t I have both. And what better way to demonstrate the girl’s transformation...at the start and end... then if she has no pupils when she plugs in like the other drones and only gets them when she unplugs. The same would apply to all the characters.

Before...                              After...

Still need to finalize these designs and make polished turn arounds. Will post those along with color studies next. Any thoughts/ suggestions before I move forward with this design?