I began developing my animation ideas as seen in the mind map above. At first I explored creating a dystopian world inspired by artic and Ice Age however I was more interested in creating a human/animal evolution.

I began a new plan, and ended up with a more exciting and aesthetically pleasing design. I created a fairy tale inspired story line, in which an anthropomorphic deer named Prince is being hunted in the woods for his antlers by a group of witches. I was heavily inspired by the use of deer imagery in mythology as in many different cultures, Gods and royalty have taken the form of deer’s and stag to remain hidden. This context aided the development of my design, as I wish to create a deer figure that displays a sense of grandeur and nobility- thus, use a triangle shape to draw the body which gave the figure broader, intimidating shoulders. As seen above, I also considered my colour palette and decided to use darker, earth tones which reflect the forest environment in which ‘Prince’ is lost.

After creating a story/plot, I began to develop the overall shape of the deer. I had considered creating a larger, broad shouldered creature with a triangular body (broad shoulders and a slimmer waist- a caricature of noble, masculine hero’s in media). However, after experimenting with a slimmer, dancer-like figure made up of warped, narrow rectangles I actually changed the characters personality. I liked the more timid and graceful tone created by this willowy figure similar which could manoeuvre around the thick forest with ease. This would also allow me to emphasise the large scale of the characters antlers (their central focus as it is the centre of the plot), which the broader shoulders took away from.

I also relied heavily on my reference of a real deer’s face to capture the long nose and antler pattern which are key to defining the creature. I explored different eyes shapes and decided to use the illustrative, simplistic design in fig. 4 using my felt tip designs as I liked the sketched, hand drawn quality as opposed to the computer designed experimented shown above made using Figma software. I also began to use historical references to develop a costume for the character. I took inspiration from the iconic: “Hunt of a Unicorn” tapestries which are estimated to date back to the middle ages. I experimenting with dressing the character in a formal men’s dress from this era (14th century) and really liked the mythical and fairy-tale atmosphere it provides my animation.

(fig. 1)

(fig. 2)

As shown above, I created my final design showing the character Prince standing straight and in two moments of motion. I used felt tip to create these designs as I liked the illustrative quality and energetic quality it captures (similar to the process used by the animators of One Hundred and the One Dalmatians which I researched previously for this workshop). The character is shown standing still in fig. 1 with a dark and mysterious forest behind him. I used a palette consisting majorly of natural, earth tones like green, brown and purple within the characters body and garments to reflect the natural environment from which he belongs. I also drew out two examples of the character moving in fig. 2 to present how he would hypothetically move- emphasising the exaggeratedly long limbs as he bows ceremoniously to greet a fairy and to play his lyre.