This week we learnt about the long awaited topic ; Character.

In class we discussed the main aspects of what makes a good design, a good design should be something that evokes an emotion from the viewer. Your character design should let the audience know what their main traits/theme is just by looking at them, for example; a character that is evil might have a dastardly moustache and a thin face. 

Colour, shape and silhouette are some of the most important aspects of character design. Shapes can be used to invoke certain feelings, define personalities and create a readable design. Silhouette ties into this as a good character design will almost always have a recognizable, readable silhouette (think Mickey Mouse). Colour is also important to consider as this can let your audience know how a character is a first glance, e.g ; Red colour scheme = quick temper, blue colour scheme = Sad or lonely, Pink = bubbly or romantic. However, you should stick to a limited colour palette as to not overwhelm the viewer or create a messy design.

Animate-ability is also something to consider when designing your character. If your design is too complex, it will be harder and take longer to animate.

After learning about character design, we then moved on to an activity where we created characters from blobs. This activity was to push us out of our comfort zones and help test our imaginations and creativity. While I do not think I did my best, it was overall fun and helped highlight an area where I could improve.

Our next activity was to stylise a reference image we were given with emphasis on using our knowledge of shapes to push these designs. I found that during this activity I stayed within my comfort zone and didn’t push the designs far enough in a way that would make them more appealing or “shapely”. I will be working on improving this as it is an important skill as an animator and artist both. 

More people ended up joining our group during this class which gave us an opportunity to discuss what we all wanted from the character designs. I felt that this was great as I think that we didn’t delve into the designs as much originally and this let us explore them further.

For our homework this week we were given two tasks; Fill in the character template that was available on Blackboard for the characters and fill in some different character designs.