I discussed with the rest of my group more on our idea for the battle in the backrooms. For example, it was decided that the phobia subplot was scrapped, and we simply would have our characters fight other bands using their instruments as weapons. It was decided that, since my character was a guitarist, she would use her guitar as an axe. I also decided to teak her design a bit, and wear a red flannel shirt rather than a green one, as I felt it was too generic. I also rolled up her sleeves, as realistically, long sleeves would get in the way of her fret.

I imagined her doing all sorts of crazy axe swinging animations similar to the character Mayday from No Straight Roads, who also uses a guitar in much of the same way.

No Straight Roads – All Boss Fights, ENDING, & Credits (PS4 PRO) – YouTube

Her old design of a green flannel shirt and a white top combo, I felt, would have been generic and also too similar to the character that she was based off off, Wendy Corduroy, so I changed it to a red shirt and green top combo instead, to chow her conflicted laid backness and passionate nature.

Her design is mostly made up of circles, emphasising her laid back nature as well as showing off her feminine curves. the only parts of her which are pointed are her nose and chin, and her guitar has been modified to resemble a single blade axe, which allows ease of animation for my project.

Today’s class involved learning about certain techniques that come with making the design of a character more memorable. by using premade blobs, I created some character concepts and designs.

We then created characters using techniques involving basic shapes. We were tasked to create characters based on the forms of famous people, such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and George Orwell.

The first set of characters I created used a single shape of each type, such as one for triangles, one for squares and one for circles. I learned that a character mostly made up of triangles mostly implied a villainous or fast character, one made up of circles implied a playful character or a childlike one, and one made up of squares implied a protector or stubborn character.

The designs I created were then exaggerated, but I then realised that using only one of particular shape was too much exaggeration and that it could go against the original characters each of my designs were based on.

I then took one of these designs and made a more refined version with not too much exaggeration but still using largely one kind of shape for the design. My idea for this practice character was to have a mysterious enigmatic villain character who hardly emotes much. The purple furs she wears implies a mysterious aura about her while a subtle red around her chest are implies her potential villainy, though her green eyes and warm brown hair implies otherwise.

Part of the design of her also comes from the designs created by Twisted Doctor, a artist and Youtuber known for his extremely geometric and stylised designs, such as the main inspiration for my test character, Pastery, a character who is known for their enigmatic and mysterious persona as a magician.

Every character can adhere to a rule where they can be broken down into their most basic shapes. Circles represent a friendly or charismatic persona. Kirby, Mario and Pikachu are good examples.

Squares represent a strong, traditional and stable persona, though in the case of Anger from Inside Out they can be used to show a more grumpy persona. Otherwise, Wreck it Ralph or Carl from Up also pull of a good persona using squares.

Finally, Triangles can be used to create some dynamic villains. For example, Jafar from Aladdin is made up almost solely of triangles, and this heightens his believability as a villain. Otherwise, it can be used to make mysterious or dangerous characters, such as Pastery as depicted above.

Basic Shape Theory For Character Design – YouTube

My idea for my character mainly comes from my personal experience as someone who has had struggles with focusing on her work. I wanted to create a tomboyish character who has no qualms taking life as it comes and being generally casual with her work, but is forced to improvise with deadlines coming up. I also was inspired by a particular piece of music from indie musician Vylet Pony, Atychiphobia. Atychiphobia is the fear of failure, and that fear of failure is part of the story for my character.

【Music】ATYCHIPHOBIA (TCB & Vylet Pony) – YouTube

I was partially inspired by certain characters from bits of media I am particularly fond of, such as video game characters Ulysses from Struggling, and sisterly villagers from Animal Crossing. I also looked at a video from Film Riot and learned about how in order to find a character’s voice, rather than filling out forms, I had to put them into conflict and write how to get them out of it.

I also used knowledge of complementary colours, such as green to show off her relaxed nature, and have her wear a red undershirt to show case her hidden passion.

How to Write Great Characters – YouTube

I also looked at a video on character design by BaM Animation that taught me how I could push my character’s design and smooth out any bad tangents in her design. These are some initial concepts.

Her design was largely inspired by a character from Gravity Falls, Wendy Corduroy, who like my own character was tomboyish and fun loving.

Wendy was inspired by a girl that Alex Hirsch met when he was a kid, apparently the first girl to ever talk to him, and also the cool energy radiating off of many people who he thought was way cooler than he was, and many other people influenced her personality through talking about the coolest people they knew, as well.

Wendy’s physical design changed significantly over the course of Gravity Falls’ development, and can be seen when comparing her final design to many previous ones in production.

BASIC STATISTICS

Name: Bridget Fletcher

Alias: N/A

Age: 20 (Birthday: 13/2/2002)

Height: “5,07”

Weight: 165.3lbs

Sex: Female

Race: Human

Eye Color: Green

Hair Color: Light Dirty Blonde

Glasses or Contact Lenses: No

Nationality: British/Australian

Skin Color: White

Shape of Face: Soft, slight pointed chin. Nose curved. Eyes fairly large.

Distinguishing Features: Her signature baseball cap, combination of a flannel shirt and red top combo. Often seen with her laptop bag on her back and her guitar around her shoulder.

Clothes: How does he/she dress? She wears a navy-blue baseball cap, with a green flannel shirt and a red top underneath. Sometimes she wears a white top.

Mannerisms: Quite a sisterly persona, quite social. She is quite passionate but unmotivated at what she does. Cares deeply about her work despite being a bit lazy and easily distracted by video games and other things.

Habits: Gets distracted easily. She has a bad habit of staying up way too late to do work. This makes her sleep deprived. Will likely have insomnia.

Health: Generally healthy.

Hobbies: Drawing, making music, singing, playing video games.

Favorite Sayings: None that I know of.

Sound of Voice: Sisterly typed, a bit deep, but not too masculine.

Walking Style: Normal

Disabilities: None.

Character’s Greatest Flaw: Laziness. She gets distracted easily from her work.

Character’s Best Quality: Her talents as an artist in the musical and artistic world.

SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS

Hometown: Born in Sydney, Australia, and moved to Great Britain, where she has lived since she was 2.

Current Residence: Dunmurry

Occupation: Musician, solo artist

Income: As she is an indie artist, she gets around £4000 a year, so she live streams her work for extra penny.

Talents/Skills: Perfect pitch, a good grasp on anatomy in art, very knowledgeable on technology

Family Status: Only daughter, has two brothers. Older brother an athletic master who brags too much for his own good, second brother works as an accountant.

Character Status as a Child: A student at her local primary school, generally healthy place. Loved playing video games and drawing. Also took interest in playing music.

Character Status as an Adult: Lives away from her parents and lives in her own apartment. Contacts her family through phone and joins them for family events. Relationship status perfectly healthy, though she does get irritated at her eldest brother’s bragging antics.

ATTRIBUTES AND ATTITUDES

Educational Background: Enrolled at a very good primary school with a good educational portfolio. Went to Methody for secondary school, and then did A Levels and a HND at Belfast Met, and now has a place at Ulster University.

Intelligence Level: Highly intelligent, but socially awkward.

Character’s Goals in Life: To become a high achieving musician and artist

How does character see himself/herself? As someone who could fail her parents and brothers if she gives in to her inherent laziness. Otherwise, easygoing, pretty chill, relaxes.

How confident is the character? Very confident in her abilities, though her being easily distracted and inherently lazy makes her doubt it quite a bit.

Does the character seem ruled by emotion? Somewhat. She lets anger control her thoughts easily and shuts down if she suffers too much mental turmoil.

EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Introvert or Extrovert: Highly extroverted, but often either too absorbed in work or video games.

How does the character deal with:

● Sadness? She bottles it up. She refuses to let people see her emotional and prefers to look cool even when she’s at her lowest. So, she lashes out when people try to probe her.

● Anger? She gets angry quite easily and is especially bad in a compromised state, often starting crying afterwards.

● Conflict? When in a mentally sound state, she would try and mediate and deescalate it. Only aggravates conflict when she’s angry.

● Change? Accepts it, knowing that this change will be likely an opportunity to get her to focus on work.

● Loss? If it’s a close friend or a family member, she would likely snap.

What would the character like to change about his/her life? To be more focused on doing her work, even if its to the detriment of others.

What motivates the character? Passion for her work to be successful and fear of failure.

What frightens the character? Failure. She can’t allow herself to be lazy too often, or she’ll get booted out of university.

What makes this character happy? Music making, singing in her free time, playing video games.

Relationship skills: Very easy-going and listens to what other people have to say, and inputs her opinion accordingly.

SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTICS

Does the character believe in a God(s)? She’s an atheist though she was born to Christian parent.

How strong are the character’s spiritual beliefs? She used to worship God reverently as a kid, as her parents were Christian. She became more atheist as she grew up.

Is the character ruled by his or her spiritual beliefs? No.

CHARACTER’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE STORY

What is the character’s archetype? Protagonist.

How is the character affected by his or her environment? With a deadline for submitted work fast approaching, she realises that her easy going, complacent lifestyle is only going to hurt her in the long run. Shutting herself away, she works very hard to complete the work so she can keep her place in her course.

TIMELINE

Time period: Modern Day.

Describe five important background events that led up to the character’s storyline.
1. Developed an interest in music at a young age thanks to her father’s hobby of music. He teaches her how to play the guitar.
2. Got her first video game console at age 7 from her mother. Loved playing Pokemon and Mario.
3. Suffers burnout at age 16, and nearly gets terrible marks, but is pushed back on her feet by her second eldest brother.
4. Has a gap year at age 18 with nothing but playing video games and generally relaxing. Becomes too lazy for her own good, and her parents look for a University to put her in.
5. Accidentally misses out on a place at University at 19 due to applying too late. It devastates her. She applies much sooner at 20.
PLOT: Infuriated at how much her laziness is holding her back, she goes all guns blazing on her unfinished work, singing a song on how much she could miss out if she fails her course. Getting out her guitar, she belts her heart out in some backrooms.

I used a jpeg background Sarah put up online to test some colour lighting. Using analogous colour theory, I made two versions of the lighting exercise. The first was a triumphant colour scheme consisting of yellows that seems reminiscent of meeting the divine, or the dawn of a new day at the end of a movie.

The second thumbnail used a much more eerie colour scheme using reddish purples to create a more bleak, apocalyptic world for the scene. This exercise taught me about how to convey a mood in a scene using different colours for lighting techniques as well as using more than two different colours to demonstrate lighting.

I then made a new illustration using the analogous colour scheme, and using a black and white image, used reddish pink lighting to signify my character’s determination to finish her work. The villainous character to her left is shaded in a much darker tone of red, to signify her more villainous persona, while the protagonist character herself is illuminated in pink to show her determination and to signify her as the hero.