WEEK 5 – CHARACTER DESIGN / WORLD BUILDING
During Week 5 we were studying character design and what makes an effective and memorable character as well as how to create our own. We looked at well known example from cartoons such as Buggs Bunny from the Looney Toons as well as characters from movies such as Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. Furthermore, we also studied character designs that varied such as the cast in Hotel Transylvania whose body shapes and characteristics greatly vary each other and make each character stand out. These were very helpful to see and imagine how we could create our own interesting and unique characters of our own for our Design a World project.
We were also told to use real life references for our characters and how this can help give them even more effective and believable designs, such as General Grievous from the Star Wars Franchise. To further improve our skills, we were given an exercise where we could draw a caricature of 3 real people and see how we could make characters from them.
I very much liked my first drawing of Marilyn Monroe and thought it could have potential for a character however the second two drawings came out less effectively.
We were given the task to create and develop our own characters for the design a world project, and to see what kinds of characters would be most effective at telling the story of the world.
Name: Rigel
Alias: Orion
Archetype: Hero; Hunter
Age: 19/20
Height: 5’9
Race: Human / Celestial
Nationality: Celesphean
Eyes: Brown/Gold
Clothes: basic linens; hunters boots, hunting bow and arrows
Qualities: Determined; Kind; Courageous; Self-Doubting;
First, I wanted to tackle what the main character would look like. I knew from previous group members that he had been given his power from another “Orion” before he died and wanted to see how I could stray from an average hero. I looked at inspiration from the anime My Hero Academia in which the main character is an average looking kid who is weak and shows little potential, however when he gets his powers, he is able to become stronger and save everyone. Furthermore, I wanted to add a twist to my character, as I knew Orion was a hunter and my group wanted the main character to come from a country, farming background. Through this I made the main character Rigel love animals, yet hate hunting them, however he becomes an excellent marksman against any foes he faces.
Name: Eltanin
Alias: Draconis
Archtype; Anti-Hero
Age: Either in his 20’s or 2000’s
Height: 5’11”
Race: Dragon / Celestial
Hair: White/Silver
Clothes: Rich; Fancy;
Mannerisms: Carefree; relaxed; cunning; intelligent;
Walking: Graceful; Floating
Skills: Magic
Flaws: Hoards; he is quite selfish until meeting the group of heroes and joining them
Other: He can turn into a dragon
I wanted to explore a character who could transform themselves because of their power and so I chose the constellation Draco and wanted to see what aa dragon character could be like.
There were a few designs from the previous group members which I wanted to look at including Ursula Major and Minor, otherwise known as Big Dip and Little Dip. These characters are sibling and contrast each other in height and strength however I found their previous designs were effective and had potential so I wanted to see how my own versions would look. For their bear designs I referenced Brother Bear and the Art of Aaron Blaise who has an entire website to help artists draw characters and animals.
Admittedly, my character design sheets were not as detailed nor thought out as much as I would have liked them to be due to having hit a creative block in the past week, however I really loved thinking about the characters and how to create their designs and develop them! I hope that I may further develop these characters later in the future and improve upon them much more!