Monday 23 November 2015

The Other Side - Developmental Stages: Concept Art and Character Sheets

Among the final steps before beginning with the production of an animation is the creation of the concept art and character sheets. During these stages, animators draw the designs of the characters, backgrounds, and scenery elements which are later to be utilized as the animation is being made. Every animation studio goes through this stage, for example the studio of the re-making of Danger Mouse had prevalent character sheets that conceptualized the "rejuvenation" of the new characters as well as the atmosphere the backgrounds brought. Within my project, the background is simple - an ambiguous cosmos with little detail, thus I focused on the elements in the scenery instead of the actual background. Because space is relatively vacant, I drew the miscellaneous which will be floating/moving in the background for the sense of smoothness and prevalence of animation. Placing the scenery aside, the soul purpose of my character sheets and concept art was to create several designs for the main character and then decide on which sheet I shall use. Not forgetting peer feedback, I scoured throughout my college studio and showed my designs to fellow animators, getting accurate constructive criticism. For example, one of my peers was quite fond of the Tim Burton inspired 3rd design (they are labeled in my sketchbook), however stated that the very first one would be easier to animate. Furthermore, he also stated that the consistency of the character expressions is more conveyed in the 3rd design instead of the first (another peer's feedback is on the character sheet). I attempted at appropriating different styles for all of the designs in order to encompass a broad variety of possibilities, because who wants to be dull and monotone, right? Nevertheless, now that I have conceptualized the idea, the atmosphere, and with this step the design it is time to head on to the animatic, which will appropriate the motion and layout of all elements, right before I start on the productive step of the animation.




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