Character Design | Week 6: Friends Forever- Props and Side Kicks
Week 6's Character Design oriented around prop design, and the importance of side-kick characters as a form of comic relief, who occupies the protagonist and helps build their character (as a presence for necessary dialogue/information for the viewer).
They don't often burden the main plot, and often yield a vast range of design (even more so than the main character). In fact, sidekick's don't necessarily have to be human.
As long as they emote in some way, they've a lot more freedom to be anything the main character cannot.
Incidentally their designs often yield variance in shapes and proportions.
Another aspect of story-telling are prop's- which can play an important role in capturing the personality of a character (sometimes even more so than the character themselves).
They (along with character and environment designs), can be influenced by a range of cultures. Said cultures work with our perceptions/expectations, and help in fleshing out the character. However, it's important to be mindful of the 'baggage' and information entailed in these existing designs/stereotypes.
Clothes and prop's often are appropriate to the 'role' of the character. However, some elements of mankind can exist ahistorically- (behaviour/physical limitations etc.), relating to the viewer regardless of their lack of knowledge concerned with that particular culture.
Exercise 1: Using the character provided, design an appropriate prop that works with the original design.
Exercise 2: Design a sidekick for a provided 'world', using a specific culture.
I'd received 'Renaissance Venice'.
My initial thoughts were that I wanted to design a female character. However, upon researching this aspect of Venician culture, I found that women were repressed in this era. Incidentally there was little to no information/paintings of aristocratic women that yielded genuine personality, let alone female peasants.
Keeping this in mind I thought to joke with this false representation, by having a character who models for a 'male dominated culture', whose unimpressed, or struggles to model well. However I thought this might be interpreted as 'punching down', which wasn't my intention. So I thought instead of a quick-tongued young peasant, who is quick and sarcastic. This dry wit, and humour might juxtapose nicely against a leading aristocratic protagonist- as she points out to the viewer how ridiculous these beliefs were.
They don't often burden the main plot, and often yield a vast range of design (even more so than the main character). In fact, sidekick's don't necessarily have to be human.
As long as they emote in some way, they've a lot more freedom to be anything the main character cannot.
Incidentally their designs often yield variance in shapes and proportions.
Another aspect of story-telling are prop's- which can play an important role in capturing the personality of a character (sometimes even more so than the character themselves).
They (along with character and environment designs), can be influenced by a range of cultures. Said cultures work with our perceptions/expectations, and help in fleshing out the character. However, it's important to be mindful of the 'baggage' and information entailed in these existing designs/stereotypes.
Clothes and prop's often are appropriate to the 'role' of the character. However, some elements of mankind can exist ahistorically- (behaviour/physical limitations etc.), relating to the viewer regardless of their lack of knowledge concerned with that particular culture.
I'd received 'Renaissance Venice'.
My initial thoughts were that I wanted to design a female character. However, upon researching this aspect of Venician culture, I found that women were repressed in this era. Incidentally there was little to no information/paintings of aristocratic women that yielded genuine personality, let alone female peasants.
Keeping this in mind I thought to joke with this false representation, by having a character who models for a 'male dominated culture', whose unimpressed, or struggles to model well. However I thought this might be interpreted as 'punching down', which wasn't my intention. So I thought instead of a quick-tongued young peasant, who is quick and sarcastic. This dry wit, and humour might juxtapose nicely against a leading aristocratic protagonist- as she points out to the viewer how ridiculous these beliefs were.
I was gravitating towards the woman on the far right. However she still resembled a typical 'heroine', with her assertive pose and 'athletic' build.
Incidentally Justin suggested playing around with proportion- perhaps having her shorter, and stockier.
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| Justin's Example |
I revised the design into the following:
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