Character design

For my final project this year, I made the decision that I wanted to create an animation. for me when it comes to my short animations I usually create a character, and then build the story around them. I find it easier to compete the animation the way I want when I have a character that I truly enjoy creating. I started with the male character. I first worked with a very rough idea of what I wanted the character to look like, once I had that I moved forward and started adding more detail and colour. I then drew his face from a different angle, and then drew a full body image of the character. I also played around slightly with colouring, I had previously done n animation in entirely black and white and decide to draw the character under that aesthetic, but ultimately decide that I enjoyed a dull outfit with a pop of colour in the skin tone.

See the character come to life in The Puppeteer in my works section

Once I created my male character I floated around with the idea of where a story could go, I was torn between making him a puppet or doll maker, so I tested out ideas of both characters too see which suited his style more. While I did like the clown character I feel the aesthetic of a clown didn’t suit but the gothic marionette style of the puppet fit lot lot better. Once I knew I was sticking with the puppet design, I drew her in different angles and positions, before doing the couloring I made a few small colour pallets and finally decided on the red and black colours.