More Research

Looking more into story boarding i got two more books out

"The Art of the storyboard a film maker's introduction - John Hart"
                                             &
"The Art of Animation Drawing - Don Bluth's"

The Art of the storyboard a film maker's introduction is full of detailed sketches and storyboards illustrating every point, and also shows planning effectively and communicating clearly. with more than 150 sketches and notes it shows and informs so much when storyboarding which can be of help to me when creating scene's.

The Art of Animation Drawing by Don Bluth who created classics such as The land before time, All dogs go to heaven and more. this book describes fully and in detail the technical and creative processes involved in crafting the visual blueprints for animated films. this book focus's on the process of designing characters; adapting those characters to the script, the timing and rhythm. it is full of amazing artwork and to me is inspirational as when growing up i watched a lot of his work.

Another book i have taken out is "How to draw Cartoon Animals - Christopher Hart"

It is basicly a book on as the title says Drawing Cartoon animals, This is highly useful as this is reaching into the areas i wish to go. Getting a good character going can be sometimes tedious but making them look engaging is what happens in this book and i wish to learn more on how it is done. Christopher Hart offers tips and useful infomation on creating good comic strips which is a possible Artifact for my honours.

Colour Theory

I've been looking into this area to try and help with my own characters as I feel colour has a large
part to play when designing, different colours can and will mean different things.

I am currently reading "Theory of colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Introduction by Deane B. Judd" areas of  It talk about Colour harmony and aesthetics which i found interesting it also serves as a accurate study of colour phenomena.

Another book on this subject is "Colour An introduction to Practice And Principles Rolf G. Kuehni" within this book it talks and describes many important areas such as "Solid explanations of key technical concepts concerning light, human vision, and colour perception". "Examination of colour reproduction technologies and techniques, colour fidelity, colour formulation, and other issues". and a lot more, which will be very useful when working out my characters.

Related topics

Hello Kitty, There are some weird urban Legends  surrounding this character but From what I’ve seen it seems that Hello Kitty was born in London in 1974, though was create by a Japanese company called Sanrio. They needed a character that could be used as the cover for plastic coin purse and would appeal to preteens. This character also has a full family, (Father) George White, (Mother) Mary White, and (twin) Mimmy White. It seems Hello Kitty is a nickname for Kitty White, and on her birth certificate states Kitty White. From Sanrio’s website and other related articles Kitty is a cheerful warm hearted character that likes to bake cookies. She also enjoys eating apple pie made by her mother. She is in Third grade and weighs the same as three apples and is as tall as five apples, Blood type A.

And just like Hello Kitty i will be looking into anthropomorphic characters as well as i find i enjoy doing them more but i also feel as if people love looking at things that are small and adorable.

http://www.sanrio.com/hellokittyblog/

http://www.hellokittyuniverse.com/page/Hello+Kitty+Biography

http://lovekittystore.com/blog/2011/06/what-is-the-story-behind-hello-kitty/

http://anitasnotebook.com/2011/02/the-real-story-behind-hello-kitty.html

Short Animations

          Bridge - Ting Chian Tey

This is a story of Four Animals trying to cross a bridge, you have the two bigger and more dangerous animals the bear and moose not willing to compromise or lower themselves, i seen this as pride. Then you have the two smaller, cuter and loveable critters who are less aggressive about the whole thing. even by the noises they make you can tell that the rabbit and raccoon are friendly. The moral i got from this is that in life there are paths that we take but not always alone. and there can be disagreements on how things can be done but if you  are stubborn and let pride stand in the way it can have consequence and result in some disastrous way.

Pitch week / Progression

After sharing my ideas, goals and aim's i was given some really good feedback and areas to look into regarding my Project. From what i talked about it looked like i was leaning more towards what makes characters "Cute" so interested in this idea i will pursue it, however i still want to try create other characters to give off other feels and emotions. The areas i was told to look into was things like,

"Hello Kitty" A very well known character that is regarded as cute and loveable yet i know nothing about it personally, but i am going to look into it to try see how it all came about also the style they used. 

I am going to look into Shapes in relation to characters. The general idea that round shapes are good, square grumpy, triangle can be seen as evil or bad, a good example of this can be seen in "UP" which i am already looking into. Another aspect is Colour Theory which again i will be driving into, to try get the most from my characters a good colour palate is needed.

A good character needs a good story or background, so i will be looking into comics and how they are made effective. also Storyline and context to add to a character to give more depth.

Anthropomorphic, giving Human characteristics to Animals or other Objects, this was a really interesting idea and will be going into it a lot more.

A friend of mine told me about this idea of "Evolution of cute" that mothers that Nurture the young will have cute babies, while the young that is left alone or to fend for themselves at birth may not be as cute, this was interesting and i have been looking into it.

And lastly another area to look into was game characters that we may not know much back story on but are seen as amazing, examples given where, Mario, Peach, and Sonic but there are a lot of others. 

Aim And Objectives

Project Aim: To Investigate and  Develop Character Concepts through different artistic techniques and explore how relationships between the character and spectator are developed through the use of empathy, character personality and environment.

Objectives: 0.1 - Review and Evaluate existing character Literature on character designs.
                  0.2 - Explore and review different character styles through the use of different
                                                                    techniques.
                  0.3 - Develop, produce a range of character designs in regards to Empathy,
                                                        personality and Environment   
                  0.4 - Evaluate the relationship between the characters and spectators and
                                                           original Character Designs

Early Concept Work

Here I've been using a few different methods and styles such as a more Disney style to Animals then a mixture Japanese comic style combined with unique personal style. these are just early sketches to test out different feels and what i feel looking at each one against the other. it also allows me to see if I can bring through character and personality at this stage.