PR01: Visual Research

Cara has already shared with me some of her research and Pinterest for the project to give me a good idea of what she wants out of this project, The plot revolves around a young boy of around 12 - 14 which is a travelling merchant with a rather strange apparition following him around. Cara is designing these two characters herself along with some other aspects of the animation, but I am needed for some specific characters like an older woman running a stall in the market, a child running around that market, a gruff older man who is a dealer in antiquities and strange objects as well as companions for the main character. I have to make sure not to make any of the other characters overshadow the main character or stand out too much but I need to make sure that I keep them interesting.

Style-wise, Cara knows what she wants but hasn't yet pinned down an exact style yet which gives me a little bit more freedom in what I design for the time being. I know that one of her biggest influences on this project is Ni No Kuni, which is where I need to start when thinking about designing for the characters.

This is more of an eastern style which will be interesting to draw, and the body shapes seem to all be fairly simple. This first thing his made me think of though is Studio Ghibi-esque styles, which may be good for me to look into for this project. This sort of style does give me a little bit more trouble in drawing older characters, since the large eyes are on of the more important aspects of the style, so some of my research needs to involve looking at older characters in this kind of style that do not look out of place alongside the younger characters.