PR02: Character Design 2

Next, I decided to have a little experiment with faces, trying to go a little more exaggerated like Valley or Moore. I wanted to make sure that they didn't end up too similar to either, though. I think that the first and further on the first row, the third and fifth on the second row and the second on the third row are the most effective. If I'm honest, I dislike a lot of the others; they are just flat and boring and just aren't that nice to look at. The more elongated faces that I have are much more interesting, but I only like two of the shorter, more wide faces. I think that the chin on the second, third row and fifth, second row work for the wider faces, in contrast to the chins on the longer ones that mostly curve inwards. I think having those opposites at least will be effective in differentiating my characters and giving them different personalities, which is important for me. A lot of classmates also like the longer faces, so it would be nice to use them in the future.

Again, my opinions vary quite a lot on the female face designs. I like the first, third and fourth on the first row, the second on the second row and the second on the third row. I think that they show the personalities of the characters very well, and have variety while staying simple. It was fun to experiment more with the jaw shapes here, and too my surprise I think I actually got a better variety than on my male characters. I think that usually it is easier with male characters to add variety to all aspects of the face without having to worry, whereas in the animation industry there's the whole thing with keeping a female character looking 'pretty' which means less risks and diversity between character faces, I can see how some of my designs do not look conventionally pretty, but I don't want to think of that as a problem and risk my characters being plain old boring characters with no personality and just looking the same as any other woman character in my animation. I got a lot of positive comments about the first row (apart from the second design) which I am happy with, since I also find them to be the more interesting designs.

The legs are starting to get boring on here which I this is in part because of the lack of thick lines and sharp angles. None of the designs themselves are too interesting either, although I like having a bit more detail around the knees on the third design to stop the bottom half of the character from looking too boring.

 The first two designs on this page are much more interesting and I like the faces, although I don't think they are that unique. It's definitely a good starting point either way, so I might try and develop them in my next designs. The legs are still not the right shape again, losing some of the more interesting aspects of my earlier designs. I like the plain bootless with the detail at the top though; this contrast between detail and not makes them interesting and easy to read, especially compared to the tights design on the first character. Their clothes are still too boring, but hopefully when I'm finished with the script and idea (which should be soon) I'll have a better idea of their personality and how exactly to move the design forwards and away from the idea of just experimenting with the style.