Character analysis

The boy- I want my character to be thoughtful and easy going and a little like most of us clumsy, he messes things up and thinks about hings after his actions. A little like a character called Frank Spencer from a program called 'some mothers do av em'. I also like his facial expressions and the way that his expressions tell us a lot about what heis thinking, I want to show this in my animation Iwant my audience to know what the boy is thinking; when he has an idea from looking between the neighbours gardens his un-tidy garden and his ball. I need to make it clear that it is the ball that gives him the idea to create a garden infuenced by a football.

This is a TV program that an older audience will be familar with which is my target audience. They relate to Frank Spencer as they know how it feels to mess things up only with Frank it is exaggerated; I want to have this in my animation where the problem is exaggerated but also so that it is believeable.




Perhaps the expression for when the boy gets the idea... it is easy to see that he has an idea.


This could be the expression for when he has caused the caos in his garden, he looks at his mother with wide supprised eye's but also with a look of inosence.





Another character that I have looked at is Stan Laurel, he is also another character that I like the expressions he uses, he also has that cheeky grin that is well known and has been used in all of the Laurel n hardy series. Stan is also the clumsy guy of the two and again has an innosence about him as he doesn't realise half of the time that he has caused a problem. Hardy is the impatient man whereas Laurel is more easy going.


The expression when his mother takes the ball off him; as the background changes we see this expression and then looking down at the floor to the pile of wood


This could be the expression fro the boy when he gets his ball back


I could use this kind of expression for when the boy draws on the window, as he is hinting the boy needs to give an expression to follow his actions so that it adds to the guilt that his mother feels and also leads to another action and emotion from his mother. Now she begins to feel guilt as she weighs up her options to whether to give him another job in the garden or to surrender and give him his ball


This could be the expression at the end of the animation when he looks at his mother, he looks proud and chuffed with himself which is how a child would feel

Character Design

I started off by creating different head shapes, I want my audience to feel sympathy for my main character so I want him looking cute, If he was to look like Sid (naughty child from toy story) then it wouldn't suit the animation. By doing this I was able to see a good structure for his face; chubby cheeks and big round eye's. I also want the eye's to help show the emotion of my character.




I then used the best face shapes and added hair style's, this began to give the head shapes more character and I was sure which head shape to use, I could visualise my character and how he will look in Maya. As I am specialising in CG animation, I want these characters to look a good standard and not only as a textured model but also for how he moves.




This is the face shape that I am going to use I like the hair style of the boy (top right) as it makes him look quite cute and innocent.


Test piece of how my characters head may look, I am happy with the shape of his head and hair, I will change the shape of his feature's slightly by giving him a button nose and fuller cheeks, I will also change the eye's; instead of having them close together I will have them apart.


This is a drawing I did to see how the proportion of my character; I dont like the proportion of this one













Maquette of little boy





Adding colour to my maquette to see what he will look like




My boy modelled on Maya, I gave a little more definintion to his face, giving him more bulgy eye's and cheeks, I may go back and alter his cheeks a little smoothing them.










I then went over and smoothed parts of his head to remove any sharp lines and to bring out his eyes a little more.


before....



after..... as you can see the lines going from his nose across the cheek bone are smoother and his eye lids are more defined. I think that he looks alot better now so I am ready to rig him :)










Developing the mother- I began in the same way as I did with the boy, I created a few head shapes to see how the mother may look, I want her to have a resembulance to her son; having some of their facial features the same or very simular.



I then added hair shapes, I want her to look motherly, she has to look authorative to give the right impression to the audience; a single stressed mother.



I gave her a hair style more like her son but as you can see she looks to imature and more like his sister rather than mother


These hair style are more appropriate, I prefer the image (top left) as she looks more sophisticated and motherly









Maquette of the mother





This is the kind of look that I want for my animation


I then modelled her on Maya, I changed her proportion slightly having longer legs and more bulgy eyes like her son, I also gave her the same nose and a wider face so that she looked more like her son.




Here I just tested out the rig to see if I can achieve a pose that I will be using in the film. I need to go back to the skin weights as it has a little crease on the right side of the neck.