Character Design - Session 10 (Final)

This final session of Character Design was operated like it was a test. We had the whole day to create a set of developed characters.

To start things off, we were put into groups. I was with Shannon (http://shannonfisheranimation.blogspot.com/) and Vincent (http://vincent-lange.blogspot.com/). We were then given a cartoon that we had to create original characters for. Luckily for us we were given Miraculous: Tales Of Ladybug & Cat Noir, which just so happens to be a show that Shannon enjoys.

Our task was to create three new characters, a hero, a sidekick and a villain. Shannon worked on the hero, Vincent worked on the villain and I worked on the sidekick.

Since all the characters in the show are based on animals, our first task was to decide on an animal. We settled on flying squirrels, but we also mixed in elements form red squirrels to make it more recognisable. The sidekick I ended up designing was a "Kwami", a small chibi-esk creature that works with the hero characters. The one I ended up creating was based on a squirrel.

My reference drawings of a flying squirrel, a red squirrel and a kwami

Gland, The Squirrel Kwami.

After we made these, Justin told us that we had to make a playset, which we did, but I don't have the drawings of. For those you'll have to go to Shannon. Same applies for when Justin asked us to create an electric toy.

At some point during the day, Justin told us that a racing video game was being made based on our characters and we had to redesign our characters as cars.

I'm actually quite proud of this. Since it's a small character I decided to model them after a small car, the Peel P50. If you don't know about this car, I highly recommend you watch Jeremy Clarkson drive one around the BBC headquarters.

Throughout the day, we were tasked to draw a turnaround for our characters. I drew a few throughout the day.

None of these are perfect, but I think I was getting somewhere with the design, as limited as it is.