Character Sheet: Updated Look for June

New Character Sheet

 I've updated June's look to include some hair, and I've changed the colour of her bandana. During the animation process, I've found that drawing June's hair wrap was more challenging than needed, and it wasn't looking very appealing. By putting her hair down, I've got some more substance to work with when drawing her to make her look visually appealing. I've also brought some yellow into her look through the bandana to add to the warm and cheerful personality I wish to convey. The rest of her outfit remains much the same as in the original character sheet (below). 

Old Character Sheet

Character Sheet: Teacher

 In my initial development of the film, I had only included a small glimpse of the teacher in the animatic. As I've been working on my Animatic 2.0, I've realised I will be showing the teacher in full onscreen, so I created a character sheet for her. 

I've coloured her in blue to match the rest of the classroom in my colour script (seen below), showing the classroom as a place of restriction and discomfort for Sunny, whose yellow shines in stark contrast. 

Pose and Expression Sheets

 Below are my pose and expression sheets for my three main characters in my film. This process required a lot of experimentation and research to create, which I have documented on earlier posts. 
I'm really pleased with the results however, and I think these will enable me to think through my animation with much more ease than had I not created them. 

Taking reference videos of myself acting out the different poses enabled me to think about my characters in three dimensions, and consider how they interact with their surroundings. I was able to consider angles and cinematography, which I'm still new to and trying to wrap my head around. 

Pose Sheet for Sunny

Expression Sheet for Sunny

Pose Sheet for Alistair

Expression Sheet for Alistair

Pose Sheet for June

Expression Sheet for June

Experimentation: Pose Sheets

 

In developing my pose sheets for my characters, I created a reference video of different poses tailored to each of my characters. Above are some traced images from this reference video, using some of the key poses for my character Sunny. These display a range of their emotions and how they might look when expressing these feelings. As Sunny is a particularly expressive character, their emotions might appear more animated or lively than Alistair, who is more reserved. 

Using these traced images, I can stylise the poses to create a pose sheet for Sunny. I'll do the same process for Alistair and June. This process enabled me to visualise the poses of my characters more thoroughly than doing it from my imagination. I'm able to see how gravity and clothing change how the figure appears, and I'm able to consider how camera angles might alter how much of the face is visible, and how much expression is visible to the audience. 

Development: Expression Sheets

 Below are the sketches I used in development of my expression sheets. Using the pose sheet I looked at previously in my research, I considered what sorts of expressions I wanted to showcase for each of my characters. Sunny is an expressive character, and they go through a wide range of emotions in the film, so I needed to draw them expressing a wide range of facial expressions. 
I started this process using the simplified, cartoony style that I used for my animatic, but this changed when I referred back to a drawing I had done several years ago of a crying expression that I wanted to reference for Sunny. 

A drawing I did in 2015, which I referenced when working on my expression sheets

Looking at this drawing, and others of its time, I departed from the cartoony style and leaned into a slightly more detailed style for the rest of the expression sheets. 

Initial sketches for Sunny's expression sheet

Sketches I used to create Sunny's final expression sheet

Sketches for Alistair's expression sheet

Sketches for June's expression sheet

Reference: Character Designs, Poses and Expressions

In developing my character designs and reference material for my production bible, I've been looking at how other artists develop their own pose and expression sheets. 

Anatomy: 

Anatomy reference sheet

I used this sheet in developing my turnarounds, checking that my figures conformed to the anatomical guidelines above. This enabled me to confirm the proportions of my characters and create more accurate turnarounds. 

Expressions: 

Facial Expression Sheet

From these I'm able to gauge what expressions I could include in my own sheet, and what level of expressiveness to include. Looking at this expression sheet, I can see how some facial expressions contort the face, and what areas to focus on, such as eye shape, eyebrow position, and mouth shape. 

Poses: 

Character Pose Sheet

This pose sheet shows a variety of expressions and poses, and the way emotions are expressed through different poses. In my own pose sheets, I am incorporating emotion and feeling into my characters' poses. 

References:

Catrinella, L. (2017) Character Pose Sheet. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VRWyg (Accessed 11 December 2021)

Medlej, J. (2021) Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Basic Body Proportions. Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/human-anatomy-fundamentals-basic-body-proportions--vector-18254 (Accessed 5 December 2021)

Wong, E. (2013) Facial Expressions Buddy Sheet for comics/cartoons. Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/darkspeeds/art/Facial-Expressions-Buddy-Sheet-for-comics-cartoons-359562676. (Accessed 9 December 2021)

Character Designs: June (Alistair's Mom)

June is Alistair's mom. She uses she/her pronouns. She is a single, middle-aged woman, around fifty years old. She is very warm and nurturing, and works as a primary school teacher. She enjoys baking and crafting, and she collects eclectic items. She loves nature and keeps many plants in her home. 

Bust view

Turnarounds

 

Character Designs: Sunny

Sunny is a 16 year old nonbinary person. They use they/them pronouns. They struggle with school, and much prefer making art. They are a bubbly, creative person, but they struggle with their self-esteem, and they don't have many friends. 

Full body view

Bust view

Turnarounds

Character Designs: Alistair

 Alistair is a 16 year old nonbinary person. He uses he/him and they/them pronouns. They do well in school and enjoy retro video games. They are socially awkward and struggle with making friends. 

Full body view

Bust view

Turnarounds

Character Sketches: Character A (In progress)

Sketchbook page exploring character designs and looking at Studio Ghibli faces

Sketchbook page exploring hairstyles, clothes and body shapes for the character

 

Moodboard for the character with colour scheme

Animation test with initial character design

Character Sketches: Character B

Initial sketches, notes and moodboard for unnamed "Character B" in my work-in-progress animated film. 

Front view

Back view

Sketchbook page exploring the character's design and traits

Moodboard for the character with colour scheme