Character Design and Development

Character Design in the industry- Found on Creativeskillset.org

To do this role, you will need to:

• have up-to-date knowledge of computer illustration software packages
• be skilled in film imagery
• understand what Directors, Directors of Photography and Editors require from a scene 
• have excellent illustration skills
• be a strong communicator
• visualise perspective and 3D space
• have a keen interest in design, architecture and film
• visually interpret other people's ideas
• be flexible and adapt to change when asked
• work as part of a team

I wanted to experiment with my own art style during this period to show flexibility. I wanted to show that I can be versatile and don't necessarily have to stick to one form of art. I asked people what they thought of each one these pieces in order to get feedback on where I should go with the character and how he can be improved.

When I started think about this characters design I followed the idea that the is meant to be creepy and in keeping with the vintage theme of the whole piece.

I looked at reference images of Vintage Circuses  as well as general Circus of Horrors to get an idea of what this kind of character should look like.

I found these images really useful when coming up with the initial idea for this character, however I knew straight away after drawing this that I didn't want my character to have a big frame, I wanted him to look weak as well as scary as this would fit better with his character arc.

I saw this image online and it changed the direction I was going with for this design, I really liked how the tight striped suit made the limbs look even longer and thinner. It also isn't quite as full on as the traditional clown with the puffy clothes. I thought this would be a more interesting idea for a puppet as well. 

At this stage, I asked my housemate and a couple of my peers which way I should go with the design of this puppet in terms of clothing and material.

People overwhelmingly chose the tighter suit over the traditional baggy one. It may be slightly harder to make but people think that literally showing how thin he is gives of a sense of vulnerability while still maintaining his creepiness.

Here are a couple of character designs based on the image above. I much prefer the thin, long limbs in these designs.

The harshness of the coal in these versions was my way of showing the idea of inner confusion in the character. I later decided to draw him much cleaner as I felt it put more emphasis on his tiny frame.

I decided to keep the shakespearian neck collar in the design as I likes the way it separated the head and body of the character. I know from experience in making puppets that having something cover the neck area can look much neater on a final puppet. It also makes the whole design a lot more interesting when considering character semiotics.

There are a lot of triangular features to this design including his hat, sleeves and shoes. This is because I wanted the viewer to know that this character is not quite what he seems to be. He is confused about his own identity and maybe cannot even trust himself when it comes to his character.

However you will notice that each of these triangular parts of the design is counteracted with a circular element (the buttons, details of hat and feet and the neck collar. This is to show that he is a good character and doesn't necessarily mean any harm. 

The overall effect was an attempt show both good and bad elements of his personality, the whole design is in battle with itself, the same way the character is in battle over its own identity.

While designing his body I looked at other characters of similar body types for inspiration...

The art style and direction of this film was heavily based on pen and ink pieces by Edward Gorey so I decided to have a look into his style of art.

I really liked his work and decided to try a couple of designs in a similar style.

Here is a quick experimentation with texture and cross hatching, loosely based on Edward Gorey's work.

The Faceless Clown

It was at this point that I decided to think again about  his identity under the mask. I have originally planned to have his face wrapped with cloth but that implies that he has got an identity without his masks and he is chasing not to show it instead of what I wanted to get across,which is that he is reliant  on the masks for his identity.

This lead to a whole redesign of his face. For this I looked at other "faceless" characters.

A great example of a well known faceless character is Slender Man. He also has the creepy element to his design which is really relevant to my work.

Here are a couple more features of the puppet. Originally I wanted to make him with incredibly thin hands but I changed my mind to make them kind of Mickey Mouse like, far too big and out of proportion with his long, thin limbs.

The feet stayed very similar, keeping the triangular design which is traditional of clowns and jesters.

Here are a couple of original designs for the masks I made for this character.  I wanted to stick with the traditional clown makeup so it was still wear what he is meant to be. Without these masks on it could be head to tell. I wanted him to have one for every expression, making him completely reliant on these to express himself.

Here is the final design of this character, this is what I made the puppet from. I was influenced a lot by Tim Burton's concept art in genera but I wanted to remain true to myself in a lot of ways. I wanted him to be creepy, but so much that he is unreliable. I wanted to express a sense of loss and confusion of his face which makes you pity him instead of fear him.