Using what I’ve learned, I’ll develop a design for a character of a series. Whereas I used one of my existing characters for the exercises, I’ll create a new character for this task.
To begin with, I came up with a quick logline;
ladies and gentlemen, boys and ghouls, welcome to the mysterious macabre manor! Join Marin and her undead dog Franky as they uncover the secrets of their hilariously scary new home, where there’s always a ghost or a werewolf or a headless chicken wielding an axe waiting around the corner.
Straight away, I know I’ll be designing a young female character who likes to explore, and her dog. The setting is a bit spooky, So I’ll try to design her in a way that makes her look both spooky and fun-loving. The series is a comedy, so she has to fit the genre.
It won’t embed for some reason, but here I drew up a very quick animatic of an animation test for Marin and franky. It captures the overall vibe of the series well; Marin’s innocent curiosity about magic often lands her in dangerous and crazy situations. The drawings aren’t very detailed, but I feel it’s clear enough what is going on in the animatic.
Lastly, I created this piece of concept art for Marin; pictured on the desk are magical objects and Marin’s phone, where she has taken a selfie with ghosts and franky. I feel like this contrasts the more mysterious elements of the series well with Marin’s childish nature and happy attitude; She’s able to befriend ghosts, who most would be afraid of, and still enjoys normal child things like taking pictures and using her phone despite her supernatural endeavours.
All in all, I’m happy with how this project turned out, As I feel I’ve truly learned a lot about character design and can apply my knowledge to other projects in the future. I like Marin’s design, and I feel I did a good job on drawing her. To improve, I think I could try out making up different types of characters; Both the characters I experimented with were happy young girls, and I feel like I could’ve pushed myself further out of my comfort zone and come up with a more serious character.