For the literature review section of my essay, I’ll need to reference a specific piece of literature, and so I need to find a book relating to hyperreality. I can’t go into any libraries right now, so I’ll look through the UAL online library resource to find something helpful, read through it roughly and pick out some good quotes to analyse and agree/disagree with, as well as practicing a critical literature review paragraph.
I found this book called ‘cinema of simulation; hyperreal Hollywood in the long 1990s ‘, written by Randy Laist and published by Bloomsbury in 2015. The book mentions Baudrillard & hyper realisation in cinema, so I think it’ll serve as a good piece of literature to reference for me, and I’ll be able to link ideas in it back to my essay.
Reminder for myself of the literature review criteria;
1200 words
clearly demonstrates how the research material supports your investigation
address specific questions in relation to ideas proposed
Before my writing practice, I’ll pick out a few interesting parts of the book and brainstorm, coming up with points based on them and linking them to my idea.
There’s a part of the book that I find interesting; the author speaks about the movie ‘The Truman show’, which is well known as a piece of work that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. In the movie, a character named Truman is unknowingly the main star of a TV series; the world he lives in is false and everyone he knows is an actor, and his life is being broadcasted to millions worldwide. I think you could draw parallels between this premise and the life of an idol in japan; similarly to the way that Truman doesn’t truly belong in his constructed utopia, Idols don’t fully belong to the image of perfection and availability tied to them by their companies. Both utopias are constructed to satisfy consumers; watchers of the successful truman show enjoy it because ______, while idol fans enjoy their parasocial relationships with the performers as, as mentioned in my last essay, it serves as a solution to the desire for a close relationship without the emotional investment required for a real one, creating a demand for fantasy and hyperreality.
You could go further and link these things to Kondo and Hatsune Miku; Miku is the manufactured Utopia-like figure, and her existence serves as a solution for Kondo’s predicament; he’s afraid of women due to past experiences and therefore isn’t interested in pursuing them romantically, but naturally he still longs for a real connection. Miku allows him to have a relationship without confronting his fears or investing his emotions and potentially being hurt again, and this process is an important requirement in constructing a successful fantasy; we need to be satisfied as consumers without having to invest too much of our own lives into the fantasy, the investment is somewhat one sided (from miku to kondo, from truman to viewers).
The end of the truman show is particularly interesting as it connects to why something as abstract as miku exists in the first place; throughout the movie, Truman does things out of character, which interests the viewers unexpectedly, and he eventually breaks out. However, there are two times where everyone stops caring about truman; when the show is put on hold due to unexpected actions from the titualr character, and at the end where he finally escapes, and everyone asks ‘what else is on TV?’ this serves as a peer into the life cycle of an idol; people stay interested while the idols are mantaining the hyperrealistic fantasy relationship between themselves and the viewers, and fans follow the idols and keep up this relationship for the next couple years, but when the idol gets older and leaves the industry (Idols in japan usually graduate when they get older, and are replaced with new younger idols), they often don’t find much success later in their careers; people move on to the next batch of idols so that they can stay immersed and entertained. Similarly, people started looking for the next big show once Truman freed himself, showing little interest in him now that he was actually a free man; his hyperreality had been broken through realistic intervention. Kids also lose interest in Santa after learning he’s not real; reality behind fantasies often serves as what ends them. Miku, however, doesn’t have this realistic element to her; she’s like if Truman was purely a character in the show and never had any desires to live his real life. She’s not a real person and so she’ll never leave fans or change, points that Kondo says keep him interested in her; it could be argued that Miku is the perfect hyperreality figure. Consumers need a product to stay the same and never allow reality to interfere in order to stay invested, and Miku is able to do this as she doesn’t have a life beyond what we see of her, like Truman or other idols did. People move on to the next thing whenever an actor/celebrity breaks the hyper realistic relationship they hold with the consumer, but Miku will never do this, allowing you to stay immersed in her infinite existence.
I have all of these points, but I need some quotes to reference from the source material, and so I’ll look for some.
‘Significantly, the movie ends with Truman poised on the threshold of exiting the dome, but it does not follow him outside, as if to imply that Truman’s very existence is coterminous with the dome, and that leaving the dome is an act of virtual suicide that causes him literally to cease to exist in any modality whatsoever.’– Parallels can be drawn between Japanese idols after ‘graduation’ or a scandal and Truman leaving the dome; hyperrealities break when the subject of the fantasy starts to desire and act in more realistic ways. That is why virtual idols are a successful alternative; in the way that children believe in Santa Claus, or people are able to immerse in the idea that the actors are really their characters at Disneyland, the key to an immersive fantasy is to never have reality interfere, allowing people to project their own ideas and hopes onto said fantasy figure. Hatsune Miku doesn’t exist beyond a fan’s interpretation of her; What makes her a perfect fantasy figure is that reality will never interfere to break the illusion. Marrying her is solving one of reality’s issues, an inability to connect with women or a potential partner, by allowing for no room for rejection; in other words less emotional investment.
This point could be taken further by looking at relationships between Truman and the audience of his show; they’re able to watch and enjoy it because they aren’t having to fully empathize with Truman or care about him outside of the show. This could be a point against hyperreality; it cannot serve as a permanent solution to life’s issues as it numbs our natural emotions.
In preparation for my essay, I need to do research on some theorists and ideas, as well as some books i can use for reference, as a literature review is required. I already have the groundwork for my essay and I know what i’ll be talking about, but i need some theoretical backing to really give a spine to my idea. Based on the advice of my teacher, I’ll be looking into hyperreality and the work of philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
First, I’d like to read about the theory of hyperreality, as I feel that it will be more helpful than knowing about the philosiphist himself. As a quick description, hyperreality is an inability to distinguish fiction and reality; It’s where the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred. This works very well with my theme, and I feel that this theory could serve as the glue that holds my idea together and makes it coherent. Hatsune Miku is a fantasy figure who is more involved in reality than most are; She holds real life concerts and has real ads, but she isn’t a real person. I feel that most fans of Hatsune Miku don’t see her as an actual person (myself included); we know she’s fake and we look at her more as a character, as you would for your favourite character from a tv show or movie, while enjoying her music, but obviously there are people who allow Miku to overstep the boundary between fantasy and reality and view her as more human than she is, such as the man that married her.
In terms of linking hyperreality to Japan as a bridge between the concept and Miku, I’ll read up on it a little more; if i can tie ideas of social pressure, alienation and other things to hyperreality, I can strengthen my essay and give it some context.
Anyway, back to hyperreality. An example of a common hyperreality is Disney land, where a whole false world has been constructed and is presented as real, with actors never breaking character and everything looking exactly as it does in the movies. Hyperreality, as described by Baudrillard, goes beyond simply not being able to distinguish reality from fantasy; It involves creating a symbol of something that doesn’t actually exist and accepting it as something real; Disney land isn’t a land, it’s a place that doesn’t exist, but through symbols, construction and acting, it becomes something real, both real and fake at the same time. Santa Claus is a similar case; he’s a symbolic figure made to represent Christmas, and children engage in hyperreality by believing that he’s real, but he’s a fictional character. in Miku’s case, she somewhat represents a perfect Japanese idol; a young, pretty girl who lives for fans and maintains a ‘relationship’ with them, despite not knowing them personally; she gives her life to fans, which ideally is what Japanese idol fans want from idols. To link this back to my ideas, I could ask; why do these hyperrealities exist? bringing up more common sights like Santa and Disneyland help people to understand an abstract idea like Hatsune Miku a bit, so I’ll continue using them as reference points.
Why does Santa Claus exist? The origins of Santa Claus can be traced back to St. Nicholas, who is the saint of children, but I don’t think that’s relevant to my essay; I want to look more at what he represents and why people believe in him, and link it to why people start to allow Miku to take more of a real world pace in their life. Christmas is an important holiday in the west, and one of the biggest events of the year. People and businesses alike benefit from Christmas hype; it gives people a little escape from daily life, which everyone needs, and it increases consumerism, with gift giving being at the centre point of the holiday. First, I’ll focus on the side of the consumers and people. Santa is ‘alive’ because people believe in him; namebly children. Children are young and innocent people for the most part; they’re naïve and still learning about the world. Santa is a man who will gift children on the condition that they behave well; he gives children the drive to act properly throughout the year, and rewards them for it. For kids, he’s a generous and kind man, giving without receiving anything in return, and also a driving force to keep children in line; he doesn’t expect too much from you, you just have to behave. He’s different from teachers and parents, who often give commands and rules that you might have to follow against your will; he has one simple rule, making him more of a fun and easy to impress adult.
It could be argued that Santa, for kids, serves as an escape from the pressures of regular adults; in a child’s life, adults tell you what to do and you have to accept it, not gaining anything in return and possibly unhappy with the commands you’re given, but Santa gives gifts and is often presented as a jolly, laughing man. In a way, he’s an idealised perfect authority figure for kids, which kind of links to my idea; People enjoy Hatsune Miku because a relationship with her is like one in which you don’t have to worry about her reacting like a real person, and a relationship with Santa is one in which a child is rewarded and not put under a lot of pressure. It’s like a relationship without as much emotional investment; in a way, you can feel more while doing less. There’s less pressure on consumers to do the right thing like there is in the real world, but you still feel the fulfilment of retaining the relationship.
There’s also a sense of excitement that comes with Santa for kids; he isn’t ever seen, but proof of his existence is verified through his love for milk and cookies. There are a couple reasons why this is significant; firstly, it gives kids something to be excited about; things you cant obtain are often more appealing than things that you see every day, such as the idea of having a nice car, a beautiful partner or a lot of money; keeping an idea alive despite never having obtained it is exciting in it’s own sense, and this offers children a sense of excitement every year. Will this be the year they see Santa? they won’t know until the end of each year. It’s also significant as it humanises Santa a bit and makes him relatable; kids like cookies, and so does Santa, giving them something in common. It stops him from seeming intimidating, as he has some traits that allow us to see ourselves in him. Miku is similar in this sense; her given age, height and weight add a sense of realism to her, as well as her personalisation as a quirky and cute individual who gets excited and enjoys trying new foods; humanising these characters makes it easier for us to see ourselves in them.
does he look like a man you can trust?? nawt to me!
As for companies, Santa benefits them greatly as he can be used to sell Christmas to people; we’ve all gone out and purchased a Santa jumper or stocking before purely because he was on it. Having a fantasy figure that a lot of people engage with as a mascot for sales is really effective; Santa is somewhat the face of Christmas, and so companies benefit from his cultural significance and. Ironically, he is somewhat appropriated by companies; his character is someone who loves to give and see others happy, but companies use him as a tool to get us to spend money. I guess you could also look at it from another angle; Santa is a symbol of giving, and so you give money to companies in the spirit of Christmas. Some people become more generous spenders as Christmas approaches; it could be argued that it’s ingrained in our heads that seeing Santa means we should be more giving (semiotics comes to mind) because of the connections most form with him as children. It’s almost like he’s training or a mental plant to get us to spend more whenever we start to see him around. Companies like coca cola have used Santa for marketing before; we should all be generous and share a coke with someone, we can all be a kind, Santa-like figure. Santa can be used as a tool to trick us into spending more money in the name of generosity; but perhaps I’m getting a bit off topic.
I’ll move on to speaking about Disneyland, which in my opinion is more about fantasy and delusion in a sense; an idea of a utopia, which can’t exist in real life and is therefore a manufactured fantasy.
Hyperreality is significant because it links to real world issues, such as consumerism and the fear of how others perceive us. We always feel the need to show off and prove our worth to other people; we try to own the newest phones, cars and TVs so that other people will think we’re wealthy and well kept. In japan, there is more pressure to get married than there is here in the west, where it’s arguably common for people to not marry or not have kids, and there isn’t too much of an expectation for it nowadays. Despite societal expectations and pressure to get married, Japan’s marriage rates have been falling every decade due to things like people not having enough time to seek a partner because of work, but the pressure is still there; this could sort of begin to explain why people like Kondo, the man who married Miku, choose a virtual bride, it serves as a solution to the issue and pressures of life without any emotional investment. It’s like putting wallpaper over a broken wall; it doesn’t fix the issue, but it’s out of sight and so it’s more tolerable and less unbearable. In today’s age, it makes sense that hyperreality and the digital world would cross over, as fantasies are very accessible through the internet and we live in a very digital age.
Another point about consumerism and hyperreality could be that society tells us what we want, and we satisfy these ideas through fantasy. We, as well as japan, live in a capitalistic society that places value on individualism, hard work and money, as well as a sense of traditionalism. This is the case in conservative japan; a lot of old traditions die hard and are still around, such as the pressure to find a partner to settle down with, linking back to kondo. In our own lives we’re pressured to have a lot of money, valuable belongings and friends, and we somewhat engage in over indulgence and hyperreality by listening to songs and watching movies about this kind of thing. Music and film are constructed to convey certain messages and lifestyles, but we, whether we admit to it or not, to some extent allow these things to influence our own views and desires, arguably engaging in hyperreality. ‘I should look like this because it’s how actors in movies look’, ‘I should achieve this much by this age because this celebrity did it’; thoughts like these are products of capitalism, and we promote them through fantasy, in turn reinforcing these thoughts to ourselves and aiming for them. It’s less like fantasy influences reality and more like reality creates the desire for fantasy, which in turn reinforces the things we aim for in reality and makes us more desperate for them.
For our second year of cultural and theoretical studies, the end result is to write an essay on a chosen topic. My chosen topic is fantasy, and namely how fantasies reflect what we crave as a society, and how new fantasies are formed to answer problems we already have. I chose this topic because I enjoy fantasy myself, and I thought this would be a fun opportunity to learn about some of my own interests and possibly why I’m interested in them.
I chose to look at Japan as a society, as I’m pretty fond of Japan. I’m looking into a fantasy figure called Hatsune Miku; a virtual idol, or a virtual pop star with a computer-made voice and a holographic body that she performs with. I have personally been into Miku since I was young, I enjoy her music, the fandom surrounding her and her cool and futuristic concept. I felt it would be easier to speak about one of my interests, because if I’m genuinely enjoying what I’m talking about, I’ll be more motivated to do research into it and learn about it. My essay will focus on how Japanese social issues serve as a cry for something as abstract as a digital pop star, exploring cases in which Miku is treated like a real person, ranging from brand deals to marriage (yeah…). Here is my video essay exploring my ideas;
My points in this video reflect most of what I’m planning on speaking about in my essay. I believe that there is truth to the idea that popular fantasies of a time and place reflect what issues people living in the society have; I myself have found myself using fantasies like Hatsune Miku as escapes from loneliness at darker points in life, as parasocial relationships somewhat served as a solution to loneliness. In the same way that I used these fantasies to cope with my issues, I believe that societies as a whole do this, and by analysing what is becoming popular to fantasize about in societies, we can begin to tackle the issues and identify them better in the real world.
After presenting our idea to the Horniman museum clients, we received some helpful praise and criticism. To put it simply;
What they enjoyed
it’s a creative idea, and digestible for children
it’s educational and our message is a clear one, we’re teaching kids about why we call dogs man’s best friends
What could be improved
timings are a bit awkward- the amount of dogs may have to be cut
there isn’t any form of a conflict- adding one would give the characters more of a reason for acting in the ways they do, and it would reach a more satisfying conclusion
We also learned that we needed some finished and polished designs, as we’d have to present our work to the clients again in a couple weeks, so that they could see the improved idea. My group also had a tutorial with Jane, our creative writing teacher, where we could receive further feedback on our loglines and overall narratives. All in all we needed an updated storyline, some character designs and some refinement for time.
After some quick discussion, our group decided to change the character of the little boy a bit; instead of being a dog lover, he was going to be someone struggling to adapt to life with his new, hyperactive pet dog. The animation would start with the dog chewing on one of the boy’s toys, which angers him and causes him to run to his room. His grandma, hoping to ease tension, reads him the dogs with jobs book, which makes him like the dog by the end of the animation, allowing it to sleep next to him on his bed.
some quick sketches for the beginning of the animation.
After our discussion with Jane, we again changed the narrative a bit; She felt that this storyline antagonised the dog a bit, and suggested making the relationship between the boy and the dog one where neither is right or wrong, they’re just not understanding each other. We then changed the idea a little, having the boy be afraid of the dog instead of hating it, and removing the scene where the dog breaks the boy’s toy. Now, the story was about a boy overcoming his fear of the new family pet after his grandmother reads him a story showing him why we should love dogs, and that they’re here to help us. I feel that this narrative is stronger as it gives the grandma more of an incentive to read the book to the boy, and it adds another message to the story overall; it teaches kids that dogs are not animals that should be feared, a lesson which can be applied to other animals and fears that children have. To make some time for the middle scene, we cut the Dalmatian fire dog; we chose to axe this dog as we were a bit unclear on what Dalmatians actually did at fire departments, and a Dalmatian would be hard to animate because of it’s spots.
With a reprised story, We needed some polished art and visuals for the animation. We’d have to present again in a couple of weeks, and for this presentation we needed character designs, an animatic with sound and a ‘proof of concept’, or a short animation to give a quick visual sample of what the animation would look like. Me and my group started off by calling each other and creating some rough art;
A rough storyboardRough grandma and boy designs
We tried combining our art styles a bit so that all of us could draw the characters with ease, and we came up with a rough storyboard to get a rough idea on some of the angles and shots we would include in the animation. With these rough designs done, we were ready to come up with some more polished character designs;
The kid, Jason. we’re choosing the 3rd paletteJason turn aroundGrandma, we’re choosing the 1st paletteGrandma turnaroundNutmeg, the pet Pomeranian turnaroundNutmeg colourssize comparison
I was in charge of designing the humans and the pet dog, as the Dalmatian had now been cut and I only had one actual book scene to complete. We already had a rough idea for each character, so I was kind of just polishing the designs and making them fit for animation. We chose to make the pet dog, Nutmeg, a Pomeranian, as they’re small and hyperactive dogs which fits our narrative well. We’re aiming for a cozy, homely look for the animation, so we’ll mainly be using yellows, oranges and other warm tones.
Here were our designs for the dogs. In the end we also cut the blind service dog, as it was a bit similar to Akita Inu, but less interesting (sorry blind people). We felt that these 5 dogs would make for the most entertaining scenes in an animation.
Due to numerous technical difficulties, I offered to make the proof of concept myself although we had initially planned to split the work, while Calix worked on our presentation and Leonardo worked on the animatic.
The animatic that Leo created, with some drawings from all of us (we all drew our own scenes)
The proof of concept I created, displaying the colours and overall style
After presenting all of this to the clients, we received more feedback on how to improve;
They felt the middle scene that Jane suggested is unneeded and interrupts the flow of the animation based on the animatic
They think more time should be used on the opening and ending scenes, as the interaction between the humans is important and should be focused on
They feel we may need to cut another dog to allow more time
The shots in the beginning (namely shot 3) could be more dynamic and exaggerated, as well as lasting longer, to really cement the boy’s fear and feelings about the dog.
With this new feedback, we’ll work to improve our idea once more so that it’s fit for the clients. I look forward to updating when my team have worked around our issues.
With our basic idea down, it was now time for my team to polish our idea a little more and have a more clear idea on what was going to be included in the animation. We had an upcoming presentation where we’d show our idea to our clients and receive some feedback, so we took the opportunity to come up with some rough designs and a clearer narrative for the story. Over a video call, we discussed what the content of our short film would be, what kids would learn from it and roughly who would do what.
We decided to drop the idea of presenting dogs through history and focus solely on the jobs they do and in which ways they help us out with our lives. We wrote this quick logline and synopsis to communicate what our idea was to our clients;
Our basic idea is to have a grandma read a story to her dog-crazy grandson, showing kids the many ways in which we rely on dogs. The animation will start with a boy in dog pyjamas excitedly waiting for his grandma to read him a story titled ‘dogs with jobs’, and will end with the boy happily sleeping. I feel this idea is a good one as children are familiar with the concept of learning things through a story book, which will immediately add some believability and familiarity to our animation for the young target audience, and the general message and story can be interpreted well even without dialogue (which we were advised not to use too much of, as the Horniman museum tends to be loud, and children understand actions better than they do words).
These were rough designs of the book, boy and grandma, created by my teammates Leonardo and Calix. They work well because they’re fairly simple and easy to animate, and their designs say a lot about who they are; The grandma is a kind and soft woman, exaggerated by her soft round shapes and kind expressions, as well as her actions in the animation, while the child is crazy about dogs, shown by his attire. The book has a silly and memorable front cover, which I feel will entertain kids and stick with them. We decided to make the book landscape, as it would be easier to draw full scenes with the dogs if we had wide pages, and it would work well on a 1920×1080 screen.
Here are some quick sketches of the dogs we thought would be the most entertaining to show to kids;
Dalmatian- police dog (Jahiem)
Labrador retriever- blind service dog (Jahiem)
St. Bernard- snow rescue dog (Leonardo)
Alaskan husky- sled dog (Leonardo)
Laika- a dog who was sent to space (we won’t show the part where she burns to death) (Jahiem)
German shepherd- police dogs (Leonardo)
Akita Inu- therapy dog (Calix)
We tried choosing a range of dogs so that the content of our animation didn’t get stale, and we also opted for dogs who were easily recognisable either because of their unique features or uniforms/job outfits, so that children would be able to know what they were. We ideally would show each dog for about 5 seconds, taking up 35 seconds, with scenes of the grandma and boy at the beginning and end would take up the remaining time, making the animation 50 seconds in total.
We put together a few of our existing art pieces as a display of how cohesive our art styles look together, and to give a rough idea of what the animation will probably end up looking like.
With some refinement and rough sketches down, we were now ready to present our idea to the client and hear what they thought about it. With confidence in our idea and skills, I’m excited to hear what feedback we get and how we can improve on our idea.
This post marks the beginning of my first 2nd year project, Cats & dogs for the Horniman museum. For this project, there were two briefs to choose from; an NHS brief about breast cancer in black women, which often goes unchecked until it’s too late for a number of reasons, and a 40-50 second informative animation aimed toward kids and families about cats and dogs for the Horniman museum. Both of these briefs sounded interesting to me; as a black person myself I think it’s interesting to tackle issues within our community, and I also think it’s important to come up with digestible ways in which kids can digest information and learn. After some thought, I decided to go with the cats and dogs brief for a couple of reasons; My goal in life is to create animated series for children (older children and teens, although creating an animation for younger kids and families sounds like good practice), and I feel that working with the constraints of what is suitable and digestible for a younger audience will help me to shape my own ideas into ideas that children will enjoy watching. I also find that I have trouble with making my ideas clear and as understandable to others as they are to me, and I feel the constraints of this project will help me to think in a more objective and critical way about how I can clearly communicate ideas to an audience.
For this project we have to work in teams, and I’m working with two classmates called Calix & Leonardo. We got together as a team in class, and we were given a couple quick tasks to get our brains running; we had to quickly get down some ideas that we could possibly work with and build on, and then create a rough visual moodboard and present our idea to the class. It was helpful to share our ideas, as this would prevent us from creating animations that were too similar to other group ideas.
We started our process by looking at cats, with the idea of showing how cats have been perceived through history in different cultures and through different times, and how ideas differed; for example, ancient Egyptians favoured cats and worshipped them as gods, while in London they were seen as omens of bad luck and sometimes familiars of witches. I liked this idea a lot (I’m biased since I’m a cat owner myself), but after some discussion with other teams, we realised almost everybody had chosen cats and not dogs. We decided to change our idea, opting for an animation about dogs so that our work would stand out. We pretty much carried over the same idea, but included the element of jobs that dogs help us out with, such as police dogs and guide dogs. We created a rough mood board and presented it to our class for feedback;
We included some pictures of cartoon dogs who are popular amongst children, such as blue from blue’s clues and dugee, to give a rough indication of visual styles we could aim for (we all have relatively similar cartoony and simple art styles, so we knew it would probably end up looking more expressive and child like), as well as general dog images and some quick buzz words. My teammate Leonardo suggested that we present the dogs through a storybook, and my teacher liked the idea, as kids would be familiar with storybooks and it would offer us a way to quickly transition between dogs.
Overall I think this is a good start to our project, and I’m optimistic about it. As time goes on we’ll refine and polish our idea, but I think we have the basic framework for it down. I’m excited to see how our idea evolves and develops.
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.
I started with this quick mind map to give me a grasp on the kind of character Marin is; she’s a strange girl with a peculiar interest in the occult, but very polite and adventurous. I considered what types of things I could add to her design to give off a sense of who she is; I think if I give her round shapes and expressive poses and facial expressions but dress her up in spooky and odd clothing, the viewer will get a good sense of what she’s like. These are the concept sketches I came up with for Marin and her dog, Franky. I wanted Marin’s outfit to communicate to the viewer right away that she had an interest in spooky things, but I also wanted her to come across as a fun and cute child, so I had to come up with a way to combine these contrasting elements of her character.
In the end, I chose to give Marin features that were both creepy and cute; She wears a ghost shirt, but it features a cartoony cat-ghost with the phrase ‘me-ooh’, and a headband with devil horns on it. I feel the accessories I chose for her sit well between cute and creepy; they capture Marin’s character well as they’re spooky things portrayed in a cute way. It’s a good way of blending Marin’s more mature interests with her childish mindset, appearance and nature. I used semiotics and combined imagery of ghosts, skulls and demonic symbols in her design, to clearly communicate what her interests are.
I also wanted Marin to be made up of mostly round shapes, so I chose to give her round looking facial features and puffy hair. Her messy hair and horns are what will make her recognisable as a silhouette, in combination with the way I choose to pose her.
For Franky, I wanted him to look more or less like a normal dog with some undead components; I wanted him to look a bit beat up without looking grotesque. I chose to expose his brain and damage one of his eyes, as this is a clear indication that he’s an undead zombie, and I’ll probably colour him with a dull green.For my proper Marin drawing, I wanted her to pull a pose that would clearly communicate her personality and be recognisable even if she was a silhouette. I chose to give her an open, active pose, showing that she’s energetic and loves adventure, and always on the move. I also wanted her to look confident; Despite any comments she may get on her interests or way of dressing, Marin is confident in herself and isn’t shy to show off her interests.I followed this up by adding Marin’s features. I gave her a big round smile to make her look friendly and approachable, as well as adding some horns on to her shoes so that she had another strong and recognisable feature in her silhouette.Here I tested out some colours for Marin. I tried sticking with dark Halloween palettes, As i felt that in combination with her clothing, It would clearly communicate her love for creepy things to the audience. I experimented with giving her coloured hair, but I wanted her to look a bit more like an ordinary 13 year old girl so I opted for the more natural tones for the final outcome. I like the bottom middle design best as I feel it’s both spooky and vibrant; orange and purple are often paired for Halloween, straight away putting ideas in the viewer’s head, while also providing some nice colour contrast for Marin’s outfit.Just to make sure her silhouette was clear, I blacked out all of Marin’s features to look at her shadow alone. I’m happy with it as I feel it’s clear and could be identified in a line-up of silhouettes as Marin.Here, I created a profile for Marin. To capture the mysterious and spooky vibe of the cartoon concept, I added in a mystical book page background and a tarot card drawing of Marin and Franky. I tried making her description engaging while still being formal, so that it looked like something you could read in a book. I added 3 faces that Marin could make, each saying something different about her personality; her love for franky, her happy go lucky confidence and her curiosity.
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.
I was a bit lost on where to start with research for character design, but after some thinking, I feel a good place to start is by asking myself; what makes a good character design? by looking into this, I feel I’ll be able to learn a lot, so I’ve decided to start by watching some videos and reading some articles about character design, and after this I’ll look at some of my favourite character designs and apply what I’ve learned to them, before beginning some rough sketches for a new character design.
To begin with, I’ll watch two YouTube videos on Character design and take some notes here on my blog.
Video 1
While this video isn’t by an industry professional, I feel there are things in here that I can learn from it, So I’ve chosen to watch through it.
The video starts with a line-up of three characters from the Anime Toradora, and asks the viewer to guess which of these 3 is meant to be the beautiful model character. It’s quite hard to choose one out, since all three characters look quite ordinary, which the narrator makes a point out of; If nothing about the character’s design communicates what is supposed to be special about them, the audience won’t know. A good character design should give you information about the character straight away; A character who loves to eat might look chubby and be holding a snack, a mean character might have a mean facial expression and dark clothing and a happy-go-lucky character might be very expressive and bright.
A character’s design should reflect a lot of things about them- their personality, beliefs, interests and background should all be seen through their appearance. A design should also be appealing- consider your audience and what appeals to them before designing characters.
think of a character design as an answer to a question- what kind of a person is this character?
Semiotics- How different visual objects come together to create meaning- for example combining a pillow, moon, stars and a blanket brings about connotations of night time universally. Combining things like this can be a good way of easily visually communicating what kind of a person your character is to the audience. Different visual components should come together to imply a meaning.
If a character has a cowboy hat, you’d automatically think they’re a cowboy because the hat acts as a visual signifier- we make assumptions about characters based on what they wear.
The character Jotaro Kujo from the anime Jo Jo’s bizarre adventure is used as an example of a good character design. Jotaro is very tall and muscular, implying that he’s a strong character, often wearing a strong expression which indicates that he has a strong and serious personality. We get all of this information alone from his design, but it doesn’t stop here; Jotaro also wears a Japanese school uniform, which lets japanese audiences know that he’s younger than he looks, and a school student.
The type of uniform Jotaro wears is often seen in japan as a symbol of delinquents and delinquent culture, combined with his hairstyle, telling us as an audience that he may be some kind of a thug. To add to this, his uniform is open with his own bright shirt underneath it, further implying that he’s someone who breaks rules and adds a touch of themself to things. His design says a lot about his rebellious nature and character. His hat also casts a shadow over his eyes and the back is ripped, which adds some roughness and mystery to his look.
Despite all of this, the hand on his hat has a double meaning; In some Indian religions it’s a symbol of peace, while it also serves as the logo for the JoJo writer’s manga company; manga artists are often people who pay a lot of attention to detail and are careful with their work, putting care into it. The hand adds a sense of good nature and kindness to Jotaro’s design; despite his tough appearance, he has a delicate and peaceful temperament, and has personally chosen to add this detail to his look. From his design alone, all of this can be implied about his character.
Next, the narrator makes an example out of Shinobu, a character from the game ‘No more heroes’. In the story, Shinobu is a hired assassin, but she’s also a teenaged school girl; Her stylish school uniform contrasts with her darker and rougher accessories, which speaks on her lifestyle as both a student and a killer. He also speaks about her sword, pictured here;
Shinobu’s sword has a lot of phone charms (similar to keychains) on it, which were popular amongst Japanese school girls once for how cute they were. They provide a bit of personality when attached to an object; They tell the viewer that despite being an assassin, Shinobu is an ordinary girl who enjoys trendy things like her peers. She isn’t just a killing machine, but a person with other interests.
Lastly, the narrator discusses how what you do with a visual indicator can change the way a character is perceived, with these two examples for a muscular body being a character’s main trait;
Takeo from oremonogatariand toguro from yu yu hakusho.
While these characters are both muscular, they give off quite different vibes to the audience; Takeo is more of a rounded off square shaped character, with most of his features being rounded off and soft looking, so he looks friendly and soft despite his build. Toguro, on the other hand, looks slightly grotesque due to his proportions, and he has a lot more sharp edges and points in his design. This ties into shape theory;
We read circles as soft and harmless due to their smoothness and lack of corners, which makes us perceive round characters as soft, fun and friendly. Squares are bulky and bold, which cause us to associate square-shaped characters with strength and boldness. Shapes with a lot of points, such as the star pictured above, seem dangerous and sharp, so we associate characters with a lot of edges as a threat and someone potentially harmful or violent.
Kirby could be used as an example here; he’s simply a circle with a face, but we perceive him as a cute and friendly character based on looks alone due to his lack of any harmful looking points or edges. All of his features are round, making him come across as soft and squishy. If you imagine touching Kirby, you probably imagine him as soft and bouncy.Bmo is a square shapes character, but his edges are all rounded off, giving him a soft and cute appearance despite his bulky build.
Professor Utonium is made up of squares, giving him a somewhat bold, steady and reliable appearance, and letting us know that he’s a smart and reliable character in combination with his expression and outfit.
the Thwomp is a giant cube character, and his shape makes him look heavy and hard. Combined with his expression, we can gather that he’s an aggressive and strong character.Blaziken is a character with a lot of sharp edges and points, which makes him look swift, sharp and strong in combination with his palette and expression.Shapes are important because even with just a silhouette, an assumption can be made about characters based on their outline and shape. Someone tall and blocky like Mr incredible can be perceived as strong and sturdy, while characters like sully look more friendly and funny due to his small and round build.
Next, I watched through this video;
The video starts by firstly stating that a character design isn’t better or worse depending on it’s complexity, because everyone is different and characters will be used for different things. You should design a character with the intention to appeal to the audience, valuing how they communicate with the viewer above how complex you can make the design.
The video goes on to state that clarity is important in character design; a clear silhouette, palette and exaggeration makes for a recognisable character. Over doing things makes the character’s overall appearance look cluttered; piling too many details into one character makes them difficult to read, and hard to re-draw. Most recognisable characters have distinct silhouettes, with the shapes used communicating something about the character to the audience, as I spoke about above.
A good way of maintaining clarity while adding distinguishable features to a character is to give them a small and recognisable trademark feature, such as Finn’s hat. This helps us to identify the character in a crowd, seen here;
As well as saying something about the character; Homer’s two pieces of hair tell us that he’s balding and middle aged, while Finn’s hat looks a little animal-like, indicating his love of the wild and advenutre. Poses also play into a character’s perception; You can always reduce a character to their silhouette to see if there’s anything you can add to the design.
In terms of a palette, It’s a good idea to have one dominant colour and a range of secondary colours that don’t compete too much with the main. Not only does this make the design look harmonious, but it can communicate something about a character to the audience; Yellow is generally seen as a happy colour, and combined with SpongeBob’s smile and shapes, he comes across as friendly. and happy.
This design features a lot of competing colours, which throws off the clarity a bit; without line art, it would be hard to determine where the ear ends and where the dress begins.
Something as simple as changing the colour of the dress gives the design a dominant colour, unifying the rest of the palette, and adding some clarity to it.
Pallettes should also be adjusted so that the colours are harmonious and don’t clash; you shouldn’t have colours that are all too intense or bright, they should tie into each other and look somewhat natural for the character.
Here, the character has been given more round shapes which make her look friendlier and say more about her personality. Her pose is feminine and confident, and her crown makes her silhouette distinguishable. Her palette has been simplified and the values of the colours don’t compete. Her pose is also more exaggerated, easily communicating what type of character she is; ‘Less is more’ works well for this character.
Her palette in combination with the background has a lot of harmony, and nothing is fighting for attention. Brighter colours have been used in the foreground while dimmer ones are used in the background, offering a sense of perspective and guiding our eyes forward.
Combining a good silhouette with a good palette makes for a character that is recognisable from a rectangular colour swatch alone.
Colours mean different things to different people and isn’t as clear as shape, so combining colours with features is important; yellow in combination with round features can give off a happy vibe for a character, while yellow in combination with a sickly appearance can give off a more grotesque look.
Colours can also tell us about a character’s environment, as pictured above. We can make assumptions about where a character is from based on their palette; someone with green skin like Shrek is probably from a swampy area, while someone with a fluffy blue coat is probably from somewhere cold and snowy.
Exaggeration is important because it helps us to read emotions clearly; as humans we’re naturally empathetic, and we take more towards characters that we can relate to and empaphize with. While the picture on the left is more realistic, The one on the right capture’s simba’s youth and expression in a more exaggerated and easier to read way. You should observe how real people or things make you feel, identify what makes you feel the emotions you feel when looking at things in real life, and apply them to character designs.
Poses are also important; you shouldn’t stick to one textbook structure for all of your characters. A body is a reflection of the mind within; a slender and feminine character probably thinks in a feminine way, caring about her appearance, while a bulky and muscular character probably values their health and strength, working toward goals the hardest they can.
This is an example of posing that could use some work; while there is clearly personality and a relationship between the characters, the posing doesn’t give us much information. The two have similar proportions and aren’t very exaggerated, and the staging isn’t very clear as it’s a little hard to tell that the demon is supposed to be behind the boy.
Here, the design is improved; there is more of a distinction between their proportions, and more exaggeration in their poses and facial expressions. We get more of a sense of who these characters are through this artwork, and we can make assumptions about them based solely on their poses and faces.
Gathering real life reference such as reading, observation and photography can help with exaggeration; broadening your understanding of the world can help you to become a better storyteller, both visually and writing-wise.
Character design should also reflect the vibe of the story; instead of only working in one style, you should consider what style will best convey the mood of the project best. For example, south park is animated in a very simple style which helps the simple, crude jokes to land better, while sad things like grave of the fireflies are animated in more realistic styles, so that we as humans can relate to them and read their emotions in a human and organic way.
After finishing these videos, I wanted to take two character designs I really like and apply some of what I’ve learned to them;
Chun li
clothing- cultural, she’s a character representing China in a fighting competition. She takes pride in her culture by wearing traditional garments, but there’s also a sense of danger added to her costume; her sharp arm bands and the exposure of her muscular legs tells us that she’s a fighter with an aggressive side.
Often posed in a symmetrical, bold way; somewhat rectangular. She’s a woman with a strong and sturdy personality, which is reflected through her posing. Her expression is a calm one, excluding confidence without making her look like a threat.
Her head buns are a trademark; identifiable and unique to her. Adding these to any other characters would probably make you think of chun li, and she’d be recognisable in a crowd.
Colour- Chun li’s palette is a calm one, with the main colour being a soft blue. This speaks a bit on her personality; She’s fighting for justice and is a hero, with a calm and strong temperament. She doesn’t wear many abstract colours, with no makeup or bright hair colours, giving her a natural appearance and telling us that she cares more about her strength than her looks; despite being a female character, she poses in quite a masculine way.
buttercup
A simple and confident pose; tells us that she’s a character who holds herself in high regard and is sure of herself
round shapes that make her look friendly, but sharp and spiked hair; tells us that she’s a friendly character with a wild side
confident facial expression which works with her pose to tell us about her personality
a limited palette with green as the main colour; makes her distinguishable from her sisters and other characters
a clear and balanced silhouette; she’s recognisable.
For this exercise, The task is to design a character and come up with 2 descriptions about them; one more formal and one that gives off the vibe of the series the character is from.
I chose to use a character from an already existing project of mine; Battle School, a story I’m working on about a school in a world where every living thing has a superpower. In this school, students are trained to use their powers for the benefit of the world, While the contrasting Villain academy teaches students to use their powers for chaos. I chose to use my story because I felt this was a good chance to add some professionalism to my project and try out talking about it in a more industry standard way than I have previously. Here is the series logline;
Taking down monsters before math class and foiling the plans of treacherous villains in time for the school dance is all in a day’s work for Miel and her classmates at the battle school! Join our heroine in training as she fights against the forces of evil! and… homework.
Here is the first page I did. I designed it in a similar fashion to a school book, as the main setting is a school, and used the main character of the series, Miel. She’s a cheerful girl who wants nothing more than to be a hero, but can be a bit reckless sometimes and tends to do more harm than good. I drew Miel in a pose that reflected her personality, and added a small class report to quickly communicate some information about her to the audience, such as her age and academic performance. The description is rather simple, giving out basic information about Miel and her place in the story.This is the version with the text that captures the cartoon’s overall vibe. Since the show is aimed at kids aged 9-10 and up, I wanted it to come across as a bit crude and entertaining; I didn’t want it to be too formal, as children engage better when they’re entertained. This description puts more of a focus on Miel’s recklessness and superpower; the power to move her hair. I personally prefer this description as the writing has a lot more character and I feel like it would be more effective in keeping people interested, while also selling the vibe of the show well.This is a drawing of Miel pulling a pose that tells the viewer a bit more about the overall vibe of the show and her character; She’s a hero in training who fights with her giant locks of hair. I feel I could’ve made the pose more dynamic; Exaggeration is something I want to work on, as I feel it will work well with my art style and the kinds of stories I usually create.
With all of my planning done, I was ready to start drawing my Triptych for the heavenly blade Cerulean. I had the image in my head of what I wanted my final outcome to look like; a drawing of a glowing sword in a dark forest, with two darker pictures of trees and plants on either side, each making up one image.
I started off by splitting my canvas into 3 parts and very roughly sketching out what things I wanted to include in each section. I started with the middle, as it was the most important; I wanted to include the sword and kyubi alone here, as the focal points of the piece. I considered hierarchy in the composition of this drawing; I wanted the sword to be high up, so that it drew attention; I wanted to communicate to the audience that the sword is the most important thing in the piece. I surrounded the sword with some glowing spheres, as in my story it states that kyubi was lead to the sword by them. I also wanted to guide the viewer’s eyes toward the middle, so I tried making everything point toward the sword; Kyubi is facing it, the ground leads up to it and the trees point to it. I also wanted the sword to be positioned in a way where it could illuminate everything around it. There isn’t much difference between the left and right sides of the image; they both just depict trees pointing toward the sword. I made the trees bare with no leaves to add a sense of wilderness and lifelessness to the forest, as it’s meant to be a dangerous place; I also added some wild growths such as mushrooms, rocks in the front and a vine in the top left.With the basic composition worked out, I sketched in some details. I decided to change the spheres around the sword to fairies/sprites, to add a sense of magic and mysticism to the blade. I also added some flowers close to the sword; I wanted to contrast the flowers, which are delicate and full of life, to the dead and naked trees and wildlife around them, as the sword is a heavenly object; I wanted to indicate that even in a demonic forest, things like fairies and flowers are naturally attracted to the sword. I added some danger tape to the foreground as I felt the forest needed a little something extra to make it look threatening, and I added some spikes to the vines. With my sketching done, I was ready to clean it up and add some line art.Before adding line art, however, I wanted to work out how the lighting in the forest would look. I wanted the sword to be the only real source of light, emitting a dazzling gleam that illuminated the rest of the forest. In the story the light is bright enough to be seen all the way from the kingdom, and so I had to make sure it was as bright as I could make it. The sword lights up everything close to it, including kyubi and the trees; It really does look heavenly. I added a little glow to the mushrooms, as I felt this would be a nice touch and stop all the dark colours from blending together; I wanted to provide the audience’s eyes with a break from the darkness.Next, I added my line art. I didn’t change much from the sketch, but as a small detail, all of the grass points upwards toward the sword. I think this was a small and effective detail in guiding the viewer’s eyes toward what was important in the piece. I also sized the sword up a little, as I pictured it as massive and glowing. I added my base colours to the piece, working mostly with shades of brown. I wanted everything to look dark in contrast to the sword, so I tried to avoid any especially vibrant colours. I used a gradient in the sky, as I feel gradients can help things to look a bit less flat. I used the same colour for the fairies and the mushrooms, as I felt that this somewhat linked them and made them both look magical.When I finished colouring them, I used a dark blue colour on a low opacity to add a dark tint to the piece, making it feel more like night time and a bit more ominous. I erased the tint from the most important objects; Kyubi, the fairies and the sword, so that they were a little brighter and stood out amongst everything else.Lastly, I added the light, which tied everything together in my opinion. It added some contrast between the soft and bright icy colouring of the light and the darker tone of the sky. I decided to have the light touch everything in the piece, adding it’s tint to everything around it and in a way giving it’s life to everything. I also added some stars, as I felt the sky needed just a little more detail. The light illuminates each section of the drawing; If you saw the left or right parts alone, you’d wonder where the light was coming from, drawing your attention to the dazzling heavenly blade Cerulean. I added some subtle dark shadows to each corner of the piece, to add more contrast between the light and it’s dark surroundings.
I wanted to communicate as much to the viewer as I could without them knowing the full story; I feel like just from looking, you can infer that the character has entered a dangerous place and found a magical sword. You can also infer that the sword has been left untouched and abandoned for a while due to the damage on it, and that it won’t be left alone much longer because someone has discovered it. The sword being in the stone reminds me of the story of king Arthur and the Excalibur, and I feel that this is effective; that story is well known and is about a chosen one discovering a fabled sword, which is similar to my story. The similarity will help people to make inferences about the scene, although it was unintentional.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed this project and it gave me a chance to challenge myself, use research and create a piece of art that I feel proud of. I feel that the earlier stages were really useful; I did go back and revisit things that I took note of earlier for this drawing, such as the effects that lighting has on the mood of a piece, the use of smaller details, art styles that inspired me and composition’s effect on art.
Although I’ve finished the tasks that were set to me, I really like the story I came up with and I want to create some small animations to accompany the drawing. I’ll start those and document my process here.
