Monday 15 August 2016

YPGTTO: Character Doodles

Inspired by Julien's beautiful character pages, I've doodled away for an hour or so to explore the potential for these birdy note things. It's a bit manic, but the numbering will hopefully help. Let me know which little chaps look most adorable. I think another page exploring a few specific shapes might prove useful.


3 comments:

  1. Another charming page, Jordan - and for me, it's still in the realm of 14/41. All the original conversations were about birds and bird-like forms, but I was very drawn to the two more 'school boy' designs on JVWs previous post (the location of which I did try to describe, perhaps rather torturously!). As I've said previously, the idea of having a cast of musical note creatures to populate the various scenes is hugely appealing and I've asked Ethan to explore 'cheap' ways of bulking up a cast of background characters where and when necessary. Instinctively, it does make sense that 'Red' should be a character with whom an audience of humans feels most closely associated, so I think we should consider developing that humanoid character further - this would likewise have implications for the design of 'Yellow', who as the script develops is taking on female characteristics. A 'school girl' if you like.

    @Jordan & JVW: A couple of specific character design things to think about too: during the Bassoon district scene, this happens:

    "Immediately that Red goes through the door, the mood changes: he’s suddenly in a new space dwarfed by other, much larger musical notes that march past him rather threateningly. It’s like he’s walked without warning into the path of some very serious, rather grumpy commuters or city-workers – all huffs and puffs and self-importance (a bit like the bassoon itself!)."

    I think these important 'city-types' require a bit of design attention of their own: not only do I see these characters as being physically bigger than Red (he's down amongst their legs being knocked about), they also have the pinstripe and bowler hat language of 'the city', and also the bluster and red-faced-ness of judges and former-miltary types etc. Think patrician energy! The bassoon is oft-characterised by its 'baritone masculinity' and the inhabitants should reflect that.

    The other re-arrangement of musical notes into specific character traits could happen in the 'cello district' - which I've just written - which has a 'sunken city' vibe and shoals of musical notes; perhaps here, the cast of supplementary characters could have fish-like characteristics, just as some of these early designs have 'bird-like' characteristics?

    The other important thing is that the note components comprising Red (and Yellow etc) are conspicuous enough so that audiences don't just think 'what's a human boy/girl doing in a world of musical notes'. In regards to JVW's sketch, wherein the legs of the boy were very obviously formed from a crochet, and the rest of his body was not, could be the way to go - as I think that's obvious enough, while also giving us a more full range of face and arm expressions to animate with. Anyway, let me know what you think.

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  2. Ta Phil, that's grand. I love this new section. Will get sketching on some ideas this eve.

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  3. Cheers Phil. The pedestrian scenes sound really exciting and I think I can see what you have in mind... More to come soon!

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