Skulk

Design process for skulk
inspiration
final turnaround

Skulk is the antagonist of my short - a trollhating human who infiltrated the troll world in order to hunt and kill them. I wanted him to be tall and lanky, to contrast Beram's design. I also wanted him to be mysterious and represent an ominous force more than an evil human, as something you can't relate to is scarier. I then found concept art of  the Elder Yeti from Missing Link, as well as Prowler from Into the Spiderverse as both these characters created the right effect.

I noticed that a long garment/cape highlighted the character's lankiness, as well as helped make them more mysterious as they could hid behind it and dissappear.

Using these as references I started sketching Skulk:

I found that the first set of drawings didn't portray Skulk's menace enough - he looked like a side character of protagonist instead. Working out the neck and headshape was also quite hard, and I also found that a typical crown wasn't helping make Skulk look like a villain.

The breakthrough came when I decided to change the "crown" into a troll's skull, as this gave Skulk more detail as a character, and made him look more menacing and mysterious. This also meant that just his mouth was showing, therefore a smile contrasted with his other features to make it look evil rather than friendly. I also decided to keep all his limbs inside his cloak, further adding to his mysteriousness. 

Once I had his design settled, I cleaned it up and drew his turnaround:

As Skulk is meant to seem more like an evil force, I wanted to keep his screentime to a minimum, therefore I only needed to do a side and front view. I wanted the colours to be a lot more muted and darker than either Beram or Daisy, which would make the gold of the "crown" pop more. I also wanted his face to have quite harsh shadows to draw attention to it.

What went well?:

• The exploration of the character was quite detailed
• The troll skull crown idea, as it gave Skulk a lot more depth and showed his sadistic nature
• I feel like I achieved my goals for this character
• The simple jaw and mouth of the character 

What could be improved?:

• I could have explored the cloak design more, as the way it drapes along the ground isn't the most appealing design
• I could have designed Skulk's limbs and torso despite them not being seen, as it would allow me to understand the character's anatomy more as well as could be used in the future
• The contrast of the colours could be increased, as he looks a little bit washed out
• The gold of the skull could be chipped and worn, to show the paint job and explain why the skull is gold
• I could have done more views for the turnaround, for future reference/shorts using this world

PP1 - Que Dalle

I chose this short due to it's amazing pacing and beautiful backgrounds. Que Dalle depicts childhood frustration and angst in an incredibly effective way, using tension to make the two and a half minutes seem like 30 seconds. It built up tension through a variety of methods:

• Sound - increasing the volume and also the urgency of the dialogue, as well as layering the sounds (e.g. adding the stick hitting against the gate)
• Shot selection - use of close up shots
• Shot length - the shots became shorter and shorter as the tension built
• Colour - the environment became darker and moodier

In addition to the pacing, I loved the backgrounds:

The first thing to note about them is the lighting is incredibly well done, giving the environment depth and realism despite its painterly approach. It's also used as a tool to help setup the mood of the short, as most of the backgrounds feature a vignette/an almost black foreground.

The colour choices are quite saturated but at the same time dark, with simple surfaces being created with multiple hues, making the backgrounds something you could stare at for ages.

I also love the style of them: brushstrokes being visible and bold, as well as elements being less detailed than others to guide the eyes around the painting.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXKOdvYYsJQ&list=PLuXDmHIaLXyMx-mMoFWs-lzMhWTxBzC1N&index=59&t=0s

PP1 - El Empleo and Animals

I was first drawn to these 2 shorts due to their character designs. I absolutely love this style of character, with the head being an extension of the body, and their faces being very small. It sets up the short as something out of the box, whilst also linking all of the characters together. Both these shorts have social themes saying that we're essentially all the same as each other, and the use of this "template" character design helps sell this.

I then found I liked these shorts for different reasons. For animals it was the absurdity of the events as well as the pacing and escalation. The surrealistic ending was also appreciated and was a fitting climax to the short, in multiple ways similar to Caterpillarplasty.

For El Empleo, it was the strong story and social commentary as well as the creativity of the idea. The many ways humans were used to replace objects never got boring, with this scene being my favourite clip:

These shorts (especially Animals) makes me want to get into 3D animations using non-standard character designs, as I love how that looks combined with the realism 3D animation can produce. 

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxUuU1jwMgM&list=PLuXDmHIaLXyMx-mMoFWs-lzMhWTxBzC1N&index=54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaaHzp1SohQ

PP1 - Nata Metlukh - Animator

Nata Metlukh is a Ukrainian animator and illustrator currently working in San Francisco. She's animated multiple successful shorts before however her gifs are what I love. Why I like them:

• The colours are very bold and eye catching without ever-being overbearing. They are also always harmonious with the style of the animation, and really add to the appeal of these looping gifs.
• The style of the drawings - they're rough allowing for quicker animation however they are so appealing. The line quality appears to be sketchy but it still has a clean quality to it, which makes these gifs feel like moving illustrations rather than rough animations.
• Texture. Metlukh uses texture a lot, for both the shading and colouring. This becomes really effective when the texture itself is animated, such as the shading of the characters in the second gif.
• The simpler drawing style allows for wacky perspective and movements to be animated without looking out of place, and Metlukh utilises this a lot. Her animations are always extreme exaggerations of everyday activities or surrealistic loops, making you want to watch them over and over.

I really love the energy these animations have, and want to animate my own loops in a much rougher style where I'm not focusing on the drawings being "perfect".

Sources

https://notofagus.com/gifs

https://www.instagram.com/notofagus/?hl=en  

Daisy

Daisy is Beram's toddler daughter and is the symbol of hope for Beram in my story. I wanted her design to reflect her relation to Beram as well as be cute and bubbly. I started by finding cute characters that feature large mouths:

(Characters featured above from: Lilo and Stitch, How to Train your Dragon, Trollhunters)

I noticed that the main aspect that made these character's cute is their large eyes and smaller bodies. I was also focusing on their mouths, as I wanted Daisy to have a similar mouth to Beram's but somehow make it look like she was happy.

I then sketched out Daisy:

I found drawing her very hard as I've never been very good at drawing cute characters. The mouth was also very challenging to get looking right, as was the face shape. I think the first drawing was the level of cuteness I was going for, however she ended up looking too old. I also wanted to incorporate a daisy into her design as the symbol of hope for beram to physically hold, however found that the simplest idea was the best - adding it as a pin to her dress.

I also wanted to tie her to her father with her clothing as well, having a long draping garment like her father's cape (the dress) and have some sort of head accessory to represent Beram's crown (the bow). I thought that this aspect turned out successful, and I'm overrall pleased that I managed to make Daisy look her age as well as cute.

I then digitalised her, using the same lineart style as Beram as well as the same colour of skin and crown for the bow, in order to further their relation.

What went well?:

• I managed to make her look cute 
• You can tell she's related to Beram at a glance
• The details of her that link her to Beram: same teeth but hers are oversized to show how she needs to grow into them; the freckles being a more childish version of Beram's; her nose being the same as Beram's but smaller in comparison to her eyes

What could be improved?:

• More development of her eyes
• Different facial expressions
• Her body isn't drawn very well - the right side is thinner than the left
• Similar to Beram, her colours may need to be tweaked based on environment

Initial Story Idea

I knew I wanted to create an adventure short, as I wanted to focus on a travelling sequence reminiscent of ghibli movies - several faraway shots with beautiful backgrounds. This would also give me a chance to work on my own background design and painting skills, as its something I'm interested in but not very good at.

My process for the idea:

My inspirations for this idea came from:

•  Ghibli films such as Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away
• Christopher Cocker (ig: @opensandwhich) 

• The Tree - Han Yang, Basil Malek 

• Lord of the Rings
• Missing Link
• Abominable

What went well?:

• The research and inspiration gathering
• Not focusing on just one idea within my main idea - exploring different routes the story could be told with and developing and refining it
• Having the starting point (travel sequence) and building the short around that idea as well as the character's backstories

What could be improved?:

• I could have explored multiple different ideas within the adventure genre rather than focusing just on the idea of a travel sequence 
• Although the process of building the story from the travel idea helped me, actually deciding on the travel sequence may not have been the best idea as by nature they are just a small part of a larger story and are also slower paced, therefore it may not be fitting for a 30 second short

Character Design Development

I was originally going to change my character design completely when I came up with the story, however I quite liked this troll/goblin king idea and therefore I decided to keep this general idea but modify it a bit. Beram is now a stoic troll king who is hunted by an evil, troll-hating human. To help with my character design, I looked at similar characters:

I chose these as references as I liked their more squat proportions and strong shape language communicating their personalities. Characters from above feature in the following shorts: Double King, Le Royaume, Rhubarb King and The Tree.

I then altered Beram 's design to make him more squat and more king like, as well as building on the comments from the preivous iteration, such as making his head more rounded with a sloping forehead and a more jutting chin. I found I kept making Beram look too angry and aggressive rather than just gruff and tired, as minute changes in posture and proportion would effect his personality dramatically.

Once I was happy with the design communicating Beram's personality correnctly, I cleaned up the sketches in a basic t-pose. I decided to change the line quality from the first t-pose, opting for a thicker and cleaner style as I feel it suits the character and short better and would also allow me to colour the character much quicker (learning from the previous Slapstick animation that textured lineart doesn't work well with the fill tool). I then fleshed out the turnaround and added colour and shading.

What I like/what went well?:

• The turnaround lined up pretty well and kept proportions
• The lineart style
• The alterations of Beram's design to make him more squat
• Beram's face change - less blocky whilst still having clear shape design
• Crown design as its simple yet still visually appealing
• The simplicity of this character design

What could be improved?:

• I should have drawn Beram from multiple angles and in different poses in the sketching and development phase, as I found it hard to picture his front view just from a side profile. It would also give him more depth and allow me to understand the character better
• The front profile looks a bit off as there is almost too much body - maybe avoid full front view shots in the short
• The colours mayh need tweaking when fitted into the different environments
• The lineart colour may need to be changed to complete black to avoid unusual interactions with backgrounds
• The shading is simplistic but maybe a bit too fiddly and time consuming - I could opt for a tetured or messier shading style

Other people's comments:

• Posture and facial expression really sells character's exhaustion
• Crown base may be too narrow to stay on Beram's head - this would be a concern if I animated Beram using stop-motion, however he will be 2D animated so I think it will be okay
• Crown could be makeshift/cloak could be tattered to help convey sadness - I like this idea, and could incorporate it into the final scenes of my short to show Beram's progression through the ordeal. It may be more complicated to animate however, so could be a final details thing/done with colouring