Design principles of animation character

 Modern hard to imagine a world without animation.Animated movies are attracted to the movie screens of both adults and children. Fun and funny characters, bright colors, funny stories, unusual adventures, and wonderful fun - everything that we love in cartoons. But most importantly, by looking at another cartoon today, we do not even think how he was created, or other animated film. This fact indicates that the masters of contemporary animation, and especially artists - these wizards, and each time make us believe in the reality of fairy tales. What are the special secrets of animation artists own? Of course, this question is best addressed to representatives of perhaps the most beloved and popular animation studio Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Design of animated hero: yeah what?

What is the basis for the design of animated characters? The idea of ​​the character? Bright colors? Good-natured face of the hero? A clear division between "good" and "evil" character? Yes! All this is absolutely true. But there is something that is hidden from the eyes of the layman. Strange as the basis for the design of any animated character is a character.

That character is one of the most important aspects of creating an animated film. Specify, in fact it is a symbol underlies the attractive design of animated characters. Good character design can increase the number of "fans" of this or that character animation. What aspects of the design includes "attractive animated character"? Such a hero should be:

• simple;
• so that you can quickly and easily draw, it is easy to remember what he looks like;
• symmetrical;
• bright; 
• realistic;

Nevertheless, the design of animated characters - is subjective, and largely require an individual vision of the image of the hero artist. As no chase, no hijacking of all ideas and trends. However, there are basic principles without which it can not do. On their own, and we'll talk.

Designing and building the look and feel:

• Be sure that you have a clear view of the fact that trying to draw and how the character should look like. Define: - what type of personality? - how to behave in a character in the movie? what is its role? - how the character behaves in relation to other characters? - like other characters appreciate your hero? - what are the main traits of the hero: old or young? cheerful or gloomy? funny or serious? strong or shy? job of the artist - to create a hero to the audience, just by looking at a cartoon character, he guessed about the role of hero in the cartoon and determined - "good" he or "evil. 
• Another no less important point - to think a story in which character will be involved. This phase will help us in the future to determine the design-time hero, what parts of the body most involved, and thus what parts need to be traced over. Depends on it, and the proportion of the body of the hero. For example, if the hero often uses his hands, he must have very short arms. This move will greatly assist us in the future and allow the body to use for the action hero in the cartoon. Well, let's see what can be obtained

What is a symbol, and that it is based:

• Basis of drawing any cartoon character - a character. Serve as a good example of geometric shapes - ellipse, oval, circle, etc.
• Make sure that the characters are based on characters in the film come from one "environment", "peace." That is, they should have the same type of graphic design. 
• Think about how your character will interact, both physically and emotionally, and make sure that your project is a model of the character can still be combined.

The basic graphic forms of characters:

• Removing dorisovki to the character, in fact the basis we get a graphic symbol system, but only after the start dorisovyvat details and silhouette of the hero. 
• Looking at the stylesheet from your favorite animated film "Aladdin" (below), we can see that each character is reduced to the basic form, the characters that appear simple, direct content:

Dominant masses:

• Each character has the same weight (based on a graphic symbol), the rest of the design "dorisovki." At this stage, the characters get more details - such as the "belly" - to the middle of painting the base body of the Sultan. 

Proportion:

• All body parts must be proportional. Cartoon - certainly a good thing, but in this case. As a viewer wants to see the first story on the screen. 
• Drawing a face is a particularly important step. For example, very large eyes can detract from the expressions of emotion on his face.

Clarity:

Who does not love Optimus Prime! Now let's compare two different versions of the design of this character. "White Robot" on the left looks more elegant - clearly visible to all parts of his body that can not be said about the model right, where a lot of unnecessary distractions.



Cartoons can be created by increasing one part of the body, such as the nose or eyes. But then you still need to maintain a reasonable proportion. The hero can vyglidet funny, but not ugly.

The curves and shapes:

Use in equal measure in the design of the character straight and smooth curved lines. Then an animated character will look more natural and naturally. Pay special attention to the extremities, as they should be smooth and to create the illusion of "gliding" on the screen. Alternate sharp lines with flowing.



Wit:
If you are going to create a good-natured character, then pay attention to your eyes. Large kind eyes - solve half the problem. Compare the two types of structures. As can be seen from the figure, large head and small body, long legs, big ears, etc., make us smile and take this as a good character. Puppies on the left is the innocence and simplicity, but that does not have the right model. However, the puppy on the right eye image so large that they lose not only their wits, but (more importantly) the ability to transmit strong emotions.



Design at the modeling stage:

However, during the design you come up with a mass of subjective subtleties. Even the design of the same character can be solved completely differently. The main thing - do not overdo it with the improvement. In general, having passed the previous stages you just have to prepare a hero to the modeling and the game in the frame.

• Again, the character models are immediately under the action - the nature of the hero (good / bad) is formed initially
• Testing the model with different camera angles and lenses to create the most comfortable position for the further development of production illustrations of the character in the frame.

Author - Doug Bennettc