Character design

Author's own

Author's own

When developing my character the first thing I knew I wanted was a female lead. I have done this for two reasons, first, when researching about anxiety, statistics showed that women are more likely to develop anxiety than men. This intrigued me because why is this the case? Are women more sensitive or emotional - hence over worrying. Nevertheless this is why I choose a female lead. The second reason for this choice was that I am a female and this animation has been gathered partly through personal experiences that I have had. I wanted my character to express traits that I feel I have from anxiety. Okay, so now i know i want a women and the natural next step for me was to design the hair style. After doodling in my sketchbook dozens of times for potential looks that would work well for her character and to animate I reached the idea of creating a 'bubble' style (as I call it.) Which I actually created from previous experimental drawings of raindrops (above.) I looked at creating really messy hair - but felt that this would make the character look to out of order - when the purpose of the animation is to keep the anxiety a 'secret' until the end when the round objects open. Furthermore this messy hair would also be time consuming and I only have two weeks to create a 50 - 60 second animation. I looked at hairstyles that an introverted character may have as well such as hair over the eyes and long hair but felt again it was to obvious and difficult to draw. Therefore I experimented with shorter hair styles that could still have an equal amount of movement. I went for a shorter bob like cut that still had the round bubble effect - this way I could move a chunk of hair rather than add movement to each strand of hair.  Above is a GIF I have made to play with how this hair could move in an action shot - I was happy with the way it moved and so selected this to be the desired look. I actually really like the orange hair colour (may pick this colour for final design.) 

Author's own

Author's own

After the hair I decided to play around with all different face styles until I arrived at one that I felt was right. I did this by making different round shapes on the page and then adding facial expressions that suited the shape the best.  I also did this when trying out different body shapes best suited for an 'anxious' worrier. Although when it came down to it I felt that any person can develop anxiety and therefore no one stereotype could fill the void for my character. Therefore I just experimented with lots of shapes and designs. This stage was very important and helpful as it let me put down on the ideas and visuals in my head on to paper so that I could see what looked okay and what didn't.

Author's own

Above are my final sketches for the chosen character design. I have chosen to use round eyes that will stretch in order to give my character alot of expression - because she is the only one within the animation i need her expressions to express everything that she is feeling. There will be no dialog or narrating therefore it is important that I can clearly show what she is feeling (especially important in this subject matter also - anxiety is often hidden within a person's subconscious. ) Above I have circled the expression that I like the most - it is the surprised look, which I feel captures the emotion very well and I really want to use this for when she first sees the round object open up. In addition I really want her expressions to be really over the top - large and change from one to the other, this way we will see exactly what it is shes feeling and give her some personality. In the end, I chose a long thin body with a casual outfit on as I don't want her clothes to be more important than her expressions she conveys. I also wanted something simple to show a modest -  passive character rather than an aggressive one.

Author's own

So this is the finished character design which shows the colours that I wish to use in my final animation. I am using the brown (#986727) to create the outline of her, instead of black. This is because I feel that black can look very harsh and doesn't look that great on flash. In addition the brown's are the colour I will use mainly in my animation. I have used brown because it is a colour that displays strength however at the same time is a sad colour. Brown also conveys warmth and security, just like with anxiety people often remain within in their comfort zone if they feel anxious - therefore I used this colour for her clothes. I liked the orange hair because it breaks the brown up well and appears to be another metaphor and 'constant' reminder of how anxiety is always in the subconscious. This sheet I will refer back to often when creating my animation and as it is a guide to what my character is supposed to look like - her hair style and the exact colour which I can quickly select through this image. In this image we see a very serious looking expression that of a troubled person (which turns out to suit my character well) - although originally I planned to make her more comic, and clumsy; if I can I still would like her to have some moments that show her happier side as much as her frantic one which is displayed heavily within this work.