We had a lovely character design workshop hosted by Bianca Ansems this week, where she talked about developing characters and model sheets and how these work in the industry!
One of the first things she mentioned was the basic underlying shapes of characters and how these play a role in the way the audience perceives your character’s personality as a whole.
The first basic shapes to note are:
- CIRCLES – Often come across as friendly, soft and a little passive
- SQUARES – Showing reliability, stability
- TRIANGLES – Typically denoted as villains but isn’t always the case!
There are possibilities of mixing up the shapes while building up our characters, but that comes with time, experience and practice! But just a few things to keep in mind when thinking about characters!
Also one thing to note is that as animators it is important to simplify characters down to these shapes so that it is easier for us to work with it in the long run. Testing your character line up with silhouettes is a good way to tell if your character’s personality is coming across well!
Some other important points Bianca mentioned 😀
- Remember to diversify your characters
- Having a particular style isn’t necessary as you usually have to work on other people’s designs
- Character bibles like model sheets
- Denoting the Do’s and Don’ts
- Expression sheets for characters
- Turn arounds
- Action sheets
- Sheets for hands, legs if they are drawn in a particular way
- Colour sheets – showing palettes
- Angle sheets – characters from different angles
So as a fun exercise I thought it was a good idea to analyse the film ‘Up’ which is one of my favourite Pixar films!
Here is the Pixar website, where they talk more in detail about the film: https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/up
Carl, our protagonist is an old man who lost his beloved wife and is now living a sad and lonely life. He is literally shaped like a solid square block, the outlines of his jaw are quite literal in their square shape and even with his clothes on the body, we see the defined square shape. Like Bianca mentioned, his square shapes denotes stability – we see this throughout the film as he is the constant in Ellie’s life and although he doesn’t want to, he is reluctantly there for Russell, more so like a father figure. His shape denotes his personality – he is set in his ways and wants to do everything he can to make his wife’s dream of settling in Paradise Falls come true.
Carl was shaped as a brick, weighed down and resistant to change.
Pixar Animation Studios
Russell on the other hand is the complete opposite – he is round and friendly and enthusiastic! He has a bright and positive personality and this is reflected by his round stature. The roundness also depicts his childlike innocence. His overall shape is round and he always stands up straight which lets us know that although he is an innocent child he is still determined!
If we take a look at the villain, like in most Disney film clichés, Charles Muntz is also shaped like a triangle! Observing his entire form, we can see an upside down triangle where even his face is angled in a similar way. Although he doesn’t have a very pointy jawline as seen with Maleficent from Disney’s sleeping beauty. But the point in his nose and his boots, his body tapering from the waist down pushing his body in a forward stature are all indicative of his mean and conniving nature.
I’d like to also mention Kevin the bird, who is also built up of triangles but isn’t a villain after all! She is in fact the opposite of Charles and although her main body consists of an upright triangle, her personality resonates with Russell! She is innocent just like Russell and is determined to get to her little chicks! Her body language also indicates her goofy, playful and childlike personality!