Tag: personality

Robert Bradbrook – Characters and Stories Part 1

We had a really lovely session with Robert Bradbrook (Head and Senior Tutor at National Film and Television school) yesterday! 😀 He spoke about character personalities and how to develop characters with interesting traits that will keep the audience invested in the story!

He got us thinking about personality traits such as positive, kind, domineering, etc and that it is important for our character to have at least three traits and one flaw. The flaw can make the character more interesting and it can possibly be the thing that is challenged; the one that makes the character change or transform towards the end.

The best way to start is by asking questions:

  1. If there is a piece of chocolate cake lying in the common kitchen fridge, would your character eat it? Leave a note after taking a slice? Not eat it and feel sorry about thinking about eating it?
  2. What would they do if they arrived late for work? Apologise? Pretend as though it didn’t matter?
  3. In a crowded bus, would they give up their seat for someone elderly? Would they overdo it?

Putting our characters in these day to day situations can help in creating well rounded characters and add a lot to their personality!

Here are some primary character types that Robert mentioned:

  1. Flat
  2. Round
  3. Static (character remains the same throughout the story)
  4. Dynamic (personality changes and evolves)

We also usually have the protagonist who wants something and the antagonist who stops him from getting it.

I’m also going to put these points that I jotted down during his session here for future reference:

WHAT DO CHARACTERS WANT?

  • Control, Acceptance, Reputation, Freedom, Self Esteem, Health, Love
  • Tapping into the Human Psyche and seeing ourselves in those characters on the screen and showing empathy towards them.

WHAT IS STOPPING THEM GETTING IT?

  • physical thing, mental, flaw or themselves?

WHY DO THEY WANT IT NOW?

  • Putting an urgency to the situation

WHAT IS THE EVENT?

  • Exploring what the event is – for instance stuck in a changing room, at a bar..particularly within a moment of time

WHAT DOES THE CHARACTER FEAR?

  • usually what they want is what they fear, so what is their secret?

IS THEIR WORLD IN BALANCE OR NOT?

  • Do they belong/not belong in their world? The feeling of being out of place often means that the character wants to be accepted

Robert gave us the example of Mr. Incredible – He wants reputation and self esteem. His biggest flaw is his ego and he eventually needs to learn to be a team player and that’s how he grows as the film progresses.

Sourced from Google

We also had a small exercise that we did during the later half of the session. We picked a chair we found around our house and then turned it into a character.

We had to give it a name and an age, 3 personality traits, 1 flaw, think about what they want and what is the event. We did this in a group and then came up with a story!

Here is my chair, named Bernard and he is in his mid 40s. His personality traits are that he is strong, determined and reliable. His flaw is that he is stubborn and short tempered. At the time I wasn’t sure about what he wanted so I just said that he wanted to avoid a mid life crisis and just enjoy his life.

My classmates and I then came up with this story that we had created with our respective chairs as people:

Bernard goes to holiday in Tenerife with younger girlfriend Evette (Mid 20s) and his son Kyle (13), who is energetic. They end up getting locked into their hotel room. Kyle being the hyperactive teenager, starts getting angry and more hyper which in turn irks Bernard to no end. Bernard came to have some peace and quiet but it ends up being the opposite of that. Evette being a calm minded person tries to relentlessly calm them down. It ends with Kyle retorting, “You can’t tell me what to do you’re not my real mom!” – THE END

We kind of left the ending in the wind, but now that I look back on my character I feel like it doesn’t fit the personality the chair resonates. Looking back at this chair today makes me think of my dad who is also strong, determined and reliable with his occasional stubborn and short temperament. Also, I probably wouldn’t have named him Bernard and would probably have made him around late 50s and also given him a better purpose of now wanting to be a loving family man, who gets to spend and enjoy his time with his kids now that he’s retired.

Character Design Workshop

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

Image sourced from Google

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!

Pixar Animation Studios

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.

Pinterest
Compared to Disney’s drawing of Maleficent and even the crow Diablo has pointy features denoting his is as malicious as her!

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!

Pixar Animation Studios