Character Design

Catalog description

This course will focus on the concepts of character-design development as a preproduction stage to animation. Students will gain knowledge in drawing by learning formal spatial concepts in order to create, both visually and conceptually, fully realized characters. Through the development of character boards, model sheets, beat boards, and character animatic projects, students will draw and conceptualize human, animal, mechanical, and hybrid figures. Students will research characters in their visual, environmental, psychological, and social aspects to establish a full understanding of characterization. Both hand-drawn materials and digital drawing will be used throughout the semester. Students may use their choice of drawing software, based on their own experience and skill level. Students will have access to the animation rooms with a variety of software options, including Storyboard Pro, Harmony, Photoshop, Illustrator, and editing software Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier. Students new to digital drawing will work in Storyboard Pro software; students with personal access to Procreate may also use this iPad- based art studio software. Assignments and projects will include character boards, model sheets, and animatics. There will be daily character drawing exercises, structural anatomy demonstrations, basic digital drawing concepts, and empirical perspective drawing discussions throughout the semester. This is a labor-intensive drawing course, which requires a commitment to developing drawing skills. Good drawing demands time, commitment, and intelligence. The final conference project is a concept- based, fully-developed character animatic. Knowledge from this course can be used to create and enhance animations; to establish a character outline for an interactive media project; or to help in developing a cast of characters for game design, graphic novels, or narrative…