Character Creation for TV: Imagination to Digital Sketch [ Part 1 ]

1. Intro: everyone in this class I'll talk about how to create from imagination to sketch characters were TV animation. This is a part one out of three Siris for a beginner to intermediate level, and it requires the use of photo shop and a drawing tablet. I'll start off by talking a bit about myself. My name is Stephanie Shui are truly for short and, I'm assured, an animation graduate. In the four years here, I've learned how to Design and Adami, specializing in two D and also looked at it and stop motion production. I've also been part of two student short films created from start to finish, one of which made it to the annual awards 2016. I love character design and exploring and experimenting on different aspects off what makes the character appealing but also easy to enemy. I'm also very interested in hand to equal certain emotions based on the first impression of the character being in fear or in all with them, just being child like an approachable. So without further ado, let's talk about the class overview and this class. We're going to explore the similarities and differences between characters in TV animation and characters in animated film and movies. Acela's delve a bit into the production aspects of both. We're also going to come up with to defining traits off our favorite childhood character. You create our very own character with those same two traits from start to finish mass, we will explore and come up with different posing thumbnails that best bring out our character's personality with the help off. References also talk about how to make a strong post with the help off action lines and Night of States. We're going to focus on the intent, expression of the post. So what are you waiting for? Click the enroll button now and let's get started on PTR. Very own care. 2. Tools and Preparation: personal. Well, thank you so much for enrolling. It means a lot to me and who we can fun together in this quack. Yes, this is a light content class will only be using Photoshopped and Drying tablet. I'm using the Mater Prize 19 inch Interactive Pence flight on Virgin CS six Footer shop. The last and also most important, they needed France Max. It's, of course, our imagination. There is thus a little quick exercise I would like to do before you don't deeper into the class. Let's take a quick trip back to your childhood. Remember which original character you like the most. This character can be from any medium. It doesn't have to be from TV show, and it doesn't have to be human. A solace Davis. As a few of this think personality traits about why you like that courage or so much as a child. Was it because that character is like that who you want to be when you grow up? Or was it because that character was asked something you did not have? I reminded you of a certain important someone in your life, people's reasons in mind and write down briefly a list of defining characteristics that your character has. Wolf personality wise and appearance wise, the security your glasses are occurring and generous, the spoiled brat who always gets what they want. We'll get back to this most layer. 3. TV vs Film: So what are the similarities and differences between characters and TV animation and feature animation? People propel the story. They're both relatable, and they will have their own appeal in their respective medians. TV animation, however, usually works on a tire schedule. In terms of production, it means different departments are working on several episodes at a time and are rushing to deliver a complete episode every few minutes or so. Their team is a lot smaller compared to the team working on a full length feature. Sill positions fell off quickly, and in the case of larger studios, the teens rotate between different shows quickly. In the case of bricked animation, Riggers are responsible for the building or constructing of a fat character design into something that's an immutable in tune, boom or in flash. That means characters are designed not solely for their appeal, but also for efficiency and flexibility. That means the ability to form difficult poses and go into outlandish perspectives. If the client script calls for it, the rig animation solves a huge problem of inconsistency in their two new characters. It is still beneficial for the pipeline to have characters convenient to use and lightweight in terms off their graphics features are, movies tend to have a comparatively larger budget schedule and team, which allows them to get into more intricate detail not only with their characters but also sometimes with other aspects of the future. Like their backgrounds and their music, the design of the character me also depend on the method in which they meet. One example would be the character Design and The Lion King in 94 Original Disney and The Lion Guard, which was released this year. Lying quality difference because of the technique used to animate them with the Lion Keynes was animated, one drawing at a time on paper, and The Lion Guard was done using the raped animation technique in to Boot. Both have strong shape language, but the lying guards design feel stronger and bolder, while the lying kings feel softer and warmer. Another example of different mediums is the loony Tunes cartoon and their respective movie Back in Action. You can see that in order to allow them to fit in better with the life actors in the movie , The Looney Tunes characters had to undergo some changes to their appearance, which makes them quite different, as opposed to their initial look into cartoons. So what makes a strong character for TV animation Perfectly characters that are designed for efficiency, flexibility in the sense that they're able to adapt to different actions, according to episode scripts, and they also have a strong and recognizable civil wet. Some examples of these include the Looney Tunes characters, SpongeBob's Graham Pans, Steven Universe and Over the Garden Wall. Most of the characters we see in cartoons will have a recognisable silhouette. With that in mind, let's move over to the next part. Where to start brainstorming character. 4. Posing Thumbnails: my favorite character from my childhood was Buttercup from the pop off Girls. Don't laugh. I like how tough she is and how she never backs down from signs of danger. She also has her soft and cute moments, a slow she's true to herself, and I love her for it. Two characteristics which I feel to find her well are assertive and athletic. Open up, floater shop and start in your document. If you haven't already, that's 100 b p I. My campus sizes 1008 100 pixels by 1008 100 pixels. I like to keep my canvases Where signs. So it keeps me focus on working on a small area and doesn't overwhelm me with unnecessary or rather larger spaces. Make sure your layers air turned on by hitting F seven to toggle it on or off are going to window layers. A salas. Your toolbar. I go into window tools, make sure both have a check mark beside them. It be to bring up the brush tool or click on it on toolbar. I usually use the stumpy pencil version to brush from my sketches or, if I want that pencil sketch effect on my work. I'll place the link to it in the class project thumbnails first since athletic It's one of my courage is streets. I've done some posing thumbnails off athletes while looking at references off athletes. You're free to make us many thumbnails as you like, until you said it was something you like to take a step further. The thumbnails can be super rough as long as you understand what you're drying. An important point to know as you are drawing these thumbnails. It's a line of action in your poses as a line of action and opposed undetermined how strong that poses. This is also where reference comes into play. Here. I've pulled up a reference picture and photo shop. We can clearly see that the action line off this post cursed an inverted C as a player aren't just backwards to strike. Despite the ball, her arms and legs are also positioned to balance for weight in the air to give her the most airtime without compromising the strength and angle needed to hit the volleyball. You're opposed. 10 men make your selected reference. But really don't be afraid to really push your post even further because that's what cartoons. Therefore, they can be exaggerated. Feel free to just let your imagination go wild. Don't let anatomy restrict the energy in your post negative space is also important as they contribute to a strong and recognisable silhouette. We can identify a negative space between the inside of her arm here and a top of her hit if we block in the pose like so here, I guess coloring in the pose to show it is still recognisable. You know you're last to if you want your feeling uneasy. But I also find that colossal to personally asked me to have a better sense of shape and how opposed looks graphically and compress Alz backspace to color it in with the color that ISS in the foreground or the color of eyes most in front of the two colors That sorry just walking in with pools fresh. You can see here that even after I blocked in the pose but intent off the pose is still very clear. You can see that the action off the poses very recognizable, and even without context, we know that it iss Speicher or someone getting ready to hit something while in midair similarly, why we're drawing a post some now. We should keep the action and the intent of the closing. We're feeding information to our audience with pose. So what is it that we want to show cheese? The energy come from this arm and the line of action shows that she is full of energy and she is rubbing up her strength to speak about. So anyways, people mind it. Is that what you want to show and what it is that you want Toe high One does thing about cartoons is that you can filter out unnecessary information, whereas in live action, it's not always the case. Here I am making a new layer repressing control shift and is I tryto create Recreate this homes in a very rough closing from you. You can see if you can see the line of action here. Just gonna try to exaggerate it as much as I can. Your arms are here. Where did you see that? She has a bit arm here and if they aren't here, it's well. But if we want to push it further, can very much and then just experimenting. At this moment, nothing is solid. Miss you details don't matter. I want to focus. All right. Now, this energy of and thanks and also the angle off the shoulders to your hip line is also crucial because it can say a lot about your post and the actions that you, your character, is performing. For example, if in stagnant, then it means that the character estate one nothing's really happening. But if you do it where the shorter line in the hip line are opposite from each other, also known as contra pulse toe, it gives you character a lot more personality. Insurgency. Try experiment with, oh, different angles and curves that your shoulders and hips lines can dio. They all portrayed a different feeling in their character. So what I'm doing here, it's my shoulder line is tilted like this. So I'm just gonna make my point to the other to provide contrast, because this is a very energetic pose. See, that makes here positions in the way to provide balance for for her to 17 her angle and strength in the air. Yes, push this lake up a bit. You can try different positions of links, but just keep in mind that reference is always good to return to if you're ever feeling lost because you have a better understanding of how this post will work in real life. So I consider this a base. Then press on and present. Undo with the control, all in cheese. What iss I want this to be I don't care about the anatomy for no. Like I said, what matters is the negative space and the intent of your post inside. Now, Perigord, look, it has a clear Nana space here, as you can see in this pose in here so we can clearly see this little it. So even start, get a few. That's pretty much it. So try. Try to sell with preferences and fried. Identify the line of action and girls like no matter what polls it is, it will always have a plan of action because think of the line of faction as like a spine like the the backbone of your character letter what polls your reference is in. And regardless of whether it's human or an animal that will always have a line of action or an intent. And that's what we're gonna look for it in the second point just the intent of the pose. And thirdly, we're gonna look for negative space. So keep those three in mind when you're looking at any reference Victor trying to exaggerate thes three, please. In order to create the best Suppose you feel that works for your character, you're free to make a few of these gone. And in fact, this good. If you do make a few of these So, Cooper because many of these actually like, they'll be nice to have at least five, so you can go back and forth and see which one you like. Better missile has improved on the ones that you see. Yeah, you're free, Teoh. Go crazy. Make a whole page of we're done Holds your thumbnails in the project gallery along with your favorite childhood character and their true defining traits that solves the quick sentence on the why that occurred during your childhood favorite. Another thing to keep in mind is to try and keep her design simple, stronger, interesting. Remember what we talked about that makes a strong character a strong civil wet and then being malleable and efficient. So just let go and have fun 5. Final Thoughts: everyone. If you've made it this far, Congratulations. And also very thank you. Once again, we're really in this class. It really needs a lot to me. I also can't wait to see the posing from Nancy dice made in the project gallery. Remember, though, that your posts can be super rough as long as the pose and your character is recognizable. Also, remember to put down a sentence off who your favorite child character was and why you like that character so much as a child. Feel free to leave a comment on what you like about this class and what you would like me to improve on. I'll be making the subsequent parts off this class soon, depending on the turnout. This class, as we talked about posing thumbnails in this part, will be talking about shape, language and how to take your post. Some nail em under it into a rough sketch of the character in part two of this class. Please let me know us well, if you have any suggestions on any topic that I should cover in future classes, making this class was super fun and I hope to be able to create more classes that you guys were like in the future. Thanks again everyone and keep drying