Character Design: Character Over Time V

This time, I'll show character that doesn't change for these pass 10 years.

Here it is, Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas.

 http://whisty.wordpress.com/2009/10/

This image is from the animation, Nightmare Before Christmas, in 1993 by Tim Burton.

http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com

This is Jack Skellington from Kingdom Hearts 2 in 2005. You will see that he still look the same as he was in 1993.

Tim Burton is the great director and character designer. He sells his characters with their own uniqueness so he doesn't have to change his character to be something that goes along with the fashion at the time. Although, for some people doesn't like his style with no reason. They just don't like his uniqueness, I guess.

Character Design: Character Over Time IV

This time we will take a look at the side of character from game.

This is Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII when the game was first published in 1997.

This is Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy: Dissidia that was published in 2008. More than 10 years has passed since he was first showed to the world and no major change but you can see some change in him which normally saw in western style characters such as; using black color for dark shade and how the muscle was more stand out (like he gains more muscle in pass 10 years).

I have shown the samples of characters that have changed over years next time I show a character that doesn't change at all in pass 10 years.

Character Design: Character Over Time III

One thing you can clearly see in Japanese cartoon is that they don't make much of major changed.

This is Doraemon in first episode of manga in 1969. He was still really fat and his whiskers are still short.

This is Doraemon very first animation in 1973. However, it was canceled after 6 months of launching and it remained manga until 1979 when they decided to recreate animation of Doraemon.

http://www.crunchyroll.com

This is Doraemon in 1979. He was still a bit fat but very close to present time.

Finally, this is Doraemon in present time that we all love.

Character Design: Character Over Time II

Here is the second sample of the character that changed when time pass.

http://www.disneyclips.com

Pete is the longest-running Disney Character of all time. His first appear wasn't in "Streamboat Willies", 1928, but it was in "Alice Solves the Puzzle" in 1925, along with the other episode of "Alice Comedy Series".

Pete has characteristic of bear. With his giant body and small ear and.....I don't think I see his tail.

This is Pete in "Streamboat Willies", his first animation with Micky Mouse. In this episode, you will notice that his body still resemble cats. May be a very giant cat but still a cat and he still had his tail.

If you surprise to see how much Pete changed since "Streamboat Willies", you will be shocked how much he changed since "Alice Solves the Puzzle".

http://www.disneyshorts.org/

Here are Pete from "Alice Solves the Puzzle". He had the image of Felix The Cat.

In "Alice Comedy Series", he still a good guy but when time pass and Disney decided to make him a bad guy, they changed him from a cat to giant cat to finally a bear-like cat. All of this development is important to make him more suitable for villain role.

Next example, Doraemon.

Character Design: Character Over Time

Characters that was create long ago always change when time pass. Here are some examples.

Micky Mouse

Micky Mouse is one of the most famous character that everyone knows. It has around 3 major changes until it becomes what we know today.

http://www.disneyshorts.org/

This is Micky Mouse from its very first episode, Streamboat Willies in 1928.

http://www.disneyshorts.org/

In 1941, Micky Mouse was changed again. His ears had more perspective. However, this new design didn't get good feedbacks so his ears was changed back to original few years later. My guess would be that they look too much like real mouse, at least for me.

http://disney-clipart.com/

Here is Micky Mouse in this present time. He got big head, hands and feet. They make him looks cute like a plushy doll.

Character Design: Cross Style

Now that we know what are the features of usuall Western and Eastern style, however, there are some characters of game, comic, animation....etc. that have both of style in themselves.

Here are some example.

Teen Titan.

http://vnsharing.net/forum/

Teen Titan is a American animated TV Series base on the DC Comic super hero team such as Robin from Batman. You can see the Western style in them by the curve that make muscle more obvious but in animation, you will see many episode that use imaginative expression.

http://forums.titansgo.net/

Kingdom Hearts Series

http://www.creativeuncut.com/wpkh.html

This is the video game that was the result of cooperation between 2 famous companies from animation industry and game industry, The Walt Disney Company and Square Enix Company. ( Although in first serie, the name of company still be Square Soft.)

You can see many features of Western style characters such as; the curve of muscle just like Teen Titan though less obvious and big hands and feet of the characters. I think that what make these characters still have some Eastern features is the face and hair style which we hardly see these style much in Western style.


The last one is "Realistic Style". We will see this style mostly in video games. Realistic style, just like its meaning, is the style that focus on the real anatomy of human. Although there are many fantasy creatures like Elf and Dwarf in this style but everything still base on the anatomy.

http://www.lineage2media.com/

Character Design: Eastern Style

Things about character in with Eastern style is that;

-They won't be much of adaptive style since they didn't make the strength point of the characters obvious. The body structure won't be that different. What make each character different is the style of face.

http://doraemon.blogspot.es/



http://www.omocha.it/


http://www.animepaper.net/

- One thing that will always be with Japanese style is Imaginative Expression (I'm not sure what it's really call so I'll just it like this.). The example is the eyes and vain that pop up on her forehead. I don't think it's possible for human to look like that.

http://www.fgoncalves.trix.net

Character Design: Western Style

Here are some marks that indicate the characters in western style.

-Focus on shape of body structure, the make the strength point of the characters a lot more obvious. For example, Dexter is a very short boy so the designer leave out some part of the body such as; neck and legs.

www.CrazyAboutTV.com

-Big hand and feet.

http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com

-Over expression

http://jedaniels-adventures.blogspot.com/

-Use black color for shadow shade.

http://themiaobureau.wordpress.com/

Next will be about character in eastern style.

Character Design: Meaning

To begin my research, I started with the simplest question.

What is character?

According to Oxford Dictionary, there many meaning for character. Here are some of the meaning.
-The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual strength and originality in a person's nature or a person's good reputation.
-The distinctive nature of something.
-A person in novel, play or flim
-An unususl or amusing person.
-A printed or written letter or symbol.
-The identification of the species.

I'll say for short that is "unique qualities of something".

So, what is character design?

This is the conclusion from many article that I've read:
"the process to put information and unique qualities that we use to represent them."

I'll post more of it next time.

Character Design: Introduction of The Research

This is my own research about character design. It's for my thesis project.

The reason why I choose to research on this topic because, not long ago, I have a problem with one of my job about character design. The problem is that my client is American but the target group for this character is Japanese. So my problem is that I have to design character that will make people from 2 different part of the world like it.

Because, obviously, if my client doesn't like it then he won't let this project finish but if Japanese people doesn't like it then the client won't end this project either.

I decided to research this topic within 4 keywords; the meaning of character, style, time and story.

I'll post more of my research next time.