Character design

When I design characters for a project, I hardly ever end up using the initial character skecthes. Well, come to think of it, I NEVER settle for the initial design. Here’s two cases of characters evolving from something to something else.

I designed this delivery man for an informercial we did for the Copenhagen municipality project Citylogistik.

cl-man_skiss

The customer wanted something reminiscent of La Linea (Linus pÄ linjen).

cl-lastbil_skiss

scenbild_skiss

One of the most common forms of “critique” I get is that I draw too cute/too kiddie style. Funnily enough, this time the customer wanted it to be cuter and rounder. No problem! 🙂 So I ended up with:

final_design

You can watch the film here.

The second example is for another Copenhagen municipality project called Cykelsuperstier. The customer wanted “a simple cut-out style”.

characters_skiss

I looked at Terry Gilliam’s work, Southpark and some JibJab stuff. I was also inspired by the demo illustrations in the Zelda game Phantom Hourglass (the gallery section).

modelsheet_characters_color

Design decisions should be based on function. I had to elongate the legs for the characters to be able to ride bicycles.

modelsheet_cykel_color

The customer thought it to be too kiddie style (again!), so I opted for a more “adult” or neutral look, and ended up with:

modelsheet_characters111222

modelsheet_bikes111222

A couple of stills from the film:

css_stillbild1

css_stillbild2

The three of us working on these films – Alfred Gunnarsson, Niklas Ström and me – call ourselves AnimationsbyrĂ„n. We’ll launch our new website shortly. We just completed the Cykelsuperstier infomercial. You can watch it here.

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