Toolkit 2: Character Design: Session 7

In last week's character design session, we looked at storyboarding. I took what I'd done and went over it roughly afterwards.

For the first part of the lesson, we had to study a scene with some kind of action taking place in it and look at the key shots. I decided to study a scene from the beginning of Treasure Planet where Jim is riding the solar surfer as it's a fast-paced scene with a lot of switching between shots. I didn't get the entire sequence done, but I feel I managed to pick out a few shots that show the energy of the scene.

We were then each given a location or prompt of some kind that we had to storyboard the key shots from. I was given a 'farm' and decided to storyboard some of the essential parts of a typical horror film cornfield chase scene involving a villain/killer and their victim. I broke it down into nine shots.

• The scene would start with the typical backed-into-a-corner-style confrontation in a barn, wherein the villain walks into shot and startles the victim. 
• The victim then escapes after briefly incapacitating or outwitting the villain and takes off running into the field. 
• After this, there is a shot above the field that shows the barn, the victim running, the killer coming out of the barn, and the victim's destination or escape route, which would be a truck on the side of the road. It also shows the obstacle, which is the cornfield, and then a combine harvester-type vehicle that the villain would use to chase the victim through the field with. 
• The villain, deciding it would be useless to pursue the victim by foot, notices the combine harvester to their side and the camera pans over. They start climbing into the combine harvester.
• The next two shots has the victim running through the field at different shots; to heighten tension and as is typical in cornfield chase scenes (particularly in horror films), the victim is partially or mostly obscured as they are running. A subsequent close-up of their face to convey their fear follows, and the combine harvester can be heard approaching. If the scene is at night, this would be accompanied by the lights of the vehicle as well.
• The victim would escape from the cornfield with the combine harvester still approaching out of shot. They would frantically approach and try to get into the truck, find the keys, and get in.
• There would be a shot of the victim in here somewhere as they try to turn the key to the truck to get it to turn on - it isn't working, and the villain is still approaching. Between this shot and the next shot, the combine harvester switches off and the victim thinks they're safe.
• The villain appears. This could be done by having them appear at the window of the truck (likely the window that the victim is sat near) or by slamming some kind of object through the roof.

After this, we continued with our projects. I ended up speaking to a few of my classmates and after some discussion and brief research, ended up naming the characters Buster and Felicity respectively so it'd be easier to address them.

Later, after speaking to Justin about my characters, I took his feedback into account and made some minor adjustments to them;

• I changed the position of Buster's tail. 
• I added some more articulation textures to emphasise the toy-like aspect of the characters.
• I changed Felicity's hands to make them daintier and more slender as opposed to claw-like and outright violent.
• I changed Felicity's jacket colours to better distinguish between the 'fluff' (which is actually a plastic shape) and her tail

I still have to decide how to work around Felicity's dress; whether it will be fabric as many dolls were dressed in in the according time period, or whether it will also be plastic.

I also went on to compile some images so I can start to look at the scenery of the place that the sequence will take place in. This involved looking at 1930's/40's and even modern clubs, diners, and cityscapes. The colour scheme was also important here so it'd fit with the aesthetic that I'm aiming for.