Where character design goes to die

I think they look cool as well but I feel for the majority of the designs the original digimon are better-looking. Many were already complex to begin with so it’s only natural the X-Antibody version looks like a clusterfuck of armor and ribbons and whatnot.

This might be controversial but I can’t stand the majority of animation reviewers on YouTube.

This is a bit out of left field, but I saw this on /co/ and thought I’d share it too.

John Lasseter

Among the wave of Hollywood perverts that got the axe due to the #metoo movement is John Lasseter from Pixar. Outed of the company under the apparent overabundance of “hugging”, only for it to be revealed that he was more abusive and egotistical than the initial reports led to believe.

Now he’s back... just not in Disney/Pixar. He resurfaced alongside the start of a new animation studio. A branch of Skydance Media called Skydance Animation. They’re nothing noteworthy really, the studio they’re using for the merge is only really known for being based on Spain and having released Planet 51.

No matter your stance on #metoo and the general Twitter feminism scene I think it’s important to mention that people shitting their pants over this is understandable. We’ll never really know the extent of his impact on current and former workers. It’s a punch in the gut to those who thought they finally got closure.

Skydance Animation

As I mentioned previously this brand-new studio doesn’t really have anything interesting backing it other than they got various different directors and John “Hugging” Lasseter as Head of Animation for whatever fucking reason.

Their official website states that the branch was officially opened in 2017. These are the movies that they’re currently developing, just two have final titles and none have concept art leaked so far:

Luck (Alessandro Carloni)

Split (Vicky Jenson)

Powerless (Nathan Greno)

The Fourteenth Goldfish (Victor Maldonado)

As stated none of these movies have any information beyond their working name and director. I have no opinions on them.

My Thoughts

Outside of whether or not Lasseter got over his groping persona and is joining Skydance as a new person, is he really that vital to these upcoming movies?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware of the legacy he left on Disney/Pixar, it’s why his accussations were so heavy-hitting. But looking back at the movies he directed, he’s always struck me as the George Lucas of Pixar. His ideas are great, yes, but more often than not it’s the team alongside him that polished his concepts into the movies we know and love today. Left loose he created shit like Cars 2.

I’m intrigued on how much he’ll impact the development of Skydance’s first batch of movies, and whether or not the industry will work towards kicking him out again or not. Time will tell if Skydance will become the next Illumination.

Anon asked about my thoughts on the princess designs, specifically of their diversity and how they were portrayed in dolls and how Moana’s doll differed.

While I haven’t seen the dolls all that much I can talk about their designs. I think they’re decent but for the most part they’re the bare minimum, especially in their 3D versions.

Nope! I’m someone else entirely.

Case in point what the fuck am I looking at.

Per request, here is a bigger, more consolidated post on what I believe creates good designs. Keep in mind I am still learning myself, and this doesn’t really constitute a guide you have to absolutely abide to.

There are many great guides and books out there to help you learn character design. One that comes to mind is Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation book. I’ve actually used some guides from that book in animation class! Check it out.

Okay, so, what makes a good character design? Here are some of my thoughts on the matter:

1.- Learn anatomy. You need to know the rules to break them.

This is usually the biggest mistake I’ve seen people do when designing a character. People either don’t know anatomy or flat out ignore it, thinking that their style doesn’t “need” it.

Let me tell you, anatomy is super important. Even if you think your art is so simple it won’t matter, it will, in fact, matter.

You don’t need to make realistic characters all the time, far from it. But knowing how to draw body parts and how they’re proportioned is vital for learning how to exaggerate them to create your characters. Trust me, after I took Anatomy my OCs looked better than ever, and I was able to create more since I knew what rules I could break!

A sub point is that you should never sacrifice anatomy for the sake of fitting a canvas. Either draw smaller or resize your canvas if you’re drawing digitally.

2.- Create characters with identifiable silhouettes.

A bigger yikes than sameface is samebody. Characters don’t have to be entirely alien to be recognizable, but things like height, weight, posture, fashion, hair, etc. go a long way in making characters pop and differ from one another.

3.- Don’t overdesign a character. Make sure they can be drawn again.

Something that will make a character design be terrible is making them a clusterfuck of details and/or accessories. Not only is it an eyesore, but it makes said characters a nightmare to draw again and a trip to the deepest pits of hell to animate.

This Big Yikes™️ is more common in anime. Many designers compensate having sameface with having characters have ungodly ammounts of accessories to set them apart. It’s also commonplace when people attempt to make designs edgier, take for example the new Digimon X designs.

If your character is going to be known for sporting something make sure you don’t overdo it with the details. It’s best to keep the design clean, this will make them easy to grasp, draw and recognize.

4.- Learn aesthetics. Just because you designed a character to be ugly doesn’t mean it’s exempt from criticism.

This is definetly the most opinionated of the points but I feel it still has some merit to it. Good character design is one that conveys what it wants to get across well and that is appealing to the eyes.

Of course one doesn’t need to create cute or pretty looking characters all the time, after all ugliness conveys an aesthetic truth. However creating disgusting sets of characters, either intentionally or accidentally, is a sure way of riding a one-way train to Uncanny Valleyville.

Surely you want your characters to be appealing, especially if you’re selling them or using them in a context where you want them to be marketable.

Think about it this way: Does your character being ugly relate to their story in anyway? Are they still fun to look at and draw? If so, it’s alright. Are they accidentally ugly-looking? Did you design them like that just for the shock factor because you’re an edgelord? If so, it’s bad design.

Surprisingly nicely done. I mean, they’ve kinda got that sameface thing going on (the one I mentioned in the previous ask) but other than that they’re nice 3D renditions.

Oh I’m very much aware. I think that the new use of le Calarts developed separately from his blog rants but I could be wrong.

That said if anything the actual usage of the buzzword is at the very least more fitting. American cartoons nowadays are very sameface-y and have similar visual impacts.

I just always found John’s usage of it batshit insane because the movies he used the term upon had noticeable differences. I’d understand it a little if he had used it for, say, the same face used in modern Disney female characters.

No sabía para ser honesta. Me gusta su voz en varios distintos doblajes pero no sé si le quede al Grinch. Su voz usualmente se presta más a los personajes cómicos que a protagonistas.

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