Character & Short Story Design Lecture

In the lecture about character and short story designing, I learnt a great amount of tips and 'guidelines' which I can use in my project with Hayley in order to create successful characters that will emphasise a our story and serve a function.

For the character section of the lecture, we looked at popular existing main heroes and villains and their actual physical, body shape. Three core shapes kept popping up and each one of them led to a particular feeling from the audience. For example, a character that has more rounded features, circular body parts exudes innocence and simplicity. A young child will be more inclined to relate to a character of these shapes as they may see them as more friendly and affectionate. Whereas a character who is more square/cube-like connotes a sharp and masculine appearance, perhaps powerful, but definitely less approachable. And then lastly, there is the triangular/angular character which is more threatening, aggressive and usually associated with the villain of the narrative. Therefore it is extremely important to look at how the character is constructed in terms of reliability and how the audience will judge that character. It is also then more interesting to take these preconceptions and play with them, make a rounder character who seems approachable, become evil and con the audience.

We also looked at storytelling tools and the key elements for a successful short story. For example introducing the main character in the beginning shot is a great way to establish who the audience should root for. As well as determining the urgent goal of the narrative right from the beginning so the story gets straight to the action. One tool that I did not know prior to this lecture,was having a story loop, twist or gag. For example if a short story is based on a chase, then ending on the beginning of another chase in relation to the main one just ending, is a really exciting way to end an animation, and something I had never really thought about.

Overall, Sara went over a lot of crucial elements that Hayley and I need for out short animation, and I am determined to focus on a good few of them in particular in order to make a short but thrilling little animation ourselves.