During the two-weeks cooperation, I communicated with year 2 student through the email. In the online meetings, she showed me the current progress of her work—-a dynamic storyboard and some initial character design inspirations. And told me some her thoughts. Trough the storyboard, I saw this is a story introducing a little girl’s growth with the companionship of her grandfather, which was very touching. However, there still are some scenes not be confirmed, and the initial character designs is not clear as well. So we preliminarily set up a collaboration plan-I would responsible for modifying some scenes that she was unsure about, and I would also draw some drafts of initial character design base on her descriptions as a references to assist her to complete the character design.
Starting from provided materials, the author’s grandfather was depicted as a very kind old man, which naturally reminded me of the classic design of old man in “up.” So, a square shape might be a good choice to depict a kind elder. At the same time, I also designed several characters with a primary circular shape. Eventually, I drew some sketches as follows.
For the design of the little girl and her grown-up image, I also designed some sketches from lively to introverted according to her personality.
Then came the modifications for some scenes. In the original scenes, the author switched perspectives from little girl to grandfather and then to a top-down view to signify their estrangement. However, perhaps it wasn’t very natural. So, I changed the camera’s motion trajectory to extend from the table’s perspective to elder’s, passing through his face before reaching the to the top, Compared to directly pulling the camera to the top in the original scene, in this kind of scene, a fleeting expression of loneliness on the old man’s face might better express his mood.
When I completed all of this, this year 2 student also completed her characrt designs as agreed. In the next meeting, she mentioned that the last task was to help her achieve the tree views of character, I really enjoyed this part of the work, with that, my collaboration with student came to an end.
