In September I was fortunate to be in Vancouver for the
Spark Animation Festival, now in its second year. There were all sorts of excellent events and screenings, one of which was a
Ricky Nierva class about character design. The attendees ranged from students to teachers to working professionals. There were only 20 of us, which made for a really fun group dynamic! I made sure to take notes! Now let's see how good I am at translating those scrawls into actual readable sentences... haha. Hope you enjoy!
The Doodle Game
This is a little exercise that is great for warming up for cartooning. So what you do is scribble on the page for like 2 seconds, then hand it off to a friend. Then you start listing off people, places and things... such as "Mad scientist discovers time travel at the circus while eating a hotdog." They take the doodle and turn it around, looking at it from all angles. When you say, "go", they've got to illustrate that scenario while confining their design to the doodle shape. At first you think it's impossible, then your brain starts chugging and you see new possibilities within this freaky doodle. This is like an artists version of an improv acting game. Very fun and useful!
Designing
Key points that he touched upon were to design from the inside out, meaning that you must of course understand your character's habits and personality. Beyond that, you mustn’t rely on a character's "coolness" to boost your ego as an artist. As John Lasseter says, "Don't design for design's sake."
Designing is Redesigning. Fail early, fail often. (Ricky had so many great easy-to-remember phrases like these!) He said that Brad Bird likes to use the analogy of a battlefield to describe production. (Strangely, it’s the same analogy that chefs like to use while working the line!) The battle is bloody, you might lose an arm, you might lose your friend, but you pick up again and keep going. You've got to keep trying all kinds of designs and put your ego aside, especially with a deadline looming. Another great quote from Ed Catmull is "If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking enough risks."
When designing a face, you can consider Glen Keane's "Magic Triangle" which is the distance and relationship between both eyes and the mouth. Depending on their positioning, you can manipulate the face to create someone who is miserable, adorable, creepy or regal. Of course you can break the rules too...
Study caricature and first impressions. Of course there are greats like
Al Hirschfeld, but Ricky told us about a really cool artist named
Hanoch Piven who takes found objects that relate to the subject and uses them to create the design (kind of like in Art Attack, but way cooler). Especially in 3d, the challenge is to decide upon the level of detail that you want your character to have. If you're not careful your design could fall victim to the Uncanny Valley.
Bring it back to Basic Shapes. In the film "Up", the basic shapes mean something more to the story. When designing Carl and Russell it is clear that both oppose each other... one is a square, the other a circle. This pattern is repeated throughout the movie (house vs balloons, city vs jungle ect) and the more you look for it, the more you see.
Tidbits that I found particularly interesting (because my brain works in point-form 90% of the time):
~ Ricky spoke about the fabulous sequence at the start of the movie, which explains the story of Carl and Ellie. Originally it was supposed to be sepia-toned to indicate a flashback, but John Lasseter disagreed and said, "You are in the world with Carl, so it should be as vibrant as the first time you fall in love." I think everyone in the room got a little watery-eyed at that, including the boys!
~ Know where to limit your design in terms of realism, even if it doesn't make sense logically. The character Doug is a dog who actively sniffs within the movie, yet he doesn't have any nose holes. Design came first. In this particular design, nose holes were not necessary. However, in a different world like Ren and Stimpy for example... nose holes would suit the weird/exaggerated animation style. Remember that you are drawing a cartoon and you can pick and choose what you want to add/omit to better your design!
~ Surround yourself with friends who will tell you when/how your design sucks, and what to do to improve it. Don't ask the opinion of someone who will post it on the fridge, pat you on the head and call you their "little genius."
~ Be versatile. Don't allow your designs to become pigeonholed. Draw in different mediums to break free of the same old habits. If your design doesn't work, find a way to make it work. Don't be afraid of failure. Get out of your comfort zone. Find more than one solution to a design problem.
~ "We're not trying to make things realistic, we're trying to make them believable." John Lasseter
~ It's all in the details. Each detail should re-enforce the story.
~ "If you've done your job right, no one notices." John Lasseter (This applies to ALL CAREERS by the way! I'm specifically thinking of live television news...)
~ When speaking about contrast, this drawing came up because it is a perfect example! Density vs No Density. There is a LOT going on within that backpack (all browns/darker tones) yet the first thing you see is Russell’s smiling pink face! His skin is smooth and clean while being adjacent to tonnes of CRAZYSTUFF!
This drawing tells a story. This is a key point that keeps resurfacing with each Pixar talk I attend... the illustration/design should tell a story. What this means is when someone LOOKS at the picture they should be curious. "Who is this guy? What is he doing? Why is such a small boy carrying such a large bag? He looks like he's going somewhere... I wonder where that could be?" Reminds me a lot of what Walt Stanchfield said throughout both Drawn to Life books... hmm....
It was a really fun talk and Ricky was so generous with his time. In the end we were able to chat with him for a good 2 hours after the class in the hotel lobby and ask whatever we wanted. I’ve been to a couple Pixar presentations now, and with each I’ve started to notice what great speakers they all are! Which should be no surprise, because good storytelling is a requirement of the job. So by some strange chance if any Pixar peeps are reading this, thanks so much for the great presentation! Each time I go to one I immediately want to run home and draw, which to me is a pretty clear indicator of awesomeness!
