Creatieve Profilering
Formal and informal aspects
Laura Nooijen - DDM3A
For these assignments, I had to bring an object or a picture of something of personal value to create three visual reactions.
These three visual reactions were reactions to formal and informal aspects and a combination of the two visuals that create a whole new visual.
While making these reactions, I also had to look at my inspiration database.
I chose my cat, Buddy, and used a picture of him.
Informal aspects (story, feeling, meaning behind it)
We took him in when I wasn't in a good place mentally. He would help me through it, that's why I called him 'Buddy'. Every day I was in school I had something to look forward to, to see Buddy. He is very playful and curious and that cheered me up a lot. He also purrs very loudly which reassured me. He made me look forward to every day again, especially to see him again. That's why he means a lot to me. I also love cats very much and always want to pet every cat I see walking in the streets. He's calming, warm, unexpected, playful, cozy.
Formal aspects (literally, everything you can see)
A photo, tree and green leaves in background, Buddy has four legs with white "socks", four nails on hind legs and five nails on front legs, bright yellow eyes with hints of green, large white eyebrows and whiskers, white belly, soft short-haired dark fur, purrs loudly, snaps when he wants to eat, slender physique, slender head, black nose, pink pads under his paws with black spots, rather small and light, small white spot on his upper lip, white neck, long thin tail, white hairs in ears, in bright sunlight you can see faint brown streaks in his fur.
Brainstorm
Visual informal reaction:
- Short comic about how Buddy helped me
- Spoken word with speedpaint of drawing about how Buddy helped me
- Separate frames animation (with music) about how Buddy helped me
- Short comic about how Buddy helped me
- Spoken word with speedpaint of drawing about how Buddy helped me
- Separate frames animation (with music) about how Buddy helped me
Visual formal reaction:
- Short animation of a very soft ball of fur that bounces to show the softness.
- Making fur very long to shape softness
- Drawing Buddy in exaggerated shapes to shape slimness
- Eyes that glow brightly
- Turning Buddy into a fantasy animal that clearly shapes the described aspects (character design).
- If Buddy was a person (character design)
- Short animation of a very soft ball of fur that bounces to show the softness.
- Making fur very long to shape softness
- Drawing Buddy in exaggerated shapes to shape slimness
- Eyes that glow brightly
- Turning Buddy into a fantasy animal that clearly shapes the described aspects (character design).
- If Buddy was a person (character design)
Eventually, I went with the short comic for the informal reaction and Buddy as a person for the formal reaction. Because the comic would be simple and clear and I did not have a lot of time for a big project like an animation or spoken word.
The character design of Buddy I chose because of my inspiration database. I could practise more with expressive character design and fitting personalities that shine through.
Process formal reaction
When sketching three different designs with different body shapes, I took into account Buddy's slim physique and his short black fur with white socks. I want to design the white socks in his fur with gloves and visible white socks for the character. I also want to give him a playful and mischievous appearance.
Variations on chosen design
In the end I chose the middle sketch (best portrayed the playful look), of which I then sketched a number of variations to see how I could shape the external features in different ways.
Final design with expression sheet and colours
With a combination of variation sketch 1 and 4 (because you can best see his slim figure this way and the extra accessories give more character, which also fits certain external characteristics), I made a colour design. I chose to bring green back into it because of the green leaves of the tree in the photo.
Character illustration with photo
Finally, I decided to draw Buddy's photo so that you can put them side by side and compare them. I can recognize Buddy's playful personality in my character design and his appearance.
Process informal reaction
I first determined written storyboards and then chose the best one to sketch different storyboards for. I didn't want to take it literally, but symbolically, because I find it stronger and more fun to do.
The comic
I didn't pay much attention to the looks, because the message and the feeling are more important than how clean it looks in this case.
It starts with a busy school setting and the environment gets darker every frame, until you see Buddy sitting in the doorway.
The purple bar in front of my face is symbolic of having to pretend to be different/putting on a mask until the mask can be taken off when I'm home with Buddy. Then I am completely myself.
It's a simple comic, but to me it gets the message across what Buddy means to me.
Combination/third visual
For the combination of the 1st and 2nd reaction, I decided to take it literally; A two-frame comic where my Buddy character supports high school me. This way, I show the feeling that Buddy gives me and also his formal characteristics.
Here I took inspiration from the last frame of the earlier comic. I also kept the different styles in coloring so you can clearly see that I literally combined the two visuals.
Evaluation
I really liked these assignments, because I had wanted to make Buddy's character design for a long time and now I could do that for a school assignment. This way I was also able to practice and experiment more with expressive character design in my own style and storytelling through images alone.
I have also learned to analyze the formal and informal aspects of images/objects and am now aware of this every time I look at something, which really comes in handy when I need inspiration!
Feedback fellow students and teacher: Everything is nicely drawn and very personal, which shows how valuable it is to you. The character design process also makes it interesting; seeing your thought process.
Thank you for watching!
