This project is exactly that, where we will learn about character designs and through that knowledge we become more creative in what we see in objects around us. Spotting and selecting 7 inanimate objects we need to create unique characters out of the shapes we see, and each character needs to have its own personality and story. These 7 characters live in the same world and need to be consistent in their style, paying special attention to the psychology of colours and shapes to design these characters where the colours and shapes compliment their personalities and goals.

This universe has a hotel that has been built on the moon, hotel named ‘Hotel Moon’, meant to be a tourist attraction but because of the expenses it doesn’t see many, but it is just enough to keep the business running. The funding for the building came from a wealthy family, the family of the receptionist who works there.

This universe will consist of 7 characters:
1. A wealthy receptionist who is very strict on how the place is run
2. An alien who just wants to make friends
3. A chef who cooks food for the clients
4. A space tourist who was thought to be an invader at first
5. An occupant that the hotel management can’t seem to get rid of
6. A child that vandalizes the place
7. A rat that nobody knows how it got there, but it’s there and is causing mischief with the chef
 
It is covered in a dome that allows for species and guests to breathe oxygen that is pumped into it, not that the alien who was from there since the beginning would need it.

Adventure time has always appealed to me, and as I do struggle with illustrations often I find that this is inspiring as the characters are simple and the illustration style seems comfortable and within my skill level. As ambitious as I would like to be, I think sticking to a simpler style would be beneficial. This style also seems very versatile as all characters are in different shapes and the way they are illustrated it feels natural and organic.

Going with the story of the hotel on the moon, I want the characters to be as welcoming as possible with as much representation of their personalities as possible. I need to use an organic way of creating them, and I want to avoid using shapes and building the characters with the shape builder tool, and only rely solely on the pen tool to create the imperfect illustrations with freedom of creativity and room.

For all the characters I want the shapes to be connected to them somehow, whether it’s their occupation or personality or universal perception.

These screeenshots are taken from the show Adventure Time

Jake the dog, a character from Adventure Time, is a dog that is able to morph himself into any shape and size, from the seize of an ant to as tall as a building. Shown from the examples, Jake’s shape theory allows him to portray many different “characters”.

This fluidity allows him to come across as loving and fun (which in his natural state it is the aura he gives off, due to the curvature and non-pointed shape design), to something fierce and intimidating that is large and towering.

His colour ranges between yellow and a light orange (and I’m not sure if that is intentional by the creators as it just seems like maybe it’s an adaptation to the lighting that he may be in in different scenarios), which motivates his character as a loving, warmful and comforting character.

Below,  Ricardio the Heart Guy is a character in Adventure time who looks very different from the rest of the characters when it comes to the detailing of the style. Despite being shaped like a hard and barely taller than the other characters’ shins, Ricardio is shown to be evil if it didn’t come across as obvious to the viewers, as other characters are oblivious to something being off except for Finn.

What really sets him apart is that his face details are a lot more “realistic” compared to the simple faces of the other characters, which I feel gives an uncanny effect to it which strengthens the idea that something about him is off. Red here is used to stereotypically portray evil and his strong character.

The biggest thing that I feel is appealing about this animation style is that the outlines of the characters are very thin as opposed to very thickly outlines characters which ca, personally, make animations seem very “heavy” and draining to watch. Adventure time has made it extremely easy on the eyes and the animations feel organic, especially where the limbs of the characters do not have noticible hoints, let’s call them “worm limbs”, which just adds to the fluid movement and comforting animation style.

Pan:
For the chef I would like to use a pan as it represents the occupation as well as the friendliness and welcoming energy it gives off. The chef is happy and warm, only when the rat isn’t around to sabbotage his kitchen.

I can see the handle exaggerating his chef hat and the pan representing his body.

Cheese:
I see this cheese shaping the body of the rat who keeps stealing food or messing with the chef’s equipment. The triangular shape shows its mischeviousness and danger that is in the kitchen when it is around, and of course the object being cheese to show the stereotypical view of the rat.

Call bell:
This would represent the receptionist who is loud, wealthy and demanding. She wears a dress and has curly hair and is constantly shouting at clients who don’t follow the rules to perfection.

Space ship:
This will represent a space tourist who was frozen by the receptionist as a punishment for not booking a stay. He will be sitting cross-legged to form the triangle shape. The shape of the ship resembles his occupation.

Stick:
This will represent the alien, and since we don’t know what alien life could be like it, I imagine it as something as fluid as a stick and branch, and not quite representing a green stereotypical alien.

Triangluar rock:
This will represent the mischevious child, son of the wealthy receptionist, who secretly vandalizes the hotel as he finds it extremely funny to see his mother in a fit of rage and looking for the culprit. A triangular shape to represent his quick movements and dangerous tendencies.

Dumbell:
This object will represent a stubborn freeloader who refused to leave after staying for a few nights, overstaying what she initially paid for. The hotel management had tried to kick him out, but she swallowed a table as a tactic, making it impossible for him to fit through the doorways to leave. She has no option but to stay until the table has been digested.

A fun, loving chef who is really good at what he does. Anyone can come to him for advice (except for the RAT). He is honest and tells no lies, except when it comes to his spatula. He’ll try to convince you that it’s made out of real gold, but you can see the paint peeling and chipping off of it, which is possibly why sometimes guests get sick after eating the food. No one has the heart to tell him, not even the receptionist. He’s best friends with the alien who likes to keep him company and watch the chef fulfill their dream of cooking, as they aren’t quite biologically able to cook without getting hurt or making a mess.

He is in the shape of a pan to fit his occuptation.

This little rat is always causing trouble in the chef’s kitchen. He is best friends with the space explorer, and the space explorer was able to sneak him onto the space ship to get to the moon. He was able to dodge getting frozen by the receptionist’s freeze-ray, so he lives in tiny holes inside the kitchen. You would think that he is trying to steal the chef’s food to feed himself, but really he is doing it to feed his best friend while he defrosts over the course of a couple of days. He’d try and explain that to the chef but the chef doesn’t quite speak “rat”. This rat’s fur pattern ressembles that of cheese because, of course, he loves cheese. His colours almost resemble that of a nice cup of coffee with cream, showing his warm heart and undying love for friendship.

The rat is in the shape of cheese to ressemble a rat’s craving.

A well-known and wealthy woman from Earth who is quite demanding, loud and sometimes even narcissistic. She owns and runs the hotel too so she doesn’t just sit behind the receptionist desk. She has a child that she believes can do nothing wrong so is unaware of her son’s behaviour of vandalizing the hotel. Even if she caught him red-handed, she would probably gaslight herself into believing it’s not real. Her purple colours represent her wealthiness, and she dyed her hair orange so she would seem more approachable as her original hair colour made her look more intimidating. She is trying to be a little less rude, but the guests she has at the hotel really get in the way of her healing.

She is shaped like a call bell due to her loud and demanding behaviour.

A real cool and friendly alien. They come with nothing but peace. They are fragile and is completely loving and harmless towards humans. They have heard of humans before the hotel was built on the moon (their home), in fact they had a selfie taken with Neil Armstrong (citation unkown) that they keeps. They have a flower grown on them that they offers to those they likes or wants to become friends with, and it grows rather quickly. They hears very well even though their  ears seem like they are purely for aesthetics. Their blue colours strengthen their calm nature with harmless traits, and the orange flower compliments the blue, although it’s suspected that they made it orange to make the receptionist like him so that she didn’t eradicate them.

They are shaped like a stick to show their fragile nature and fluid and other-wordly design.

She sold her house and all her property to be on the moon. She is a compulsive buyer and will sacrifice everything to fulfill her short term desires and hyper-fixations. She was only able to afford 2 nights at the hotel, and after management had tried kicking her out and sending her back to Earth she had pushed herself to her limits and even beyond, and was somehow able to swallow a table whole. This made it impossible for her to fit through the doors to exit the hotel, so she is forced to stay there and is billed for each night she stays and food she eats. She is clearly unwell due to her very pale skin and sunken eyes, but that’s no wonder after putting your body to digest a whole table.

She is shaped like a dumbell to show her heavy burden on the hotel.

Really nervous and paranoid, but quite adventurous and will push through his anxiety to explore. He has always wanted to be a space tourist. Thanks to advanced technology, the transfer into the dome on the moon has never required him to wear any astronaut suits. Which he does regret not being able too, as he believes it would have kept him warm (-er) from the receptionist’s freeze-ray. He was frozen because he came earlier to the hotel as he couldn’t wait a day longer (literally, a day) for it to have its official opening. As a punishment he was held captive to the freeze-ray which will take days to melt. Luckily his best friend is a rat and is able to keep him fed as the receptionist is cutting his food in half too as punishment.

He is shaped like a rocket ship to signify his adventures inspace.

This kid is an artist at heart, spoiled and has nothing on his mind other than vandalizing. Well, we call it vandalizing, he calls it art. Even when he throws rocks at windows (his main form of vandalizing), he still calls it art. Since there’s no clouds on the moon, he breaks windows to see if he can spot any kind of animals in the way the windows break, analyzing the shards on the ground, the shatters on the screens and the holes in the middle of them. He thinks he’s well hidden given his mysterious dark attire, but there’s always light thanks to the dome covering the hotel and its surroundings, and the hotel is painted quite brightly, so he doesn’t blend very well but no one seems to stop him.

He is shaped like a rock to signify his destruction.

In conclusion, this was a really fun project to work with. Even though my skills are not amazing at illustration, it definitely is a lot better than before and I have learned how to make characters look less flat and more engaging, being more creative in creating characters through normal every-day objects which can help immensely with creative blocks.

Things are designed for us already, we just need too look around and look deeper.

I do want to carry on further improving my skills in illustration as I feel I could combine it with my usual artstyle and techniques I go for which is image manipulation. Using image manipulation it makes it easier for me to create art as the art is already there, but through illustration I was challenged to create more than what is shown.