Character adaptation experiment

Got around to cleaning up/colouring some of the sketches I made a few weeks back. So the first images are my original character adapted to a different style, the second the reference I used and then the animated versions of these characters for comparison with my notes.

From my notes I expected very cartoony, exaggerated movement, with a feminine wiggle 

UPA Oil commercial "or something"

I couldn't find the commercial this still was from, but there are similar looking characters in Gerald McBoing Boing's symphony which was made by the same studio so I imagine it could looked something like this. The character come right at the beginning and it is only their legs that move as the walk while the bodies remain very rigid.

Expected minimal movement of body and only arms and legs to move

Flebus '57 - Ernie Pintoff

Flebus actually has a bit of squash and stretch going on with the geometrical bodies for example, when they bump into one another, and Flebus' nose wobbles as he walks. The arms and legs do very weird things, rotating unnaturally to convey his happiness.

Again, expected only really the legs to move and not much "character" to come from this

We are What we Do - Studio AKA

I was surprised at how much emotion or feeling could actually be portrayed through these simple characters. There were a few "tricks" like the detached hands appearing only when needed which I though worked quite well. Some emotion was added through the face by adding a frown line and blushing cheeks, but most of the character was conveyed through body language.


These are all characters specifically made for animation, so the next step is to look at some illustrations that have not yet been adapted for animation and work on some experimentation of movement, learning what works well and what doesn't.