Character Design

A few character designs I find inspiring:



Designs from a French artist I found on Deviant Art. Her characters are deceptively simple, distinct, and stylish.



Gorillaz band members drawn by Jamie Hewlett. His characters are stylized and flat, but still animate-able and very, very distinct.





And of course, Chris Sanders. His characters are dynamic and eccentric, and his girls are all sexy.





I've always loved the aesthetic of Shag; his characters are flat but dynamic, expressive, and extremely stylish. I feel like his style (including his color palette) would be great reference for Flash animations.

Rocococococo

I posted this in my personal sketch blog but I think it would be a good idea to have this here as a follow-up to my last post. I tend to take a lot of inspiration from what I see in real life, live-action movies, and sometimes music. I have a few artists and art styles I look to, but I feel I don't do this as much as I should. I'm working to fix that.

One of my biggest interests at the moment, and most likely the biggest influence on the final for this class, is the Rococo style. There is something so enjoyable about the superfluous, decorative style of 18th century French courts. It's beautiful, girly, and art simply for art's sake, not necessarily trying to be anything more.

So, having said all that, you saw some videos, so now have some images:





Fragonard <3



This shot is the essence of what I try to capture in my girly drawings: sexy, cute, and very classy.



Adorable 18th century French fashion: cute, feminine, but meant to seduce.



Glamorous princess fashion, Versailles luxury, and CAKES!! <3 <3 <3

AniMANIA

To get things started, here are some examples of animations I find inspiring:

I can't talk about animations I look to for inspiration without mentioning anime. I grew up with it, and it's influenced me more than I can say. Anime can be limited in animation, but it focuses on aesthetic and design elements, which I find very important.





Dramatic storytelling isn't something I see often in mainstream American animation. To be marketable, films tend to be family friendly, simple in plot, and humorous. While the film itself wasn't a total success in this area, I still remember the chills I got watching this scene; it was dramatic, dark, mature, and different.



And for artsy film's sake, here is a part of this year's Oscar winner:



Again, this is film has a mature, heartfelt story with a strong visual style. It was successful without necessarily conforming to the Disney formula.