Post #5 Character Sheets and facial features

I decided to work on making a character that I would use for the rest of my assignments. We were given character sheets to fill out to help build our character/s. I've done these before while screenwriting for the films I've made and they can be quite useful. To get a really engaging character, I find that you really need to know everything about them, not just what they look like and what they're job is. It's all of the tiny details and quirks that really "sell" characters as believable. Everyone has their own quirks and habits - some of these are physical, some are psychological. A character can act very differently between one person (or group) to another person (or group) - the way you speak to you friends won't be the same way you speak to your family or to your boss. Each character reacts differently based on their relative 'status' to other people.

Also, backstory can greatly affect the character's physicality. For example, a character who had a difficult childhood (maybe he/she was overshadowed by a brother or sister) might have developed a more aggressive demeanor which could be conveyed by the way the character walks - maybe he/she has a heavy-footed stride.

I started filling out the character sheet first before I really found out who the character was:

I decided to make a character called Lionel Clegg. This is a character who has a strong social conscious with particularly strong views on environmentalism. I can see Lionel in child friendly cartoon like 'Hey Arnold'.

I also started experimenting with facial expressions:

These are just a few basic drawings experimenting with different mouth shapes and eyebrows.

Film review: 'Lifted'

I enjoy most of Pixar's animations.The strength of Lifted is it's simple premise: An alien is taking an test on abducting humans. Somthing that Pixar does really well is setting up the premise of an idea very efficiently using just a few key visuals.