Premise - Character Development

I’ve drawn a few thumbnail sketches of the main character of my animated short. I’ve opted to draw the character cute and small so that the audience can feel sympathy for the character and possibly see its vulnerability more clearly. I think making the character very small and cute will add to the comedic side of the story, especially when it’s standing up for itself in front of a giant human. I wanted to mainly explore shapes in these sketches, but I’m also figuring out how I want the character to be drawn in term of style e.g will I use a dark, sketchy black outline for the character to show that it has been drawn out of pencil, or should the outline be softer. I added some shadows to try and make the character look a little less 2D. I plan to explore how the character would look in 2D and in 3D to see which one works better, so I’m aiming to reflect that in my concept art/research work.

Character Development #1: White Outline

Character Development #2: Softer, Lighter Outline Filled in

Character Development #3: Harsher, Darker Outline Filled in

Character Development #4 : Added Shadows with Lighter Outline

Character Development #5: Added Shadows with Dark Outline