We've created a wide range of characters over the years--from the nearly human, to the naturalistic, to the nearly abstract--and the nearly human is always the greatest challenge.
From the craft level, Pixar is brilliant at finding that sympathetic "sweet spot" when it comes to anthropomophic hybrid character designs. Look at the characters in A Bug's Life compared to the creepy humanoids in Antz, or the character designs in Finding Nemo compared with the poorly designed denizens of A Shark Tale. Other studios always seem to go one step too close to humanizing the characters, which by the way can be a two-dimensional character, but the powerful rendering software which can so easily give a lifelike appearance compounds the difficulty.
The revamping/updating of old characters one now sees (overcooking them--throwing too many highlights and shadows and making them less abstract) nearly always results in the character becoming less appealing. Take a slow walk down your cereal aisle.
Looking at the illustrations of Beatrix Potter or Arthur Rackham (or even the Budweiser frogs!) show that it is best to err on appearing less human (or at least posessing a measure of 'unreadability' from a human standpoint) when it comes to rendering appealing characters.
When it comes to the more naturalistic end, a suggestion of sentience is often enough: just throw a waistcoat on a beetle.
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Date: 2004-10-12 09:13 am (UTC)From the craft level, Pixar is brilliant at finding that sympathetic "sweet spot" when it comes to anthropomophic hybrid character designs. Look at the characters in A Bug's Life compared to the creepy humanoids in Antz, or the character designs in Finding Nemo compared with the poorly designed denizens of A Shark Tale. Other studios always seem to go one step too close to humanizing the characters, which by the way can be a two-dimensional character, but the powerful rendering software which can so easily give a lifelike appearance compounds the difficulty.
The revamping/updating of old characters one now sees (overcooking them--throwing too many highlights and shadows and making them less abstract) nearly always results in the character becoming less appealing. Take a slow walk down your cereal aisle.
Looking at the illustrations of Beatrix Potter or Arthur Rackham (or even the Budweiser frogs!) show that it is best to err on appearing less human (or at least posessing a measure of 'unreadability' from a human standpoint) when it comes to rendering appealing characters.
When it comes to the more naturalistic end, a suggestion of sentience is often enough: just throw a waistcoat on a beetle.
W