Pete Docter and Geometry of Characters

Pete Docter and Geometry of Characters

I Study the active vocabulary and focus on Ukrainian equivalents of English words.

vehicle засіб

narration розповідь

inhabit мешкати

circumstance обставина

tackle вирішувати

unfold розгортатися

conclusion висновок

relate мати ставлення

in regards to відносно

animation анімація

alter змінювати

intention намір

core ключовий

setting місце дії

raid здійснювати наліт

scholar вчений

carve out пробивати

existence існування

hostile ворожий

anthropomorphic антропоморфний (людиноподібний)

barn сарай

essential суттєвий

aim at націлюватись на

ensure забезпечувати

exaggerated перебільшений

ambassador посланник

striking вражаючий

mascot талісман

rescind скасовувати

attitude ставлення

emulate наслідувати

speedy швидкий

signifier символ

subconsciously підсвідомо

aware of в курсі

outspoken щирий

sidekick напарник

goofball дурник

claw коготь

fang ікло

hulking незграбний

predecessor попередник

threatening загрозливий

horn ріг

dichotomy дихотомія (розбиття цілого на дві частини)

subtly невловимо

permeate пронизувати

harken звертати увагу

aloof відчуджено

teardrop сльоза

stalk of broccoli стебло брокколі

reduce  перетворювати

orb сфера

immediately негайно

II Vocabulary focus. Study the words and  word combinations, check your understanding using flashcards, practise their translation, spelling. Check your knowledge in the test. Play matching vocabulary game (match words to their translations to make cards disappear)  and save the planet from asteroids by typing in correct translation of the words.

III Watch the video and note down the names of all the cartoons it uses as examples. Compare your notes to the lists created by other students. Who noted down the most of the cartoons?

IV Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

 characterized; humans ; designed ; visually; land ; story; joy ; personality; characters; topics; characteristics ; vehicle; essential ; clue; theme ; react;  audience; depend ; control ; around; points ; characters; unfolding; build ; face; relate ; marketable ; aesthetic; animation ; invited; comment ; brand ; animals ;

consideration ; well-designed ; animation ; hand; recently ; itself; control ; visual ; alter ; creation ; visually; setting ; drawings; intentions; setting ; promote ; connect ; based ;

The 1)_______ for any narration is the 2)_______ that inhabit the world and how they 3)_______ to their circumstances. A 4)_______ is important but we as an 5)_______ want to know whom the story centres 6)_______, we want to connect with the 7)_______, watch them tackle the 8)_______ events and settle into their conclusions. Characters help us 9)_______ to the world we’ve been 10)_______ into. But in regards to 11)_______ the character is fully 12)_______ and realized by 13)_______. Now because an animator has complete 14)_______ of every aspect of their work, they can 15)_______ the character to their own 16)_______. Today I’d like to 17)_______ on how artists design characters to help us 18)_______ their 19)_______ design to the characters’ core 20)_______. Well, specifically how Pete Docter does it.

The design of a character will of course 21)_______ on the 22)_______ of the animation. Are the Vikings raiding the 23)_______ of saints and scholars, 24)_______ trying to carve out an existence on a hostile planet or even anthropomorphic 25)_______ dancing in a barn? Considering 26)_______ and the 27)_______ of the story will start to 28)_______ the characters in the animator’s head. But of course there is more to designing a character than just where they’re located. If we look at a list of 29)_______ considerations when designing a character, 30)_______ such as thinking about who it’s aimed at and ensuring to use exaggerated 31)_______ cross every list. But more 32)_______ these tips include acknowledging that your character will be a 33)_______ ambassador. They highlight the idea that your character will become the 34)_______ of your product and because of this it needs to be a striking 35)_______ design. It’s no surprise most of the biggest 36)_______ studios have a mascot to 37)_______ their work. And a lot of these are very recognizable 38)_______ characters. But to me starting to design a character 39)_______ on how marketable they will be withdraws from the character 40)_______. I think it rescinds the ultimate 41)_______ of not only creating a character, but also it narrows the artistic lens in regards to how you want your 42)_______ to appear 43)_______, rather than just appeal to a market.

“No, no. He was supposed to have attitude.”

“Can we put him in more of a hip-hop context?”

As you 44)_______ all aspects of your world, a key 45)_______ is that the character’s personality should come across in their 46)_______.

“I think he needs a little more attitude. Oh, yeah, there it is. That’s it. I love it.”

V Watch the video again and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

          But how do you relate/duplicate/translate that visually? Well, let’s take a rare/square/dare. Even looking at it feelings of stability/sustainability/probability, strength, and thrust/crust/trust emulate from this fantastically/basic/classical shape. We can see it used in creating a anxiety/piety/variety of strong/long/alone characters. Similarly, a circus/circle/spheres elicits a loftier/draft/softer approach and can give a friendlier/meddle/friends softer character. There’s warm/warmer/warmth and happiness in these designs. Finally, a triangle/angle/angel, which at first might not appear to draw at any prolific/specific/especially feelings, until you consider/considerable/consideration it within character design. We sense the intensity, the anger/danger/dangerously, how sharp and speedy/greedy/needy they appear. These primarily/primer/primary shapes and how we interpret them via the recognizable/sizable/ notice signifiers is known as shape linguistic/speaker/language. We are subconsciousness /unconscious/ subconsciously aware of these feelings/feel in/feel it from just looking at the shapes loneliness/loner/alone. And it can be a powerful/cool/powerless tool at how you translate nationally/national/personality traits to an ambient/audience/ambience.

“Like if you only took one thing away from design scholar/school/cool, I think it would be the word ‘contrast/contrasted/crust’. That’s what makes things real, that’s what makes things interestingly/interested/interesting.”

To me this is where Pete Docter shines. He analyse/recognizes/realising the importance of contrast not only in the personality but how that can be explored/deplored/implored visually. In Monsters Inc. Sulley is strong, rusting/trusted/trustworthy, and friendly but also the top/crop/flop scarer in the business. Mike is his deadly/friendly/needy outspoken sidekick, quite literally/literature/littered a goofball. If we take a closer looked/look/looking at Sulley, he is a pillar of strength and morals/immoral/pillars, but when he’s at work his triangulation/angles/triangular claws and fangs/bangs/fans come out adding sharpness and danger to his harking/barking/hulking size. Mike initially battles/kettle/battered against his inability to scare effectively/effected/affected, he was considered not just scary due to his realize/mesmerize/size and shape.

Not that I notice this in Monster’s University, but the attributes of Mike’s characters were creative/additive/subtractive in its predecessor. Later he designer/designed/resigns himself to being a comedian/comedy/comically. Nothing in his character design appears threatened/threat/threatening, even his horns are rounded/surrounded/grounded. We can readily recognize the characters via the spine/shaped/silhouettes. But also the signifiers/implied/symbolised built into the primary shapes the characters are derived/arrived/divide from automatically denote their dichotomy in their personalities/commonalities/reality.

Similarly looking at Up!, Carl and Ellie are built from these primary shapes.

“Ok, Ellie was very ground/rounded/grounded shape. And so a lot of things associated with her are these circles/circus/circular. Carl is more of a square, and so even in that very shot you just mentioned, pictures of Carl will be in square blames/games/frames, pictures of Ellie are in circular frames. If there’s a picture of the two of them, it’ll be like a mat that’s circular with the square frame or something like that just trying to blend those shapes and use those to, hopefully, subtly plug their story/territory/glory.”

VI Watch the video and fill in the gaps in the text.

We can see the sentiment permeates the entire 1)_______. But also with Up! they explore 2)_______shape combinations with Russell, Dug, and Kevin. Each 3)_______is clearly defined and again can be recognized from their 4)_______. It’s 5)_______that the primary shapes are still used to elicit 6)_______like both Carl and Ellie but the 7)_______shapes of Russell and Dug harken to their soft characterizations, both feels 8)_______and familiar.

“I have just met you and I love you”

 Whereas Kevin has a quick intensity to it, while remaining aloof. These 9)_______are clearly defined down to the core 10)_______, right from the beginning.

Now similar to Up!, we can take this further 11)_______of not only primary shapes, but also how we personally 12)_______additional shapes of what 13)_______they may elicit.

“We have Joy who’s kind of an explosion or a 14)_______, we have Anger who is just like a brick, a 15)_______, Sadness is an upside-down teardrop, Disgust is actually based on a stalk of 16)_______, and then Fear was this raw nerve, you know. So from here you can you can generate any number of the characters. You can kind of flush them out.”

 Docter found core geometry to explore each emotion and how to 17)_______the clear shapes to help us 18)_______understand the characterizations of these 19)_______emotions. He even draws attention to the character 20)_______process when Sadness, Joy, and Bing Bong stumble into the abstract thought chamber. And through their literal deconstruction they’re reduced 21)_______to their two-dimensional origins. Inside Out is also interesting, as upon closer 22)_______of the characters their final rendering is made up of countless orbs, rather than pixels and 23)_______. Like the spheres that contain the memories they witness and 24)_______, the emotions too could be constructed of these raw 25)_______.

“Unlike live action where you have a location and somebody happened to walk by or this lamp is great. It’s just happens to be. Nothing is for free, 26)_______is for accident. You have a blank screen. And so everything you see goes through a very intentional design 27)_______, both shape, surface, lighting, all of that stuff. And so, to a fault, we can 28)_______everything.”

 Telling a 29)_______, for him, is discussed through the characters. And he sets them as distinguished through the exploration of 30)_______to aid his storytelling.

From the primary shapes included and 31)_______in his work we take a clear 32)_______from the language signified in their shapes. And we immediately 33)_______the nature of a character visually. So when designing a character think beyond the market potential and create interesting characters that exploit these subconscious 34)_______to help you tell your story. The core 35)_______of your character can be instantly recognizable when using these methods. So rather than destroying a character, think about who they are, who you 36)_______them to be, and build that into their design. A circle and a 37)_______could go a long way.

VII Watch all the parts of the video and answer the questions.

1 What is the relation between basic geometric shapes and characters?

2 What shapes are mentioned in the video?

3 What are the meanings or associations that shapes create?

4 What are the important stages in character design?

5 How is creating characters in animation different from films? Who controls this process?

6 What characters are designed around squares? What characteristics do these characters have?

7 What characters are modeled like circles? How does it show their personality?

8 Why is contrast important in character design? How can contrast be used in character design? What characters exist in contrast?

9 Why should a character be marketable? Is it an important consideration in character design?

10 How are settings connected to character design?

VIII OVER TO YOU. Create your own character silhouettes using at least 2 geometric and 1 organic (or free form) shapes. Show your character silhouettes to other students. What personalities do these characters have?