The Model- Character Design

        Before starting work on our armatures, we had to draw out a design in order that we were able to create the right shape wire frame as a base. While some of my classmates chose to use character designs from the current Applied Animation module, my title sequence doesn't require any characters, and so consequently I didn't have and designs. Instead, I based my armature on a character from my foundation degree final project; an Edwardian/1920s beauty named Yasmin Howcomely, from Roald Dahl's My Uncle Oswald.

        However, since I didn't incorporate clothing and hair into the plasticine modelling, there is the possibility that my armature could be transformed into the lead female character from the novel I am basing the Applied Animation module on: Anne Neville, a medieval noblewoman. 

        In retrospect, after struggling to sculpt realistically proportioned features in my plasticine model, I realise that I should have taken initiative from the models created by Mackinnon & Saunders and Aardman, which use exaggerated shapes. While I used exaggeration for the body shape, it would have made my job much easier if my design had bigger eyes/lips, which were incredibly tricky to model on a small scale.

        Morph epitomises this simplified approach. The character is made up of a single colour, in a basic shape, with large eyes and minimal features. Wallace & Gromit, perhaps Aardman's most famous creations are more complex, with texture, clothing, fingers and more facial features. However their proportions are still cartoonish (similarly to the large eyed, spindly limbed characters Mackinnon & Saunders create for Tim Burton), which not only helps with characterisation and making each character more recognisable, but also assists the sculptors and model makers, as they are not striving for photo realism.