CHARACTER DESIGN IDEAS

I wanted the father to look scary to a small kid. So I decided to make him pretty tall about six foot. You never see his face in my animation, this is to prevent the viewer having a chance to connect with the father in anyway as the story is about the kid not the father. And it’s more frightening I feel, to have a massive man with no identity waylaying on a small kid. Makes him even more menacing than he all ready is, with a fear of the unknown.

Also I have made him quite a fat man as he only eats fast food,  after going out drinking, chips, burgers and takeaways. He also has a beer belly.
I gave him several gold rings, this is based a bit on a character I remember from my childhood when I lived in Swindon. He would come storming out of his house shouting abuse and swearing at his children. Perhaps a bit of a stereotype.

Here is a sketch of my father puppet.



CHILD

I wanted to show the child as neglected without just putting him in torn up clothes.
I thought back to Tim Burton's movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas and the character, Sally, she is a rag doll who is misused, unappreciated and abused by her owner.




Making him into a tattered rag doll showed the years of neglect and lack of love, both mental and physical scars having thier impact on the character.

For the child's favourite robot toy I decided upon a retro feel, as these toys have more personality than mass produced modern toys like cyber men, terminator etc.

Sketch of the child