In my last post on this subject (No. 82) I speculated that I might find the character I needed among the existing incidental characters in my storyboard of the original concept.
As I looked the drawings over, there was one in particular that I was attracted to. It was a frontal view of an old man, seated and holding his wife's hand.
He was intended just as an extra, to be sitting in a row of airport chairs as my former protagonist moved past. Unlike his wife, he was not even intended to be animated. But as I looked at him I thought, what could be funnier as the bearer of an immensely heavy suitcase than a frail-looking old man?
Trying him from different angles showed his potential to move in 3 dimensions and allowed me to work out his body and head shapes and proportions.
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In particular I needed to work out how he would look dragging his heavy suitcase by a thin length of rope.
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As I looked the drawings over, there was one in particular that I was attracted to. It was a frontal view of an old man, seated and holding his wife's hand.
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| First sketch of the old man character. |
He was intended just as an extra, to be sitting in a row of airport chairs as my former protagonist moved past. Unlike his wife, he was not even intended to be animated. But as I looked at him I thought, what could be funnier as the bearer of an immensely heavy suitcase than a frail-looking old man?
Trying him from different angles showed his potential to move in 3 dimensions and allowed me to work out his body and head shapes and proportions.
In particular I needed to work out how he would look dragging his heavy suitcase by a thin length of rope.
Next we'll take a close look at what design changes can take place on a single sheet of paper--changes that are important to the character design process yet are unseen and forgotten steps to the final design.