Tea Group Project - Character Designs, Backgrounds, and Paper Cuts

For the next part of the group project I had to do some character designs. Firstly, I did some quick sketches of how the different characters could look, and how they could be different from each other. 

The animation is based in the 70s, so I used photos of 70s fashion to help with these designs.

Sketches of the 'Tea Dealer' and Policeman

'BBT' logo planning, background and character sketches

After drawing out the characters, I made some paper cuts of them as we are planning on using this style for our animation. Additionally, we weren't sure on this style because it would take so long to animate. So, we decided we should test this style and if it didn't work out we'd use TVPaint to animate the characters in 2D.

I used block colours with no shading in these paper cuts to make them easier and quicker to animate. However, these paper cuts took me around half an hour to an hour each, which shows that they aren't quick to animate. Therefore, we will be using TVPaint to animate the characters. 

'Tea' Dealer

When designing this character I didn't have the script so I assumed we'd need a tea dealer. I wanted them to be more mysterious, whilst also keeping with the style of the 70s. I used images of 70s hair as inspiration for this design, and I also liked the long trench coats as they helped with the mysterious vibe. I then used red and orange paper for their clothes, as I wanted to use warm colours when tea is around/with a character.

Reference Photos of 70s Fashion

Jasmine the News Reader and a Policeman

For some reason I had a lot of trouble designing Jasmine. For the other designs I didn't have the script so I was able to be quite free with my sketching and designing. In script, Jasmine is described as 'beautiful and a bit uninterested, simply nods and smiles.' In my sketches I gave Jasmine a fringe, however when making the paper cut I realised I preferred the design without it. Making the designs physically was really helpful in making these kind of design decisions. I found designing the policeman much easier, as I already had a rough idea for his design when we had our first meeting. We really liked the tall hats the policemen wore in the 70s, and this helped decide what era the animation is set. I instantly knew I wanted to make the policeman short, but try to appear tall with his hat. Additionally, I needed to make the policemen very blunt, so I used bigger eyes to exaggerate his expressions. In contrast with the tea dealer, I used blue for the policeman as it is a cold colour, and green for the newsreader as it is a neutral colour, and she is more of a neutral character.

Reference Photos of 70s Policemen

Background of the 'BBT'

For the backgrounds I wanted to incorporate the tea boxes in them, so I printed off some tea box designs to test how they would look in these test backgrounds. The photos came out much smaller than I planned, however this worked to my advantage in this background as I used the image as wallpaper for the set. I then cut out paper with muted down tones so the characters would be brighter and they'd stand out. For details I used graph paper for the paper on the desk and the yellow paper and tea box designs for the BBT logo. As the animation is set in the 70s, I wanted to keep some details in like the aspect ratio of the TVs. They were much smaller than the aspect ratio in the present day, so I showed this by using darker coloured paper to make a square frame, whilst being able to keep our aspect ratio.