Character Development: Raccoon

By Callum Brown

I think the first thing to do when anthropomorphic characters is to look at the animal alone, the first thing I did when creating my character was starting at the basics, looking at how racoons moved, what they looked like from different angles, I practised sketching them to make my designs have the full research behind them, I wanted to understand the animals so I could incorporate their characteristic into my designs.

Next I looked at body types, the build I wanted my character to have, so I started there considering different atmosphere and feels for the character, what he was going to be like, staring to get a personality behind him, although we are making a comedy, and this character is set to appear stupid, and to look ridiculous, I wanted him to my trans-media, so that he could be taken serious in a different light, perhaps I will want to carry this character on some time, its here I realised i had a character with potential, so as well as this throw-away comedy character I decided to also create a character that could be taken seriously.

After coming up with two body types I decided to concentrate more on my college work, creating a character right for the film we're making, but baring in mind what could also be, so I started creating costumes, some obviously for comedy, some that could be either, and suit many archetypes and genre's just to have the comedy effect of placing something somewhere that doesn't belong, exploring if that idea could go anywhere.

I decided this take was an unnecessary venture and the result would not only be unexplained but look a little silly and risks the animation being worse for it, so I then came to focus on more western costumes, since our film will be set in that timeline, I thought it best to look into more of that time era, while keeping a child-like light-hearted feel to the designs.

I focused on my favourite designs, I had two, one fairly realistic costume for its time, and one childish comedy outfit, unsure of which to take forward, as I was found of both, I decided to take both forward, and create a comedy and serious version of each, so I could have the widest range of designs possible.

I then decided to look closer at the face, I had a good idea already from drawing him repeatedly, but I wanted to really get him down, as it could help my future designs, I thought seeing his face could help form a personality, which may reflect the pose and posture I give him on my final designs.