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Pixar Character Creation

Students will: Assume the role of Director of Graphic Arts and Development for Pixar. You are in charge of developing the story and the lead character of the film.

Using the tools and techniques you've learned in Illustrator, create an original character for a new Pixar Film.

  1. Develop an idea for a new animated film. You will use Word to write the following in paragraph form. Create a new folder titled Pixar, save the file and print to room 1730.

    Although my example is about an existing Pixar movie, you cannot create a character for an existing move. You have to make up your own movie idea.

    1. Introduce the character.
      Ex. Nemo is a preadolescent clown fish growing up in a coral reef near Australia. Nemo is being raised by his overly cautious father. Nemo is an adventurous fish, but he is held back by his father's fears.
    2. Summarize the story.
      Ex. While on a school field trip, Nemo's school friends dare him to touch the "butt" (boat). Despite his father's warnings not to venture past the drop off, Nemo touches the "butt" and is scooped up by a snorkeler who gives the fish to a dentist in Sydney, Australia. While Nemo makes new friends in the dentist's fish tank, his father searches for him in the vast Pacific Ocean. Nemo escapes the dentist's tank and is reunited with his father in Sydney Harbor.
  2. On the bottom of your print out, draw a rough sketch of the character. No color, just a rough black and white sketch of what the character might look like.
  3. Read How Pixar makes a movie. Take some notes on your Word document that outline how Pixar makes a move.
  4. Go here Digital Inking & Painting for 2D Animation Watch these videos:
  5. Use a stop watch on your phone to help you realize how long 15 seconds takes. Imagine what happens during your story in that 15 seconds. On the back of your hard copy, (sketch is on the front) create a story board that will cover about 15 seconds of your animated file.You will be pitching your idea to a group of students on Friday. Mrs. Wehrman will assign groups!

Creating Characters for Animation

Go here Watch these lessons: (This should take about 20 minutes of your life)

  • Designing characters - 3min 22seconds
  • tracing characters - 4 min. 32 sec
  • Creating joints that work - 3 min 53 sec.
  • Working with outlines - 4 min
  • Accessorizing your characters - 2 min 21 sec
  • Creating parts for replacement animation 1 min 41 seconds

Create your character - 2 options

Option 1 draw on paper

Watch these videos:

How to Scan a Drawing for Flash Animation

How to Paint a Digitized Line Art Drawing in Photoshop
  1. Sketch your character on paper
  2. Scan your character
  3. Color the character in Photoshop or Illustrator Put features that you would like to animate on separate layers
  4. Save as Pixar Character in your Pixar folder

Option 2 draw in Illustrator

  1. Open Illustrator and draw the character. Put features that you would like to animate on separate layers. (example - eyes layer, nose layer, hand layer, etc.) Save as Pixar Character in your Pixar folder.

 

  1. Turn your print out into the turn in folder on your teacher's desk.
  2. Attach your Word doc to your 5th six weeks page.

Additional References:

Google it! - you can find your own tutorials and videos

How to Scan a Drawing for Flash Animation

How to Paint a Digitized Line Art Drawing in Photoshop