Characters and backgrounds for animation - Trial run

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Purpose

"Would you like to draw a monster and then see it on the screen chasing the characters of this animation?" This question was asked to the visitors of an art event Keilefest in Rotterdam. On a screen they could see the animation loop of two characters running. And later, if they drew a monster, they could see it being animated and chasing the characters.

Sketch of the background

Sketches

I wanted the background to be diverse, so that we could see the characters surrounded by different environment. Besides, since the characters were not supposed to do much apart from running I thought that the background could be quite busy.

After I have made the background sketch I started to work on a character sketches. At first it was a sort of a delivery boy with a bag. The idea was that he will be chased away from the city by a terrible monster. But then I thought that it will be more fun to draw myself and the animator as characters, so that the visitors' monsters will chase us across the screen. That way there will be a playful interaction between the visitors (and their monsters), us, the event itself and the animation.

Sketch of the characters - that's us on the left

Results

On the final drawing of the background I have changed the colors of the cave, because I wanted them to be a bit more in balance with the rest of the drawing.

I also have made the buildings in the city look more 3D to create some depth and provide diversity after rather flat drawings of the cave and the forest. I have also made the cave columns thicker, because otherwise they looked way too much like architecture.

All that remained was to make an animation of the characters running.