30 Minute Lesson Plan
Name: Pilar I. Perrault Date: 1/15/2013 House: South
Essential question:
What is the most important aspect in designing a character for an animated feature?
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Objectives:
I plan to inform the students about how a character’s design can determine its role in any animated feature.
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Category
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Guide
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Introduction
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Hello. My name is Pilar Perrault and I chose Character Design for Animation as my topic for senior project. I will be explaining the process of designing characters for TV/films. In addition to this, I will explain why the character development stage is a vital part of animated features. My presentation will also feature an activity to assist you all in understanding my topic.
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Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)
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Beginning of Presentation:
· What do you think character design is?
· What is it used in?
· What makes it significant in animated features?
· How does the style of the character affect its role in the storyline?
· What makes the audience connect with the character(s)?
End:
Though the actual process of animation can simply be defined as moving pictures (such as a short frame-by-frame shot of a ball bouncing across the screen), no one goes to the movie theater to watch a ball bounce across the screen for two whole hours! The character development phase is a significant part of any cartoon series or animated movie. They are what make the show/film worth watching. The character’s design and personality can determine what role they play in the story, as well as affect how the audience reacts to him or her.
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Body (Give and demonstrate necessary information)
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v Literal:
a) The personality, powers, and physical appearance of a character can
define their role in a story and how they interact with others
b) The age of a character can determine their role in the story (i.e. Youthful
characters are usually depicted as the heroes while middle-aged or older
characters are depicted as villains)
c) Clothing/costume can say a lot about a character’s setting and time period
(i.e. a character clad in knightly armor would most likely be from the
medieval times, even a fantasy world full of dragons and monsters)
d) A flat, static character elicits no emotion from the audience (no matter
how cool the special effects, how smooth the animation, or how awesome
the graphics look)
v Interpretive:
a) I learned much of this from actually witnessing how characters act and react in various cartoon series. If one observes a character long enough (I’ve been watching Pokémon and SpongeBob for 11 years!), they may notice a pattern in that character’s behavior. You can sometimes imagine that character in any scene you can conjure up and your mind and almost immediately determine how the character would react.
b) Another source I have is a book about designing anime characters called Anime Mania. It is what taught me about how the character’s age and costume are major factors to consider when creating a character.
v Applied:
I have learned that if a character is to be animated, a representation must be made (designed) so can be created into digital form. I find this to be particularly important, as I have big plans to introduce my own characters to the world of animation (particularly television).
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Visuals
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v PowerPoint depicting facts and image comparisons
v Original drawings by me, showing character development
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Activity (Describe the independent activity to reinforce this lesson)
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· Designing a character
· Students will design and draw a character with a partner and
a) draw at least 6 different expressions for said character?
b) draw character in 3 different designs (Original/Disney/Anime)?
· Paper and pencil
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