Independent Component

Location	Date	Hours	What I did	Total Hours
Home	12/28/2012	4 hours 36 minutes	Sketched several designs and a little concept art depicting my characters. Worked on different poses and expressions. Outlined a few of the completed sketches in ink and erased the pencil.	4 hours 36 minutes
Home	1/5/2013	6 hours	Drew 3 more poses and designs for my characters. Took some of my older completed drawings and began coloring them in.	10 hours 36 minutes
Home	1/6/2013	4 hours 40 minutes	Took out 5 of my most recent sketches and outlined them all in ink. After erasing the pencil lines, I colored them all in.	15 hours 16 minutes
Home	1/8/2013	2 hours 15 minutes	Drew an entirely new design for a new character. Inked and colored the page. Took a full page sketch (finished inking) and began to color it.  Ran out of ink before it could be completed Need new supplies.	17 hours 31 minutes
Home	1/13/2013	2 hours 30 minutes	Worked on a new scene depicting my characters. Inked the drawing, but did not yet color. Worked on a pose and expression page for a dragon and colored a turnaround page for an unrelated character.	20 hours   1 minute
Home	1/15/2013	2 hours 30 minutes	Finished and colored several pages. Inked out and labeled new sketches I had been working on. Inked rest of scene.	22 hours 31 minutes
Home	1/17/2013	5 hours 26 minutes	Sketched out two new drafts. Finished details on each sketch and inked both of them. Colored them along with three other pieces of work that had been inked, but not yet colored. Ran out of ink, so had to come to a stop for tonight.	27 hours 57 minutes
Home	1/20/2013	1 hour	Worked on a turnaround for a new character. Completely colored it in.  Sketched out two more turnarounds for two different characters.	28 hours 57 minutes
Home	1/21/2013	4 hours 30 minutes	Worked on a current sketch of my dragon to compare to older designs. Worked rest of time on a scene that had been sketched out, but had not yet been inked or colored. Managed to get halfway through the drawing.	35 hours 27 minutes
Home	1/31/2013	5 hours	Finished coloring drawing after finally getting new markers to replace the old ones. Drew and colored concept art for two more characters. Inked and colored both the concept art and the turnarounds from the week before. Filled my portfolio with all of my work.	40 hours 27 minutes

BLOG 13: Rough Draft of 30 minute presentation

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?

Objectives: I plan to inform the students about how a character’s design can determine its role in any animated feature.

Category	Guide
Introduction	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.
Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)	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.
Body (Give and demonstrate necessary information)	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).
Visuals	v  PowerPoint depicting facts and image comparisons v  Original drawings by me, showing character development
Activity (Describe the independent activity to reinforce this lesson)	·         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

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions EQ: What is the most important aspect in designing a character for an animated feature?

1.       What is the most important aspect in designing a character for an animated feature?

2.       How important is character development for animation/games/comics?

3.       What are your main influences for character design?

4.       What is one of the hardest thing to work with in this field? What is the easiest?

5.       What determines a character’s personality and role in a story?

6.       How has your style and design developed throughout the years?

7.       Have any of your characters designs appeared in feature films, video games, or comic books?

8.       How do you get the character to look the same size and shape despite having to draw it in various poses?

9.       Where did you work before you became a teacher at the Pasadena College of Art and Design?

10.   Why did you decide to teach about character design in school rather than continue with studio work?

Working Bibliography

12/22/2012	ARTL (Article)	Carter, Nick. "Pile of Cliches, Lack of Character Doom 'Blue Streak'." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 4. Sept 17 1999. Los Angeles Times; ProQuest Newsstand. Web. Dec. 2012	An article expressing displeasure of the poor production of an action/comedy film due to a lack of character development. Summarizies the movie and what failed.
12/30/2012	ARTL (Article)	"CHARACTER DESIGN: Animated Spirit." Design Week 26.13 (2011): ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.	An interesting article that talks about character design.  Not just for animation, but for toys, comics, web, and other media. Talks about character personality as well.
12/30/2012	ARTL (Article)	Glenn Whipp, Film W. "Soaking in Success how a Mild-Mannered Surfer and Marine Biologist Turned His Innocent Animated Character into a $1.5 Billion Enterprise." Daily News: Nov 23 2004. Los Angeles Times; ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 12 Dec. 2012 .	An awesome article that talks about the production of the popular cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants. Talks about his creator, Stephen Hillenburg, and the success of his "big weird little show."
1/2/2013		Solomon, Charles. "Movies; Time to Draw the Line Commentary: Looking for Real Character Development in Film? You can Pretty Much Forget Live-Action, because Animation is Where it's at." Los Angeles Times: 27. Jul 18 1999. Los Angeles Times; ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 12 Dec. 2012 .	Talks about how animated films seem more realistic and depict more emotion than live action films of the time.  Uses Disney's Tarzan and Prince of Egypt as two amazing examples of character development.
1/3/2013	ARTL (Article)	Roger Moore, Sentinel,Movie Critic. "Different but the Same ; Two Animated Films are Dissimilar but Share Computer-Generated Imagery." Orlando Sentinel: Nov 14 2004. Los Angeles Times; ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 12 Dec. 2012 .	An article about two different films (The Incredibles and The Polar Express), and how the animation was surprisingly similar in realism. Talks a little about motion capture technology and the fading away of 2D animation as 3D takes over.

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hours check

1. I had just finished my first part of mentorship hours on 12/8/2012. I was participating at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

2. My contact is Ron Llanos, who is an illustrator who graduated from the Art Center College of Design. He was also my instructor for my mentorship.

3. The total amount of hours I have done during this time would be  40 hours and 15 minutes including the summer hours.

4. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvV0VFx5mCe1dFE2SFlTYlFzdE5vdi1Oby11TXhvdlE

5. My contact is Ron Llanos. His phone number is 626-396-2200.