From time to time you get to work on something which just feels right. And from time to time you get to jump into a project early doors and get to help shape it from the ground up. This is frequently the most rewarding work as you can aim to ensure everyone's goals are present.
Occasionally both of these things coincide and it's a total pleasure to jump into work every day.
This is one of those projects.
After lengthy conversations with clients about the aspirations and goals for the product I began producing a number of sketches that would begin to breathe life into some of the passion present for the project.
While the shapes in these first few drawings were supposed to simply be an exploration of the level of emotion that could be delivered it quickly became apparent that the team and myself were falling in love with this hyperactive little guy.
At this point there was no solid consensus on what the character line-up would be so I took the opportunity to explore some other shapes to see if anything would jump out.
I also considered that this was a species rather than a unique character, like the Smurf or Minions, so I attempted to give one shape multiple unique personalities through poise and props.
However, rather than one specific character being identified as a solid choice, it transpired that the team were keen on several of the sketches. At that point I realised I needed to explore a potential ‘gang’ of characters which adds another layer to the ongoing development as its integral that the characters function as a collective as well as individuals.
Luckily I find this process incredibly rewarding.
Alongside the characters we’d also begun discussing what kind of headquarters our characters would have and with discussions about a flying component in the form of an airship, and also an RV element.
Drawing RVs is often fun as there's so many different ways of infusing personality into them. The airship is a little more limiting as It has to follow a pretty strict set of rules for it to be recognizable.
Then suddenly it dawned on us that we could incorporate both of these vehicles in one entity So I roughed out some sketches for what was effectively a floating RV.
And there it was, an original vehicle that had charm, and personality.
Returning to the characters I took the favourites from the roster and began exploring their scale and colours.
With a final line up complete the product continued development. During this process it became apparent we needed to reduce the number of characters so we could focus on developing their relationships with each other.
So finally we ended up with these three characters in their little slice of the world. They were fun, full of personality and charm. I was really pleased with how they turned out and the potential they offered.
Occasionally you get to work on a real gem of a project but as the world rolls on things occasionally become misaligned and take a different route so these guys didn’t make it any further.
Regardless, as they say ‘it's not the destination it's the journey.’ And that was a good one.
