Week 2: Draft Proposal Extended

I have revised and improved my draft proposal to convey properly what I wish to achieve throughout my project and essay:

Proposal

I am wanting to explore character design with mental illness taken into consideration, as this has become more frequent in modern character design.

I will explore older character designs from the 1930's - 1950's, such as Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and early Looney Tunes, to modern characters from shows like Steven Universe, Adventure Time and Bojack Horseman.

I will also be looking into live-action films and television shows that focus on mental health and take note on how it is portrayed, using the information that I gather to better my own designs and learn how the characters gain sympathy, animosity or adoration through simple design choices.  

As appeal is one of the twelve principles of animation, I want to explore how this translate theoretically to character design as well. I will be reading on how to make informed decisions throughout designing the characters, whether they are the protagonists, antagonists or the comic relief and how you can push these defined archetypes to create more complex and even more appealing characters.  

Research into particular mental disorders will be imperative to this project, on disorders those that I am familiar with and ones that require further study; symptoms, reactions, dangers and recovery that is involved with each particular illness. 

I want to focus on three particular mental disorders; one that is particularly common, one that I know a lot about and one that I am not that familiar with.

I will also conduct interviews with professionals, people who suffer from the disorders, people’s own opinions on mental health and drawing from my own experiences with mental health.

Colour and shape theory will play a huge part in the project, as both will determine how the characters are portrayed by the audience. I will experiment with different colour schemes and design the characters with certain shapes in mind to visually communicate what the character represents.

My practical work will be one or a series of character designs that have been thoroughly thought out, taking in colour and shape theory also getting feedback from outside source to make sure I am clearly conveying the right message across.

From my first and second hand research, I will determine what attributes to focus on for each mental illness to make the distinctive from each other. I will gather my peer’s opinions of each stage of the design process and take on the constructive criticism to improve my designs where necessary.

I will be creating characters with backstories, which means I will have to think how this would affect their personality, their relationships and their outlook on the world. Creating in-depth character sheets will aid me in creating competent decisions on the characters’ physical appearance.

I was also thinking of showing the journey of a character going through mental illness; before, initial stage, during, recovering and recovered. Exploring different ways of showing the internal struggle physically.