When I get out of college, I plan to start a career as a character designer. Virginia is not very known for that or animation film in general, but I was blessed to have found a character designer actively working on a animated series. I shadowed Ralph (Tad) Butler who is the character designer for Superbook. Superbook is a show about two characters Chris and Joy who started off as non believers (Christianity), but found a book called the Superbook that took them into the Bible. The point of each episode is to teach them and the audience a lesson. When Chris and Joy go through some type of trouble in their lives, they go into the Superbook where it uses biblical stories to teach them how to deal with the situation in the right way as well as spread God's word.
I learned a lot from this experience when it comes to knowing what I actually want to do in the future and how it will be accomplished. This job is very competitive especially in the generation we are in now where most of the things we do is digital. Tad explained to me that I will have to build myself up until i am able to get to where i want and sometimes there are people out there who have the talent to just get it immediately. Himself and the people he worked with had to work their way up to where they are now.
I met his co-workers when I first started my shadowing experience. To my surprise many of them have worked on big films for Disney and Dreamworks, such as The Lion King and Madagascar. From that I realized I don't have to work at one company for the rest of my life. I use to think, "I have to choose my job wisely because I'm going to be stuck there." However, as said, that is not the case, I can work at all types of companies and create many connections and new experiences.
His day to day work is basically drawing all day, which I don't mind doing. That is like a dream come true. This experience broke my expectations of what character designers do. I thought the designers are given a concept of a film or series and they work off of that to create a character. Instead, directors give them a script (no dialogue but written out explanation of how they want the character to be like and look like). They then work off of that and add details as they go that could work well with the character. Once they finish a sketch they send it to the director, called a pass, to receive feedback and/or approval from the director. If they disapprove then they send it back and tell them what needs to be changed. If approved then they work off the idea and the designer creates more poses and facial expressions of the character as well as the character in different scenarios.
Tad allowed me to take pictures of Gizmo, robot companion of Chris and Joy, to show the different versions of one character he has to create for the show. He has to create these versions whether it be different outfits, 360 views, or condition of a character to give those who work on the 3D model of the characters an easier time to render. For example is the picture below. Another example, that I don't have a picture of, is Chris in a dry condition and in a wet condition. The details are very important to be done, even though it could be tiring to draw the same character over and over again.
His work environment was what I expected it to look like. It is similar to my room where there are a lot of figures and posters that could be used to keep my mind running and give me ideas. The figures help with poses, positions, and facial expressions, which posters could do the same, but they're used mostly for composition ideas or poses that the figures don't have or cant do.
In all, I had a great experience and it was very fun. Thank you Tad for taking the time to allow me to shadow you. I will never forget this experience and it surely motivated me further to aim to become a character designer.
Thank you for reading!
Adios!
Comments