Her basic design is inspired by simplicity, I don't want her to be the focus I want her to be the catalyst that causes the viewer to take in the changing/transforming background. Her first incarnation was in the story beat roughs and it was a look that I stuck to when designing her current state:
Her basic shape comes from her shoulders which slump in that old woman way of walking. Her balance is slightly unsteady and always leaning forward after a long life of work. Once she leaves the house her position in society is isolated and insignificant in much the same way that Western societies on a general level seem to treat the older generation. Her clothes add to this feeling that she is slightly out of place and in later versions of the character I researched vintage fabric designs to add to the authenticity of a house dress that has seen much use over the years.
From her shoulders her body fans out and in like an egg or a lemon and her feet in their minimalist design will aide in ensuring that her walk always looks like an unsteady shuffle. Her hands are important as they function in the making of tea in the early POV shots of the film. Compared to her feet, her hands are large 'mannish' hands, a working woman's hands from a generation when women scrubbed clothes, planted vegetable gardens and gutted rabbits (all things my grandmother did) with little thought about the cosmetic appearance of themselves.
In keeping with the Action research cycle of test, experiment and reflect then improve, here is the revised character designs based on the initial idea from the story beats:
From the story beat phase to the second round of character design, I looked at simplifying her shape further. As the audience we rarely see this character front on and close up, therefore in keeping with her catalyst role, her face is left with little detail and I am more concerned with how the character will look as she walks away from the camera. I am pleased with her shape as she faces away from us, she is tangible, solid yet her feet will make her seem unsteady and fragile as she walks. I would perhaps lower her head slightly to create an old lady hunch as in these designs she is standing a little too straight for my liking.
I also toyed with the idea of removing her harsh black outlines which at the moment make her look too in control, too new and too doll like. I want her design to capture her role in the film as a transient figure moving through the landscape, not the focus of the story. So upon reflection and with these changes in mind I went to round 3 in character design:
The self colour lines in this version further diminishes her physical presence on screen, in particular if I retain detailed line work for the backgrounds. She seems to have become almost a cut-out style animation and although I like the appearance as an illustration I am not sure whether it will provide me with enough visual structure to create the old lady shuffle I am hoping to achieve. This will become part of the next phase of testing, in the screen test and composition/layout phase when I start to animate the character and then later add her to the overall background layout to see whether her character design compliments what I am attempting to achieve in this project.
I also worked on her basic construction, keeping in mind the forward leaning nature of her centre line of gravity and her unsteady walk/shuffle style. In these basic sketches I was focusing on the construction of the character thinking primarily of how her weight distribution will impact upon her movement as she walks. I will look to drop her shoulders and head a little more to give her more age but her basic volume and shape should remain the same as it fits the purpose of the character in the narrative.
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