Character Design The Aardman style

Introduction

For my character I decided to go with an Aardman style for the face and body. I love the charm of Wallace and Gromit and am hoping to recreate the replaceable mouth pieces for my characters facial expressions. To get the effect stepped tangents maybe used on purpose when animating the face. This technique was used on Flushed Away which was Aardman's first computer animated film using the stop motion technique.

The Process

The process would involve rigging multiple mouths as well as using set driven keys to show and hide each mouth shape. This could be a challenging process but it could lead to some fascinating
results.
The animation relies on excitement as the main emotion which fits the Aardman style well

                      

Character Design

The character will be an anthropomorphic animal that fits the emotion and personality of excitement.
For this I have decided to design a bunny using inspiration from the design of Hutch from (Curse of the Were Rabbit) 2005, as well as Roger From Image works (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) 1988

The Style

Animation

The reason this style was chosen was to further the investigation into the appeal of Aardman's characters and what makes this style stand out compared to other stop motion companies and computer animation companies. The mouths are replaceable to get much more exaggerated expressions. The animation is stop motion so uses less frames this however gives it it's charm and adds a more cartoony vibe. This can be contrasted by Laika's style which is more realistic in the mouth movement.                              


                      Aardman   

                         Laika                                                 

The Aardman mouth movement is exaggerated in shape as well as the squash and stretch. While laika's has more frames and feels more fluid and realistic. However the simplicity of Aardman adds more room for exaggeration of shape, as well as charming expressions.

Eyebrows and Body Language

Another technique that Aardman take advantage of is noticing the eyebrows are the most expressive part of the face. The character of Gromit doesn't even have mouth however the use of detailed body language and the use of his eyebrow really show what he is thinking. The ears also represent his emotions as well.
                       
This proves that mouth animation may not even be needed at all if the rest of the face and body read well enough.


Most important reason Aardman stands out is that they show the characters are hand crafted out of Plasticine by leaving marks in the characters. This makes the characters feel more imperfect and adds an appeal of craftsmanship. Also the use of Plasticine allows more freedom in the shapes and movement of the characters. This can be recreated in computer animation but it never recaptures it fully.


image references


Aardman,

https://www.tumblr.com/search/wallace%20and%20%20gromit

http://imgur.com/gallery/9nwkk

http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/history

http://madmovieman.com/1487-flushed-away-2006/#

http://parody.wikia.com/wiki/Hutch



Laika

https://www.tumblr.com/search/gif:%20coraline


Disney

http://es.disney.wikia.com/wiki/Roger_Rabbit