The diploma thesis, Character design and creating animation with digital illustration, introduces the process of character design and background development through hand-drawn raster illustration and describes the entire process of creating digitally-drawn classical animations.
The theoretical section defines digital illustrations and presents the development of a character and the formation of emotional states with facial expressions and body posture. The movements and poses of the character are described. The principles for designing the background are then explained. The field of animation is presented, where the principles and techniques of classical animation are described.
The practical section describes the process of creating a product, which begins with the development of the character, their emotional states, and rotation. During this phase, we gathered ideas and designed several versions of the character through sketches. We then created a background using the principles discussed. The steps that we followed included creating conceptual sketches and designs, painting, adding details, shading, and lighting. We used a graphics tablet and Adobe Photoshop to create the illustrations using its inbuilt features and tools. Then, in the final stage, digital animations were combined into the final product. The process of making an animation is presented, covering every stage from the basic motif and storyboard to animation and post-production. Animations were created using Adobe Photoshop with frame-by-frame techniques and no automation. The final product was an animation on the theme of forest fairy adventures, where the hand-drawn raster illustrations are presented. Four events in four seasons are shown, as experienced by a forest fairy. In the Winter, the forest fairy meets a squirrel; in the Spring, a bird; in the Summer, a mouse; and in the Autumn, a bear. During the animation, we observe the coexistence of a forest fairy with the woodland animals, and we follow the story through their non-verbal communication.
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