Shape Language 2D Animation

Various visual elements such as shape language, colour, and posture influence how characters are perceived by an audience. The scope of the project was narrowed to focus on shape language, incorporating the concept into a simple and playful story with three different shaped characters.

Created in collaboration with Min Jee Kim: https://minjeeart.squarespace.com/

Client: Nick Woolridge
Media: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition
Format: 16:9 video
Audience: Lay audience
Date: May 2022

Process work

Research + Scripting

We developed a narrative to introduce the brief concept of shape language and then transition into the main storyline revolving around the three main characters: Buffy, Tippy, and Boba. The script was designed to introduce each shape character separately for a clear distinction of the different shape personalities while integrating them within a larger playful story.

Storyboarding

Multiple revisions to the storyboard were made after class and team feedback.

Main Character Design

Simple characters were created to demonstrate the square, circle, and triangle shape language concepts. Small unique accents for each character were added to further exemplify their different personalities (i.e. workout headband for Buffy the square, three strands of hair for Boba the circle, and slick hair for Tippy the triangle. The lower limbs were designed to be detached from the main body to ease the process of animating a walk cycle.

Style Frames and Colour Palette Development

In the end, we chose a warmer-toned background to contrast it with the cool blue colour of the main characters, evoking a warm and playful mood. After creating the vector assets, we added effects on top to create a more hand-drawn look around the edges. ShadeThrower plugin was used to add more dimension to our vector graphics and create consistent shading throughout our shots.