Character Design Research Part 1: "Real Life" Character Research

I'm going to start off with visualizing the first playable character "Bean the Clown". Once I have a rough idea of what I want Bean's design to look like and I'm happy with it, I can start to create his 3D model in preparation for rigging and animation to add to my prototype at a later date.

"The Forbidden Joke" is about a world where everyone competes with one another regularly to see which continent holds the best circus performance. Bean the Clown is an upcoming entertainer at the Midnight Domain circus who has his own dreams of taking part in the yearly Big Top Performance. He is extremely passionate about his job, very friendly, confident, and silly, but knows when to calm down and be serious when the need arises. I want his visual design to reflect this.

"Aaron Blaise" is an animator, character designer and animation film director. Aaron was interviewed by "Cartoon-Brew" an online website dedicated entirely to animation news. During his interview he gives some advice on how to start designing and visualizing characters.  He mentions that the first step to character design is a crucial one, and that's to do research based on the "real thing" that you are going to be designing. He uses a bear character as an example, for that you would look at various bear focused documentaries, learning as much about them as you can, such as how they move and act. Overall make sure you know as much as possible about your characters "real life" species, occupation, etc [Aaron Blaise 2017]

In my case with Bean being a clown I get to look into various types of clowning, which sounds so silly when i write it down but that's exactly the kind of ridiculous topic that I find entertaining.

"Types" of Clowns

There have been many different "types"of clowns over the years. Clowns can be categorized under different types due to them following a certain dress code that distinguishes them and allows audiences to know what to expect from a clowns performance.

"Bruce Johnston" is a famous juggling clown with various awards under his belt such as the World Clown Association Lifetime Achievement Award and his own plaque on the Ministry Clown Hall of Fame. On his website he talks about the varying types of clowns, there were a lot of different types, however two of them stood out to me as the most recognisable:

Whiteface Clown


A Whiteface Clown covers all their flesh with either make up or clothing.  They start by covering their face and neck with a coating of clown white greasepaint and then adding colourful features. Some people divide Whiteface Clowns into three subgroups.  "The Neat Whiteface" paints small features using red or black, and wears carefully color coordinated clothing.  "The Grotesque", or "Comedy", Whiteface paints large features with a variety of colors, and wears outlandish clothing.


Auguste Clown


The Auguste clown wears white around their eyes and mouth, and covers the rest of their exposed skin with a flesh coloured greasepaint base. they generally use a large imitation nose. They may paint their lower lip red or black, and frequently have exaggerated eyebrows. They may wear a colourful wig, or a bald top wig with a fringe of hair around their sides. Their costume usually has very bright colours, and is frequently too large for them.


[Bruce Johnson 2015]


I've created a few quick moodboards, one for both Whiteface Clowns and Auguste Clowns. I can use these images for reference when it comes to Bean's costume design.

"Whiteface Clown" Moodboard

"Auguste Clown" Moodboard

References  
Cartoon Brew Connect - "Aaron Blaise Reveals The Seven Steps To Great Character Design" .http://www.cartoonbrew.com/sponsored-by-aaron-blaise/aaron-blaise-reveals-seven-steps-great-character-design-149504.html. 22nd March, 2017  Found: 8th October 2017

Johnson, Bruce. - "Types of Clowns" http://www.charliethejugglingclown.com/types.htm. Found: 8th October 2017