Design and Target Audience

Octonauts

Octonauts is a children's TV show aimed at young children between the ages of 4 and 8. For this reason the characters in this show must be child friendly, and show nothing threatening about them. This has been achieved using certain colours, minimalist facial features and a very simplistic body shape. This turtle (Sandy the Leatherback Sea Turtle) is a shade of deep blue, with light blue spots.

She has a mainly circular body shape, meaning that she is friendly creature. She has minimalist facial features, such as eyes and mouth. This means the audience doesn't have to think to hard, like if Sandy had a very detailed face, it may be confusing for the audience.


Pokemon

Pokemon is a manga cartoon aimed mainly at children aged between 7 and 12. This opens up more opportunities as to what the animators can work with. This particular character in the grid (Squirtle) also as a mainly round body shape, in terms of its head and torso meaning it is a friendly creature.

Squirtle's body contains bright colours such as lights blues, and browns, making it more approachable. His facial features are a bit more detailed, stereotypical of most manga characters which appeals to the target audience.


T.M.N.T.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is another children's TV series, however there are many themes of violence. This means that the animators have to be very careful in terms of how they portray the characters. The four turtle protagonists of this TV show (Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael) all have basically the same body features aside from the colour of their masks and their weapons. They have fairly rectangular body shapes which shows that they have some sort of dominance and strength about them, however their minimalist facial features show that they are also friendly individuals.

The colours of these turtles is a light green; rather than dark colours, the light colours used make them seem more friendly. Tied in with their masculine body shapes, there is a good mix of assertiveness and friendliness.


Adventure Time

'Adventure Time' is a TV series with a fairly wide target audience; it is known to be enjoyed by children from the age of around 8 to young adults. The 'Turtle Princess' from 'Adventure Time' has a strange body shape. She is fairly oval in shape, but also has slim limbs. This shows that she is friendly, but is also fragile. She has minimalist facial features, mean the audience doesnt have to think too much about it.

Animation Process Flowchart

P3 Initial Planning

Form : The form of animation I am creating is a children's TV programme.


Animation Type : I am mainly creating this animation in Adobe Photoshop; this enables me to upload images of characters easily, and it is a software base that I am familiar with. It is a hand drawn cell animation, meaning I make the characters move by manipulating their body parts; there is also some stop motion animation as well.

This style of animation is appropriate for this animation, as it is user friendly, and allows me to create animation that is fun for children and not too complicated.


Selection of Genre Style : I would best describe the genre of animation as action/adventure/comedy; it's action/adventure because it involves ninjas fighting, doing Karate and such, but also contains humour to make it funny and interesting for children.


Storyline : My animation 'Ninja High' consist of a rookie ninja apprentice looking to be trained in the art of Karate; this character (Dante) meets other young apprentices at a Dojo in China and they train together alongside their master (Master Hakiru). Throughout their adventures in the Dojo, these apprentices encounter many endeavours and ordeals that test their ability and fighting skills, but also is a lot of fun.
  Basically in summary, my animation 'Ninja High' is the story of young budding Karate apprentices, training to become ninjas; it is a fun, action packed old ninja movie cartoon spinoff, ideally aimed for children aged 5-12.

Rotoscoping test

Here is a little bit of rotoscoping test footage I made in Photoshop; I shot a short video of Reece kicking around a football, I then imported the film into photoshop as frames, then traced over each frame. This created a cool little bit of animation.

Voice Talent / Dream Casting

Dante:

Personality - Friendly yet aggressive, intimidating, deep.

Vocal Performance: low tone, a slight rumble light the voice of Optimus Prime, energetic and fun.

Dream Casting: Bryan Cranston

Most famous for playing Walter White in 'Breaking Bad', Bryan Cranston's voice has subtle overtones and low end rumbles in his voice that would really bring out the character of Dante

Cheaper Alternative: Jason Biggs

Famous for his role in American Pie, Biggs also has the ability to create a deep voice with a friendly touch







Master Hakiru

Personality - Rather plain in character, but deep, wise, and full of humour.

Vocal Performance - Old man Chinese accent.

Dream Casting - Ken Jeong

Most famous for his role as Mr Chow in 'The Hangover' movies, Ken Jeong's voice would give personality and character to Master Hakiru. With his Chinese accent and funny voice, his voice would be perfect for the part.

Cheaper Alternative: Yung-Fat Chow

Famous for his role in 'Bulletproof Monk', Chows voice would also provide the accent, and some humour.

Final Character Design / Process

Dante

This is my final design for Dante, the main character of my TV series 'Ninja High'. I chose to make his shape rectangular to show his confidence, strength and his leadership. I gave him golden hair to make him look young. Dante has a beard to show off his manliness but also to assert his wisdom.

The main objective when designing this character was to make him look as strong as I could, while still keeping him cartoony. He has broad shoulders and chest, a slim waist and a broad head to show this.

When designing Dante's clothing, I wanted to make him look like part of the team, but also have his own qualities to it as well; Dante has a red stripe along his vest and belt to make him look intimidating, and he wears a golden ear ring.

In this profile, I wanted Dante to look cool, and badass. I make the tails of his headband fly, as if they were in the wind. He needs to look cool, as he is the driving force and main character of the show.

Target Audience and Design

Target Audience


Age : 7+
Gender: Male
Media Consumption: Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, Legend of the Dragon etc.

Typical viewer:

Name: Connor

Age: 8

Basic description: Connor lives at home with his mum, dad, and younger brother.  goes to a primary school. He likes to play games with his friends where they pretend to be ninjas. He enjoys playing video games, and card games also. Connor is a very fun, bouncy 8-year-old.
Connor wakes up at around 8 o'clock most days, and goes to bed at around 7 30.

Typical media consumption: Connor watches Cartoon Network every day after school with his little brother for about an hour and a half; this includes shows such as Ben 10: Omniverse and The Amazing World of Gumball. Connor also likes playing the Cartoon Network games online.


Why will the animation Appeal?

 The animation will appeal to Connor as it fits his preference; he enjoys action packed cartoons with fighting ninjas, so it should be right up his street.