Character Designs

Using the written poem and storyboard we listed which characters we were going to have to design and then produce in puppet form. Frederick as the lead, Tray as the pet dog and the Doctor were the only 3 [with the exclusion of the nurse]. We all came to the same conclusion that the character Sid from Toy Story (1995) would be our main source of inspiration for Frederick; a destructive child who inhabits a dark and messy room - full of utensils and strange projects.

The Doctor would be tall and tired looking, thin-framed and balding. He only exists in a few frames of the story so we all acknowledged that we may just have to make the puppet in sections depending on what we needed in frame.

It was the decision for the dog that proved most difficult; we wanted something that you could feel compassion for and would surprise you when it bit Frederick's leg - not a dog that you'd expect to be aggressive. I had in mind a scraggly, grey-haired dog with thin legs and big eyes, but my group were all pretty set on the idea of a Bloodhound. The decision came to create a grey coloured Bloodhound, which isn't factually correct but we thought grey would work more with the environment and storyline.

Below are 3 moodboards I put together for each of the characters accompanied with a colour palette and a short description about them.

Frederick:

8-10 year old boy with strange hair and odd body proportions. A mean spirited face and an addiction to tampering with and experimenting upon live creatures. Suggested as an outcast who spends most of his time alone, Frederick is a troubled child with very little contact with his parents and the outside world.

The Doctor:

A very tall and extremely thin man in his late 50's. He carries a briefcase and is dressed in a dull brown, cotton suit. The Doctor's face shows years of sleep deprivation and stress; bags consume his eyes and hair loss is hard to ignore. He's a tired and slow-moving being.

Tray:

A bloodhound dog in the middle of his life, healthy and happy. Grey in colour with large, sad looking eyes. Burdened with the constant company of the mean-spirited Frederick who gave him a spiky collar against his will.

Initial Character Designs:

When it came to designing the look of the characters and the costume they'd wear, we had to make considerations to the period and place: early 2000's Germany. Of course, the dog would just exist as it does with very little influence by the location or period. Below you can see some costume research carried out by myself and Gray with the relevant references.

The original designs for each of the characters was made by as follows: Frederick = Gray, the Doctor = Emine, Tray = Jasmine. From our initial sketches, we then contributed to each others designs and put together the character boards seen below.

Above: A selection of drawings contributed by Gray, myself and Jasmine.

Once these were in place Gray went ahead and created some final drawings; different angles of each of the characters and a line-up of all three - as you can see below.

Myself and Gray then sat down to discuss a colour pallet for the characters. There had already been vague mentions and physical designs of Frederick having a slightly green tinge to him so we decided to add tint of blue to the Doctor; keeping some continuity in style and as a means of conveying the character's personality. Below are the notes we made on each characters colour palette and the final sketch approved by the whole group.

Tray: Grey, silver, white. Black collar.

Frederick: Mustard yellow jumper, grey trousers, black shoes. Pale skin, green tints around the eyes.

Doctor: Fully brown suit and black shoes.Paler skin than Frederick with big blue bags under the eyes.

Above: The character line-up coloured by me using ProCreate.

Above: Character Expression sheet by Jasmine & Jane.

Character Interaction Concept Art:

Above: Tray attacking Frederick [by Gray].

Above: Doctor visiting Frederick in his room [by Gray].

Above: Concept art of the mother and doctor discussing in the hallway [by myself].

With the character designs ready, we were in a position to start creating maquettes and planning the puppet-making of them. As a team, we decided who would work on which puppet:

Frederick: Gray

The Doctor: Emine

Tray: Jasmine

We will need to decided scale in relation to one other, measurments and logistics of the puppet's movements. This will all need a lot of experimentation!