30.9.2021

 

 Module AND218- Week 1
Ideation and research  

I am have started to make ideas for the world, characters and and items that the characters as well as get an understanding for child development in order to better understand the needs of a child at a such a young age.

I need to have had my concept written down and and plenty of sketches by Friday. Research into the industry is also required.

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My general idea for the story at this point was that is would be an episodic series in which our main character would have to solve problems using real life arts and crafts. The crafting segments would be similar to that of Art Attack or CITV's Finger Tips.

I made some quick mood boards of ideas I had so I could develop my characters though I normally work via sketches first yet I assumed I had a lot less time than I actually did and moved a a few tasks a head. But I am not upset as at this stage all development is welcomed.

I also bought I bunch a children's art supplies to play with in order to help develop my character design as well as get a feel for the materials in the show and eve help develop my character designs. I'll post those works on here separately.

I really wanted to have a hand made feel to the world. I am really liking the idea the mix of hand painted and cut out paper. These effects supposedly quite easy to do in photoshop as whilst looking for images I saw links to YouTube tutorials. 

I also looked up real children's arts and crafts for inspiration as well as other shows with a handmade look to them such as Sarah & Duck and Charlie and Lola though I couldn't find any background art for the latter. 
In doing so I have noticed that more and more kids shows are going for 3D animation over 2D animation including Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Mike the Knight and Doc Mc'stuffin. While I am aiming to make a 2D animation I could easily see these characters and this world in 3D, I've actually seen a lot of games having a crafting aesthetic to them as well such as the Big Planet series and Yoshi's Crafted World. 

I actually didn't start with the main character but one of the side characters instead because had this idea stuck in my head for a painter with braided pigtails and needed to get it out before I went mad.

This was the old mood board The next one down is more finalized. This is also the only one where I reference other pieces of art as well. I try to avoid that sort of thing but is happens sometimes. 

In this show all the characters are based on a form art such as theatre, baking, photography, etc. So they will be more characters but I wanted to focus on only a couple.
This character, I've been calling her Splash until I can think of a better name, is a shy painter with paint brushes for hair. I really liked other characters that were inspired by Picasso's art but I also quite like so see a character based on the painting The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. 

So this character I looked at the Tate modern website for inspiration which I would go on to use for other characters ideas.

I actually didn't know what I wanted for my main character so I started by looking at the art works of Jon Burgerman And Rodney Alan Greenblat for inspiration as well as the Tate modern website. Which is where I found the strange animals works by Jeff Koons of abstract animal head silhouettes that really caught my eye. 

I also looked toward Japanese Mascot culture for inspiration since those characters a often made with very simple round shapes with baby like features.

 I wanted to make a hybrid old various animals such as a rabbit, a bear and a dog but then just when with bear dog since they are already real life dogs that look like bears.

I want the character to look as if they are a jack of all trades so I thinking that the character show wear some sort of apron or overalls and the colours will be mostly lend toward blues and yellows.

As of right now I am calling him scribble but I haven't really got a proper name for them yet.

I was required to make a prop so I thought is would only make sense that they would have some sort of crafty tool kit on hand. And for a while I didn't know if I wanted it to be a tool box or a bag of some sort. But ultimately went with a bag since it's easier to carry around than a box.

By this time I was started to get tried and I really feel that reflected in the mood boards. I didn't really know how to make a backpack interesting and didn't want it to look to similar to Backpack form Dora the Explorer. 
So whilst looking at artist backpacks I noticed they tend to be more rectangular rather an have a rounded top. This is likely to help better fit in sketchbooks and laptops I assume. I also tried looking for backpacks that used primary colours and well as some fun buttons that could be used.

I also cursory glace into child development to better understand how children learn and develop.

• Children need connects, communication, play, a healthy home environment and a community. 
• One way children learn is through play as is it helps with various skills such imagination, empathy, cognitive thinking skills and vocabulary.
• Children  are hardwired to seek connections from their parents and other people.

So ideally the show should be watched with parents. We know that shows aimed at children can be enjoyed by or even popular with adults as is the case with show like My Little Pony and more recently I have noticed that the Bluey has fans who are much older than expected.
Shows such as SpongeBob, Arthur and even Sesame Street have also be embraced by online meme culture and a often fondly remembered amongst adults. So the idea of making a show for children that adult can enjoy isn't all that strange.

• Encourage kids take up creative hobbies.
• Praise children for being good people and not just for there talents.
• Give kids books and engage with them.

Not really an academic video but since my goal is get kids to be more hands on and creative I think the advice is still useful. Though they talked about books here I think I would argue that all media has it's own benefits from books and developing the imagination and vocabulary to video games developing motor skills and reflexes. It's really a matter of making good media and having people to engage with the child. 

Finally we have a quick overview in Piaget's Theory of cognitive development which while perfect is a good base to understand the development of a child mind.

Preschool age is between the ages of 0 to 4 here in the UK which fall is line around Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Around the age of 0 to 2 a child is developing their developing their motor skill and memory which is often done through play and exploration. 

While around the age 2 to 7 a child is learning to develop their understanding of the world through asking questions and playing pretend. Children at this age are also very egocentric and haven't developed a good theory of mind which is the ability to understand than no everyone thinks the way you think.

so teaching kids to be empathic and kind is a very important element I want to tackle with this show.

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Here's the concept for the show for far I worded it more like a sale pitch but it should get the pint across clearly. Note that all the names are not finalized and are subject to change. 

My main goal now to to try and develop my mood boards into some character designs. I might quickly draw what I think other side character could look like as mock up as well.