Appeal in animation characters is a similar parallel with actors having charisma. It’s about what a character is, about its visual design, about how we see the character. In some ways, the character is a reflection of ourselves or of people we know. So often a character’s appeal has to do not only with the design of the piece, but also with how the character is performed. What kind of personality it has, what kind of history it has and so on. If it needs that charm, then you have to give it that charm.
A character who is appealing can still be unsympathetic, a villain or monster. This is an important part of the narrative, how this evil character becomes something that we care about or associate with. So this is an important consideration. Both in design and in narrative, no matter what you add to your game, appeal is very important.
Appeal is critical in the audience association with the character creating interest and concern. Make the character give a very convincing performance because you can make the audience fall in love with it and they want to see more. So it’s a very important element when you’re writing and narrating, when you’re analyzing the characters in the film, when you’re designing your own characters and animations.
Appeal lies not only in the design of the character but the action and deed of the character within the storyline. It’s not just superficial design. They need to be convincing, they need to feel real. Because in animation, we accept a certain level of abstraction, we accept the absurd, and therefore they are real. Because their performances are convincing. So it’s not about human realism, it’s about the authenticity of the characters themselves. So it doesn’t matter whether they’re cartoon characters or surreal characters, they have to feel authentic.
Essentially the character feels real and convincing.
It may more accurately be described as ‘captivation’in the composition of the pose, or the character design.
What visual components or aspects of a character might achieve this? When you see a picture of a character, you may want to learn more. Things or lists to consider when you analyze a character, when you design a character for yourself or someone else. Different visual components of the character may achieve different effects.
What performance traits might endear us?Big eyes, babies, kittens or puppies, we’re wired to find them cute and attractive, it’s part of our psychology. That’s really taken advantage of in the animation world, and the way they perform it is really cute.
Why do we forgive and ultimately care for a character?The character is a criminal. In a sense it is a catalyst to get the audience excited and thinking. If the character meets something that starts to soften him, eventually he becomes a forgiving character.
How do we establish trust and empathy with a character?It’s a role we need to trust, we need to understand, we need to change. If they have changed, the character may turn evil again. You know Gru wants to go back and do what he normally does, which is another way of thinking about how we can relate to the characters.
If you’re thinking about designing a particular part of a character, you might ask what role that character plays in the film. They are enemies, protagonists, etc. That in itself tells you what you should design, how does it communicate? It’s about the performance, or it’s about what they say. Servants, for example, don’t talk. And within that, we create this personality. A character’s personality, which can be a personal trait or skill. They may have some flaws. Clothing can also have a big impact. If you’re designing a character, you might have a biography that describes who they are, what they do, their lineage, their history, etc.
The Uncanny Valley, coined by Sigmar Freud. When something is familiar, but feeling not quite right, it becomes disconcerting. It could be a show, it could be a movement, it could be noise. The uncanny Valley, not limited to visuals. We feels a bit strange, when the voice on the phone is too clear. We instinctively protect ourselves. So subtle differences can sometimes cause discomfort and revulsion. It produces a negative emotional response. You don’t know what’s real and what’s not. Because it looks familiar, but suddenly there’s a dark side. They are always worried about the uncertainty.
If the character entity is almost human, the audience runs the risk of being afraid of it. If you’re designing your own CG characters, you need to have some elements of realism that don’t cross boundaries. An industrial robot is neutral because it has no humanity. It’s far enough away from humans not to be a threat. But as soon as you put something like a prosthetic limb or an artificial eye on somebody, you know it’s a very disturbing thing. In animation we accept that inanimate objects can come to life and talk to us. On condition that it doesn’t cross that line . Whatever the object is, if it threatens us or makes us feel uneasy, then we can’t help being afraid of it in some way.
So a lot of scenes can be very realistic, but the eyes generally aren’t. Scientists have begun to explore this very specific sense of mystery from an evolutionary perspective. Some even compared the real photos with the manipulated ones. His research concluded that images of amazing robots reminding us of our mortality, particularly images of partially disassembled robots, trigger our subconscious fears.
How research into the uncanny valley threshold could help us in the future. You can think of it as an important part of design, if you’re a designer, you want to create something that’s accepted and loved. You want to make sure it doesn’t trigger the uncanny valley. In a game or movie, you are transported to another environment. If there’s something that makes you feel uneasy, there’s the uncanny Valley factor. The more realistic the animated characters are in the scene, the more likely we are to have an emotional response to their story. At the end of the course, I learned about abstract narrative, which is a narrative theme. There was a sense of crisis, a sense of doom, and in a sense, the character was dying. However, there is no direct narration in the animation, which is another field worth studying in the short animation.