WEEK ONE BLOG - Designing the gals
The first week of starting a project is always a little overwhelming, and this certainly rang true for this new film. It’s so hard to look at all of the mountains of work that needs to be done, so I immediately found myself gravitating to a smaller sect of all of our initial workload, and that was the design development of the trio of magical girls that support out main character, David, in his endeavors. Jenny, Ashley, and Macy are not only incredibly important to this story, but also have the most complex design by a long shot compared to David. When sitting down to first brainstorm how these girls should look, I had to consider translating a very 2D optimized style into 3D models down the line making an age-appropriate body type, and coming up with a unique and feasible clothing designs. I really got into illustration and animation through watching and drawing anime girls, so being entrusted to make these designs come to life has really given me a sense of purpose in the group!
Pt. One: The Progression of the Gals
This first pass was really just based off of what I love in magical girl style, and exploring the body type of the girls. This body base actually worked really well from the start, and I used this base quite often in my further character sheets. Her little pen also gets kept through the end, because look how cute! Overall though, this first design didn’t really follow Matt’s script or initial vision, it was really just an exploration of the overall style of the girls.
After receiving more direct feedback on what we wanted each girl to physically look like, along with gathering more reference, I set out on working on some initial character sheets for each girl. This was absolutely the most time consuming thing I have done thus far on the production, but it was totally worth it because I was able to keep a lot of assets and got insight into what we wanted their clothes to look like. While I knew that in the end we’d want to have the same dress for each girl, I wanted to put out multiple different designs for the group to choose from. Here’s a little more in-depth explanation for each girl, and my design choices for them:
Jenny
Jenny is the ringleader of these girls, and is undoubtedly the most brazen and bossy. I imagine her as a JV volleyball player and Girl Scout leader, the type who’d harass you on your doorstep until you gave in and bought cookies. I wanted to translate these character traits into a glamorous but cheeky design that still looked youthful. I think her long, blonde hair tied up by a headband works really great for her, and her more angular eye shape makes for a more discerning resting look on her. Her clothes are the most princess-inspired, and most flowy.
Ashley
Ashley is Jenny's rock, and Macy’s counterpart. She represents the voice of reason, and is a calm, understanding force that is desperately needed against the other two girls. I imagine her as an orchestra kid with great grades and a secret tumblr account with lots of followers where she posts mood boards. I visualized these character traits through Ashley’s round, bouncy design, complete with the most wide and friendly eyes. Her clothes are the most classically magical girl, but I put my own spin on it for sure.
Macy
Macy is Jenny’s enabler, and Macy’s opposite. She represents a the nervous, emotion-driven element of the group, and thus her weapon provides shielding and support for the group. Matt and the group really wanted each girl to have distinctive silhouettes based off the hair alone, so I am proud of how different each girls hair looks, while also alluding to their age. I imagine Macy as the girl who eats with her English teacher
Pt. 2: The Dress Wars
Ok so everyone really liked how the girls look! Success!! Everything was going great, until we got to the dresses. I really wanted to steer away from the classical, tutu-shaped route and maybe explore some other styles of magical clothing, but it seems like I was in the minority in that. This was a great opportunity for me to be lenient on the vision of others, as I’m not a heavenly judge on their design, but also push to keep the elements I wanted. With that balance in mind, I was able to come up with a design everyone liked, with the glittery star bows that I really wanted to keep!
Pt. 3 The end of the road
Now that I had all of the pieces, I could now put them together into usable turnarounds for each of the gals! Complete with color palettes, multiple views, and a clothed and base option for each girl, I am really happy with the work I put into bringing these girls to life in 2D. I am even more excited to make them 3D, so I wanted to get their turnarounds just right of ease of modeling. The hardest part was making the girls' side profiles and getting their proportions correct and aesthetically pleasing. Overall this has definitely been a labor, but a labor of love! And I am excited to draw and model more for this project.