Character Development

I looked at several art styles and character designs for my animations and took inspiration from a number of artists. I generally wanted my animation to have a surreal and unnerving look to it, and there are many ways for me to go about that.

I originally wanted the characters to look quite realistic, in a similar sense to art style for Monster, because that would make the body horror aspect seem more horrific. I also thought it would seem more intense if I made all the shadows completely jet black, instead of the usual grey tint that cartoons usually have, similar to how Suda 51's No More Heroes is animated. I thought this was an interesting idea but figured I'd try a different approach, because the original story had a sharper, lighter edge whilst also being incredibly dark and horrific. I looked at other ways to approach that, something more stylistic.

These were other ideas on how to design the character, Shinji. I incorporated my own art style into some of these ideas, but generally I was going for something a bit more expressive and stylistic. A few of these were inspired by other Manga, one being Attack on Titan, which admittedly I just plain ripped off, which is why I didn't go with it. I tried designing him in my usual art style, which you can see on the top-right of the page, but I quickly abandoned that design, because it just didn't suit the tone of the story. I then tried a more simpsons-esque approach, I liked the exaggerated look of the eyes, though it still looked a bit overly toony. I then tried an approach similar to Invader Zim, which I've mentioned before, and it actually works quite well, but it matched the art style of the show a bit too much, and I didn't want it be derivative, so I added a touch of my own art style, which is basically a stylised version of the "moe" art style used often in anime. I also took some inspiration from the rather unique anime, by Hiroyuki Imaishi, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.