Notes on Style

Hey all! Here's a few notes on styles!

This is a style guide from Bill Perkins, an amazing concept artist and director who worked for Disney. His core philosophy on design style is that there should be a clear emphasis on 1-2 different aspects. If all 3 are emphasized, it gets messy and forgettable keep this in mind even when going for more realistic designs! 

Some examples and stuff to think about for the style

2D:

For 2D styles you want to think about breaking the rules of tangents. Focus on the simple, larger shapes the the general outline of the character. You want to break from form with the goal of keeping the staging of where everything is. 

Study and work on silhouette shapes. Make every character unique in shape combinations and use curves and PURPOSEFUL tangents to flow the viewers eye around the designs Also see how even in a flat style, the designs can still convey forms, just in hidden ways. Keep it simple, think stickers!

Shows with this style: Samurai Jack, Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab

3D: 

For 3D style shows, it again focuses on forms and how the designs turn. You'll be exaggerating the proportions of the characters to emphasize their character traits and how to translate and show 3D forms onto a 2D drawing to show structure and give it a strong foundation to turn geometric shapes.

Study how the designs wrap around the forms of the characters. Think about the BASIC geometric construction and what shapes (cubes, cylinders, pyramids etc.) form up the basis for the character. You'll want to study the finished models (figurines, puppets, 3D models) and break down the designs to their bare essence and use your knowledge to turn in space.  

Shows with this style: Laika studios (Coraline, Paranorman) Pixar (Up, Incredibles), Disney 

Here's a redraw of how to think about Studying in 3D, break it down into basic shapes.

LINE/ TEXTURE:

For Line/Textured shows, you want to focus on a usage of either 3D or 2D and use that as a basis. We want you to draw out the basis of the drawing from 2D and 3D before adding in the texture. The main emphasis on this design is to add grit and showcase interesting patterns while also FOCUSING the viewers attention onto a specific area either due an abundance or due to a lack of Texture.

Study these as you would the above 2D and 3D, but keep in mind the focus of the design. Whether it's 2D or 3D, the texture leads your eye towards the focal point and you want to draw out the basic (either 2D shape  or 3D form) first you can plan accordingly. It's a study on focus!

Shows with this style: 101 Dalmatians (due to the gritty lines), Nightmare before Christmas,  Kung Fu Panda concept art, Carter Goodrich 

The textures emphasize a 3 Dimensional wrap. Also NOTE how the lack of texture of  the hat and how dark it is helps lead our eye to that and the face.

While the above Kung Fu Panda work focuses on Strong 2D shape to layer on texture

Hope that helps!