Character of Parallel Gardens: Wren
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Overview
This project explores the design of the main character for my in-progress comic, Parallel Gardens, who is vulnerable yet resilient. Wren is placed in tense environments and has to deal with difficult situations. The key challenge was to balance expressive, readable emotions with stylized design while maintaining consistency across multiple illustrations and medias. I focused on body language, silhouette, and color contrast to communicate mood and story without relying on text. Additionally, illustrating the character into unconventional scenarios, composition, and lighting helped develop the visual storytelling and illustration skillset.
Design in Context
Character Design Sheets
- Wren's character and suit use soft, rounded shapes to appear approachable and grounded, while also contrasting highly with the sharp points of the spines and teeth to help appear defensive as well.
- The bright, saturated colors of the suit feel unnatural and visually dominant which reinforces the idea of being threatening or defensive as well as the fantasy elements of the digital world.
- Posing and exaggeration of size between Wren and their suit emphasize the character's vulnerability, especially as they seem to be peeking out of the suit but not separating from it fully.
- The range of expressions and clean, consistent linework was prioritized for readability and emotional flexibility, which is important for animation and narrative storytelling.
World Integration
- The strong, directional shadows are used to create tension and suggest an unseen but aggressive or dangerous presence, which pushes narrative through visuals.
- The softer, blended background textures contrasts with the cleaner linework of the character which with the more harsher colors of the character compared to the more muted colors of the background helps to separate the character from the environment.
- Wren's body language, of being recoiling on the ground, communicates fear and disorientations which along with the composition of the character being placed off-center helps emphasis isolation and vulnerability in the story without direct action or text.
Animation Usage
- This explores subtle facial animation and movement to convey emotion clearly within a short loop, with care taken to adjust the timing to create a more natural rhythm to enhance realism.
- It is designed to be an almost completely seamless loop, ensuring the start and end frames transition as smoothly as possible.
- The utilization of frame-by-frame helps retain control over expression and timing, which is emphasized by the clean linework to preserve the character's design.