Stop Motion: The Legend of Dink - Character Design
Hey steemers! I haven't done a stop motion post in a while, so I thought I'd share a behind-the-scenes for my project "The Legend of Dink." I'm currently working on this project, so I'll let you guys know when I'm getting close to releasing it.
In this post I'll be talking about the process I went thru to design the character Dink!
Dink is nothing more than a field worker in the land of Hyrule -- a mere peon. It is after Dink stumbles upon a mortally wounded Link, that he is asked to complete his hero's quest. These shorts follow the trials and tribulations of a guy who really isn't cut out to be a hero -- but somehow, gets thru it. OR DOES HE?! That's what these shorts are about.
I wanted Dink to look goofy, uncoordinated and completly incompetent -- very unhero like. I tried to work into his design an overbite, gangly limbs, and an overall clueless demeanor to help push this concept. I feel like I was only partly successful, and could have pushed these characteristics much further.
Ultimately I went with a design that I felt portrayed more of a naivety than incompetency, mainly because I think it helps the viewer sympathize with the character.
The Legend of Zelda series is over 20 years old now, with each installment adding a new iteration of Link. I went thru my favorite installments in the series and created color schemes based off of those.
Ultimately, I wanted Link to feel classic, so I went with his original color scheme. It was around this time that I realized we've never seen a red-headed Link, and thought it make for a unique design choice.
The biggest change that happened between Dink's design and the actual puppet were the eyes. While I liked the idea of giving him little black button eyes, ultimately I thought it would be too difficult to show where he was looking.
Next Dink post we'll dive into the actual puppet making process!
Thanks for peepin this post! I appreciate the upvotes and follows! :D
Thanks for the insight into your process. The little snaggletooth redhead has a lot of personality. A notch below the everyman. Its cool that you can basically control the whole universe in animation. In film you have to cast the right actor, work with makeup, hair, wardrobe, stunt coordinators... a lot more hands involved. You can just create it from scratch!
Yeah it's both a blessing and a curse! haha Being able to control everything usually means having to create everything, down to the meticulous details. It's easy to get bogged down in minutia, but things definitely go quicker when you have a team!
Pinky and Spiky asked me to send their greetings to Dink! They could have done this themselves but their hooves and paws are not very suitable to typing.
Is the puppet made of clay?
The puppet is made out of a bunch of different things. His head is plastic, his hands are felt, his clothing is fabric and his boots are actual leather.
Cool! That looks like fun!
Oh, what a cool concept! You know there are a lot of LoZ fans that will appreciate this. Thanks for sharing your behind the scenes work !
Excellent stuff, love a bit of stop motion. Some of the guys and gals in work will love to see a Zelda inspired short film. Looking forward to seeing more :)
This is great tyson, thank you for sharing. I'm also an illustrator/character designer/animator.
(I made this short film: https://www.nfb.ca/film/fyoog
and this thing: http://skrowl.com )
I'm very new to steemit and I'm excited to see animation creations here. Keep up the radness.