Who rocks the party? Charlie Rocks the PARTAY!

Charlie is taking form, despite his name being an obvious reference to cocaine, he will not touch the stuff! I was heading more towards the whole dylan look but with a bit more gritty reality and less LSD.But the whole sketching of Charlie was taken from a little bit of old bugs bunny and the cryogenically frozen head of dear old Walt.He was designed to be animated well so I see no qualms in taking a little bit of a leaf out of the big lad’s book.Not a great likeness, but hey he’s a biped now and has gloves which i like to think he stole off bugs.

But I wanted to have more of a reference to my boyhood hero: “Shaggy” of scooby doo fame.  He was a beacon to the youth of the world to eat lots and run away from everything so I worked on giving him a little bit of that classic posture and similar clothing colouring.

Drawing rabbits in the wild didn’t really appeal. My character is going to have human characteristics and this in my mind made nature and realism a tad irrelevant. I was more interested in working on developing a character that might be easily manipulated in animation and have a familiarity to him that might increase his appeal somewhat…

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie… what if this cute little rabbit was hooked on some pyschotic amphetamine? Would that be funny? Hmmm. maybe. But maybe to a limited no. of people and Matt Stone and Trey Parker of Southpark fame could really come out with an angle to produce kek-wetting results.  I think something would have to change.

Did I come to this conclusion all by myself? NO! I believe I am great and that I sh*t gold and fart diamonds that look like Mr T. (who rocks). It took a bit of market research to see if my first idea had any legs to stand on in the amiability stakes. Both quantitive and qualitative research was taken on in my quest for the truth.  Both big words that make me look intelligent and deep, both backed up with  a weapons grade spellchecker to maintain the illusion of literacy and being house trained.  I canvassed those folk who i thought it might appeal to males, aged 18 to 30 (the southpark audience really).

Quantitive research. In depth questions that will reveal untold amounts information from the test subject. dreamed up with einstein level brain power.

Q 1. Does this character appeal to you? And the survey said…Not the best result. But why I said grabbing my victim by the metaphorical collar, and then again with my hands. Qualitative research revealed that the character’s first sketches did not engage the viewer nor emote any sympathy or empathy.  The story was too harsh and none could relate to it.  The attitude and faults of the character had to be tuned down and then visual appeal cranked up to 11 baby! (obviously there was a bit more tot the questionaires and interviews, but lets face it i have seen enough charts and spreadsheets in my time working in the city and i quit that job to get away from numbers and diagrams which suck…donkey)D’oh. So back to the drawing board. Smarten up the character a bit maybe make him more of a hippy? they’re funny and laid back. They smell of quorn and of being too cheap to wash ever, but still they are fairly harmless.  Clothing could pad out the body and make him look less like a famine victim, as health can often mean happiness?  Smack is a bit harsh tho, maybe just a curious cigarette or two, after all who hasn’t.  Smack head was also seen to be a little on the harsh side. So why not just make him misunderstood, which could open up a wider range of narrative options.  So “Charlie the misunderstood Rabbit was born”

The task was to create inkblots and draw images out of the resulting mess.  I managed a few curious results from the start. Keon Evans the laughing transexual, ameobic dysentry goat was first on the list along with some curious things that i might have thought would have been worrying.But alas, like my attempts to get money from the dole office,  Keon was not meant to be. I wasn’t a teenage, obese pregnant mother hooked on crack, so no money for me.  And keon’s preliminary sketch just didn’t spark any entertaining background ideas.But I liked the inkblot thing and it gave me an idea…For those of you unfamiliar with the Rorschach test I will explain:

• It is a method of psychological evaluation used to try to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of their patients.I used this test to:
• work out whether i was criminally insane or just lovably eccentric
• entertain myself
• find my character

It was rather fun. I eventually picked Plaat I which is more often than not seen as a lizard or a gargoyle. I saw a rabbit, and i have no idea what that says about me

The pub became irksome and the appletinis became dry. The gruesome and slightly gollumesque bar staff were doing nothing to spark a vivid imagination.  I had run my maintenance grant dry on white lightning and special brew because I am a student and I feel that that is the fashion these days, that and public demonstrations for those unsure about how to urinate in public. But I digress….

I, when I was unusually inebriated and bouyant, I came across a public help station on the underground (one of london undergrounds more witty and intellectual ironic installments). To me this came across as a face. Which then led me to my first design for a character: I like to call him “Helpy the Robot”. 

What? You think you could come up with a better name?
Well I canned that idea early, it has to be said. Why oh why? I hear the voices in my head cry! But really I had just watched Wall-E and so it wasn’t really that much of an adventurous leap into the unknown.  Lets face it one would think that one could do a mite better. And really you can’t get that much joy from trying to create expressions from a robot!

On reflection it is very hard to actually come up with an original idea these days.  I wasn’t too fussed if my idea had leanings towards previous creations, in some ways I wanted to have vague references to characters or shows that had influence me and I had enjoyed in my childhood back when laser discs were the latest and greatest technological masterpieces.

What ever path I took I was going to be influenced by something I had seen or heard at some point. It might be a minor influence or a major one, but either way it was going to be there.  A Monster : Monsters Inc, A Robot: Wall-E, A Pirate: Captain Pugwash, Captain Amazing: Me of course.

However, that doesn’t limit my imagination or my end result.  Despite influences there will be many elements of an original character. Be it visual appearance, character concept, and non visual appeal… so to work

OR

I could just do something that amuses me and is engaging enough to have an appeal to anyone with as childish a sense of humour as yours truly. And back it up in some way or form in writing.