Screencraft Costume Design by Deborah Nadoolman, Rotovision, Switzerland

Extract from an interview with Eiko Ishioka, art director and set and costume designer:

"My final drawings serve as a vital communication tool for the entire production staff - everyone from producers, the director, actors, director of photography, visual and special effects team and craftspeople who execute my designs. The drawings act as storeyboards and allow a smooth collaboration with others."

Costuming for film

"Design support staff, including assistant designers and sketch artists assist designers by doing research, costume design sketches, breakdown work, fabric swatching, shopping and character styling."

"The industry thrives on production teams that work together over and over again."

"for me, filmmaking is all about flexibility, challenge and change. The keystone is finding a supervisor and crew I trust, and who will back me. After that, it's all about communication." Catherine Adair, costume designer.

Just Wow

interesting examples of character sculpts:

www.shiflettbrothers.com

The Goblins of the Labyrinth by Brian Froud

The Jim Henson film, Labyrinth directed by Terry Jones required many goblins, fireys and creatures to make up the large cast of puppets that filled this fantasy world. Visualising the storey came as a result of character designs and concept paintings of the sets devised by Brain Froud. As the storey progressed and production began, this film proved to be a huge challenge for the puppet makers in the level of detail required and the sheer volume of creatures. Brian explains how his drawings have been altered to work for the film:

"I often describe the space between my rough designs and fully realised creatures on the screen as being a magical mystery. You cannot walk away from a concept drawing and expect it to be expressive on film. My function is to allow the idea to live, changing my design to make the technical problems work for you, not against you."

The Art Of Howl's Moving Castle - a film by Hayao Miyazaki

This book was recommended to me when I search the library for character development, as it is an animated film with a strong drawn look being a studio Ghibli production. The Supervising Animator, Akihiko Yamashita was responsible for the initial character sketches during the pre-production process, choosing to and work closely alongside another animator and the director for their input and influence during this process:

"I must have drawn 50-60 sheets of the main characters Howl and Sophie. I would try out various face types and proportions, then show the sketches to Miyazaki for feedback." p59

How Studio Ghibli itself operates is also described by Yamashita as a place of, "communal work". p59. Close communication between different departments allows all the members of production to inspire each other as to deciding the overall mood and look of the character. Many people's interpretations of a character can give a new angle to the character's personality:

" If I had directed Howl's moving Castle, it would have been a war between wizards where Howl would ward off the witch of waste. But Miyazaki wasn't interested in portraying the with as evil. His open-minded approach was very inspiring." P59.

Inspirational research

Over Christmas I have been reading several bocks related to animation, fashion and character design. Of these , the most insightful has proven to be Coraline, A visual companion by Stephen Jones, based on Henry Selick's film adaptation of the children's book by Neil Gaimen. The initial concept art for the animated puppets were drawn by Tadahiro Uesugi, a Japanese illustrator who is mainly influenced bu American illustrators of the 1950's and 60's. His images show a continual development through changing the characters body shapes and trying them out in different clothing inspired by the 1920s up to the 1970's. For Esme, I have found a strong look for her fur coat from the 1930's, referncing the shape and cut considered fashionable back then.

Christmas holidays research

Having watched the techniques of Carlos Huante, a creature designer I mentioned in my earlier research, volumes 1&2 of his DVD demonstrate his development process from initial concept through to digital rendering. I found his drawing methods more abstract than mine as he had no reference material for his character creation, simply making it up as he went. This DVD was less relevant to me as his creature was non-human, incorporating many influences from plants and animals.

However, his use of photoshop for cleaning up a drawing and applying colour was very similar to what I have been doing. He suggests selecting areas and using the mask tool when applying colour to make sure your paint brush does not run into other sections of the drawing. He also shows how he uses an overlay of transparent colour to adjust the overall tone to finish. I have then applied these points to my own drawing in Photoshop. In particular, his method of re-rendering outlines and applying highlights to make the colours "pop" made a difference to my second attempt of rendering in photoshop.