Further development of practical response

The whole purpose of the research conducted throughout this written body of work was to create a solid and effective theoretical basis for the practical application of this dissertation. The initial idea was to create an animated response, as in an educational animation and test it with a focus group. However throughout the research, the field of interest has shifted towards character design instead of a whole animation, and this is due to me finding my field of interest within the animation industry and finding useful applications for the knowledge gained through this process. Even though the main focus of this project is the character design, a significant amount of thought has been given to the animation they would appear in. The main question that came up during the theoretical research process was “To what extent do children learn from animation?” or in other words “can you learn more from animation than other forms of learning, like listening, reading and such?” The essence was to test the theory of animation communicating a more complex level of information. This would be tested in showing one animated scene from the Little Prince and reading out another from the same book. Afterwards a questionnaire would be conducted to assess to what level of complexity the information was understood from both demonstrations. The reason Little Prince was picked is because that even though it is a children’s book, it has more than one layer of meaning in it. Also it works with the theory of parents being involved in the viewing of animation to make it more effective for the child, as the Little Prince is a well known book beloved by adults as much as children.
The character design is based on this research; using simple shapes, so as to avoid making them look confusing for the target age group. Light colors, simplistic style and a relatable curious young character, all of these factors are found in any given successful kids show. The protagonists almost custodian relationship with his planet and the rose he looks after, teaches kids about responsibility, love and nurturing. However the focus point of the Little Princes story is his interaction with the Fox. It is one of the most interesting points of the story as it teaches about friendship and the things that are the most important in life, or as the fox put it “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” For this reason the characters have small eyes demonstrating their ability to see important things in life without vision. Big foreheads and small mouths symbolize their tendency to internalize information. The triangular shape of the foxes head represents illumination, proportion and in really loose way- wisdom. The round shape of the Little Princes head symbolizes curiosity and innocence The main attempt was to bring the characters to life by animating a small scene of them interacting with each other