psychology of personality

 Stanchfield, W.S.2009.Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures. Focal Press
Academic
Source:Book

"In the book, Psycho-Cybernetics, the author, plastic surgeon Maxwell Matltz, tells how the personality itself seems to have a "face". "This physical 'face of personality' seemed to be the real key to personality change. If it remained scared, distorted, 'ugly', or inferior, the person himself acted out this role in his behaviour regardless of the changes in physical appearance". That applies to drawing as well. Just "copying" the live model in class, or "sticking to the model" in animation does not ensure a faithful depiction of a character's action or personality. The "face of personality" can be found as much in the gesture as in the physical makeup." pg 86

This quote suggests that when creating a character you need to think of the personality however the look also affects the personality. As if you have changed the look of the character over time it does not mean that the personality will change too. Personality can be shown through expression, clothes and makeup, its not necessarily just the the facial expressions.
I really like how pyschology of personality ties in with drawing. I find myself reading pyschology books to create personality traits for new charaters. Looking further into this subject I am learning that you need to have passion to draw a characetr but you also need to do a bit of research before starting, to decide what you want to create and how you will create it. Drawing sketches and concept art are all parts of this.

"Dr.Maltz goes on to say, "...the 'self-image,' the individuals mental and spiritual concept or 'picture of himself, was the real key to personality and behaviour. " Again, applying that to drawing - isn't it our character's "self-image" that we are drawing? We have to create the illusion that it is our character who is thinking- who has decided to perform the action" pg 86

Reading on into the same page I came accross this quote. This quote suggests that you need to draw as if you are the character, you cannot just draw the character doing an action such as running away, you need to show the character thinking about it, you need to show how the character actually expresses how they are thinking and then comes to the conclusion of running.

ideas for animated shorts

 Sullivan, K.S. Schumer, G.S.Alexander, K.A.2008
Ideas for the animated short: finidng and building stories. Focal Press
Popular
Source:Book
"A good character is also a character that you understand. Knowing your characters well allows you to construct believable reactions to conflicts faced in the story. These reactions are what will move your audience through the story. To engage your audience, you need a fully developed character." pg 99

Like another quote i researched earlier, I think you need to know your character really well to create realistic reactions. This quote suggests that the audience needs to understand the characetr to understand the story. If the character isn't right or believable then it can affect the whole animatiuon and make the sotry unbelievable too.

Looking further into how personalities develop the look of the character I learned that you need to focus on the personality a bit more, not just what he or she likes but what makes them like somehting or makes them angry.

monsters v aliens

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monsters-vs-Aliens-1-Disc-DVD/dp/B001NGO8BC/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1330020043&sr=1-1

Monsters v Aliens.2009. Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
Dreamworks
Source:DVD

"Then I thought it would be a great idea to actuallly have horrific monsters but give them personalities and saturise them at the same time"

This is a quote from the making of Mosnters v Aliens. In the behind the scenes footage, the animators and directors explain why and how they created the film and characters.
I like this quote as it kinda sums of the definition of the principle Appeal. As you they have tried to create horrible mosters but making them fun by their personalities and balance them out a bit.

Digital Art Masters

3D Total.com.Digital Art Masters, Volume 3.2008 Focal Press
Popular
Source Book
"The primary task, before starting this kind of work, is to decide it's "personality". Think of the personality and discover the body shape that will reflect this, then choose suitable poses. You need to add personality to the whole character, and forget that just the face is conveying the character's personality. First, you should show off your skills by creating a very strong character, with a strong personality, right from the early stage in the process." pg 140

This suggests that before you even start drawing, you look into the personality and try out different shapes that could create your body shape. Aftyer this you can build up on your character and different stands and poses. Personally, I think the author is trying to suggest that you forget about the facial features and leave that till last and work on the characters body displaying the personality. This has taught me that you cannot just think of the characters face when trying to convey a certain personality. The whole body shape matters.  Creating a strong and memorable character will boost your skills and make you become a memorable artist.

Computer Game Designer

 Rauf, D.R. Vescia, M.V.2008. Virtual Apprentice,Computer Game Designer. Checkmark Books
Academic
Source:Book
This section of the book is personal accounts by people in the field. These quotes are by Travis Kotzebue who is an artist/animator
academic

"To create a character it's a good starting point to have a reference, such as an actor or a real person, so you have set personality traits to play with." pg 47

"You want to find that personality early on, to give yourself as much to play with it as you can. Then in the Sly universe, anyway, you want to brainstorm what kind of animal would best  personify that personality. Then you just start drawing!." pg 47

I looked further into how Lady and the Tramp artists created their characters, by looking into behaviours and personalities before drawing, I found these quotes. I like how you decide on a personality trait then design and create a character around it. It becomes more of a reference for the artist and narrows done the many different possiblilties that the character can look like.
This book is about game design and how many people create a game, what they do and what interests them in this particular subject.

analysing animation films

When watching several animation films again I analysed the characters personality and how it was shown through thr drawings of the characetrs however when doing this I noticed that I was being sucked into the film, for example, when Grumpy, from Snow White, would storm in angry, I would find myself feeling a little sorry for him.I do think Personality can create the character and develop a character from an little sketch to a finalized animation film.

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs from the illusion of life

Image Source: EMPIRE, online, accessed 14th of February 2012

Thomas, F.T.  Johnston, O.J.1997
The Illusion of Life Disney Animation
Hyperion
Popular
Source:Book
When reading further into The Illusion of Life I learned how animators started communicating their characters emotions and expressions. In Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs the animators would draw out all of the scenes and show them to an audience and capture their responses to the characters lives.

"(Now,) the spectators were being asked to respond to these cartoon characters in a new way and to share their feelings of desolation. A laugh at this point would have destroyed the whole concept. In the orginal version of the sequence, the audience had laughed at a crucial scene of Doc and Dopey." ...
"It was a touching moment; however, the viewers' response to this shot of the usually jolly Dopey was an anticipatory laugh, one that quickly turned to confusion and then embarrassment, but by then the spell had been broken."
"You cannot always do it right first time; many things do not work the way they are "talked." "
pg 476
These quotes suggest that you may have thought about the emotions and personality of the character and developed it into a particular scene, however you need an audience to test this scene out on as it may not always work. This links back to one of the earlier quotes I found about getting feedback on your drawings, it proves that no matter what stage you are at, creation of a character, development, or final development, you need to get opinions of others to actually create somehting that works. Without other peoples views you may create somehting that does not work or just isnt the reaction you were hoping for.

The illusiion of life- personality and crafts

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332524092&sr=1-1

 Thomas, F.T.  Johnston, O.J.1997
The Illusion of Life Disney Animation
Hyperion
Popular
Source:Book
"In every art form it is the emotional content that makes the difference between mere tecnhical skill and true art. The poet, sculptor, dancer, painter, singer, actor- all everntually can become proficient in their crafts, dazzling mechanical perfection, but their work will be meaningless unless the personal perceptions of the artist are communicated as well."pg 473

This quotes explains that you can have all the skills and be able to master your craft but you need the personality and emotion in it to become great. It suggests that technical skill is not everything when it comes to the creative arts. I think that you do need a passion in something to become great in it, and you need to give something a personality to seem real to the viewers.

"This thought was stated most simply by one studio artist when he noted that many of the young men "could animate beautifully, but that isn't what makes you laugh and what makes the tears come"." pg473

I really like this quote as it proves that you could spend hours, even days, drawing and animating a character and perfecting it however without a personality or emotion it will not appeal to the audeince, it will not grab them and it will seem lacking to the viewers.


"(Obviously,) this all will be easier and more interesting if the animator likes the character in the first place. We advised a group of young animators: "Look for the things in your characters that make them so interesting that you end up loving them. They should be appealing to you; you are creating them. Endow them with all the great qualities you like that are consistent with their personalities, so that you will want to be around them." " pg 397

This quotes is interesting as yet again it shows that you need to have passion about what you are creating. You need to give your character a personality that will define them and will also be memorable and liked by the viewers. However you need to like this character aswell, you need to know it inisde and out and create a character that you enjoy making.
Personality is a big thing when creating a character, not only for the audience and for development of a character but for the animator and concept artsist. Everyone who is part of creating that character should know it really well, they should know how the characetr gets angry and upset and how the character shows the emtions. This will help the development of the character as you will be able to learn how to draw it in certain situations/scenes and how the audiences will perceive it.