When communicating my narrative through my work, a key element to assist me in doing so is my protagonist. The role of the protagonist in any given story is to be at the heart of the action and tends to undergo some kind of emotional or philosophical change during the plot. The protagonist is someone who the audience can empathise with despite whether this character is good or evil.
When creating my particular protagonist it is important to consider that he is not a traditional "hero" or "good guy". I have designed him this way to present him as nothing more than a human, very capable of mistakes. I hope in this sense the audience will be able to sympathise with him. I have decided to make him a grumpy old man as there is something very endearing about this feisty but vulnerable character. We see this kind of protagonist or love interest in many films.
I took inspiration from characters such as Melvin from "As Good as It Gets"
and Carl from "Up"
I created my character "Albert" using Illustrator as, I wanted to create him freehand but in a computerised cartoon style. I used images of these characters throughout my process to try and help myself stay true to what I was trying to create.
It was important to me to make sure he was grumpy looking and had a rough quality to him, but also that he was endearing and there is something a bit cute about him, in order to do this I gave him big babylike features such as his eyes and nose but also gave him deep wrinkles and creases and bushy, wild eyebrows that move separately making him seem a little bit coarse and rogue. This will also be reflected in the way he moves as an animatic.
