After my research and speaking to Alan it was clear that a way a child plays should drive how I get to my characters. Alan suggested creating characters for an app similar to the way Pokémon Go works. The idea being that the character would be on screen, in the environment for the child to play with. From my research it seemed like environment heavily contributed to how a child plays. So now I have to pick what exactly it is in the environment may influence a character to appear for the child. I also want these characters to be suitable for an animation as they could be part of a television show.
To help me figure out what I may design was I looked at what children are studying at school in terms of their environment.
Children learn about:
Living Things- Birds, Fish, Plants, Microorganisms
Earth and Space- Earth and the Solar System, Day and Night
Environment- Conservation, Waste, Impact of Humans
Materials- Rocks, soils and fossils, Solids, liquids and Gases
From this I have thought about characters influenced by:
Microorganisms: Bacteria, Archea, Protists, Fungi and Plants
Star Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Caelum, Comlumba, Lepus, Canis Major
Waste and recycling: Glass, Paper, Metal and Plastic
Rocks: Igneous (Granite, Basalt), Sedimentary (Sandstone, Limestone), Metamorphic (Marble, Slate)
Gems: Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, Citrine, Garnet, Peridot, Topaz
Minerals: Quartz, Halite, Olivine, Calcite
Out of these ideas my favourites are the Star Constellations, Recycling and Gems.
A lot of constellations have some cool stories attached to what they are named after, which could make for interesting characters. Though microorganisms could make for some interesting designs.
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