A Deep Dive Into Design (October Update)

Happy October boils & ghouls! Hope you’re all making the most out of the spookiest month of the year. We’ve been busier than ever over at Far-Fetched HQ, working on the pilot. We’re very deep into the animation & clean-up stage at this point, and it’s so cool to see everything finally coming together in motion and color. We released a GIF of rough animation to the public last week & we’re thrilled that people liked what they saw!

As we said last month, our original goal was to try & get out the fully finished one-minute teaser for the public on Halloween. However, after thinking it over, we’ve decided to extend the clip slightly to have it end at a more fitting place for everyone to see. Therefore, the finished teaser will take a little more time to complete. You folks here on Patreon have seen the WIP of the teaser, but this one will have a little bit more footage so there’s something new for you guys alongside the public!

For this month’s update, we’ve decided to focus on what goes into the process of character design for Far-Fetched. We wanted to make sure that the designs of the Sesamoid gang & other characters fit their roles & personalities as best as possible. We asked our two main character designers, KK & Max, to give some of their own personal insight into the process of designing characters & what went into the creation of the Far-Fetched gang’s looks!

KK: To me, the goal of character design is to try and create an appealing design that can tell you a bit about the character. It was an interesting challenge for me as the aesthetic of these characters are a big portion of their personality and overall vibe of the show, so I gathered as much reference - looking at early 2000's goth/punk style and Ashley's own work - to get inspiration. I got to help with a few character's outfits, so this was a crucial part of working on Far-Fetched.

Another aspect I really enjoy playing around with is experimenting with shapes. It's most apparent with Piper, which I was fortunate enough to have a big hand in her design! The idea for her was to create a cat witch, so after looking at my pages of reference I thought it would be a very cute idea to give her hair horns to mimic the shape of cat ears! And since she's very open and vibrant, I made sure her colors were nicely saturated and she had a nice round and bubbly shape language to her.

With Griff, I wanted to give him some nice flow since he is a very chill character, but keeping him both a little boxy and rounded at the same time. I thought a slightly boxy look would make him look stable and consistent while the softer aspects of his design made him very approachable! By contrast, when I helped with Quinn's outfit, I made sure everything about his look was tall, loud, proud, and a little sharp. Perfect for everyone's favorite sharp-tongued pretty boy.

I also feel having multiple varied directions in face, body, and clothing choices is very important as well. For each character I got to design, I did around 3-5 different options of style and general looks. Really exploring multiple avenues for a character, especially a major one, is crucial. It's part of getting to know them and eventually being able to put those details of who they are into their design. Knowing what they aren't is as important as knowing what they are. And in the end, character design is just the art of making a character true to themselves.

Max: Being a character designer has to be one of the things I love to do the most when it comes to making art. If you can have a good guess on who a character is by their mere looks, pose and expression, you got it in the bag! If a character isn't visually appealing (to me specifically) I'll drop that thing like a hot potato down the stairs.

Being a character designer for a show or video game however, is basically like being a humbler version of Edna Mode; you gotta be critical of what you're making but also be very aware to stay true to the show's vision. A great communication with your co-workers is elemental to create cohesive and lovable characters as well!

Working with the Far-Fetched crew in that matter has been an excellent experience! With Ashley's guidance, I helped unify the character's line of style. I also got to re-design Warren and Drain, which were both interesting challenges on their own! The latter having everything edgy in my bloodstream poured into him. (You'll see why eventually!)

(Unfortunately most of the characters Max has designed aren't ready to be revealed yet! So enjoy a whole lot of Warren!)

As you can see by KK & Max’s responses, character design is a very vast & crucial part of the animation process, with a ton of thought that goes into each step! It’s so important to be able to tell a lot about a character just by looking at them & our wonderfully talented team has 1000% done that with our characters! We want you to take one gander at our gaggle of goofballs & be able to read them as much as possible.

As a reminder, we’ll be having our monthly Q&A for all $5 & up patrons this Sunday the 17th at 7:00 PM PST! As usual, you can submit your juicy questions about the show beforehand in the Discord server. KK & Max will be joining us as well, so make sure to inquire about more steps in the character design process from them!

Once again, we just wanted to thank you folks for all of your support & patience through making this show. We’re truly trying to give you the best thing possible & can’t wait for it to grace your face-holes. The teaser is going to take a little more time, as previously stated, but we really think that elongating it will give everyone more to look forward to. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or comments on how we’ve been running the Patreon so far; want to make sure you guys get your money’s worth. Remember to not die & have a Happy Halloween, everyone!