Main Character Final Design: Ty costume sheet

'Ty' Shortened from 'Pisthetairus'.
His closest relationship is with Yool, his childhood best friend; they were companions when they lived in Athens together and both decided to leave in search of a life of freedom, devoid of responsibility. Together they plan everything, but Ty is usually the spokesman and the leader of the duo.

In contrast to Yool's design, I chose khaki's and more earthy tones to suit Ty's calm, collected and more mature personality. Earth is also the star sign most linked to determination and ambition within the Zodiac signs, linking to Ancient Greek beliefs that Astronomy was the first science. However, I made sure that the colour scheme still matched the pastel aesthetic that I've used to design throughout this project.
Overall, Ty is extremely smart and charismatic, but uses these traits in order to manipulate people sometimes. He is very quick witted and thinks on his feet, which often gets himself and Yool out of sticky situations, and has avoided many a confrontation because of these skills. His downfall is the fact that he perhaps begins to take advantage of people and not even realise it, sometimes putting strains on his and Yools relationship.

The choice of shape and costume came about quite naturally. In cartoons, the main characters are often the most simple in design as these will be the figures drawn the most frequently, therefore should not be over complicated or difficult to redraw and intricately model with every new frame. I went for a cute beret with a bird feather in the band for Ty, as I thought a slightly military styled outfit would suit his strategic and precise mind. The feather also relates to the anthropomorphic and animal themes of the film. Having a long coat also helps in the production of the stop motion puppet as it would mask a lot of the figure, meaning a smaller overall project concentrated on one character.
A high necked coat was decided specifically, as within stop motion puppetry it's a lot easier to conceal maquette than it is to try and making a complex, working neck joint. For this reason I've covered the necks on both my characters.

I chose to draw this costume and expression sheet out in a digital format as I felt that the aesthetic and character design suited that media better than paints and pencil. However, for the darker more twisted character of Epops that holds a lot of character within the sketched out marks themselves I'll be hand drawing the designs.