ABSTRACT
The key to an effective story is the appeal of its characters. Characters come in all shapes and sizes. Creating a unique and compelling character often begins with a distinct look. This chapter explores character design and how to effectively incorporate different visual styles in Flash. During the pre-production stage in film, the producer, director and writer determine the type of actor they need to cast for each character’s role. German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger is a pioneer in silhouette animation. Her 65-minute film Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed is widely considered to be the world’s first animated feature. Her method of animation was simple. The artistic style of the United Productions of America (UPA) cartoons in the 1950s favored a more graphical design approach than a realistic one. Their cartoons revolutionized a whole new approach in visual storytelling. Popular cartoons shown today on the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon push the graphic boundaries established by UPA to the extreme.
