I am very glad that I had a chance to contribute to the “Hansel and Gretel” artbook and to work with this wonderful design of Gretel by Disney animator Carlos Luzzi.
The most difficult thing for me was to maintain a sense of balance in the pose but, at the same time, maintain all the life and not make it too stiff. For this, it was important to follow the contrapposto in the design – the opposite tilt of the shoulders and hips.
Another important aspect of creating Gretel’s model was following the Simple vs. Complex principle. This is especially pronounced in the character’s dress. From one side, it is a simple line. From the other side, it is a complex shape created by several folds. The same things are read through the whole design: in the sleeves of the shirt, boots, the shape of the hands, the map.
Hi I am Tania and I am starting a TV Channel dedicated to Kid in Afghanistan. I have 5 years experience in producing shows for kids but zero experience in animation. Most of the stuff to comes to Afghanistan is foreign and are dubbed but I want to make animated characters that are organic and truly Afghan looking, with Afghan context. However we don’t have the capabilities to do that here. Can you or anyone help me in building my animated character? This character will focus on teaching kids on emotional coping mechanisms. (the idea does not exist in Afghanistan but kids could use the help) Your advise and or help on how I can go about this will be much appreciated.
I love this character design.
When you say “balance”, do you mean that the character has to not fall from this pose?
Because to me a pose is more lively and dynamic if it can’t stand still. It’s like my brain must imagine the projected motion to give some sense to such an image, whereas if the pose is in equilibrium, my brain is like: “So I guess this is a stick figure, not a living thing”.
Not that I find anything wrong with your pose. I love it. In fact because her hair is not in equilibrium, I feel like I have to imagine her moving her head and thus her shoulders and it pretty much propagates all the way down to her lifted foot.
