When making our Avatars we didn’t want to get bogged-down with pixel-painting so we decided to use a handcrafted approach instead. We looked at various popular characters in video games and graphic design for inspiration. We loved Little Big Planet and Cletus Clay. These have broken the mould of ‘traditional’ computer graphics in favour of more tactile and familiar real-world textures and materials.
We decided to use a library of foam shapes to make our Avatars. We moved the smaller shapes around on coloured backgrounds to make faces. As each character emerged we photographed them using digital cameras so we could use them on a computer. We were responding to the shapes and materials, looking for animal/human characteristics in the scattered shapes, rather than having any preconceived designs in mind. The personification workshops that we did the week before (where we looked for faces in everyday objects) helped us to see facial characteristics and emotion in the simple dots and shapes. Even the children who weren’t confident in their drawing skills got stuck in and made something they were happy with.
By the end of the 40 minute session we had made 3 or 4 characters each. The only record was our digital photos as the foam shapes went back into the library for the next workshop. But now our characters are on the computer so we can start to bring them to life…
