Trash Fairy: Early Character Design

About

Our first film is an animated short film about a Trash Fairy that shows an Average Joe what his life would look like if he didn’t generate any trash, and how the effects of his trash stay with him long after the garbage truck has taken it all away.

Looking to base the film on the look and feel of the United Productions of America’s 1950’s stylized animation, that won the studio fifteen Oscar Nominations during that time period, we chose the adult humor potential of a Trash Fairy and the talents of an Ex-Pixar Production Designer to help us achieve this look.

Using the 1950’s stylized look as a starting point, we wanted an “Everyday Joe” character that could represent the thoughts and beliefs that the average American has about trash.  After trying out a few options of an everyday working man, we soon realized that the Joe character needed to be a bit goofier so as to contrast with the Trash Fairy and the Fairy’s demeanor.

So we explored designs as seen below in the “Everyday Joe – Concepts B” section, and immediately found what we were looking for in option # B.  The expressive eyes and the excited smile would allow us to realize the adult humor of the character, but the hard jaw-line made him look a bit too confident and capable (we wanted to convey how easy it would be to change one’s trash habits and felt that a goofy looking character would better serve this purpose).  So we made some slight adjustments to this model and you can see those in the next section entitled: Final Character Models.