Initial Ideas and Character Sketches

My idea is to show the Feel Good character on some kind of adventure or pilgrimage to discover the source of 'feelgoodness' and bring it back to his people, similar to how religious figures, archaeologists, or even video game heroes trying to save the world might if the need was great enough. I was primarily inspired by Aladdin and the Cave of Wonders where the Genie's lamp rest atop a tall stone pillar with steps leading up to it and water below, a setting I hope to imitate in my own work. I especially like how the darkness with the single beam illuminating the treasure gives the impressions of how sacred and wonderful it really is.





I also looked at Indiana Jones and The Legend of Zelda video games for inspiration on how character obtain 'sacred' or magical items. I especially love how Link (in the Zelda games), has the item in question hover above his upraised hands, glowing in splendor as if its a gift from the heavens. The camera looking down from above in these cases makes these shots look interesting and emphasizes how the item is 'above' and thus somehow greater than the hero claiming it.






Below are my initial character sketches, trying to get used to the Feel Good logo character. Due to his long, thin, simple shape, I feel that there's the potential to do a lot of interesting things with him, especially considering how he's almost a complete silhouette. I was trying to imagine him in the role of a video game hero on a quest for 'feelgoodness', so I imagined how he could use real fruits to aid him on his quest against artificial colours and flavours, an issue brought up frequently in the project brief.



After thinking about the video game quest concept some more, I developed the idea into retrieving the sacred bottle of feelgoodness, only to accidently lose it again. Rather than taking the idea seriously, I want to poke fun at the build up of drama and suspense that often occurs before finally obtaining such an item. I'm hoping it'll be amusing enough to raise a smile, which is what Feel Good drinks are all about.





I want the style of animation to be a bit on the rough side to give a playful, hand drawn look, almost as though its been done by kids. If its too tight and perfect I think it will look too serious and lose a lot of its charm. The whole idea is supposed to be humorous and a bit tongue in cheek, so I want the style of drawing to convey that. To get into the right frame of mind I drew the above concept images with charcoal and pastel, and I really like how they turned out. In flash I should be able to enhance the colours further to make everything brighter and much more vivid. I also plan to keep things such as the juice falling as simple and child-like as possible by animating large cartoony droplets rather than realistic looking rain.