After we decided on our storyline I began to look for sources of inspiration for the main character, Annie. To keep Annie true to the heart-warming and child-like storyline we created, I looked for examples of characters of a similar age to understand the proportion, characteristics and behaviour that is portrayed.
I had a primary and a secondary source that I used for the research and development of my character. Firstly, I looked at the three orphan sisters Agnes, Edith and Margo from the 'Dreamworks' feature film Despicable Me as my secondary source. The sisters are very valuable for research in this topic as they are all unique, and yet still carry all the traits of typical young girls. As Annie's age is 5, I decided to use the middle sister Edith (Wearing pink) as a sizing and proportion reference; the eldest sister Margo seemed too mature and the youngest sister Agnes seemed too baby-like compared to our plan for Annie.
I found this 'Dreamworks' featurette on the sisters useful whilst researching:
For my primary research, I used my own sister Kiwi as reference who is 5 years old; the same age as Annie. Kiwi is cute, energetic and loves to play. In our story, Annie goes into her imagination or 'her world' with her new toy, like my own sister probably imagines she does when she plays with her dolls and cuddly toys. I analysed her behaviour to get an idea of how to design and animate Annie which was extremely helpful. I included some pictures that helped me design a more believable Annie as well as representing Kiwi's personality.
These elements of research combined gave me a good base structure to start designing Annie with.
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