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The Inspirational Guide from Florian Satzinger
“□□ and Its Friends” 2010 Shanda Games Creative Cartoon Competition kicks off on November 1st. As one of the sponsors LeewiART publishes the inspirational guide from Florian Satzinger, one of the judges of the competition.
Q: First please introduce a little bit about your experience as an artist. And how you start doing character design?
A: Becoming a character designer was not something I initially planned nor I thought it was possible. It just happened. I guess because I always loved creating things. Stories, characters, layouts.
In character design, practically, I stick to the rule “think before you draw”: Like starting with a boringly normal check-list before moving on to the actual design. Often, I write down as much as I know about the character (visually, temperamentally, bio) and then I pick from this very list the features (just a few) I think are the most typical ones. These are the ones which should be transferred into the design.


Q: Based on your experiences, how to evaluate if a cartoon character or mascot is successful?
A: Well, that’s quite a question! I guess, you have to try to create something people like to start dealing with. When they think the character has a brain, thinks, talks, lives, then you’re on a good way. I guess another important thing is that you should avoid stereotypes and clichés (ethic, gender, etc). Keep in mind that you're designing a unique individual with typical (not stereotypical) qualities - qualities that just this very character has.


Q: During the design phase of a character, how you collect and adopt proper references? What advise you would like to offer our entrants?
A: Get your teeth into bone structures of animals; look at the different forms of jaws and skulls. You will always find an interesting thing which can be an initial spark to get your design spark.


Q: Among script writing, character design and product design, which is your favorite part of the job? What’s the most important thing when turning an abstract concept into a complete artwork?
A: Besides art direction, creating i.e. writing and designing are my favorite parts. The most important thing in turning an idea into a design is, to me, to sit back and imagine the drawing before drawing it.


Q: Can you talk about the project you are running now or other project you've done? Please take the characters of your project as an example, to explain how to design a special and vivid character.
A: Besides other projects like “StarDucks” and “Childwood”, I’m working on an illustrated books series, “Toby Skybuckle” for French publisher Ankama. I pick Toby Skybuckle (the main character) as an example, because this 11 year-old boy is roughly based on me and my own childhood. One could say, this character experiences in his adventures some things that really happened to me, enriched with a lot fiction - and when I say a lot I mean A LOT. In regards of Toby Skybuckle’s design, I took my younger brother Valentin for reference. Sorry Vali!
Florian Satzinger
Florian Satzinger
Florian Satzinger
Florian Satzinger is an Austrian character designer and author. He was a student of the well-regarded Disney, MGM and Hanna-Barbera animator and animation director Ken Southworth ("Alice in Wonderland", "Woody Woodpecker", "Tom & Jerry", "The Flintstones", "Peanuts", "The Smurfs") who influenced him greatly. Presently, he is a production designer, character designer and writer at S&H FEATURES and works on his first StarDucks? graphic novel and on the Toby Skybuckle? books series for a major French publishing house in parallel with the comic book series Childwood? for a major Canadian publisher. Before this, he worked as a concept artist and character designer on numerous projects for clients like Red Bull, Warner Bros Worldwide Publishing etc. Besides his design and production work, he teaches character design, analog animation and animation history at the University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg.
© Copyright 2010 Florian Satzinger
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