Principles of Character Animation Unit-The Button Girl Scene Design

House Of The Button Girl

This is the draft of the home of the protagonist that I designed for the original story.

When designing, I envisioned many things that the main characters might use in their daily lives to enrich the scene design. For instance, there is the shelf on the fireplace for heating, a box beside the window that can be used to store things and also serve as a table, wall paintings, a clock with a mouse living inside it, a sofa for resting, a table by the window for placing keys and gloves (which might be needed when going out), and the place in the garden where the story initially set up for the picnic. I really enjoy designing these small details, as it makes me feel that the characters in the story have come to life, even though these designs might not be very useful.

After modifying the story, I also made some minor adjustments to the design of the protagonist’s house.

Firstly, in terms of appearance, the protagonist and her home will not have much difference from those of the villagers. So I removed the kitchen section, making the protagonist’s house and the houses of other villagers look the same – a rectangular shape in appearance.

Since the era we are setting for our story is not modern, I have designed the house to be constructed with wood.

Then, considering the storyline of the story, the villagers would gather in front of the windows. In order to create a more oppressive atmosphere, I designed many windows for the protagonist’s house. This way, in the panoramic shots, there would be enough windows to show countless villagers gathered in front of them.

In the plot, there is another scene where the protagonist steps back and trips over the table. Therefore, I adjusted the positions and sizes of the table and the sofa to ensure that the protagonist’s retreat path could hit the table and there would be enough space for her to fall.

House of other Villagers

Since the interior of the villagers’ houses is not shown in the plot, I only drew the exterior of their houses.

Only the main character’s house has windows because in the setting, the house also represents the inner state of the villagers and the main character. The villagers’ houses have no windows because they suppress their emotions. Their inner state is in a closed state. Although the protagonist also suppresses her emotions when outside to conform to the villagers, at home she still does the things she loves. The protagonist’s inner state is not completely closed, so her house has windows.

the village

The initial design

The initial concept of the village was designed based on the original story. The village is located in the mountains. I think the terrain will be undulating, so the houses in this village that I designed, although arranged in a neat manner, have some located at higher positions and some at lower positions.

This is a modification of the village concept based on the original story.

At that time, Wendy pointed out that the initial design was not very neat. I agreed with her suggestion. The belief is that arranging the villages in a more orderly manner would make people feel even more eerie, and would make the uniform characteristics of the villages more prominent.

The final concept of the village

This is the revised village layout based on the final story. I unified the shape of the protagonist’s house with those of the villagers, while only keeping the windows to represent the differences of the protagonist.