_edited.png)
Diving Bell: Character Design Breakdowns
Sharp and charismatic, Isabelle is always looking for an angle to play, a scheme to get rich quick. Of the scavenging duo, Isabelle will lead Irving on wild goose chases even if it takes them way out of their depths.
The Diving Bell idea started as a sketchbook doodle back in 2018. Isabelle was one of the first characters to land on the page, a scrappy kid captaining an ancient submarine. The idea of a fun adventure where two kids dive into the deep stuck with me so I decided to expand the idea. To the right are the initial sketches, shape explorations and deciding a proportion fitting for Isabelle.
I played around with the proportions of the face before settling on squashing them upwards, giving her a tomboyish look. Sharp shapes in her eyes, nose and chin to match her sharp wits and rounding them out for her charisma. Together making a shrewd looking character who has set her sights on her next scheme. Her cloths reflect her background as a scavenger and her ambitions to becoming more than that.
As the story took shape, for Isabelle and her brother to face off the terrors of the deep, the traditional diving suit would be too bulky, so I experimented in slimming down the design to both make the design tactical and make Isabelle's feats of athleticism underwater believable. It was important to maintain the characters silhouette so that she would be recognizable in and out of water. Hence shapes of the pipe would match her ponytail.
I had an absolute blast designing the harpoon gun, from shaping it's silhouette to constructing it's ingredients list. The harpoon gun would be Isabelle's weapon of choice and would reflect some of that determination of the character. Though it really is a prop, it would carry as much character as Isabelle herself. Many dangers lurk in the deep, a spork could be one of them.
It was important for our 3D team to understand the character. Attached to the modeling reference was Isabelle's expression sheet reflecting some of Isabelle's attitudes. Isabelle's face shape maintains her silhouette so I even requested the rigger to add translation controls for the chins so that our animators could have the freedom to maintain her silhouette. Blue Pencil marks on the reference indicates that there is no need to model an entire body under Isabelle's diving suit. Her body ends at her shoulders and her hands ends at her wrists under the suit.
Irving's design was to be Isabelle's foil and fit into the world they inhabit. Being more timid and book-smart as opposed to Isabelle's street-smarts, he serves as her foil. But when push comes to shove, Irving would rise to the occasion. Whilst Isabelle would have a more sharp design language, Irving would be more square.
Clothes too big to fit and giant round goggles. Irving would seem exactly as he looks. Someone too small for the shoes he needs to fill, clunky and awkward. Nonetheless, the submarine needs its engineer and no one knows it better than Irving.
Translating the design to 3D is was no easy feat, we made decisions on adjusting the nose shape and attaching manipulation points to the chin and nose to help animators maintain his silhouette. Due to his asymmetrical nature, Irving took a lot longer to model and his model actually came out at a much higher poly count. We had to retopo the entire character to match Isabelle and achieve the desired edge loops.
'Cause every feature needs its creature
Initially the One Eyed Willie was meant to be a giant squid monster. It was changed for three reasons. A) for what we could and wanted to accomplish, a squid creature is way too much to animate. It's a decapod for crying out loud. B) A squid monsteris generic C) It's a sea monster, it could be anything we wanted it to be. So I went all out to design the sea creature we deserved to have.
Drawing reference from nature and other feature creatures, I created the 'monster mash ingredients list'. Basing the creature on the nautilus, giving it the limbs of the giant water bug and praying mantis, an idea slowly came together in creating our creature. The only thing that was to remain was the singular eye. In many ways the process was very similar to how I designed Isabelle's harpoon gun.
To the right is a mood board for the animation and modeling crew. I wanted to show the development of the One Eyed Willie's character. An ancient sea monster prowling on his feeding ground. In other words, a hangry old man.
Design notes for the team on how to make the creature expressive. Drawing inspiration from Monsters Inc. as a solution, we maintained a pair of shifting plates with an edge that is malleable that acts like a brow ridge. Mouth movement mechanics is detailed like a squids beak but with 3 points instead of 2.
The fruits of development, it was equally important to capture the essence of the character in its movement as well as its design.