Character Development and Visual Direction

This week, we focused on establishing the main characters and defining the visual style of the project.

After discussing the narrative direction, we decided that the story would centre on two characters: a young girl and a honey badger. Rather than relying entirely on AI, we began by sketching the characters by hand. This allowed us to make creative decisions based on our own artistic intentions before introducing AI into the process.

Once the initial designs were completed, we used AI tools to generate character turnaround sheets (front, side, and back views). The AI-generated outputs helped us visualise the characters from multiple angles and provided a useful starting point for future modelling and animation work.

However, the process also revealed some limitations. While AI was able to produce visually appealing designs, it sometimes altered important character details or introduced inconsistencies between different views. This meant that we still needed to manually review and adjust the results. Through this process, we began to see AI less as a replacement for design work and more as a collaborative tool that requires human guidance and decision-making.

Establishing the Visual Style

Alongside character development, we worked on defining the overall visual language of the film.

Based on the tone and atmosphere of our story, we used AI video generation tools to create a short visual reference piece. This allowed us to quickly explore different artistic directions and compare visual possibilities before committing to a final style.

After several experiments, we decided to adopt a painterly post-apocalyptic anime realism style. The visuals combine the atmosphere of a ruined world with hand-painted cinematic concept art textures. Warm desert colours, weathered architecture, and traces of a lost civilisation create a sense of loneliness, mystery, and adventure.

One reason we chose this approach is that it aligns with the emotional core of the project. Although the environment is harsh and damaged, the relationship between the girl and the honey badger introduces warmth and hope. We believe the contrast between these elements can create a stronger emotional experience for the audience.

Critical Reflection

This week’s work highlighted both the advantages and limitations of AI-assisted design.

One advantage is speed. AI allowed us to generate multiple design variations and visual references within a short period of time. This accelerated the exploration phase and helped us communicate ideas more efficiently as a team.

However, we also found that AI often prioritises visual aesthetics over design logic. In some cases, the generated character sheets looked impressive but lacked consistency, making them less suitable for animation production. This raised an important question: can AI truly understand design intention, or is it mainly recombining visual patterns learned from existing images?

At this stage, our experience suggests that AI is most valuable as a tool for exploration rather than final decision-making. Human judgement remains essential for maintaining consistency, narrative purpose, and emotional meaning.