The feather would be the main character in my film. I needed to come up with a design that I could draw again and again and keep constant so it couldn't be too complicated. It would also need to be versatile and flexible so it can be pushed into all the actions it needs to do as according to my animatic. Because the feather comes from a gull I first needed to look at sue research of gull feathers.
After I had looked at a variety of gull feathers I could start designing my own.
I had learned through this research that there are varying types of feather which depend on where they are located on the bird, tail feather, downy feather etc. I needed too choose the right feather that would fit what I needed to do. Below is my first set of designs.
I liked the idea of a peacock feather because of its decorative nature however I decided the classic gull feather wold help readability and also makes sense in the context of the film. Another place I did look however is the pheasant feather as it had a wonderful patter which was more similar to the pattern of the brown spotted gull. I also did a couple of studies of different feather types to show the variation in shape. I liked the pointed feather as it held more of the birds character for me. These feathers however seemed too clean and crisp to have come off the gull I had designed so I needed to go rougher.
I added more ruffles to these designs and made them look more roughed up. I also wanted to suggest the birds pattern in the feather and having these spots of colour would allow me to be able to get some colour into the feather design. I liked the pointed feathers more than the rounded ones as I water it to be able to flow nicely through scenes and the rounded feather would feel clumsy and slow.
I took the design even further and went fluffier and more downy to get that wilderness sense across. I felt like it went too far however and started too lose its readability as a feather. Therefore I chose to continue with the design on the left of the sheet above as it was closest too what I wanted.
I drew my final design for the feather and was happy with it. I liked that it was pointed enough but kept a slight rounded feel. It also had a nice rough feel that was messy enough while keeping the traditional shape of the feather to keep it easy to read as a feather for the viewer. I also decided to do a quick breakdown of the feather design to show where each detail sat on the design and also allow me to have a structured and accurate design that could be reproduced and held a set of rules that I would use to animate the feather.
I lastly did some pose tests for the finished feather design to test that it could be pushed into the shapes that would be in my film.
