Character Design • The Astronaut Research

October 29, 2020

Character Design • The Astronaut Research

Character - An astronaut
Style - Tin toy
Trait - Clumsy

World - 1960's NASA/Space

Fig 1. Tin Toy turnaround

My first thought for a tin toy, was the animation Tin Toy by Pixar back in 1988.

The animation is about 5 minutes long and tells a simple story of Tinny the tin toy escaping from a baby then wanting the babies attention.

According to Fig 2, an astronaut is in almost all white. This figure might be my main reference for the clothing, its usually white or silver, although a toy can be several colours to be more appealing to a child.
A thing I'll need to think of is what age group the toy is aimed at to allow appropriate colouring, a young child would want loads of colours, an older one nearing the teens or older would like something a little more realistic.
Again thinking along the age for the toy would be its simplicity and moving parts, a young child would need something with little choking hazards, a durable toy. The older the child the more careful they are with their toys, allowing more moving parts.

Fig 2. On July 16, 1969

A clumsy person made of tin would look dented, trips and falls will have taken its toll on the tin.
Looking at 'Vintage tin toys from 1900s to 1960s' on a website called Carters, I was comparing Tin toys, most have little to no movement, some just have a single bar or pin and a thin gap to allow simple twisting motion.
Looking at some Tin toys they can have keys to wind up for a simple motion.
If the motion of the toy is to waddle forwards there are two bits on each foot so the toy has more balance whilst moving forwards.

As the character design is for a tin toy in animation being a hundred per cent realistic and accurate is not my intention.
I want to make a fun looking character.

Given that this astronaught needs to be Clumbsy and from around the 60s, I need to focus on these two parts most and then the age for the child in question, the astronaught may not even belong to a child but was once designed to be a toy for a young child and kept as a memento.

At the current point in time I am certain that

The colour scheme needs to be simple yet appealing.
I could use something like the 60-30-10 rule to help with the planning before adding more detail.

Fig 3. 60-30-10 rule
The characters shape should be rounded
The character is not evil so triangles are not very good to use, but also on a toy is a bit of a hazard.
Face wise I won't need to do much, the face could be behind a screen but then I'd need to find a way for the character to express emotions
I could place simple eyes on top of the screen covering the face for simple expression.