Little Demon Guy!

 Alright so I talked about one of the characters from my film, now let's talk about the second very important character. This here is the little demon guy you saw in the background of the previous post!

I love making these little thumbnails I even animated this one

Now this character is supposed to act as a representation and allegory of something. They stand behind and loom constantly over the main character of the piece, feeding her visions, disturbing illusions, and flashes from the past and possibly future. These are what carry the piece forward from scene to scene, functioning as a way to tell a story about the ways we try to protect ourselves from the harshest truths by feeding illusions to our own selves. This eventually cripples the main character completely, and causes her to face her literal darkest thoughts. Yes indeed, you have been spoiled, the lil demon was the main character all along (*shocked wow in the audience*)! 

I think this works pretty well as a story telling device as it personifies our darkest thoughts and repressed emotions, they loom over you at every moment, even while doing the simplest task, and eventually cause you to break down completely. I settled on this design after experimenting around with how I could visually portray these thoughts and emotions, I wanted something that was easy to draw but still had lots of character and expression. I got inspired from many things to create this design, for example I looked at Oyasumi PunPun, a dark drama manga by author Inio Asano that has many examples of effective horror character design that is still simple and easy to tell apart. Below we see an example from this. The dark yet simple silhouette of the figure makes it stand out from the background, however there is still detail that is housed in the blank eyes. The eyes honestly fill me with a little bit of dread, it feels like they are staring into my soul.

Eyes are actually something that I really focused on for this character, I think they can act as an effective form of symbolism. Eyes can represent being looked down upon, whether by other people or by yourself. They also work as a way to showcase the mental state of a character. Sometimes, a lack of highlights in the eye can even tell you if a character is alive or dead, either literally or metaphorically. We can look at an example like Something from the indie psychological horror game OMORI (something is literally its name!). Now I know that this is yet another dark silhouette figure with an eye in the middle but it just works so effectively! The best thing about this kind of character design for me is that it can mold and change into whatever you want. Below we see examples of all the different forms of Something. The first image shows how it usually looks, constantly stalking the player character. But throughout the game, this figure manifests into different amalgamations that haunt the player character. This acts as an effective way of communicating to the audience what the player characters fears are, and they also scare the shit out of you! At the bottom of the page I also included a scene from the game in which Something appears as a boss enemy, it's a great example of not only amazing horror visuals but also spine chilling sound design. 

 

I took inspiration  from these characters for my character, and I also added in my own little touches. Their wings and horns are something I though up, showcasing this guy as a little demon communicates to the audience that this is in some way the main characters own emotional baggage. I also made sure the the horns are an aspect of the character that is used to express emotion. Near the end of the piece, I want to have a scene where the main character accepts the demon, and because of this their horns form into the shape of a heart, showing that the acceptance is mutual (how cute!). Their design ,similar to Something, is also malleable and can form into shadows, different representations of the main characters emotions, and nightmarish amalgamations of her deepest fears. They also are constantly hovering above and behind the main characters head, telling the audience that the main character is always suffering with these negative emotions. I will be making a second blog post with a more detailed design breakdown and character sheet of the little demon guy, and I will make sure to keep my inspirations in mind when designing their final look.