Newcomers: From Real to “Real” (Part One)

In this chapter, I will delve into the character design behind Winston. Winston is perhaps the hardest character to design for animation, as he is the most underdeveloped Ghostbuster in the entire movie and didn’t appear until half way through the film. Since character design is heavily based on personality traits, this leaves the Real Ghostbusters art team in a real pickle.

Now lets break down Winston’s character traits.

• Down to Earth
• Common sense type
• Blue collar worker
• An every man
• Unassuming
• Athlete of the team
• Possibly the most religious
• Most relateable by the audience

So how does one translate this into animation? You start with the face, as that is what people relate to, and most camera shots are close ups.

To make Winston match those traits, you have to keep him looking looking generic so he is relateable by a larger demographic, but also kind and approachable. First is the get rid of the mustache. While it works well in the movie, in animation a mustache either ages you, makes you look like a tough bad ass, or turns you into a villain. Thinner eye brows also also takes attention off the brow and makes a person exude more confidence.

They also gave his hair more shape to break up his silhouette a little bit, as well as made him look a little more conservative with a more groomed, classic cut. Finally they gave him larger, more friendly eyes. A sharp contrast to Ernie’s narrow, more skeptic eyes.

Now comes the body.

Even the suit has to reflect his personality. That is where the Real Ghostbusters conceptual artists were really brilliant. They used color to separate each character to further establish their character traits. With Winston, the artists choose blue with maroon trim. Blue represents soft, soothing, compassionate and caring, Blue is the color of deliberation and introspection, conservatism and duty. Patient, persevering, conscientious, sensitive and self-controlled, Blues like to be admired for their steady character and wisdom. They are faithful, but are often worriers with somewhat inflexible beliefs and can be too cautious, and suspicious of flamboyant behavior. This clearly represents Winston. He is loyal and has a sense of duty to the Ghostbusters, but is also a little reluctant when it comes to their more outlandish ways. This is represents in the movie when he decides to get his own lawyer. He isn’t the type to jump to a mess and is indeed cautious.

He is the Ghostbuster who probably has his life together the most. His blue costume is trimmed with Maroon. Maroon represtents harsh experiences, which has probably matured the Maroon person into someone likeable and generous. It is often a favorite color of someone who has been battered by life but has come through. It indicates a well-disciplined Red personality—one who has had difficult experiences and has not come through unmarked but who has grown and matured in the process. This also fits Winston and his blue collar roots. He didn’t come from a cushy University Job. Winston started from the ground up. Works all sorts of jobs and knows the city from the streets up. That life no doubt had difficult experiences that matured Winston into the man he is today.

All these elements are well thought out and purposely chosen to represent Winston in the animated world of Real Ghostbusters. In the next chapter, I will talk about Ray and his design choices.

Too Zuul For School

I have always been fascinated by the transition Ghostbusters took from the movies to the cartoon. The character designs for each character are so radically different from their movie origins, yet they work. Egon has blond hair and a rat tail….yet we accept it! Why? I will attempt to explain that in a Ghostbusters.net blog series I like to call From Real To “Real”

I have been doing character design and 3D animation for years now, and with those years of experience came a new appreciation for the character designs used in Real Ghostbusters. Successful character designs from film to cartoon only work when the artist visually captures a character’s personality, not the actor’s likeness. The great thing about actors is they can change their personalities when acting. This is why we can accept the same face as different characters in different films. But in animation, if a character begins to look too much like the actor that played them, it gets to be too destracting because in most cases, they never look quite right.

Look at this art from the talented Dapper Dan.

While very skilled and well done, the characters are a bit distracting because they look like the actors…but at the same time don’t. And by focusing more on the actors likeness and less on the character traits, the spirit is gone. Venkman lost his charm and charisma and now looks weathered and unfriendly.  Stantz lost his boyish nature and pure heart. Winston no longer has the down to Earth, everyman sensability. Egon is the most accurate, if only because he is the most stylized.

An actor gets an entire movie to define their character. But in TV animation, you get a limited amount of time. Not to mention you don’t get the subtle changes in personality that a real actor can provide. So in animation you have to cut to the chase and define the character instantly with their visual appearance. That is where animation is at it’s most powerful. Each characteristic from body shape, colors, hair styles, etc has to define their personality. Plus these various characteristics have to be instantly recognizable. What is the main test to see if a character is designed well? The silhouette test! You should be able to instantly recognize a character even if it is totally in shadow.

Each of these characters are classic and each are readable in silhouette. Sometimes you have to defy reality to achieve this, but that is why animation is animation! Now if the designers simply tried to copy the actors from the movie, they would fail this test. Here is an example of the movie characters in silloute along side the animated characters. Which is more readable to the eye?

At best Bill Murray is readable due to his hair. But you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis. Below is another example using Janine.

Clearly the movie version doesn’t read nearly as well and has no place in a cartoon. But don’t feel bad for her, someone with her qualifications would have no trouble finding a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries.

Designing characters for animation isn’t easy. But the artists behind Real Ghostbusters got it right! In the next chapters, I will go into more detail behind the designs of the four main characters.

Too Zuul For School