Before I begin the final chapter of my Real Ghostbusters blog series, I would like to thank Alex Upton of The Real Ghostbusters.com for mentioning my From Real to “Real” series. When I started this, I was hoping it would be enjoyed by fans, but to have other members of the Ghostbusters community validate the work is icing on the cake!

We now come to the final chapter of my series, “From Real to “Real”. We’ve had a fun ride together. Five fruitful chapters full of fun memories. We laughed, we cried, we made out in the back of the Ecto-1 and we both felt awkward the next day. But we got past it and we still signed each other’s year book. I’m gonna miss you From Real to “Real”. But we must look to the future, move forward, and continue our lives. So without further to do, I bring you the final chapter… Egon Spengler!

Out of all the Ghostbusters to be translated from film to cartoon, Egon is the most extreme. None of the choices made with his design are subtle, but the perfectly capture the character traits the embody Egon.

Those traits being:

• Genius
• Extremely Logical
• Disciplined
• Introverted/antisocial
• Honest/No Filter
• Pessimistic

As you can see, the two Egons are extremely different, yet share a commonality. There are a few features that were crossed over from Harold Ramis. Notably the lips (though they are fuller in the animated version), the chin, the large ears, and the size of the nose in proportion to the face. But there are also drastic changes. First off, they shaved quite a few pounds off the movie counterpart…and the movie Egon was already a thin chap! They made the cartoon Egon down right twig like! But this allows the artist to define his bone structure, which gives Egon’s face a more unique appearance, and allows him to stand out from his more fleshy teammates. While they kept the round rim glasses, they made them red rather than black or gray. That is because in animation, color pallete is important and helps separate characters. Not only does it allow him to stand out from any other character who may have glasses, it also compliments the yellow of his hair. And that segways me to Egon’s greatest change…this hair! It only draws one similarity to the movie counterpart in the fact that its big hair. Egon always had poofy hair. I personally thought it was because Egon was out of touch with popular culture and thought big hair was cool. That a big pomp adore would make him a little more relatable.

The artists on Real Ghostbusters took that concept and twisted it…literally. They gave Egon the big twisted burrito hair, and to keep it from feeling front heavy, added a rat tail in the back for balance. They even changed the hair line to accentuate the massive front. You can imagine Egon being so unhip, that he would visual that hair as “hip” and make it his own. Egon is also a character of patterns and habit, he would most likely maintain that hair til his death. So the fact that he got rid of it for Extreme Ghostbusters seemed like a faulty move.

Now why make his hair yellow? Simple. It was another way to seperate Egon from the rest of the pack. Winston already had black hair, while Ray and Peter already had two different shades of brown. The only option was blonde….and it works! Egon’s hair is the visual representation of his inability to connect with popular culture. He is the Yin to Peter’s Yang. Egon is such a genius, he has a hard time relating to others. It’s that genius that is the root of all his other character traits. It is why he is antisocial, and a pessimist. If you were that smart, of course the rest of the world would appear dumbed down. I would have a hard time relating to that as well.  Brain power that also allows him to be extremely disciplined with his emotions. Even in the scariest of moments, he verbalizes his thoughts and feelings rather than showing them with erratic behavior. Excluding the opening library scene in Ghostbusters, but I dare say he ran only because being there alone would only make for poor science. The artists captured these other traits in his eyes. By having them slightly slopped downwards along the outside corner, he gives an appearance of being slightly unamused and under stimulated by the outside world.

For the body, the design department exaggerated the physical attributes that were already present with Harold Ramis. Much like how they took Ray and made him shorter and rounder, they took Egon and made him taller and more lanky. This serves a few purposes. The first, of course, is to help separate him from the group. Aside from the unique silhouette the hair provides, having Egon taller and thinner than the rest also allows him to break away visually when they are all side by side. Secondly, Egon is a bit socially awkward, and one of the best visual signs of that is the tall, lanky kid in high school. You know the type…long limbs, slightly hunched over, never able to fit in. As for the uniform color selection, it is the most drastic color change of the group, right up there with Winston’s uniform color selection. But lets read into it a little deeper. The majority of Egon’s suit is sort of a desaturated blue-green. A far cry from the Khaki suits of the movie, but perfect match for Egon.

Blue-Green represents a person who is exacting, discriminating, and poised. If anyone is exact and discriminating, it’s Egon. He is first to calculate with no room for doubt and dismiss all options that doesn’t fit the math. The Blue-Green person tends to be intellectual and refined, persevering and stable if rather detached. That couldn’t describe Egon any better! The pink trim is a stroke of genius in my opinion. That subtle color change ads a great deal of insight into Egon’s character. Pink embodies the gentler qualities of Red, symbolizing love and affection without passion. This shows that Egon has a subtle sensitive side beneath that brainy and detached exterior. We see this when he converses with Janine towards the final act of the movie. He shoes some affection towards Janine, but he is sure to keep it void of any passion.

So as you can see from my Real to “Real” series, no matter how true they stay to the movie, or how far the stray into extremes, each design aspect of The Real Ghostbusters was clearly thought out with each character’s personality in mind. It is a quality that many cartoons lack in favor of a current design trend or fad. But cartoons that take the time and effort to visually flush out a character’s traits and personality tend to be the shows that become classics. The Real Ghostbusters is a prime example.

Newcomers: parts one, two, and three.  Now on to the next chapter… Peter Venkman.

As we move towards the final two characters left on the list, we start to find that the designs look less and less like their live action counterparts, yet capture more and more of the character’s traits. With Peter Venkman (and lastly, Egon), we see animation character design at its best. They show us that a character can be interpreted many different ways, yet still retain the soul that everyone relates to.

Those traits being:

• Charismatic
• Humorous
• Witty
• Extroverted
• Mildy Sleazy
• Kind Hearted
• Business Savvy (always thinking of the dollar)
• Flirtatious

These traits are manifested in two ways within the translation of the face. First, the literal cross overs from Bill Murray. They kept the hair line, cheeks,  nose, the tired / jaded eyes, the smirk, and the flat “butt chin” . Secondly, they created traits from scratch that best represented the character. Most notably, his hair. Dana put it best when he said said “you look more like a game show host”. And what do all game show hosts have? Nice hair! Which is why the cartoon Venkman has much more styled hair than Mr. Murray…especially with the nice pseudo cow lick bangs with the lovely curl at the end. But the hair is just messy enough, and just long enough in the back, to pay a little homage to Murray’s hair while still taking it into the TV show host / ladies man realm. Another significant change is the head shape. Murray’s head is shaped like a rounded square. Problem is, in animation, a round head suggests innocence or youth, while a square head suggests someone is dense or dim witted. Venkman is neither. So they narrowed his face into more of a tapered rectangle. The narrow shape and slight “V” angle makes him both witty, and more attractive. Which plays well into his womanizing routine.

Venkman’s body shape fits Murray pretty well. But the main changes come in the suit colors. Again, these colors were chosen because they represent his character traits. Venkman is no doubt the most popular character associated with Ghostbusters and fans are going to want him to remain true to the movie. But alas, the classic Tan suit is already used for Ray, as his character best represents the heart of Ghostbusters. Venkman also represents the heart…but a slightly darker, more cynical heart. What is a darker version of tan?…brown. Also, people who prefer brown, tend to not be impulsive. And as we all know, Venkman rarely likes to just dive into a situation head first….he lets others do that for him. “Go Get Her, Ray!”

Now Venkman also has dark blue-green accents to his brown suit. People who prefer blue-green tend to be discriminating (dismissed Walter Peck right away), poised (always appears composed and self assured), as well as attractive and charming (both play into the lady’s man routine). And of course, blue-green is an opposite on the color wheel with brown. Contrasting colors always go well together.

So there you have it! By taking some of Bill Murray’s features, adding some classically attractive physical features over top of that, as well a dash of TV host hair, and colors that reflect those character traits, you get a timeless Peter Venkman animated design that doesn’t “look” like the live action Venkman, but sure as hell feels like him!

In the next and final chapter, I will be discussing Egon.

Too Zuul For School

Newcomers: parts one and two.

Ray’s character design is the Yang to Winston’s Ying. Where Winston’s design might have been the most difficult translation from film to animation, Ray’s design was no doubt the easiest. Of all four Ghostbusters, his translation is most direct, even down to the color choices. This can be contributed to the fact that Dan Aykroyd physically embodied most of Ray’s character traits so well.

And what are those character traits?

• Open minded
• Boyish/child-like enthusiasm
• Purist heart and soul
• Not intimidating
• Able to step in anyone’s shoes (brainiac, everyman, funny guy, business man)

How were these qualities translated into the character design? Lets take a look at the face.

As I wrote earlier, much of Akyroyd’s features were brought over due to the fact that he physically embodied the character so well. This is rarely the case with movie to cartoon translation. But one can contribute this to the fact that Ray Stantz is really just Dan Aykroyd with a fictional name. The part was writen for him, by him, about him. So many of Aykroyd’s qualities cross over. As you can see, they mimicked his chin, lips, and nose almost perfectly.

To accentuate the qualities of pure heart and child like enthuasiam they took Aykroyd’s already established features and made them more child like by making his head more round, adding a fair amount of pudginess to him and giving him larger eyes. As a matter of fact, Ray has the largest eyes of the Ghostbusters. The other main change is his hair. Winston and Peter both have dark hair, to add variety to the group, they gave Ray lighter, brown hair. Besides helping him stand out, the lighter hair also brings out more of the child like qualities since most children rarely have dark hair right out the gate.

As for the body, much of the same rules apply. They gave Ray, Aykroyd’s basic body, and altered it to enhance the child like characteristics and help him stand out from the group.

Just like with the face, they added some pudge to round him out, and give him a slight pear shape. They also made him the shortest of the group. This again shows him as more youthful, also makes him more recognizable standing along side the group. Since Ray is the character translated most directly from the movie, his suit colors reflect that by remaining the same and retaining the tan color scheme, with no variation in color along the collar and cuffs. Where as the other characters had color schemes that reflected their personality, Ray kept the colors of the movie. Why? Because Ray IS the Ghostbusters. He is the heart and soul of the team.

In the next chapter, I will discuss Peter Venkman.

Too Zuul For School

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