Originally created for the class Art for Children, the Immunization Battle Characters were designed to explain the internal process of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to children ranging from 5 to 10. The characters needed to "have a range of emotion and motion, showing the trait of each character... These designs will eventually be used for printed brochures and eventually an educational animation."
Sketches were approved and a final character line up was drafted. After receiving feedback I began working on this project outside of class. |
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Editing
Feedback generally focused on three specific character designs. For the human cell character, having the character be substantially smaller than the other characters was too inaccurate - some of the characters (such as the ribosome) actually exist inside human cells. The redesign turned the character from a standard blob to a city-planet that resembles cell diagrams that children are already familiar with. The original design for the T-lymphocyte (a cell that attacks viruses in the body) was based off of a strongman. However, the position of the arms and the outfit were difficult to understand.
The red accents represent cells/cell parts that are specialized for attacking the COVID-19 virus. This color coding separates the defenses from the mRNA vaccine from other immune responses. Though people liked the original sketch for the ribosome, the final line up removed him from his desk and he lost character. Though I modified the design slightly, part of his charm comes from his surroundings. I did some more sketches, as well as working greater contrast between the two for later animation concepts.
I also changed some pencil and color drop settings to increase the bubble-like quality of the characters.
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