Main content
Pixar in a Box
Unit 2: Lesson 2
2. Character- Introduction to character
- Warm up activity
- Internal vs. external features
- Activity 1: Internal & external features
- Wants vs. needs
- Activity 2: Wants vs. needs
- Obstacles
- Activity 3: Obstacles
- Character arc
- Activity 4: Character arc
- Stakes
- Activity 5: Stakes
- Advice on characters
- Glossary: Character
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Advice on characters
More advice to new writers.
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I made a story all based on these videos!My characters name is Allieae. She's a cat with a fish tail. She looks like this because she is from one of The Elemental Tribes. The fire tribe, aquatic tribe, air tribe, and the earth tribe. She has 4 siblings, her twin brother Croc, her younger brother Guppy, and her even younger sister Anenomie. All the tribes live together in peace until a hunting patrol comes back into camp with a prisoner. her name is Peril. She has extremely deathly venom in her fangs and is a mix of multiple of the beasts of the forest. her original form however is a cat because she has not yet unlocked her full potential. Allieae and her friends, Skie (an air elemental), Ghast (air elemental), Iguana (aquatic elemental), and many others are exposed to Perils powers and are in full understanding of what she is because Peril has told them who and what she is. But another cat, Phyro (a fire elemental) and his admirer Smolder (also fire) also know about this. Phyro has always wanted to overthrow the fire tribe (givin he already would because his father Flame was already leader of the fire elementals) but he decides that he could now overthrow all the tribes and become the most powerful cat of all. He meets Peril in secret and tricks her into giving him some of her venom. he then uses it to experiment with and he poisons his father but fakes it as a freak accident and blames the aquatic elementals (who also have venom in their fangs but can only use it to paralyze their victims). Then the tribes go to war and Phyro gets what he wants. He is now leader of the Fire elementals. But Allieae and her friends know what has happened for Peril exposed him to the tribes but no one believed her except for Allieae and her friends, for they know how evil Phyro has always been. They don't stand by and watch, but Allieae leads them on a journey to defeat Phyro and his queen Smoulder. Humans, dragons, and other beasts confront them along the way but Allieae and her friends always found a way past using their individual skills. When they get back to the tribes they find that Phyro has killed all the other tribe leaders and is now in power over them all. Allieae and her friends defeat him and are made the new leaders of the tribes. Allieae is queen of the aquatic elementals, Skie is queen of the air elementals, Fern is king of the earth elementals, and Phoenix is queen of the fire elementals. And all peace and serenity is restored.
(Also I really want to go the that college in California! :3)(29 votes)
I would definatly watch your movie!! It sounds really interesting!!(1 vote)
I loved this lesson. I wanted to become an animator and I still want to be a 2d animator, but I love telling stories and and drawing. Maybe i'll do both. Does anyone know when the next lesson will be?(2 votes)
So ChaosEclips, you want to be an animator? A good way to start is doing stick-man videos. The guy that made Animator vs Animation actually gets paid for making his videos. Just thought that would be something to think about.(2 votes)
I like writing little stories that are two or three pages long, and I just do random things that pop into my head. I don't apply my life into the story (though I'd like to), and I think that's because I have trouble reflecting on my life then inserting it in stories. Anybody got some advice?(6 votes)
Hi 23serina.be,
Applying one's life story into stories can be a difficult task here is some tips,
You can do some simple things
1. Your character in the story can like something you like
2. Try adding some of your favorite places as a setting and theme for your story this reflects where you have been etc.
Other things you can do to help is writing a journal entry everyday this helps reflect your life, write down you favorite memories etc.
Start with these small steps and over time you will be able to apply your life into stories that you create.(2 votes)
I don't know why people are doing this but here we go:
Character: Noor-naa
Name Roots: "Noor" Came from the Middle East and is a version of Nora. "naa" however is a part of a language that her father speaks
Age: 21
Race: 25% Greek 25% Turkish 50% Elji
Nickname: Lumokinesis (Rite of Passage***), Lumo
Trait*: She has the ability to move light, she cannot create it, however, she can also part it, to make it look like a light puppet show
Appearance: She has short grey hair, the tips of her fingers and the tips of her toes all are pure moon-dust white fading into her naturally darker skin, her face has a bunch of waves of leaden colors flowing around. Her irises are black
Faction**: Lone Rings
Personality: When you first meet Noor-naa, speaking is a very scarce thing, and her eyes are always evaluating you. If you get to know her better, she starts opening up, though you'll rarely ever see her tag along with another, as she prefers being alone more. Though when she's with her brothers suddenly she's as chatty as ever, even letting them tag along with her instead of disappearing into a crowd. Though her mission life is much more different, she claims never to have spoken for about a month on one mission, and takes it seriously, as though it is a life or death matter, instead of being much more quiet and introverted, this is full on disconnection from the world, the only news she hears is that which her targets speak, or simple hearsay that falls onto her lap.
Traits are special abilities an individual is granted, they are a wide range of small skills that can aid them, some include: Minor Lumokinesis, Mimicry, Advanced speed, Noiseproof movements, etc. And they are normally pertaining to which kind of Faction* you'd go to. As they are given to an individual it has nothing to do with genetics.
**Factions are split into three parts, with one sub-part,
The Librarians (These are people who dedicate their lives to knowledge and the arcane, they learn tactics as well and have many different chambers, they are the ones that make all of the decisions)
The Lone Rings, (Assassins and recon units, usually are on missions for 3-8 months, stalking enemies and learning their moves)
The 1-18th Regimens, (Basic cannonfodder, regular people who wish to fight for the cause, a small few come out jaded heroes and most who do are because they had a Trait and didn't know about it previously.
The 19-24th Regimens, (Usually well trained and operated soldiers who can take a lot of damage and deal more, often in operation with the Lone Rings, as if there is a large or highstanding enemy to deal with, the Lone Rings track them, the Regimens kill them)
***Rite of Passage is a nickname that is given to you once you are fully fledged into your Faction, it is often picked by the person in question, though sometimes it is picked by friends. Librarians don't fall under this tradition.(5 votes)- i made a book and gave it to my mother its got a character its called "how a crimenale became a billienaire(4 votes)
- It’s spelled ‘Criminal‘.(2 votes)
All right, so I decided this would be an OK place to share my character.
He is a man who was born with a major disfigurement and cast out of society and forgotten. Later, his sister and brother (who don't know he exists) find an old school picture in their basement with one of the faces scratched out and go on a quest to find out who this person is (it's their brother).(4 votes)
There is this book called Flowers for Agronon, the last word isn't spelled right but it is something close, and it is about a mentally retarded Man and he volunteers to have brain surgy done, then he starts to get smarter until he becomes a genius. He starts remembering his past and why he hasn't seen his Mother, Father, or Sister in a long time. But then he starts going back to his old self. It is all told by his writing down reports of what happened to him. It is a really good book, and I think you should read it.(1 vote)
- I would watch the medieval people hiring a dragon movie.(2 votes)
if u cud make any move what would it be about(4 votes)
What if you are writing a story with multiple perspectives(2 votes)- First, make sure the reader knows whose perspective it is when writing from the character's perspective, I read a book once that changed the character's perspective without telling you who it was. It made it very confusing and hard to read.
Second, You can choose to write a whole series where it is the same story but told by different people
Third, you don't have to do the one above but if you want a story told by a lot of different characters I would recommend it but if you a story told by two characters you could switch between the characters by the chapters. Like let's say, Sarah is telling the story for the first 2 chapters then Jack can either continue on with the story or tell what was happening to him while Sarah was doing whatever.
Or you know do what you want I'm not a professional so you don't have to do any of the above, I'm just saying.(3 votes)
do we have to wight a story?(2 votes)
You don’t HAVE to write a story, but it WOULD be fun and exciting.(2 votes)
- the question Is do u like advice?(2 votes)
Video transcript
- I think if you're looking
for what kind of story you want to tell, I
actually, what I used to do when I was in school, before I would start making a film, is I would just ask myself, if I could take a vacation anywhere, where would I want to go? You know I'd like to go
to a medieval castle. Oh, that'd be a cool
place to tell a story. So, you don't even have
to necessarily start from a theme or a conflict, just jump into a setting and then start thinking of the characters, and what do they want? And maybe this is a castle
that it's been too boring, so they've got to hire a
dragon to come attack them. And so we're going to do a
talent scout for a dragon. And then you just go from there. So, you know, when in doubt just let your mind go on a vacation. Through storytelling and
especially in animation, you can go anywhere that
your mind can take you. - Sometimes it's fun to just
think about what you would like to see, what would you like to watch? What is something that,
for you personally, you would say, oh, I'd love to watch a movie like that, and make it. And even if it's not perfect,
it's great to just have things out in the world
that are personal to you. And it's good to look at
other films for ideas, and inspiration, and
structure, and how they, you know, work things out,
problems that they may have, but always try to stay true to your gut, and go with something
that is important to you. - I went to California
Institute of the Arts, the school that was started by Walt Disney specifically for animators, and I studied character animation. And one of the things
you learn at Cal Arts is that you have your
professors, which are great, they're professionals in the field, the people you're really learning from are your fellow students. They're the people that you
are spending every day with, and you're telling jokes
to, and you're learning if you're not funny, or if
you're pitching your stories and you're realizing oh, you know what? I'm not making JJ laugh. Maybe I should, maybe I could make this story a little funnier. And even to this day, when we pitch scenes to each other, sometimes we forget that we're going to be showing them to billions of people in the world, and we're just trying to make the director and our story crew laugh. Because, at the end of the day, we're just people telling
stories to each other. - What happens when I tell
the story to another person, is that all these other things show up, without me asking for them,
even while I'm telling them. The story starts to come alive. The characters start to come alive. And then also the person
you told the story to will tell you what they thought
of it, notes, they're free. They actually are helping you make your story and your character better. So that's why I encourage everybody, if you're crafting a story,
and you want it to get better, keep telling your story,
over and over again. And you'd be surprised how good those characters and those stories become over a short period of time, and you don't have to sit alone in a room with it, thinking that it's good or bad or whatever, somebody can tell you. - So, another important thing
that I'm coming to learn, the more I'm working in the industry, is it's filled with
really amazing artists, and you're kind of always struggling to figure out how to stand out. And I think the best way to do that is to worry less about
what you think people want from you, and just do, express yourself as best as possible. All the responses I got
from the internship, and all the responses
I got on my portfolio were just me going back and thinking about what made me laugh, or what were things that my siblings did that
made me laugh really hard, and just try to express
that into my boards. And people would be like, how
did you come up with that? And I'd be like, you know,
I didn't come up with it, it's just like, you
know, this is me and what I'm exposed to, and people really reacted to that, and wanted
more of it, and, you know, thought it was entertaining,
or fresh and new. So I think that's the
biggest advice I could give is just, you know, figure
out what influences you in your life, and try to
display that in your art. - So I think a big thing to remember, if you're trying to get a job at somewhere like Pixar, is to be yourself. I know it sounds cliche,
but it really is important. - There's a lot of failure of course. There's a lot of times when you're wrong. There's a lot of times when you think that something is working and it's not. That actually is the most important thing that could happen to you as a storyteller, is when things are not working. And when things are kind
of only slightly working. You always want to get better, and the only way you're going to get better is if you keep trying.