What's in a name!

I had to give my characters names. After much thinking and inspiration, these are the names I came up with keeping in mind that they are Indian tigers:

The dad is called:
Ranga (This is an Indian name, short for Rangasami)

The son is called:
Pappu (Means little child in several Indian languages and is also used as a nickname. Incidentally, it also happens to be my nickname)

new story version 2: post midterm

I had several people look over the previous story and they like the story however the chef and butcher are too close in profession. Therefore for this version I changed the story so that the boy wants to be a sculptor.
This is the new story I came up.

Setting: A Meat shop in the jungle
Characters: Dad who owns the butcher shop
and his son (who wants to be a sculptor)
Both characters are tigers

- We see a long shot of a meat shop in the jungle

- we go into the meat shop where we see a wall filled with pictures of generations of butchers that have owned this shop and we see a picture of the current ownder

- He is cutting meat with a big chopping knife, his back is turned to his son

- we see his son looking back to see if his dad is looking and then he goes back to what he was doing

- we see the boy making a small sculpture out of clay

- in the background we see the father opening the fridge behind him

- the boys head picks up as soon as he hears the fridge door open

- he quickly puts his sculpture away

- we hear the fridge door closing and the dad comes over with a big steak in his hand and lays it on the table in front of the boy

- he starts cutting and then hands the knife over to the boy so he can try

- the boy doesn't look happy, he starts daydreaming

- (we see his dream in 2d/3d cell shaded above his head) he is showing his dad his sculpture, his dad gets mad and starts chasing him around the shop with his knife)

- the boy gulps and his dream disappears

- he takes the knife his dad is handing him to start cutting

- but when he moves his hand up in preparation to cut, the knife flies out of his hand and gets stuck on the wall behind him

- the boy looks behind and then at his dad (an embarrasses cheesy smile on his face)

- the dad sighs and shakes his head

- he shows him how to hold the knife and then gives it to the boy to attempt again

- annoyed that he has to try this again, the boy tries cutting the meat and then shows his dad when he has done

- the dad gets mad as he sees that the boy has cut a smiley face in the meat, he starts grumbling

- the boy takes the ground meet next to him and quickly starts making something

- the dad looks at him intreagued

- the boy shows the dad a small meat sculpture of him that he has made

- the dad looks at what the boy has done and smiles, his expression changes as he has gotten an idea

- scene fades

- we see the dad cutting and boy making little meat sculptures they are both happy

- camera pans out, we see little meat sculptures in the shop window

- the end

New characters and story: Post Midterm

From the midterm analysis, I realized that I had to stay away from the tribal theme in order not to be offensive. Also, I had to create a story with characters or an environment that clued the viewers in to Indian culture. Initially I had come up with a story about a boy who wanted to be a Bollywood actor and his struggle to communicate with his dad who wanted him to be a doctor. While these are Indian professions that kids would immediately recognize, they are too literal and uninteresting. 

Therefore I decided to make the father and sons characters Indian tigers. This would be a lot more fun for animation and appealing to kids than human characters. I also changed the setting and professions. The story is now set in a meat shop that the father owns and the boy is a wannabe chef

These are the characters I came up with

This is the first version of the story I came up with:
Setting: A Meat shop in the jungle
Characters: Dad who owns the butcher shop
and his son (who wants to be a chef)
Both characters are tigers

- We see a long shot of a butcher shop in the jungle

- we go into the meat shop where we see a wall filled with pictures of generations of butchers that have owned this shop and we see a picture of the current ownder

- He is cutting meat with a big chopping knife, his back is turned to his son

- we see his son looking back to see if his dad is looking

- he goes back to his part of the table where he is a preparing a meal following along with the Indian chef (from Khana Kazana, an Indian cooking show) on TV

- While he is cooking we see the dad in the background is taking meat to the fridge and putting it in

- The boys head picks up when he hears the fridge open

- he shuts off the TV and starts putting all his stuff away before his father can see

- we hear the fridge close as he manages to put everything away

- the dad comes over to the boy with a big piece of meat in his hand and puts it on the table in front of him and hands him the cutting knife

- the boy looks at the raw meat in disgust

- he goes into a day dream (2d animation) where he sees himself dressed up in chef's attire with the meat cooked in the form of a gourmet meal presenting it to his father

- the dad gets mad and starts chasing his son with the butcher knife

- the boy gulps and his dream vanishes

- he looks back at the meat on the table and the knife

- he picks up the knife and starts cutting the meat but he does it all wrong

- the father gets mad and bangs his fist on the table for the boy to try again but get it right this time

- the boy looks at his chef's hat and gets mad

- he takes it out and puts it on his head and hands the meal he prepared to his dad

- the father gets furious and picks up his knife as he is not happy about what his son wants to do

- the boy sees his fathers rage and drops the plat on the table

- the dad chases him around the restaraunt with his knife in hand

- the boy panting, stops and motions his father to stop

- the father stops in his tracks

- he takes the food that he prepared and gives it to his father to taste

- the dad takes a bite a smile on his face as he enjoys the food he is trying

- the boy looks happy

- screen fades

- we see the dad in his butcher shop cutting meat, the picture behind him has the sons cooking with the boy

- the boy is next to his dad on the stove with a sign on the wall that says "Get your fresh Kebabs here!"

The end

Final Character Design

Bong from Rohini Metharam on Vimeo.
These were the revised designs for my character. From my testing and research about the types of cartoons that children watch, I found that my children in my target age group have a tendency to like more human characters. So I added some more features to the favorite characters that my audience chose such as a nose and mouth.

Summer character design tests

Based on my feedback from the initial character designs, I redesigned my characters and tested it with a bunch of kids from my friend Natasha's dance class. These were all Indian kids and were in my age range 8-12 years. I tested the designs by showing them to the kids that were here and asked them to pick which characters they liked. Some of the kids were not around so I sent them a survey through survey monkey so they could choose which characters they liked. I did not get many responses through the survey, only two 13 year olds, one 8 year old and a 6 year old.

These were the results:

Initial character designs

These were the first set of characters that I designed in the summer. 

This character appealed to a younger age group than my target audience.

These characters had too much of a tribal reference so I had to redesign them.

These characters were too interesting so I had to redesign them to be simpler. Also they had too much of a tribal reference.