Our concept sketches consist of the three characters - the duck, the ranger, and the dog, and two environments - the pond and the kitchen. For our artistic direction, we aimed to make the style simple and rounded, fitting the light-hearted, cute, and comedic tone of the story. Each of the three characters were designed to complement each other, with colour palettes consisting of soft colours that are recurring in each other’s designs (orange, red, white). The colours of the characters were chosen so that they would stand out against the cooler tones in the environments, such as the grass and water outdoors.
For the ranger, we explored a casual but outdoorsy clothing style to suit his role and personality. Each of the characters have similar, simple-styled eyes, suiting the cute (yet mischievous) natures of the duck and dog, and the kind-heartedness of the ranger. We aimed to portray the scenic nature of the park pond and the coziness of the home.
For our artistic style and direction, we were inspired by the video game Animal Crossing for its rounded and smooth character models. We also liked the minimalistic but aesthetic detailing and the warm colour palettes of both its outdoor nature and indoor home environments, as they suit the two environments in our script.
We were further inspired by a two and a half minute animation from Margo and Duckie. We enjoyed the soft look of the lighting and rendering and wanted to create a similar atmosphere in our own animation. We also thought it was a good example of the type of medium we wanted to achieve - a simple and light-hearted animation short with pleasant sound design.