Character and short story design

So we went through the key points in how to design a character and a short story. So let's start with character design. Like any other kind of design, it is important to keep it simple. When you are designing a character, you know you've reached the goal when there is nothing more to add, but nothing could be taken away from it at the same time. Picking shapes for the character is very important as well, for instance round shaped characters project cuteness, trust, friendliness

                                                         

Whereas square like characters seem masculine and in some cases logical, pedantic,
 
This also reminded me about how Chris Sasaki stressed how important it is to research as well as build the world around the character, so the character does not fall out of context.
In order to make your character relateable it's important to have a back story, why and how the character is the way it is, what kind of flaws it has and such, it has to help tell the story. Which leads to the other thing we learned- short story design, storytelling tools and key elements.
First we were introduced to the key elements to short story design, which are:
Character driven
Flawed character
Urgent goal
Interaction with other Characters/Props
Twist in Character's Surprising (yet coherent) Reaction
And then the storytelling tools:
Introduce the main character and urgent goal immediately
Play on conventions\
Props and setting
Sound Design
Simplicity
Story loop, twist, gag
And then we viewed some animations and ticked of which tools and key elements are used in it for instance-

This short has a flawed character, interaction with other characters and props, play on conventions, sound design, urgent goal, and it has a gag in the end. And both the character and situation is very relatable for everyone because more or less everyone has been in his shoes (being tested).

(this is how I look while using Maya)

All in all it was a very beneficial lecture because it gave me a lot of ideas for my own character design.