Kimmy
(3D Revision)
Concept Designer & 3D Artist
November 2022
Master's Thesis Research
College of Fine Arts
The University of Texas at Austin
Kimmy
by Farah Lawal Harris
(2D Animatic)
Director: Yunina C Barbour-Payne
Concept Designer & Animator
November 2021
UT Theatre for Young Audience
ABOUT STORY
Kimmy is a short radio play written by Farah Lawal Harries for Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). It tells a story about a teenage girl, Kemi, who left her home country and moved to a mixed-income neighborhood in Montgomery County, Maryland. Like all other teenagers, Kemi is an outgoing, emotional, sensitive, and bad-tempered 12 years old girl. She is a first-generation Nigerian immigrant. Growing up, Kemi faced a new and unfamiliar environment alone while dealing with adolescent issues related to her family and school. In her new school, Kemi is bullied by others; for instance, she is called "Kimmy" by her classmates in an unfriendly way. After school, Kemi faces misunderstandings and estrangement between second-generation immigrant children and their parents.
At the moment when the Kimmy script was written and produced at The University of Texas at Austin, American Society was experiencing the impact of the death of George Floyd... This case became a significant event in the Kimmy story, one that would push characters through individual transformations... At the story's end, facing the unrest in her world, Kemi realized that the best resolution and the most powerful energies come from a family's love.
------ "Exploring how stories are told in different art forms:
from text to visual storytelling, animated radio play, Kimmy" by Ningmo Liu
Original Version
The Choice of Style
Kimmy was an animatic, the stage before animation combined with the interactive performance. This play was for the young audience from 8 to 12 years old. As the concept designer, I chose two different styles to produce this play: the style of the Boondocks and the style of the Superhero.
The Boondocks is an American comic strip created by Aaron McGruder (Misiroglu Comic strip). The comic strip is about a black family, the Freemans, settling into a white district. The drawing style of The Boondocks is simple and clean. The characters tend to be cartoon-style but slightly mixed with a realistic flavor. The character contours use a lot of straight lines that are often found in cartoons. The comic strip usually does not accentuate place or location but on faces and bodies of human characters, so the scenes are drawn roughly or even omitted. Most boards are black and white, and the shadow parts are briefly painted with the vintage comic book halftone brush, consisting of densely packed dots. The style of The Boondocks looks like a classic image press newspaper that shows a sense of criticality and comedy.
The superhero comic was also chosen as a style reference for Kimmy. From the traditional paper media to the modern screens, superheroes have become the cultural symbol and spirit for every generation of this country. Most of the superhero comic strips tell the story of ordinary people who become legendaries, another perspective of the American Dream. Everyone has a chance to become a superhero, but they must have justice, responsibility, courage, and strength. Kemi is a superhero because she proudly achieved these valuable qualities by overcoming the challenges in her life. Why not draw her as a superhero when the plot needs to show Kimmy’s courage and confidence? The colorful uniform and magnificent moves made by a superhero would further the theatrical conflicts in the story and kindle passion in the audience’s hearts, especially the young generations.
Original Version
Character Design
In the style of The Boondocks, the character’s face is usually delineated by straight lines. Polylines or little bulges simplify Chin and nose. Brief lines also draw other facial features without too many details. Therefore, the character's face in The Boondocks style usually has a hard shape and weary expression. Once the facial design for each character in The Boondocks style was created, I began to move each character to look more human. The purpose of this next step was not necessarily to push the storytelling forward but rather for my design thinking process. My process with each character design included the following process: script analysis, design brainstorming, sketch, resulting in a The Boondocks style drawing. Once this was achieved, I went further to complete the full makeup of each character. To do this, I added details and color to move The Boondocks sketch to a full-color rending of a character with more human-looking features. Although this proved an extra step for me, adding the color gave representation and visualization to each of the characters in the story.
Kemi is an outgoing, emotional, and short-tempered teenage girl, Kemi is a first-generation Nigerian American and speaks perfect English. She is not only a rap lover but also a poetry lover. I wanted to show the two sides of Kemi's characteristics in the design of her visual character. On the one hand, Kemi is a good student who loves literature. The director, Yunina Barbour Payne, required Kemi to wear a pair of glasses. It makes Kemi look smart and a little bit nerdy. On the other hand, Kemi is a bold, passionate, and outgoing girl. She will never hide her feelings and thoughts and always be frank with everyone. Therefore, Kemi’s eyebrows have a pronounced curve that raises up higher than her mom’s. This type of eyebrow will often appear on the faces of people with aggressive and firm personalities. In addition, Kemi’s hairstyle is a single braid, one of the popular hairstyles usually seen on rappers. In fact, the hair is only braided on the top of Kemi’s head, and the rest of the hair on the bottom is tied up like a ponytail, which also matches Kemi’s two different sides of her personality. In the color version, two clumps of hair above her temples are dyed red. They are the symbol of rebelling inside Kemi, which is also demonstrated in the superhero version.
Based on the characteristics and style of Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks and American Superhero comics, I designed a format to tell the story with visual tools. I used the black and white of The Boondocks style to illustrate the majority of the story. I utilized the color-illustrated superhero style with animation for scenes where we wanted to intensify theatrical conflict. It is impossible to make everything color-painted and animated exquisitely in a short production cycle without a large amount of human resources. Therefore, it was necessary to limit the number of pictures for each scene, especially the scenes with colors and animation. The Boondocks-style pictures can save more time because they are black and white, have a simplified drawing style for characters and sceneries, and are static all the time. More importantly, such a format generated two contrasts: black and white vs. colored, static vs. dynamic. These contrasts are the tools that allow the director to tell the story for the young audience with more imaginative and attractive methods.
Mr. Ajayi is Kemi’s father. He is a hardworking, intelligent, and generous taxi driver in Washington, DC. He is a Nigerian who hopes to achieve the American Dream. He has a heavy Nigerian accent. He arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s and is in his 40s. Mr. Ajayi is a tall, slim taxi driver who works hard every day. His wide nose and big eyes highlight his features and give him a kind and benign look. I tried to provide some shared features with Mr. Ajayi and Kemi to help viewers see the father and daughter relationship. Mr. Ajayi and Kemi are ambitious, confident, and even assertive sometimes. That is why all the family fights in the script only happen between the dad and the daughter. Although they are stressed about life, they still persevere in what they love and believe. The beard is a useful tool to make Mr. Ajayi look older and give him a sense of style. I use stubble to imply that Mr. Ajayi shaves every day. And the trimmed whisker is a sign that Mr. Ajayi cares about keeping himself in style despite his working-class job and salary.
Mrs. Ajayi is Kemi’s mother. She is an easygoing, compassionate nurse in her 40s. Mrs. Ajayi is also Nigerian and has a heavy accent. In the playwright's words, Mrs. Ajayi is the breadwinner and peacemaker of the family. Mrs. Ajayi displays the cultural background of this family through her dress and style. She wears the traditional Nigerian costume, especially the gele, a headwear made of a long and colorful piece of cloth tied on women’s heads. Mrs. Ajayi has a pair of bright and clean eyes and slightly curved eyebrows. They represent a kind and wise soul inside. Kemi’s eyes are the same as her mother’s, so Kemi is a compassionate girl despite being short-tempered occasionally. The oversized earrings hanging beside Mrs. Ajayi’s cheek make her look like she has aged well.
Tasia is Kemi's classmate and the "enemy" of Kemi. Tasia is a Black Afro-Latina girl, as described by the playwright. Tasia's face shape is narrower and thinner than Kemi's. Tasia's face shape narrows slightly from forehead to chin. Tasia’s eyeliner makes her eyes look upturned, and her eyebrows raise up even higher than Kemi's. Tasia’s cornrow braids are tied high up on the top of her head in a bun. This hairstyle makes Tasia’s head into a polygon with clean, hard edges and sharp corners. All these features on Tasia’s face echo with and exacerbate her caustic and aggressive habits and characteristics. Furthermore, unlike Kemi’s hair, Tasia’s is dyed completely. It makes Tasia an eye-catching star in the crowd. This also proves that Tasia is a pushy and ambitious person. Another comparison between Tasia and Kemi also insinuates their difference. Kemi’s earring is a pair of shiny beads pinning on her earlobes, which perfectly matches her ear size, while Tasia’s earring is two pairs of big and sharp rings looped on her helix, making Tasia looks even more domineering.
Jule is Kemi's classmate and Tasia's sworn follower. She is a Black Afro-Latina girl, as described by the playwright. She has the same attitude to Kemi as Tasia does. However, she is not as attractive as Kemi and Tasia at school.
Ms. Anderson is Kemi's 7th-grade English teacher. She is an enthusiastic and well-meaning white lady. Ms. Anderson’s nose is sharp, and the bridge of her nose also connects directly to her superciliary arch, making her eyes look sunken in the eye sockets. I picture Ms. Anderson as a tall and slim middle-aged woman, so I gave Ms. Anderson the narrowest face among all the characters to accentuate her height. However, an over narrow face might make the character looks relentless, so I designed a bob haircut for Ms. Anderson to ameliorate her features. The circle-like shape of this hairstyle covers the sharp corners of her face and erases the malice from the hard shape. Ms. Anderson is also an exception which has a protruding chin that no one else has. This protruding chin keeps her face from looking like an upside-down cone. A tiny chin could purge the feeling of arrogance and make people look more affable and gentler.
Original Version vs Revised Version
Character Design
After Kimmy's production, I had some reflections on my design and one of them was focusing on revising the character design. The target audience of Kimmy is children from 8 to 12 years old. Although The Boondocks and Kimmy have many similarities in story settings and cultural backgrounds, the drawing style, in my opinion, should be more friendly, affable, colorful, and joyful for the young audience. The Boondocks style, which has the hard and sharp shape of characters’ lineaments, the world-weary faces, and the black and white color patterns, usually cannot provide kids with aesthetic pleasure.
In the revised version of Kimmy, I redesigned all the main characters (Mrs. Anderson does not affect the plot and appears for a short time, so I did not put this character in the redesigned list). The revised character design peruses a more kid-friendly and upbeat style which I call a “softened” process compared with the original version. All the characters were drawn with curves instead of The Boondocks style, which are straight lines and sharp edges. It would make faces more amiable and more acceptable for the young audience. The revised character design includes more obvious hairstyles, various designs, decorations, and enriching color patterns.
Kemi kept most of the features from the original version. I was cautious about redesigning Kemi because her appearance and style have been a symbol of this play. The key task for redesigning Kemi was bringing some new elements and keeping her recognizability to make both versions converge. Therefore, Kemi still wears a pair of glasses and has the same hairstyle and dress. I use colors to bring Kemi some new feelings. Adding a bright yellow to Kemi’s hoody makes the character look more active and optimistic. The stake shoes with the same color pattern as her hoody would amplify these characteristics and make Kemi look more like a teenager. The blue color is used for identifying the pants material, jeans, which also helps Kemi fit her age setting.
The dressing style and facial appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Ajayi were defined more clearly in the revised version.
Mr. Ajayi is styled for work with a light sky-blue shirt, a pair of Khaki suit pants, and a pair of glossy brown leather shoes. This shows his work attitude, his pride in his work and efforts, and his passion for his job. The tiny bright pink silk scarf in the chest pocket shows that his art enthusiast's energy is hidden inside his heart.
Mrs. Ajayi still has the Nigerian headdress, gele, to illustrate the family's cultural background. She wears a casual color for a dress and an apron to express her role in the family.
Tasia inherits the high-waist black leather jacket from the original version. I added white color on the key positions, which are the middle of the sleeves and both sides of the waist, to increase the contrast and emphasize her rapper style. This black leather jacket is also a “base point” for deriving the rest of Tasia’s dress. I added a hat with the same material and color pattern as Kemi’s jacket. The golden-brown dreadlocks hanging under the hat, combined with a pair of silver eyebrow rings and highly saturated lipstick, illustrate Tasia’s rebellious and high-profile characteristics. The black leggings and white skate shoes are also an echo of the leather jacket. Under the black jacket is a bright pink T-shirt same as the pink socks under the black leggings. A small portion of the bright color, like hair, lipstick, T-shirt, and socks, would pop out remarkably in the black base. These strong color contrasts would make this character impression on the audience.
Jule is the character with the most dramatic changes in the revised version. I abandoned the original Jule and redesigned the entire character. Because of the cultural and linguistic gaps and the short production cycle, I needed more research and understanding of this character. That caused me to design this character rashly and to make Jule become a boring-looking character in the original version. However, Jule allows the designer to use their imagination since the Kimmy script has a limited description for this character. Because Jule appears in every scene with a drama conflict, according to the script, Jule's lines could be watched as the trigger of conflict between Kemi and Tasia. It appears that Jule's very existence also exacerbates the intensity of conflicts.
Therefore, the revised Jule is designed as a male-presenting character. He is Tasia’s follower, who also is a fan of rappers and a celebrity like Tasia in the school. Jule and Tasia’s styles have certain correspondence. Both have the same white skate shoes and metal decorations. Jule has a pair of silver earrings and a silver necklace to make him shiny. Jule wears a long black sleeves T-shirt under the bright green T-shirt with a golden print of his short name, “JL.” Tasia’s dress is switched to that bright pink T-shirt under the black jacket. I hope the revised version can genuinely reflect the current situation of teenage gender identity to gain emotional resonance from the young audience.
Revised Version
3D Sculpture
In the revised version, I based on the 2D character design and directly made the 3D head models for certain important characters with digital sculpting technology. This brave try pushes the character design into a new step.
