The Research on Character Design Based on the Chinese Mythology: A Case Study of Shisa

Abstract

Chinese mythology with its profound cultural asserts and the unconstrained imagination is an indispensable factor in animation creation. The rich resources of myth in ancient China provided a broad space for the creation of animation film and inherited a long ethnic culture. Firstly, the study creates an animation mythological character design model according to the literature review to provide the operational theory for animation design, which consists of three main parts: central idea, research method, and conceptual model. Secondly, the research sums up the animation character creative process framework through the case of Shisa with the specific ideas of creative design. Four steps are used to design a mythological character: set a scenario (illustration), tell a story (interpretation), write a script (reaction), and design a character (reflection). It has analyzed how to integrate the information about the mythology and stimulate the designers' creative imagination in the animation character design in order to create the artworks with unique oriental charm.