My diploma project required me to create characters and develop them into content for mobile phone and web. The primary task was to design characters and create introductory promos of them, develop animation application and visual ringtones for the possible programmes and channels.
Initially, we aimed at making contents on a few characters. My responsibility was to design the characters. The character design needed to be new, diverse, and quirky. Out of all the characters designed, Pehelman, Mosibaba, Hoog Lee, Kala Hari, and Camlesh were developed further.
Pehelman is a jolly, brave and powerful bodybuilder from a small town giving health tips and saving people from problems. Mosibaba is an old man who travels around with an umbrella that often turns into a boat, parachute or a stick and with a bag full of things. He helps people with unnecessary facts and necessary mobile utility and also comes up with daily fun quotes. Hooglee, a Bengal tiger initially designed as a mascot for Kolkata Knight Riders for the Indian Premiere League Cricket Tournament, was simplified by me so that it could be animated in 2D Flash medium. Kala Hari has been given the Kathakali form of Krishna. Hence, an analogy has been drawn between Lord Krishna’s stealing butter and Kala Hari’s stealing from other robbers. Another character was Camlesh, a goofy talkative camel from Rajasthan, who loves to wander around, shop and share his lonely planet experience with funny and necessary tips.
My tenure at Studio Abode gave me an opportunity to work for a diverse platform – from feature films to a feature film pre-production process. At the same time, looking at the possibilities of television, web and mobile phone were the important phases where I got to learn a myriad of things.
