Artist research - Glen Keane (character designer/animator)

In 1982, inspired by the groundbreaking film Tron, Keane collaborated with animator John Lassertan (toy story) and did a 30-second test scene of ‘Where the wild things are’ which was optioned for them by Disney executive Tom Wilhite. The test integrated traditional character animation and computer-generated backgrounds and, like Tron, was a cooperation with MAGI. It was Disney's first experiment with digitally-drawn characters. Although the project was revolutionary (and became a predecessor to the famous ballroom scene in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Disney declined to invest further in the featurette due to its cost. Keanes work links well with this projects character design as he has observed and created characters that are created from an object, for example Lumier the candle in ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ His ability to humanise an object is what drew me towards his designs, refining them from a servant into a candle stick with a face. After experimenting with the relationship between my two objects, choosing the one where the chessman lives in the carbolic steam spray can. I wanted to reverse Keanes process, using his drawing as examples, developing the character from an object into something more human. I kept the same crown throughout, wanting each version to keep it in order to have this reflection of the object in the character. The story is heavily based around the chess board to reinforce the objects purpose. Keane inspired me to add colour to my turnarounds, I also digitalised them to make them look more professional.

The artefact project

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