Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500204
D E PA R T M E N T 29 KEYFRAME EDGY EVOLUTION KRAPOPOLIS CHARACTER DESIGNER: ANDY RISTAINO When Character Designer Andy Ristaino starts working on a character, he riffs, drawing many different designs. It's an approach that's served him well over a career that includes Storyboard Artist on Midnight Gospel and Designer and Storyboard Artist on Adventure Time, where he earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Landing at Bento Box to help develop pilots, "They'd bring in new projects, and I'd take a stab at what the look [would be]," he says. "They had other designers do the same thing for Krapopolis, but they finally chose the stuff I did." Stuff, he adds, that looks drastically different from the designs they finally landed on. Not that this troubles Ristaino. "We'll get closer and closer, and at some point they'll be like, this isn't quite working. We're not back to square one, but we'll take where we're at and redesign it and go in different directions. … For each of these characters, there is a long evolution. For me, that's what's most interesting. To see how a character has changed before we even get to see them onscreen." The forthcoming Krapopolis is an adult animated TV series from Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon. It's about the start of one of the world's first cities in mythical ancient Greece. Among the characters Ristaino designed for the show, Deliria is the mother of the main character, King Tyrannis. She is described as the goddess of self-destruction and questionable choices— it's no surprise that she almost always has a wine chalice in her hand. "When we first started working on her, they were thinking more Elizabeth Taylor and Cleopatra—that kind of look," Ristaino says. But this didn't feel right, so he kept riffing. "There are designs that made her look more rock and roll and edgier, and designs that made her look more like a goddess." Even though Deliria has been kicked off Mount Olympus, as the creative team developed her personality more, they wanted to show that she was still a god, which meant she had to look regal. At the same time, Ristaino says: "She's a rebel god. She likes to do things her own way and she doesn't take guff from anyone." To get this idea across Ristaino made her a little messy—loose hair and her gown sliding off her shoulder. He also used her eye design with its gaudy makeup to convey her defiant attitude, explaining, "I was thinking about Agnes Morehead from Bewitched." Despite Ristaino's significant role in designing the characters, he doesn't feel the show is representative of his style. He describes his design sensibilities as abstract, cartoony, and freeform, while Krapopolis is more realistic than what he usually does. That said, he can still see what he calls DNA from his sensibility in Deliria's hands and feet, her hair, and her eyes. "There's a simplicity to Deliria's design that feels more like what I would have brought in," he says. Was it hard to embrace a different style? He says it's still a challenge, but adds, "I love the process." Early on he spent a lot of time hanging out with Harmon. "He thinks out loud. I loved being a part of that and getting a window into his thoughts," says Ristaino. As he collaborated with Harmon and others, the style of the characters evolved, with Ristaino "keying in on what they wanted through my designs. … I've been working on this show for over two years now. It's like you grow into the role. You learn, oh, this is how you do this from drawing the characters over and over again." But drawing Deliria to the point where everyone was happy with the way she looked did not mean that he was done. Once the animation process began and footage started coming back, they realized that they needed to fix her turn. Ristaino explains that for each main character, an eight-point turn was designed for a 360-degree view. "For Deliria, when her front view transitioned to a side view, there was something weird happening with the turn," Ristaino says. "We had to go in and redesign her head a little bit, and redesign her front view, just to make it work better in animation." For such a small issue, it may seem like a lot of work, but Ristaino explains that a turn can be essential to understanding a character like Deliria. "With any character, that's the challenge," he says. "Trying to get someone's personality across." How do you dress them to express that? How do they stand to express that? And how do you pull it all off without making it too obvious? In Ristaino's case, he keeps on riffing until he gets it right. "For each of these characters, there is a long evolution. For me, that's what's most interesting. To see how a character has changed before we even get to see them onscreen." – andy ristaino opposite page: Ristaino's designs reflect a few of the different directions he took during the process of creating the character Deliria. this page: The final version of Deliria. SUMMER 2023 29