Praying for Mantis Love by Rachel Healy

Character Designs I have tried to keep the characters as simple as possible and in the style of shadow pupptry and animations like Lotte Reiniger. I have made distinctions between them with eye colour, size (the daughter and male are a head shorter and thinner than the mother) and shape (the mother and daughter wear cloaks and the males do not). but i want to keep the mother and daughter fairly similar looking and the male still has to look like the same species of insect too. I have given the daughter big blue eyes to enhance her innocence and kindness. i have given the mother reddish slanted eyes as she is mainly a vicious character. the male is small and also innocent/weak but he has pretty green eyes and is a perfect match for the daughter. I have researching praying mantises on the internet and i have used this along with my shadow puppet influence to create my own stylised slightly anthropomorphic characters. (still need to work out the male's walk/run cycle though).

The character personalities and the way they move are important. 

the mother is short tempered, close-minded, vicious and so her movements need to show this. 

the daughter is confused, scared, but strong willed.

the male is innocence, oblivious, and a bit unsteady.

The mime, Desmond Jones, helped with creating characters.

He say “big pupils are sympathetic and hypnotic” – I use big pupils with light reflections for the love scenes, the daughter herself has big blue eyes to connote innocence and sympathy.

“when you look down the eyelids go down as well so if the eyelids don’t go down it looks scary or severe”. – so the mother’s angry eyes when she looks down her eyelids don’t go down and when the daughter is fearful her eyelids don’t go down either. I use heavy eyelids for love and sadness.

“a head tilt often means a question” so when the daughter and male first meet and the male doesn’t understand what is going on, he does a head tilt.

“chest down equals vulnerable or depressed” – the daughter cowers from the mother when she approaches her so the audience think she will be attacked but after it is actually a hug. Also the daughter cradles the head at the end and is crouching over it, crying.

“hand and arm movements can equal aggression or natural smooth moving” – when the mother explains the paintings in the chapel her arm movements have some drag and move smoothly, however, when she grabs the males her movements are more direct.

“hands at chest level and out equals powerful” – the mother’s arms are usually in this position.

“hands close to chest equals insecure” – like the daughter

“7 levels of tension – lots of tension equals alert or aggressive” most my characters are fairly tense as is most of the story. The only bit where the characters are less tense in body posture are the love scenes.

The elements – earth equals strong, powerful, functionalist which is the mother. Fire is a fidgety person, little movements which is more the daughter and male, at the end the daughter is an air person because she is calm and open. She has gone through a journey and come out the other side better and happier.