I have previously stressed the importance of visual simplicity when creating content for young children. But rather than taking that as a given, it is better to get familiar with why this is important.

The answer is not that children are simple.

Quite the opposite. The answer is that children are incredibly complex and, at certain ages, interpret visual information differently. And knowing more about this answer will inform your design choices.

On top of learning new things at a ferocious rate, children are very quickly processing what they see based on what they already know. This can greatly affect how children perceive design. One thing young children try to do, and usually succeed, is put form to abstract shapes. They ace Rorschach tests. They will see monsters in dark corners, faces in patterns, and a whole zoo in their drawings where we adults see nothing but scribbles.

Simply put, they often can make something out of nothing.

So if you have a detailed rock texture, for example, you see it as adding richness. To a young child, you are potentially throwing a whole set of new pictures you never intended. While your characters are busy telling the story, a young child could be staring at that rock texture and seeing snakes, or a clown, or socks, anything, and completely missing your story. Does that mean you shouldn’t use texture? No, not necessarily. But once you start getting detailed, you have to become very aware of the clarity. The edges and shapes become all-important to make sure your audience really put the right forms to what you are showing them. You have to work harder to make each visual element clear to children, while being careful not to overwhelm them.

Another interesting part to this is that children often process their visual information in a certain order. They can work their way through that order and stop when they have enough information to process what they are seeing. That order may well vary from child to child but I have found that shape, silhouette, is usually much more important to the younger end of preschool (two, two and half) than the colour and details within that shape.

So what does this mean for design? Well, it means that if you are using the same character model for more than one character and are relying on colouring and details for kids to tell them apart, you could be in trouble when it comes to the youngest children in your audience. They may well have already categorised the characters before getting to your details, leading to confusion over which character is which.

Varying the silhouette of your characters is really a must for young children.

This really just scratches the surface of things to consider when putting a visual form to your preschool project but even keeping these in mind will help your audience take in your content. You don’t want them confused. You don’t want them looking at one thing while you’re trying to show them another. You do want them to enjoy your story and soak up the entertainment and whatever goodies you are offering them.

What is important to realise is that, by getting more familiar with how your audience thinks, you will be better able to approach your project in a way that makes that easy for them.

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Tags: animation, Children, design

Many years ago, when I was just moving into children’s programming, I saw what was then Tell-Tale Productions (veterans Iain Lauchlan, Karl Woolley and Will Brenton) pitching a show called Where’s Boo? at the Cartoon Forum. They discussed the design and how their research showed that the simple shapes, clear colours and heavy lines made the character much easier to read for small children. Now sometimes people make outlandish claims at the Forum but this made sense to me and the (now ex) Tell-Tale guys know their stuff.

In the years that followed, I dug into research on how children perceive visual information and conducted quite a bit of my own testing on show concepts and designs. It was only then that I could truly appreciate how right they were. As adults, many of us tend towards complexity, the details, texture and polish. Many of these things have no relevance to preschool children and may even cause problems.

Young children need clarity. Visual simplicity.

I have written before about how I first found the Fluffy Gardens look – I drew the characters with a mouse. It prevented me from using some of the shapes and details that would be pleasing to me as an adult. I ended up with basic, crude drawings. Almost like those a child might do.

Children reacted so positively to these images and I found they were drawn in particular to the large eyes (hence them getting even larger in refining the look). The flat colours, the hard black lines on the characters and the simple easy-to-read expressions all contributed to it working for children, yet often far from what we look for as adults.

Since making Fluffy Gardens, different shows have had different needs. You can see, I’m sure, how Planet Cosmo is an evolution of the same ideas. Aiming at the higher end of preschool age range, Planet Cosmo needed to demonstrate the wonders of space. It needed to feel a little more beautiful, less crude. And yet still we have basic shapes, large eyes and flat colour on the characters. The balance took a long time to find and, throughout development and production, we had to remind ourselves of our purpose.

Because as we work, we tend to drift.

Often we drift towards old habits, sometimes we drift towards new ones. But we drift. This is across all aspects, not just design. It is why we so often play back old character samples when recording voice work for a show – even the actor who defined a voice can find themselves drifting away from it, just a little bit each recording. In classical animation, it is how characters might change when animating straight ahead, each drawing being just a little different from the previous one.

So it is important to reset.

Important to take us back to an earlier realisation and remind ourselves of what we learned. To relearn it. It is rarely enough to learn something just once.

For me, that means pulling out the very early Fluffy Gardens concepts, even more basic than the actual finished show. Appreciating the simplicity, the lack of details. And recognising that what I’m looking at is very different to what we often strive for or appreciate as adults. And that’s a good thing.

So, when working for young children, never fear simplicity. Keep in mind the drift, no matter what end of the craft you are in – writing, designing, directing, animating. Sometimes in our quest to get better, we can forget what is important to our audience.

Reset and relearn.

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Tags: animation, Cartoon Forum, Children, design, Fabulopolis, Fluffy Gardens, Planet Cosmo, writing

Pitching a show is a whole world away from creating one and, like anything else, the real way to get good at it is practice. Experience. Learning from your own mistakes and watching the pitches of others to see where they went right or wrong. This is one of the reasons I love the Cartoon Forum, an event where I have pitched unsuccessfully (and learned from failure) and then more successfully (and learned from success). At some point I will post my own thoughts on pitching but here is the most important thing to realise about any pitch, any sale:

People have to want to buy what you are selling.

There are great salespeople and terrible salespeople but even the great salespeople need something worth selling and they need to sell it to the right people. You might blow someone away with a flashy presentation and smooth words but a couple of weeks later that person has to convince their superiors and it is just them and your show document.

That show eventually has to sell itself. Which means that, before you pitch, you need to know that your show will be able to continue where you left off. You need to be sure that the show basics – the concept, stories and characters themselves – will provide the answer to any questions your buyer might have. By the way, that also extends to your audience and the early adopters (usually the parents – be good to them by making something great for their kids).

You may love your characters and stories but this is the point where you have to look beyond all that. You have to see your show as a package and you have to know that package very well.

Take your show and consider these questions -

Who exactly is your show aimed at?

What is different, unique, about this show?

What does it offer children beyond entertainment?*

What does it offer to specific broadcasters?

What is the format (episode length etc.)?

Why that format?

Can it sustain more than ten episodes?

Have you got more story ideas?

Does it look great?

Is it producible?**

Is all of this obvious in just one short document?

Is it obvious in just one single line?

* Truth is, entertainment should be a given. That’s not a unique selling point.

** No point in having a great show that can’t be produced or funded.

You need to have the answers to those questions and you need to commit to them. They can’t be pasted on to your show afterwards – people will see through that. The answers to those questions need to be part of the core of your show. Yes, you can change your mind on some of them later and a particular broadcaster may request a change but you need to be strong with those answers right at the start so it is clear that your show’s foundations are solid. If I made one mistake on some of my early show pitches, it was hoping others would sort out my show’s weaknesses. Don’t do that. A broadcaster/producer/whoever may help take your show from great to magical but they won’t want to start anywhere below great.

And no matter what, the show has to be a good fit for them.

Even if they love your show, they will need to match the answers to those questions to their own internal brief, their channel’s mission or aims. And they will eventually need to do it without you, without your passion to carry it through.

So before you pitch, know your show. Know what it is and why. And make sure your show demonstrates that.

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Tags: animation, business, design, How To, writing

You have your show idea and you want to take it to the next step – turn it into an actual show you can pitch. So what now?

The familiar approach for creators is to jump straight into developing the characters. Some can make this work but too often I see the shotgun method – create as many characters as possible with back stories that require whole forests to print out.

You need to avoid that. Firstly, back story does not mean you have a fleshed-out character. It is how those characters act in the here and now that matters. Not what they once did in your written history that no child will ever read. But it is also important to realise that long character descriptions tend to send people to sleep and, while you’re not at pitch stage yet and you can always trim, it is vital you keep that end goal in sight to retain focus – especially for yourself. You can get lost in the characters forever, with no idea what you are doing with them. Soon you’ll put yourself to sleep. 

Your characters are important.

But there is so much more to a show than just the characters and it is in strengthening the core of your show that will lead you to the characters you need. Yes, you can see many shows with a tight-knit group of characters who play against each other beautifully and you will think “it’s all about the characters, that’s the strength” but that is just a sign that the framework of that show is so solid, so right, that you no longer see it. You take it for granted.

So instead of diving head-first into character development, instead consider spending time on building your framework. And how do you do that? Here’s my suggestion:

Begin at the end.

We all know the clichés about building the foundations, running before you can walk etc. They are all true, to a point. But you have to know where you’re going. No point in building a foundation without knowing what you plan to put on it. Begin at the end. Project yourself to the point where you have a show to pitch. What are you pitching? In very broad strokes, what is it? You won’t have the details yet of course – you don’t need them. What you need is a feel for the answers to some of those questions I posted last week. What you want to hear in your head is someone saying to you, “I love this show because it does….”

What does it do?

Remember I mentioned that some of the strongest ideas begin as little more than an aim? Even if you did not start with your aim, you need to find it. That’s your end goal. Dora didn’t begin with the aim to teach children Spanish but when they found that aim they suddenly had a clear one-line instant pitch. You could replace every character in that show, even Dora, and still have something strong because the aim is clear. And the focused aim informed the character development and they ended up with a mix that children adore. By the way, I mention Dora simply because it provides an example most of us are familiar with – it is not the recipe book for success. If your aim is to repeat what Dora did, there is a long trail of people who have failed to do that for over ten years. Find your aim, not the aim of some other show.

Begin at the end. Project yourself to the end of development to find what you want to have achieved when you get there. Find the aim and any other goals that come from that process. Write them out on a piece of paper and stick it over your computer. When you get stuck or lost, look up at it. Keep the ending in mind and you can start to build a very strong framework from which the characters and every other element can be created, moulded, developed or dropped and replaced.

If you are ever to hit your target, you need a target to hit. Try beginning at the end, project yourself forward to find your goal and you will have the focus you need.

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Tags: animation, business, design, How To, writing

“I have an idea for a show, how do I get it made?”

I get asked this question on a pretty regular basis. Before I got into broadcast television, it’s a question I found myself asking. If you are here looking for the answer, the bad news is that this post does not contain the answer you want. But it may contain the answer you need.

Here is the first step – back up and review what you have.

Rewind.

Because I find that almost everyone who comes to me with this question is looking to sell a show. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But what they have is exactly what they say they have – an idea for a show. And one does not equal the other.

To get a show made, to sell a show, you’ve really got to have a show.

An idea is a fantastic starting point and, in spite of what I have read elsewhere, I think an idea alone can have value. After all, it is the core from which a show can grow. But you have to know the difference between the idea and the show. You have to recognise what you have. For example, more often than not I see the idea is just a group of character designs. That’s not a show. It’s a really good place to start (my own Fluffy Gardens began as just a collection of characters) but it’s not yet a show. Other times, people will describe a scene or the beginnings of a story. Great for establishing the tone you’re looking for, but it’s not a show.

And sometimes people just have an aim – so it’s this show, right, that tells children just how amazing bees are.

Often those ideas seem to be vaguest, fluffiest and least-defined in terms of actual creative. They can also be the strongest and most likely to succeed because those ideas come from someone on a mission. Someone out to make a difference in a child’s life rather than just trying to get their own creations on to a screen somewhere.

But it’s still not a show yet.

So how do you get your show made? Make it a show. Go back to the idea, your own driving force, and flesh it out. Figure out what it is and why. Picture how an episode might play out. What’s missing? What does it offer the audience? Do the characters work together? Do they spark more story concepts? You know that phrase “it writes itself”? Well I find really good show concepts ooze episode ideas – stories after stories. If you’re struggling to find a story, something in the setup is probably not working yet. That’s all creative stuff but anyone can work these things out, whether you’re coming at this as a designer or a writer or anything else. It can be daunting and there may be a thousand reasons why you think you aren’t qualified but, truth be told, I don’t know if anyone is really qualified. Those who succeed are just those who went ahead and tried it anyway.

And then kept trying.

Throughout this process, the most important thing to figure out is this – why would someone care? Television is saturated. Broadcasters, distributors and buyers have decades of shows just sitting there. They get pitched new shows all the time. So what one-line pitch has your show got that will make someone think, “I don’t have a show like that, I need that”? By the way, that requires doing your homework and finding out what already exists. Not everyone is going to buy into your pitch – that’s fine, not everyone has to. But you have to know what your pitch is.

At some point in all that, you will find you go from having a show idea to having a show. And you are in a far, far better position when your question becomes, “I have a show, how do I get it made?” 

One last addition to this… If you really go for it and get to that last question, you are well on your way to where you want to be. 99% of people stop at the idea. So just push that bit further.

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Tags: animation, business, design, How To, writing