Character & Visual Development

01 · Define

Weekend

Character Development

Weekend is a social app designed to help close friends turn casual ideas into real plans. For its animated brand film, I developed Janet as the human center of the story—a character who could embody the product’s core user and carry its visual world.

My role: Character development, visual direction, AI-assisted exploration, paint-over, and final art direction.

Who Is Janet?

Janet is a young designer with strong visual taste and an active but intentional social life. She enjoys spontaneous experiences with close friends and adopts new technology when it feels intuitive, beautifully designed, and genuinely useful. She is stylish without being performative, socially warm without needing to be the center of attention, and expressive without being loud.

Design-conscious · Approachable · Socially warm · Contemporary · Selective

02 · Explore

Character Interpretation Study

Curated Creative

Strong taste · Slightly too reserved

Refined, visually restrained, and design-conscious. This direction emphasized Janet’s taste through clean silhouettes, elevated basics, and composed body language.

Social Connector

Warm and engaging · Too extroverted

Warm, expressive, and socially magnetic. This direction tested more open gestures, playful styling, and a stronger sense of outgoing energy.

Urban Explorer

Spontaneous and active · Too discovery-led

Curious, practical, and spontaneous. This direction emphasized movement, discovery, and a more relaxed, lived-in visual identity.

Curated Creative offered the strongest alignment with Weekend’s brand, but felt slightly too reserved emotionally. Social Connector brought warmth and approachability, but read as more extroverted than Weekend’s intimate social dynamic. Urban Explorer felt spontaneous and active, but placed too much emphasis on discovery over connection.

03 · Synthesize

Character Synthesis

I combined the visual restraint and contemporary taste of the Curated Creative with the warmth and approachability of the Social Connector. The resulting Janet feels stylish but not performative, socially active but selective, and aligned with Weekend’s intimate approach to planning.

04 · Test Styles

Visual Style Exploration

Using the selected sketch as a consistent design anchor, I used Vizcom to explore Janet across several visual languages. I evaluated each direction for emotional readability, brand alignment, and suitability for animation before selecting the editorial 2D approach.

Janet rendered in the initial sketch style — Initial Sketch

Janet rendered in the stylized cinematic 3d style — Stylized Cinematic 3D

Janet rendered in the simplified graphic 3d style — Simplified Graphic 3D

Janet rendered in the editorial 2d style — Editorial 2D

Graphic Brand Character

05 · Refine

Selected Direction

Editorial 2D

The 2D direction preserved Janet’s warmth and emotional readability while integrating most naturally with Weekend’s soft, design-forward visual world.

Draw-over notes refining Janet’s proportions, hair, face, and jacket — Targeted draw-over

Refined editorial 2D Janet character design with one hand in her pocket — Refined character

Design Refinement

I refined Janet through targeted draw-overs, adjusting her proportions, silhouette, hairstyle, and wardrobe to make her feel more contemporary, approachable, and visually aligned with Weekend’s brand world.

06 · Build the World

Wardrobe & Supporting Cast

Weekend supporting friend in a lavender jacket

Weekend supporting friend in a graphic tee

Expanded Janet’s wardrobe to distinguish her polished everyday look from a softer, more relaxed at-home version. Developed a supporting cast with complementary silhouettes, styling, and personalities, creating an inclusive social circle while keeping Janet visually distinct as the lead.

Expression Range

Built an expression set centered on warmth, curiosity, anticipation, and social connection.

07 · Bring to Motion

Final Character in Motion

The selected character direction was carried into Weekend’s animated brand film through a hybrid workflow combining illustration, AI-assisted exploration, compositing, and manual refinement.

Selected Character Studies

Hand-painted visual development scene of a woman knitting on a sofa while her playful Pomeranian pulls the blue yarn. — Character Lighting & Digital Painting Study
Exploring how lighting, color, and subtle expression shape mood and personality within a stylized character portrait.

Creature character sketches exploring two expressive dog personalities — Creature Character Exploration
Exploring personality, movement, and contrasting silhouettes through expressive animal characters.

Stylized human character explored through poses, expressions, and costume — Stylized Human Character Study
Developing a character through pose, costume, expression, and shape-language exploration.

Facial shape studies spanning people and animal characters — Facial Shape Studies
Testing a broad range of facial proportions, ages, personalities, and species.

Traditional Foundations, Evolving Practice

These studies reflect my foundation in character, silhouette, expression, and personality across a range of visual styles. Today, I build on that foundation through a hybrid process combining drawing, CG, generative exploration, and hands-on refinement.