Character Bible - What It is and How It Helps to Sell an Animation Concept
Posted: Friday, August 29, 2008
by Aldric Chang
How to Make Money Online
A character bible is the heart and soul of a cartoon
series. Without a proper character bible you cannot even get started on
talking to anyone about your concept. I have seen many character bibles
from producers around the world in the past few years asking for
co-production collaborations. I've seen really good ones and absolutely
dreadful ones. Having received several questions asked regarding what
goes into a character bible, I've written this entry to give some
insight on this topic. Below are the various ingredients that should
make up a good character bible.
It is absolutely important to
have a synopsis in your character bible. This is the foundation which
you build your entire story upon and it should be concise, but not
verbose enough such that it can't be read or explained in 3 minutes or
less. Try to make this a one-pager if possible. The shorter you can
make this and still keep it interesting, the better.
Include the designs of the most important characters in your character bible. Be sure to spend considerable time to make them look good and ensure that they do justice to your concept. A character bible should be more visual than wordy, showcasing the character designs to its fullest - with various poses and expressions of the main characters. Props - if any - should also be showcased. These are very important to show the potential of the characters should they become animated or licensed for various reasons. People reading the character bible need to be able to feel the characters for who they are and get an idea of the show through these character designs.
Ideally text descriptions of the characters should not be verbose, because not many people would really read through all that text. The character descriptions should outline only the most important characteristics of the characters to keep things short and quick to read. The visuals should pre-sell, and the text do the selling.
It would be good to showcase certain key locations and also provide illustrations or storyboards of how the world of the property looks like.
Fundamentally, it would be good to leave as little guess-work to the perspective partners as possible, so that the brand identity and values of the property is not compromised.
Lastly - for a property that is being primed for animation - you may want to include something called an 'episodic synopsis' - which outlines the stories which could happen in an animated series. These are usually done by a 'script doctor' - who can also help out in refurbishing the whole story background and character descriptions.
This article was contributed by Aldric Chang - a creative businessman who
is active in music composition and production, internet marketing, casual games
production, animation production, cartoon production and character licensing.
Include the designs of the most important characters in your character bible. Be sure to spend considerable time to make them look good and ensure that they do justice to your concept. A character bible should be more visual than wordy, showcasing the character designs to its fullest - with various poses and expressions of the main characters. Props - if any - should also be showcased. These are very important to show the potential of the characters should they become animated or licensed for various reasons. People reading the character bible need to be able to feel the characters for who they are and get an idea of the show through these character designs.
Ideally text descriptions of the characters should not be verbose, because not many people would really read through all that text. The character descriptions should outline only the most important characteristics of the characters to keep things short and quick to read. The visuals should pre-sell, and the text do the selling.
It would be good to showcase certain key locations and also provide illustrations or storyboards of how the world of the property looks like.
Fundamentally, it would be good to leave as little guess-work to the perspective partners as possible, so that the brand identity and values of the property is not compromised.
Lastly - for a property that is being primed for animation - you may want to include something called an 'episodic synopsis' - which outlines the stories which could happen in an animated series. These are usually done by a 'script doctor' - who can also help out in refurbishing the whole story background and character descriptions.
His 3d animation studio - Mediafreaks - is focused on producing high-end animation work for documentary producers, advertising houses and cartoon animated series - with projects ranging from the animation of dinosaurs to the visualization of natural disasters and something as chic as 3d jewelry animations.
For more interesting articles on the business side of animation, you can visit the Mediafreaks animation blog. You can also visit the Mediafreaks Animation Showcase Site for an extravaganza of the coolest and funniest free animations on the net.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hey my name is joseph camez and I have a cartoon concept and would like to get it developed and produced where and how would I be able to do this
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