Animation closeup: Designing Prometheus (Patreon)

As part of our production process, animators sometimes send character designs and color tests, which our team loves to look at together. Now that we have a Patreon channel, though, we get to share them with you--our community of patrons who help us make this content come to life!

Animator Léa Krawczyk and educator Iseult Gillespie have teamed up to create a lesson on the myth of Prometheus. Do you guys know this one? It starts with good intentions and ends with our hero chained to a cliff and eviscerated daily...😳  

Well, in order to check in about her work in progress, Léa sent us some character design sketches and color tests, and they are too gorgeous not to share. We hope you like them as much as we do!

Below, Léa shows us how she is going to create different and unique characters within the same character design framework. Note the subtle differences between gods and men (bottom right).

Color isn't just decorative, it helps tell a story. Léa applied different color palettes to stills from her work in order to make sure she found the right one to underscore and compliment the story she is trying to tell. 

Who knew picking a favorite lightning bolt would be so hard?!

The crux of the myth is when Prometheus steals fire from the gods as a gift for humankind. Cool, right? Well, as with all things human...it's complicated. On the one hand, cooked food (yay!) on the other hand, shiny new metal weapons (oh dear). Since this is arguably the most important moment in the myth, Léa spent a lot of time honing in on the perfect design for the fennel stalk Prometheus uses to transport the fire, as well as the flame itself.

Pretty cool, right? We can't wait to share the final lesson with you when it comes out next month. Meanwhile, here's a look behind the scenes at another one of our lessons on Greek mythology, The Myth of Cupid and Psyche. Here's a link to some animation tutorials, and below is a list of some of the other lessons we've made about mythology.

Thanks again for everything you do to make this work possible!

The myth of Icarus and Daedalus 

The myth behind the Chinese zodiac 

The scientific origins of the Minotaur