Romeo and Juliet -Redux: Character Design

This was a project where I needed to adapt a Shakespeare play into a modern adaptation. My story was Romeo and Juliet but loosely adapted into a t.v. animation about Dwarfs and Elves except set in modern times. As I went further along though, it became less about romance and more action and comedic oriented.

At first I tried making Juliet a dwarf girl, who was tough, stubborn and aggressive. In modern times she would be a tomboyish girl, that would would very motivated and take no crap from anyone.

The Romeo character would be an elf, charismatic, and good looking. In modern times he would be the popular kid, probably a jock or a ladies man.

The Orcs and ogres would be greasers and part of the bad crowd.

I got inspiration from West Side Story and Grease for my character designs and how the story would work for Romeo and Juliet. I ended up scrapping the idea because I didn't think it would work well with a young audience, I needed more action and less drama/romance.

I ended up going with a very loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, instead of romance it's friendship and instead of  a dispute between two families it's instead a dispute between two races: Dwarfs and Elves.

The two heroes would be polar opposites of each other:

The Elf, Rumil is more easy going, always happy, while Jorfinn would be stern and constantly angry. In battle though they make the greatest warriors together.

Jorfinn is a top heavy warrior, wears a warrior's mohawk, heavy armor, loves to wield an ax and get up close and personal with his enemies. In modern times he would be an outcast because of his stubborn attitude and get into fights. He would make a great football player as well.

Rumil is more lanky, and flexible, his hair is more stylized, wears a cloak and but he doesn't like to get his hands dirty so he fights from afar with his trust bow and arrow. In modern times he would also be an outcast because of his over eager personality that would irritate the more jaded 21st century humans. He's over the top personality makes him great at theater.

The enemies of Rumil and Jorfinn would be the mysterious war monger, The Ogre General and his army of minions.

I wanted to create a believably intimidating villain that the heroes have to face. The Ogre General would follow them to the modern world causing havoc.

I thought the armor would give him an intimidate air about him.

Got to have a intimidating weapon, what better than a spiked paddle sword that's on fire?

The best chair is a chair of minions.

I decided in the final design I needed to enhance the horns, added spikes and skulls on his waist. Also his feet became more demonic like.

The Ogre General is ruthless commander in the world of fantasy, has the ability to summon weapons to vanquish his victims.

The Ogre General has an army of minions, they're bumbling, clumsy and foolish but what they lack in every other area they make up in countless quantity.

I really enjoyed creating the dwarf family, giving them their own quirks and qualities.

The elf family was little more tougher, I still need to work on my skinnier characters. My stout characters though came across real well. Overall this project was one of the funnest I've done in my time at AAU.