David OReilly's simple, expressive critter created for character design festival Pictopia.

Like humans, 3D-animated characters are held together by skin and bones. Unlike humans, our computer-generated counterparts are seemingly evolving in reverse, free from the restrictions of age, time and gravity, into smaller, abstract and flawlessly cute critters.

That trend toward simplified, cute characters in advertising, art, fashion and toy culture is the subject of animator David OReilly’s trailer for Pictopia, a character design festival and exhibition held in Berlin this past March. Much like the event’s panels and speakers, the minute-long promo playfully deconstructs the notion that the more basic the character design, the broader its emotional appeal will be.

“If you see a simple character, you want it to be a mirror for your thoughts and expressions,” he explains over the phone from his studio in Berlin. “It sheds its objective human shape and becomes this cute generic character on which you can print your emotions.”

In “When You’re Smiling”, a humanoid skeleton putters about a black and white grid, collecting shards of smashed character features. It sits down in front of a dressing mirror and sheds its bones, transforming into a compact creature with an oversized cranium, tiny limbs and bug eyes. The newly-generic icon then struts through the mirror onto a colorized stage toward its awaiting audience.

The piece was co-conceptualized by Pictoplasma founders Lars Denicke and Peter Thaler, who wanted the trailer to be introspective and metaphorical. “It’s an honest reflection of how characters are built,” says OReilly. “On one hand it’s repetitive and clichéd and on the other it’s actually quite interesting how audiences connect to something made from relatively simple motifs.”

OReilly animated the trailer using Maya and filled it with references to software typically used in 3D animation: the grid, the way the skeleton scales up the size of his head and the character’s bones. The piles of character shards are a mix of classic and contemporary 3D models resembling characters by Fons Scheidon, Aki Oishi and Walt Disney. An even subtler touch is OReilly’s hand-drawn character sketches, which decorate the skeleton’s dressing room mirror.

As for his own preference, OReilly prefers simplicity. In fact, his characters are sometimes completely expressionless. “I love when characters don’t have any expression and through different themes, you get a sense of the scenario,” he says. “I like when you don’t know what to expect until you see them move. I don’t like when they look cute at all.”

David OReilly> www.davidoreilly.com
Pictopia> pictopia.festival.pictoplasma.com