original design of the character
Sarah’s version
The fusing process of me drawing a similar angled face and comparing the difference between each other, to find where possible fusing may be made.
Final outcome made by me
As I was refining the storyboard, to save time, I asked my teammate, Sarah, to produce those shots that were reserved from the previous version. However, I quickly realized her style ended up very different and disloyal (image 2) from the agreed turnaround style and proportion. It came to my realization that artists sometimes struggle to duplicate a foreign style, and the more skilled one is may further worsen the situation, as the inherent style becomes almost a natural instinct, making it objectively difficult to adapt, while their authenticity may also make one subjectively unwilling to adapt. Therefore, I realized that a compromise has to be made. Thus, the new version is produced, which I do prefer aesthetically due to it’s more stylistic outcome.
Yet despite the overall positive outcome, it is still a very unprofessional scenario. Had the storyboard not been delayed and production already fully started, such reworking would have meant major waste in production that is already being made. The main problem is that informal, unprofessional meetings often make a decision “read and understood” but not necessarily “agreed and confirmed”. This means that no work can be seen as set and final, which is fatal as a production pipeline, since the progress becomes untrustworthy and can be easily overthrown. It is more than a technical problem of trying to stick to the given design, but also to have a professional mindset of agreeing and being loyal to a ready-made decision unless change is necessary. Thus, I believe that in future team management, this problem should be made aware of and taken care of, and the ability to duplicate different style characters should be an important skill during training.