Character Development

     Developing a character is key to engaging your audience, especially within the beginning of the film. This goes beyond just creating and naming them. You have to give them personality, backstory, desires, and motivations. 

    Because the first two minutes of my film don’t have any dialogue, it is most important to convey the personality and background of my character through visual and surface level elements, such as his name, physical appearance, and movements. I want him to come across as a tough, aged, rugged warrior, yet also a wise, kind, gentle, and ultimately emotionally mature person under his rough exterior. He is an older man, honorable and brave, but has a misguided affliction for taking revenge on those that have hurt him, as we see in the opening sequence.

    For the protagonist of my film opening, I wanted to give him a name that reflected the setting and genre. In most western fantasy narratives, the characters often have names that the audience would likely not be familiar with in order to establish the new, magical, world in which the story takes place, often based in the past. Characters may have foreign names derived from different languages, or ones that are entirely made up. So I decided to search the internet for Old English names originating from the Anglo-Saxon period (450-1100), and often featuring strong nature-based or virtue-driven meanings. I thought this would nicely match the personality of my character and the medieval-inspired setting, and quickly decided  on the name: Aldrich. The name means “old and wise ruler,” comes from Old English words, and is historically associated with Anglo-Saxon nobility. The quality of being a leader, king, or “ruler” reflects the respectable, honorable nature of the character, as well as the wisdom he has in his older age. 

    Much of the plot in the opening minutes is devoted to establishing the protagonist’s backstory, and depicting the aftermath of the fire. But once again, the absence of dialogue means that the information must be relayed to the audience visually. The character’s’s village has been destroyed by a fire-breathing dragon, an event that gives him a motivation behind the main goal that he would strive to accomplish throughout the rest of the  narrative: to hunt and slay the beast. Consumed by vengeance, he embarks on his quest, which kicks off the rest of the story.

    Finally, when designing this character, I of course had to incorporate parts of his personality into his design, as that is what makes a good character design. The character is supposed to be a strong, tough fighter, I wanted to give him a thick, heavy muscular build, with broad shoulders. To further enhance this look, I also have him a thick fur cape, which was perfect to make him look even larger and bigger than he already was. It also hides parts of his body, of course, making him seem a bit mysterious. Immediately, I decided to give him a beard, to make him look older and more rugged. His hair would also be grey, and I gave him large boots to enforce that idea that this character is a tough warrior. His clothing was definitely inspired by medieval style clothes, and the costuming in Game of Thrones. I wanted his clothes to look ancient, and from a different age. I imagine his clothes would be colored grey and brown, very neutral tones, but I do want to incorporate some blue into his design as well, possibly in the eye color. The eyes are where the viewer’s attention should go when looking at an animated or drawn character, because that is where the character show the most emotion and humanity.

Momcozy. (n.d.). Aldrich name meaning, origin, and popularity insights. Momcozy. Retrieved February 16, 2026, from https://es.momcozy.com/blogs/baby-names/aldrich/