Physical Familiarity in Kenyan Animation Character Design: Recreating Selected Characters in Super Sema
Keywords:
Animation in Kenya, Animation Character Design, Animation for Children, Child Audiences, Character Design Techniques, Familiarity in Kenyan Character DesignAbstract
It is widely appreciated in film, television studies, and animation that a character serves as a means of telling a tale to the viewer in the media in which they appear. However, a character must be first relatable to convey the story. Consequently, this paper looks at the familiarity of characters in the Kenyan animation series Super Sema. The study was conducted in two phases, with the first phase aimed at determining whether the characters presented in the series elicited familiarity in a Kenyan child audience. The phase found that the degree of familiarity for the characters of the selected series was low. The study then moved to the second phase, where it recreated the characters to improve the characters’ familiarity based on views and adjustments raised by the child audience. The study was guided by Expressionism Theory, Audience Reception Theory, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, and Semiotics Theory.
The study used Super Sema, a Kenyan animation series, as the main film for this study. The series was selected since it is one of Kenyan animation series with a sustained plot and characters. A total of 4 main characters from the film were used in the study: Sema, MB, Tobor, and Babu. To achieve the intended objective, the researcher used school-going children (male and female) aged between 7-11 years. The participants were first shown the characters; then once the degree of familiarity was established, adjustments were made to the characters to improve their familiarity. A total number of 283 students were engaged in both focus group discussions and individual interviews, across five selected Kenyan schools. This study was qualitative as it examined the selected texts in depth, birthing further discussions and conclusions.
This research looked at the degree of familiarity achieved by the child audience using the alternative character design approach. Most participants noted familiarity with the recreated characters and a significant number cited that familiarity is a key concern when watching television, films, and animations. Different reasons have been discussed to justify their statements. The study also noted that child audiences have a critical eye when engaging with characters on the screen, and as such, the character designers have a role in ensuring that the preferences of the audiences in terms of familiarity are achieved.
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