This is an older project but its one I wanted to try out this case study feature with. I work in animation and best practice is to clean up the illustrator file before moving ahead to whoever is animating so often my figuring out stage gets lost. I knew I kept the process bits on this one though so its a good one to start with.

Shapes

For characters I always start with simple shapes. Usually a circle. I make "save points" by Alt+dragging what I'm working on every so often, I rarely go back to a previous state but its good for seeing how things change.

Pose

After I'm basically happy I usually put the character in a rough pose and add some variations to see what works.

Range of motion

Once I've got the character design down I take some time to mess around with them. Can they sit down? Can they walk? Can they pick something up? etc...

Animation

This is an animated project. I worked on the graphics and storyboard but an animator worked on the motion. I've worked with a lot of different animators and they all work differently, I just try and keep things simple with strokes and shapes.

Supporting characters

When working on a storyboard I usually have to make more than character.

Other bits

I try to keep things consistent with the scenery and world items too. This style was particularly rounded and simple.