Becoming more specific

I've been looking at a few sources for inspiration for my concept. I am continuing to look at how character design and performance can be shown through animation, more specifically how initial reactions to character design can cause inaccurate interpretations of the character's behavoir.

What makes successful character design?

In order for my study to be successful i will need to strive to create a successful character design which incorporates my concept above. I have been looking at the characters of Beast (Beauty and the Beast) and Stitch (Lilo and Stitch) and have taken a lot of inspiration from them. Because both characters display a change in personality, but not necessarily design, we see also a transformation in their movements and behavoirs through animation. I will continue to look at these more thoroughly, as well as others that i will hopefully discover in time.

How can performance lead one to believe that there's more to a character beyond their appearance?

I hope to lead the audience into believing a certain thing about a character, simply by looking at their design, and then convey the opposite through animating the character. Hopefully the audience will experience surprise and therefore my character will become memorable.

Why would a character feel they need to act a certain way around others?

Another character i have been looking at is Jack Skellington. Jack feels he needs to be a scary pumpkin king, the king of halloween, when really he longs for more to life than constant halloween. His true self is shown through his lament, and eventually his joy when he discovers Christmas Town.