I was invited to speak to the Body Art and Culture class at Ringling College of Art and Design to discuss how to design diverse characters and accurately represent a culture without falling into the trap of appropriation.
This was a journey into the processes our team developed as we designed the characters for the Iroquois Creation Story.
This film was an exploration in multimedia convergence, where 2D characters interacted with 3D characters, and live actors balanced in fantastical spaces. Yet, in all this, every step of the process aimed to center the culture that the film represented, often subverting animation practices to accommodate the needs of the story and the characters.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theivytree.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/screencap_teens.jpg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1)