Leopold`s name was an homage to the involvement of prince Leopold (Queen Victoria oldest son) in Alice Liddell`s life, curiously is the name of one of her future sons. The "White Rabbit" is actually a Plush toy who becomes alive through Vorpal technology, so the Rabbit needed some background research on the dolls of the late 1800.
This first toys depicting animals were kinda freaky, some had real hair and some appear clothed. Also que problem with design was making it cute while respecting the period. You can check out this
Pinterest link for some Retro/Vintage/Primitive Bunny rabbits
 |
| A Rabbit plush toy in early 1900 |
So this challenge was not to make just a cute plush toy, but to make a real character that needed to convey sympathy, be true to its time and also needed to look like a very loved toy. The body needed to look used and over cared, full of patches with different patterns as if he passed from brother to brother until he came to Alice. I also wanted to use the less amount of plush possible, to avoid looking like an "living, furry animal". He should look artificial, man made and then, progressively become a living character in the viewer`s mind.
 |
| Sketch/Concept used for the final Rabbit |
The next step was visualization, a real doll was needed to use in our capture sessions, sometimes as a reference, Alice spends about 60% of the story interacting or looking at Leopold. So came the need to contact Ana Santos from the Store "
Coração de Pássaro" who provided the skills and inventively created the life size Leopold for us to use. Then, to have the real deal meant that i could copy the textures using Ana`s fabric patterns (or even the seams).
 |
| Leopold prop by Coração de Pássaro |
Because the digital Rabbit model was already being used in animatics, a small update needed to be made, in this one i blended the good features of the real Leopold with the first concept,so the details went to the model but i preserved the volume from the original, at some point in time there will be a robot inside.
The "Wunderland rig" also needed to capture a different type of anthropomorphic body, Leopold was the first body in which i had to modify the actual armature to accommodate the character structure (large torso, small and wider hips).
The next upgrades will require some cloth dynamics for the ears and in some spots of the body. The goal is to achieve a more sacky motion on the limbs, but at the same time i will be continuing with the capturatics (yes, a mixture of motion capture and animatics).
I am very proud of this character because he is the marriage of two worlds and various crafts. Thank you Coração de Pássaro for helping with Leopold`s birth.
More news as soon as possible.
