I like creating lip syncs. It's always much better when using a program like flash or toonboom or harmony to create lip syncs, because nobody is redrawing your lips over seas, there is no interpretation. What you create is exactly what you get. There will never be any animation corrections or retakes due to lip sync problems.
I needed to design a character that was frumpy. My inspiration for her is the show WHAT NOT TO WEAR. The show where they take women that look frumpy and give them $5000 to spend on a brand new clothes. This is usually what the women look like before the trasformation.
Here's the rough sketch and the 3 clothing options I designed for this character; wife beater with sweat stain, open shirt with tie, and closed shirt with suspenders. They chose the one with the tie.
I always wanted to design a monochromatic character, and on this production I got to do just that. I was sure the color would get rejected and I would be told to make him "flesh colored" ...but to my surprise they loved it, and I didn't even have to fight for it or defend the design. It was a great feeling to be given the freedom to go nuts with the color and design. In every other production I have ever worked on I would have to draw badly on purpose to match the crappy style of the show, or be told things like "too cartoony" or "make it less interesting"
So in the top pic, I darkened the sky and made it a crescent moon.I came up with a nice color palette, but the middle pic doesn't look enough like night time, and the full moon can be mistaken for the sun.
This is a shot of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal. It is used as the opening scene of this project.