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AP Donatello

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[Animation Project Model Sheet]
See what other characters have shown up in the Animation Design Project here: [link]

"Donatello"
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Donatello does machines.

Accidentally dropped into a sewer and mutated by a mysterious green goop, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were raised and trained by their sensei Splinter to defeat the evil Shredder and his villanous ninja clan, The Foot!

Donatello was always portrayed as geek/nerd/whatever in both the original 80s series and the 2003 series. The only real difference is that in the 80s version he was mostly focused on making machinery and bizarre devices, whereas the 2003 version, being of this new computer age, had far more computer and internet interests to add to his stable of crazy machinery. Unfortunately you can't really show that in an image like this, but I assure you this is based on the 80s Donatello :D

So basically here I wanted to make them still recoginizable as the Ninja Turtles you know and love, but with a more moden animation look to it (as the whole point of this AP project is about, lol). I wanted them to all look happy and friendly, as these are supposed to be based on the 80s cartoon versions. Its hard to describe correctly, but I really wanted thick forearms and lower legs with bigger feet and big hands as it (to me) made them seem less like green men wearing a shell and having a funny head, and more like a mutant, humanoid turtle, but without going too far so as they didn't still look like the TMNT if that makes any sense at all. I know the TMNT don't exactly look that much like a real turtle does, but yknow what I mean, lol. That influence and idea comes a bit from the recent NECA action figures based on the original comics, but also the 2007 CG movie which sorta had the same look. I wanted them sort of short, stocky looking body, but I still needed them to be thin enough in the body to emphasize the fact that they are in fact teenagers and that was a must for me. Oddly enough, how I draw the turtles' heads normally is very similar to how they are drawn in the recent Back to the Sewers TMNT cartoon. I wanted then to have bigger, bright eyes to make them expressive, as well as to again show off that they are young and not adults. If I made adult/future versions of the turtles they would have smaller eyes and more of a thicker physique more fitting of an adult version, so I did keep that in mind while designing my take on the Turtles. I also debated on whether or not give them all different skin colours like the toys had or give them the same colour like the cartoon did. I opted for giving them the same colour green as it was more of a reference to the cartoon and because the 2003 Turtles had the different skin tones as a standard so I figured I'd save that for whenever I did Turtles based on that incarnation. I made an effort to make sure on the face that the mouth firmly shows off a "beak" sorta look, to again emphasize that they are mutant turtles, and because real Turtles do have them. To bite you with.

The idea to post them in the order they are shown in the theme song, along with the quote attached to them from said theme song, was shamelessly and heartlessly stolen from :iconwonderdookie: who has been doing the same thing with his awesome reimaginings of the Turtles and their other assorted characters.

(NOTE: this is a work of fiction, this is not for a REAL animated series! I don't work in the animation industry in any way.)
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© 2010 - 2024 KrisSmithDW
Comments61
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Kroxie's avatar
I love this so much, it's a perfect mix of old and new and I reckon you have those teenagerery-mutanty-ninjary-turtley elements spot on! I just wish the recent TV series went with a design that was more down this path. I'm gonna go check out the other designs you've made now! (Oh and Don's my favourite ;D )