Robespierre is an immortal determine not as a result of he reigned supreme over the Revolution for a number of months, however as a result of he was the mouthpiece of its purest and most tragic discourse.
– François Furet, Decoding the French Revolution
Cal Arts animation scholar Michelle Cheng’s character design primer, above, attracts consideration to the various hats an animator have to be ready to put on when bringing to life a determine who truly existed:
Artist…
Researcher…
Costume designer…
Hairstylist…
Psychologist…
Her selection of Maximilien Robespierre, probably the most influential figures of the French Revolution, means that Cheng enjoys a problem.
As historian Peter McPhee writes in The Robespierre Downside: An Introduction:
Was Robespierre the primary fashionable dictator, icily fanatical, an obsessive who used his political energy to attempt to impose his inflexible best of a land of Spartan ‘advantage’? Or was he a principled, self-abnegating visionary, the good revolutionary martyr who, along with his Jacobin allies, succeeded in main the French Revolution and the Republic to security within the face of overwhelming army odds?
Cheng believes an animator’s first job is to know any given character’s function within the bigger story, and her analysis means that “there may be by no means only one story.”
In the long run, animators make selections based mostly on the narrative they want to push, enlisting palettes and kinds that may help their favored strategy.
Cheng went into this task perceiving Robespierre to be “a chief instance of situational irony, a fanatical dictator who had despatched a whole bunch of individuals to the guillotine solely to be guillotined himself ultimately.”
This, she readily admits, is a two-dimensional understanding.
Although he solely lived to thirty-six, the person advanced. Robespierre, the image of the Reign of Terror, is distinct from Robespierre the person citizen.
This duality led her to concoct a variety of Robespierres – evil, good, and impartial.
A not significantly distinguished-looking fellow, he was broadly acknowledged to be fastidious about his look.
All three animated characters are garbed within the neoclassical style typical of a progressive gentleman of the interval – shirt, breeches, stockings, waistcoat, coat, a lacy cravat, and a curled wig. 
Cheng, in session with fellow Cal Arts animator Janelle Feng, geared up the “evil” model with an ominous, figure-concealing black cloak lined in blood crimson. Angles and factors are emphasised, the face attracts on his opponents’ sinister descriptions of his routine expressions, and delicate nods to punk and Goth cater to fashionable sensibilities.
The “good” model employs rosy Rococo hues to lean into the Robespierre his family and friends knew – a poet who beloved his pet pigeons.
Historical past prevents Cheng from ditching his signature wig totally, however she granted herself some leeway, softening it for a extra pure look.
This Robespierre is as dreamy as any Miyazaki hero.
Between these two poles is the “impartial” Robespierre, maybe essentially the most difficult to depict.
Feng took the lead on this one, in search of to strike a stability between his reportedly unprepossessing look and his revolutionary fireplace.
She retained the striped coat of his most iconic portrait, however up to date it to a cool inexperienced palette. His nickname – the Incorruptible – is embodied in his agency comportment.
The video attracts to a detailed with a assessment of the assorted methods Robespierre has been depicted in artwork and movie through the years, a vivid reminder of Cheng’s assertion that “there may be by no means only one story.”
See extra of Michelle Cheng’s animations on her lemoncholy YouTube channel.
See extra of Janelle Feng’s French Revolution period designs right here.
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– Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and creator, most lately, of Inventive, Not Well-known: The Small Potato Manifesto and Inventive, Not Well-known Exercise Ebook. Observe her @AyunHalliday.