Chinchillers Mobile Game

I had the pleasure of designing and animating three unique characters for Chinchillers, a mobile app created by Shaun Keating. This innovative app encourages users to put down their phones and relax. Chinchillers are virtual pets that thrive when you take a break from your screen. If you spend too much time scrolling, your Chinchillers will become sad and prompt you to take a break. When you do, they’ll cheer up again, rewarding you for taking time to chill.

We knew that future versions of the Chinchillers app would give users the option to purchase different clothes and accessories for their Chinchiller. This meant that the three characters would need to have similar body types so the different assets could be easily mixed and matched to fit.

With this in mind, I decided to focus on creating a few different body shapes and sizes for the first round of character design.

Once the basic shape of the body was nailed down the focus was on making each character unique. Since the same base needed to be used I did this by changing up their colors and facial features. I also began working on their clothing and accessories to further set them apart.

For the final draft the focus was on refining the outfits and adding lots of little details. I hand painted Max’s Hawaiian shirt and gave him new sneakers. I added eyelashes and blush to Margot as well as changed up the style of her dress to better match her personality. For Miles I added a belt and a logo to his baseball cap.

Once the characters were done I moved on to the backgrounds. Even though we knew future versions of the app would give users the option to change backgrounds we wanted to start out with scenes that further reflected each character’s personality. I designed a beach boardwalk for Max, a fun bedroom for Margot and a garage with a workstation for Miles.

The final step was creating a unique set of animations for each character. We wanted the Chinchillers to convey four basic emotions: happy, okay, sad, and chill. I created an idle version of each emotion for when the app is first opened, and a shorter, more reactive version for when the user taps the screen. While the Chinchillers share the same set of emotions, each animation is unique and reflects the character’s personality.

Chinchillers is now available in the App Store! To learn more check out the Chinchiller’s website.

Credits:

Character Design, Background/Asset Design, 3D Modeling: Ashley Blanchette

Animation: Rodger Ruzanka

Mobil App, UI/UX Design: Shaun Keating