RainBoy

This was the group project in BFA we had to work on over winter break. I was mostly in charge of designing the characters. The assignment was that we had to pick and urban legend and then make a story and design things based off of that story. My group picked the story of Don Decker, who after his grandfather dies, suddenly gets the power to create rain at will. I remember seeing in on Unsolved Mysteries a while ago. We expanded upon the story and set it in the 80's. The original event took place in 1982.

Don Decker is an angry, apathetic teenager who has trouble controlling his emotions and often throws tantrums. As he approaches 18, he still has yet to fully take charge of these emotions, which leads him to act out in negative ways. He lives with his grandfather Jack in an old victorian in Pennsylvania. Jack was a jazz musician in his younger years and now teaches piano out of his house. He always tries to get Don to take responsibility for himself, but is still very chill in the way he goes about handling Don's tantrums. Shannon is a schoolmate and friend of Don who lives in the 2nd level of the victorian with her family. She is one of Jack's piano students, and to Don's dismay, is quickly becoming the prodigy her talents prove her to be. Don both loves her and hates her because she is everything he is not. Shannon is spunky, witty, and always knows how to quip with Don. She always gets the best of him, despite his efforts to do other wise.

One day, after Shannon's lesson, Jack convinces Don to play the piano for him. Jack says one of the most pivotal lines in our story to get Don to play softer: "Keep your fingers light on the keys...like rain". This pushes Don over the edge and he storms out of the house after telling Jack that he can't stand the attention he gives to Shannon, Jazz, or piano music. Shortly after his, Jack dies, and at his funeral, Don's emotions get the better of him and he causes a scene which lands him in jail. At this time, a storm begins to brew and rain begins to fall. The basis of the rain is that it falls whenever Don can't control his emotions, and he must learn to control them in order to make the rain go away. It is both a curse and gift from his grandpa.

 One of my group members, Lucie, initially helped in designing the grandpa. I then redrew him to match the other characters and tweaked his clothes so it would work more for the 80s. One of the biggest comments we kept getting was that the characters didn't look like they were 80s enough lol