Gaby West, Art Director at the Portland animation and motion design studio Deep Sky, leads a session on the craft behind characters that stay with an audience. The talk digs into the techniques for designing characters that jump off the page and screen, and into what makes character animation feel genuinely alive rather than merely well drawn: silhouette and shape language, the choices that give a character weight and intent, and how design decisions made early constrain or free the animation that follows. It is pitched at artists, writers and fans alike, so the material is accessible without assuming a production background. Part of the 2026 AIGA Portland Design Month program, hosted at Kiln in Southeast Portland.
