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Published: 2010-08-24 07:23:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 4202; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 146
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As much as we all want to, not all of us are going to create lively or even memorable characters. Most characters that are created tend to be dull, overused, and possess what I call "overlapping traits", which are basically an overabundance of similarities with other characters, usually in personality. Although this guide won't teach you how to make dynamic characters per se, it WILL give you an idea of what you should think about when creating characters.First, let's get down to brass tacks—there are some things that all character creators need to know, regardless if they're making characters for their novel, a video game, or a manga. These are a few common mistakes and things to avoid.
1. DON'T BASE YOUR CHARACTERS OFF YOUR FRIENDS!
Let's face it, our friends don't have as contrasting personalities as we would like. They share enough characteristics to give them "overlapping traits". Honestly, you can bet that if you were to have an adventure like "The Hangover" or "Hot Tub Time Machine", it's not going to be as funny or as diverse as the movies. All in all, basing characters entirely off real people just limits how creative you can be. It's better to create entirely new characters from scratch.
2. "WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO THE WAY YOU DO IT?"
I have to admit, this may be the most important thing to creating dynamic characters. Why? Because everything happens for a reason. Even the most trivial things for your character must have a reason. I bet that you never thought that Harry Potter's eyes would be such an important plot device in the seventh book but it was! See? Even something as seemingly mundane as the color of your character's eyes must have purpose!
3. YOUR CHARACTERS CANNOT BE STAGNANT!
By this I mean they shouldn't be passive and let the plot affect them. Rather, they should be active and instead affect the plot! I see way to many bad RPGs where the main character just gets dragged along in the script and gets constantly jerked around it until the conclusion. No, notice that in all good stories, the characters actually do something to slap around the plot line. In Death Note, would the story go the way it did if Light Yagami wasn't overconfident, assertive, and super-competitive? No way! If he didn't assert his personality points and just take the backseat role, we'd be looking at a completely different story—even if the end result is the same!
This is the basic template I use to make my characters. Depending on what story you want to make, and even the story medium (e.g. manga, novel, video game) you may add things but these are the absolute necessities.
Name: What is your character's name? Is it a random name you thought while eating a bowl of ramen or does it have some deep meaning that describes your character? Remember to avoid alliteration with character names and especially rhyming, unless they're twins/siblings or something like that. Readers will get confused.
Age: Always remember your character's age is important. Do you want to have the majority of characters the same age as the target audience in order to reinforce a reader-character relationship? Or instead, do you want them to be older/younger than the audience in order to better emphasize your themes/messages?
Sex: Is your character male, female, or neither? Yes, a neither choice is absolutely okay, but people will take you seriously only if you're mature about it. I personally like to make my main character male or female in accordance to the necessity of the plot. Ask yourself—would a male or female character better fit the situation I'm putting the main character in?
Occupation: I also like to call this "class" because it DOES indeed act as a character class because I can include stuff like "orphan" or "student". In fact, you can have multiple occupations/classes.
Faction: This is based off the D&D concept of Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic, and its subsets. For the most part, Lawful characters always follow a code of honor and posted laws, making them quite reasonable. Chaotic characters follow their own rules and do what they want. Neutral characters are often the "whatevs" characters but they can definitely still be dynamic! Even villainous characters can be lawful and good characters chaotic.
Hair: I like to describe the hair color and style. Does your character have a distinct hairstyle he's known by? Chew on that…
Eyes: Eyes are absolutely important and how you draw your eyes or describe them makes a HUGE difference in your character designs. Big eyes often represent childhood and innocence whereas smaller eyes represent maturity or negative emotions.
Story Role: What role does he play in the story? Is he the main antagonist? Secondary protagonist? Maybe a supporting character? How much "screentime" does he/she get?
Personality: This is where I list descriptive words to depict what kind of person he's going to be and how it'll affect his relationships with other characters.
Characteristics/Bio: This should be the "why" section because it's where you ask yourself "why why why" and answer it all. Basically cover all the main points that any random person would ask you about the character (excluding what if questions like "what if said character were to fight to the death naked with a giant ear swab against the devil incarnate in a rock em' sock em'-esque fight, who would win?). Just cover all main points and how the character is as the story progresses. Also, describe a bit about their appearance and why. A princess won't put on a suit of armor for an entire story for no apparent reason. Does your character have any valuables on their persons? Perhaps a certain Silver Imperium Plot Point Crystal around their neck? These are all things you need to think about but don't make your character a freaking Mary Sue!
Now I'll use my video game OC (you'll see why later). It should be good to hear a bit about the story, though. In the story world, set in a 16th-century universe of mecha and magic, there exists a powerful artifact called the Grimiore Celeste, which has the power to manipulate the fabric of time and space, essentially changing the universe into that fancied by the user. Rune, who happens to have been in his king's castle at the time, witnesses the destruction of the castle city as a warning by the Four Immortals, powerful magicians who obtained their title and status from their vast feats. They have gone to steal the Grimiore Celeste. Rune's father is asked to investigate this but instead, the man turns over the job to his son.
Name: Rune
Age: 18
Sex: Male
Occupation: Village Chieftain
Faction: Chaotic Good
Weapon: Giant Greatsword
Hair: Jet Black, Train Heartnet-esque but more feathery and layered
Eyes: Light Grey
Class: Blade Knight -> Blade Paladin
Battle Role: Tank
Battle Characteristics: High HP, decent damage, slow, poor magic
Story Role: Main protagonist
Personality: Confident, naïve, determined, cheerful
Characteristics/Bio: The story starts the day Rune turns 18, which is also the day that he takes over his father's role as village chieftain for the village that his ancestor founded about a hundred years ago. He wields his family's cherished weapon, Ehrenreich, a giant greatsword, in battle. His confidence stems from his using the weapon as his father instructed him that as long as he wielded that sword, he will always be safe (also, the size of the weapon keeps him confident that it will defend him). His village specializes in close combat so his HP is unusually high, allowing him to take a variety of hits without being too hurt. He has never left the village until the day he has to pay the castle a visit to deliver the annual dues, so he is unbelievably negligent and naïve about the outside world and the concept of most laws. His father was the original choice to investigate the mission of the Four Immortals but instead, he got the job when his father decided that he was too old and that his son would be the better candidate.
Now, let's review the "why"s on why I chose each selected item for each description. It'll help you understand the concept of dynamic character creation.
Name: I chose the name Rune because it was the first name of an old character of mine that I created for a fantasy story in the 7th grade. Both were warrior-type fighters who wielded swords. The old character's last name, Rukemedes, was used as the name of Rune's father. The newer story describes how Rune is the "nickname" (a la shortened version) of Rukemedes, making him officially Rukemedes Jr. but called Rune, instead.
Age: The age 18 is when you are officially considered legal (in America). As such, 18 is the age where Rune is now considered a man and is now responsible for being the village chieftain making the age symbolic.
Sex: Considering this is an action-oriented story and I knew that I absolutely wanted the character to be a close combat fighter that was also innocent and naïve, I made it so that the character was male. It's also because it's rare for females to be close-ranged combatants, not to mention the personality traits for Rune in a girl wouldn't make it so interesting. Lot's of girls "act" naïve or ditzy and are also confident and cheerful, so it wouldn't be as good as if I had a guy, instead.
Occupation: In this case, I split occupation and character class since in this case, they are two separate things. Rune works as the village chieftain which gives him responsibility, something he is taught and is enforced. In terms of the actual plot, it [the plot] would never happen unless Rune had to go to the castle and pay the annual village dues—something that only the village chieftain does. Occupation also has a second important role in the plot—Rune's occupation is the basis of his relationship with another character. The princess that is accompanying him is hesitant about finally taking the throne and ruling. She constantly asks him questions about how it is for him as the village chieftain, a similar role, in order to gain knowledge and ease her insecurities.
Faction: Chaotic good characters are like rebels. They break rules and do their own thing, but it's all for the betterment of society in general. They may do bad things and wreak havoc, but in the end, it's all about the greater good. Since Rune doesn't comprehend a lot of the laws and is unaware of many of them, it makes perfect sense that he should automatically be doing his own thing.
Weapon: I described the reason why Rune wields the sword that he does in the characteristics/bio category. Why a person wields a certain weapon is very important. Why that weapon specifically? Why not another weapon? In this case it's a very clear reason—he grew up using that weapon and was told as a child that it would always protect him. It's the weapon he's most familiar with!
Hair: I knew automatically that I wanted the protagonist to have black hair, I just did. Also, his hair is basically a more detailed version of typical shonen hero hair. It's shaggy and messy and isn't exactly stylish (although in this case it is since it IS layered and feathery). It reinforces his role and personality being akin to shonen manga characters and the fact that it IS in fact stylish constitutes to his being young and his unspecified race being similar to that of an Asian since layered, feathery hair is an Asian style that's slowly becoming a fad in America.
Eyes: I wanted a character that would look a bit effeminate, but still quite attractive and good looking. My friend told me grey eyes were sexy and so I was like "ah-ha!"
Class: I chose class titles that sounded cool and also described their fighting style. In this case, he uses blades and knights and paladins are traditionally tanks in RPGs.
Battle Role: I listed out every single role in battle (ex. Tanks, sweepers, casters, healers, rangers, etc.) and allocated them to the party characters according to their weapon and their fighting style. Since Rune uses a big, heavy weapon, he fits the role of tank quite nicely and I built the close-combat history of his village off of that to tie it into the story.
Battle Characteristics: How is Rune in battle? Well, he's using a ginormous weapon and he specializes in close-quarters combat so I would say his damage output is at least decent, even if he lacks real-world experience. He's got high HP and durability due to his training, he's never encountered magic before the plot starts so he's got to be poor in magic (in some stories, you can have it so that even if a character has a weakness or weak trait, they can build it up and make it strong. It plays into building character depth. Does your character work to insanely ridiculous levels to cover their weaknesses? Or is it that no matter how much they try, they'll only get so far?). Lastly, if you're lugging a gigantic sword that can surely make up for an entire country's manhood, it's got to slow you down, yes?
Story Role: This is easy. Just how important is your character? Why is Rune the story protagonist? Well, the story is focusing on how the Four Immortals stole the Grimoire Celeste. Who gets appointed to the investigation? Rune's father, Rukemedes. He turns it down and makes his son do it, instead. There! You've got your reason why. He was forced to—a very traditional fairy tale/fantasy reason for why the main character is the main character.
Personality: How is the character like if you talk to him/her? This should be influenced by the previous details. Their background, experience, etc. It's not very believable if Rune was a cold, saturnine individual because it looks stupid! Someone who has no concept of how the world is being a loner and refusing help when the fate of the entire universe rests on his shoulders? Pshhh! Rune's confident because of Ehrenreich, he's determined because he's got one hell of a job to do with a LOT of pressure on him, and he's naïve because, hell, he's never been outside the damn village! But why is he cheerful? Because nothing in his backstory gave him a reason to be emo or depressed or he has no reason to be.
Characteristics/Bio: Again with the why's. Why is Rune the village chieftain? Because in his village, leadership is passed down from father to son once the son turns 18. Why is it this way? Because their ancestors founded the village. What happened? Oh look—the very first thing that happened in the story is Rune waking up on his 18th birthday. Why does he use a giant greatsword as a weapon? His family's treasured weapon is a giant greatsword, a weapon Rune is most familiar with growing up. Why is he a tank? His village specializes in close-quarters combat so he got tougher from taking beatings. Why is his personality the way it is? He grew up with no contact with the outside world! He's so freaking naïve! Why is he the main character? Because his dad made him go investigate the Immortals! I know I'm being redundant and repeating a lot of information but I'm trying to make a point. I hope you see it.
So what did you learn from this? Well, no matter your medium, you have to think of stuff that happen to be important elements and incorporate them or make them make sense to the story. Even if you don't design video game characters, it's good practice since you're dealing with the mechanics of let's say—battle. How does the person's battling skills have a relation to the story? Tidus from Final Fantasy X never picked up a sword before the plot began. Therefore, his skill level isn't as high as Auron's (who deals higher damage due to his vast experience) but his abilities as a blitzball player make him the speediest character! Likewise, Naruto's chakra control is poor because of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's influence on his body and its self-strain rejection, but since he's the host body, he can call upon the Kyuubi's enormous chakra! It all connects! What if you aren't making an action-oriented manga? Then find mechanics on your own that correlates to your story. In Hikaru no Go, the spirit Fujiwara-no-Sai's thousand year experience influences Hikaru's playing style. Sai, who had possessed the famed Go player Shusaku/Torajiro centuries back, plays in the same style as Sai because Sai was his teacher! Hikaru, who is taught and guided by Sai is gradually given the ability to recognize and play in a style similar to Shusaku. Coincidence? No freaking way!
Remember these are all general ideas and I may have skimmed over specific details because it would take up too much space and because this is a general guide, not a tutorial on specific situations/scenarios. If you have any questions, however, feel free to leave a comment and I'll help you to the best of my ability!
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Comments: 9
sakurasoul [2010-09-04 13:23:25 +0000 UTC]
But, I wanted to base my characters on my friends...SHIT~!
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UnregisteredWaffle [2010-08-25 00:22:45 +0000 UTC]
for individual character's this is okay, but how about interactions? Character foils, how they talk to one another? why they care about or hate each other- both even. You kinda touched on it with the princess asking rune for advice and stuff, but again I gotta recommend Persona 3's social link system as a reference.
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CapnJon In reply to UnregisteredWaffle [2010-08-25 01:19:19 +0000 UTC]
Interactions between characters are as advanced as the writers imaginations themselves. Naturally more advanced characters and characters with more visible personalities are easier to interact with/make other characters interact with. However, there is a lot more than just conversation you also have to do emotions...which is how you know the writer/artists are good. Study peoples faces and buy a book on behaviorism, it will show you basic face patterns people make when certain emotions are being expressed. You successfully recreate those emotions all of the sudden your argument looks a hell of a lot more believable and realistic. Tough to do, but it's an art form you have to learn as you go.
As for writing, I'm specialized with that. I picture conversations in my head, and when I go over parts that are iffy, I press a "pause" button and ask myself a few questions like "If I were such and such, would I really talk to so and so like this?" Using a little checklist I can make a conversation more realistic...at least in my head. Last piece of advice is always make a lot of revisions before taking it to an artist and asking them to draw it.
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UnregisteredWaffle In reply to CapnJon [2010-08-25 08:26:28 +0000 UTC]
err yea wut he said o-o
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CapnJon In reply to UnregisteredWaffle [2010-08-25 14:41:10 +0000 UTC]
I said a lot. But that was like my mini help thing rolled up into a comment.
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VIIStar [2010-08-24 22:53:56 +0000 UTC]
this is pretty good, but i would throw in the two words you missed, which are contrast and conflict. layering personalities internally and externally will create characters with greater depth. they way characters interact should heighten these conflicts.
if you look at how places like pixar create characters and scenarios they are based off of contrast/conflicts (think ratatouille, the rats in the kitchen automatically causing disgust)
characters are more defined by their personalities than their 'class' or 'weapons' and i would see if you could pull back on that just a bit. like they say, always be able to describe him/her without talking about their looks or occupation. if you can do that then you know you've created a strong, developed character.
lastly, i don't take to your decision to decide on a male gender - confident, ditzy, and cheerful (like, say, goku from DBZ - which you could stretch to ichigo?) are some of the most stereotypical 'features' of a manga main character, regardless of gender.
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