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WendiBones — Character Design: An introduction
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Published: 2013-01-25 20:29:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 145618; Favourites: 5225; Downloads: 0
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Arvalis-2012 by arvalis
What does 'Character Design' mean?
The character design is the process which comes after the characterisation and consists in defining the character through his/her physical appearance.
We need to consider a character as a little fictional creature, human or not, that aims to please its creator and the public as well.
While the basic characterization of this fictional creature (his tastes, his fears, his behaviors) may take a little mental effort, as it is a sort of list of emotions, facts and feelings that come and go in the life of a character, the process of visual realization of this creature may not be as simple. That's why many writers and characters creators prefer to rely on experienced hands.
Also many of the mental aspects of the character are not possible to gain by using 'static' visual medium. For 'static' I mean all the illustrations and drawings unable to tell a story, but that's the beauty of writing and reading, isn't it? Anyway there are also plenty visual media that can graphycally or spatially recreate the emotions of a certain character, his thoughts, his complex mental structure that makes our creature a simulacrum of the human being. I'm talking about cartoons and comics, videoclips, anime and manga art, where the design of the character is a real milestone in the realization of a story of success.
Which are the differences between a design for cartoons and a design for games?
The first one requires a simple shape, highly recognizable at a first glance. The second one requires a higher complexity, able to show the real power of rendering of the console (or the power of your video adapter). The higher complexity design works really well for concept art and trading card games as well.
Slugterra Development 6 by CreatureBox
Tips from experts?
- Take a sheet of paper and write down the psychological characteristics and traits that you want to give to your character. If the character is not yours but you already have a description of the author, the better.
- It's also important to see the character in proportion to the medium on which the character will appear and the target audience it should have: keep the design simple if it's going to appear on small media, use more structured design in case of larger media, use bright colors if the character is designed for children. In any case, the design must be strong and original to make it look interesting to its public.
- Now you can start sketching. Take inspiration from the world that surrounds you, from fashion magazines, from other original characters. Starts from a successful design and work on how you would change it for the better. Add items to its design and remove others.
- In cartoons, the consistency of the line should be the protagonist: use curved lines for good and sweet characters, use hard and sharp lines to present cruel and evil characters. You may also need to exaggerate the physical features that correspond to mental characteristics: thick arms for a strong man, thick lips for a seductive woman...
- Colors ay be really important. Dark colors, black and purple (and sometimes acid green) are used to identify the villains. Bright colors, white and pink are for vouchers. Heroes uses yellow, red and blue.
Oritental Enchantment by HiOutsider-Studio
- Add accessories to your character. Animals could work as accessories as well, but their symbolic meaning can be very vast and ancient. New items will help add personality to your character, or they'd give you ideas for their background story. Clothing is a very important accessory to identify the social class and taste of a character. A warrior will have an armor, a mage will have a stick or a scepter, one who wears sandals will not be a great walker unless he/she is poor...They say the clothing doesn't make the monk, but in Character Design the bow makes the archer and the sword makes the knight.
- Works a lot on your character behaviours and facial expressions. Is he/she the angry type? Or is he/she curious? Well, in both cases it will affect his/her appearance!
- Good designs are well balanced. Doodle many designs without planning but don't add too many oddities to the same character. Just one but a good can be enough. Try to work on the silhouette of your character, make it immediately recognizable.
- Develop your design both on your computer and using a sketchbook. The world is the best inspiration, especially when you can look at so many human types all together. Look at their make up, hair, facial features, clothing...Everything!
- Works on characters with different physical characteristics that can help identify the 'type' at first sight.
Some good design sketches
Items study and different races or types
Process: from the sketches to the final version
Some finished character designs
Sources:
Credits:
All the images belongs to their respective owners. Click on the image to see the fullview from the artist gallery.
English is not my mothertongue. Be gentle.
Related content
Comments: 196
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Yes, indeed there is.
There are even schools for that.
Check on Google if there is a school nearby you.
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Zayd Awadallah
Character Design: An introduction by SirWendigo
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Wow! Nice work. Give me about 100 years and I will be as good as you.
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i think using certain well known colors for certain roles might be a little stereotypical
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I have been looking for this for a long time. Thanks for making this!
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Thank you for posting this lengthy informative piece.
Extremely helpful!
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this is so helpful!!! Thanks for making it and giving so many AWESOME examples!
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Colors ay be really important. Dark colors, black and purple (and sometimes acid green) are used to identify the villains. Bright colors, white and pink are for vouchers. Heroes uses yellow, red and blue.
-------> Nothing gives me more pleasure than beating the dust out of this one. You have no idea.
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........Thank you so much for your effort on putting this together! Totally an inspirational and very important advice indeed! I am on a verge of hitting a wall on character designing. I have alien lifeforms and monsters...cause I can't come up with anything new >X(... Need more research, this one has pretty much given me a lot of knowledge.
Just gain a vast majority info of how to use references correctly, and now getting to learn more about solid character design concept is a superb. I've never stopped doing research about it, just feeling a bit slacker so I feel this article here has helped me a lot.
Thanks! 8}
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Just wanted to say thank you so much for very inspirational article!!
It inspired me to revisit my old OC for a complete re-design: [link]
I am so happy with how it turned out!!
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Great Article, great timing too! I was thinking about how I'd make my character look for a graphic novel I'm writing. I know her personality, but was a bit stuck on how to bring out her personality in a visual matter. but this has given me some ideas and some insight, so thank you!!
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Artists and writers should be careful not to neglect the story when they concentrate too much on impressive character desings.
The story is everything! Many people can create highly detailed characters with interesting outfits, but they often don't seem real because the design can be very distracting. I just don't like movies, games or comics anymore who try to bowl the viewer over with spectacular design ideas, but have no ideas for the story itself. It's what I call it the "Avatar effect": It seems like they animated every leaf on every tree in the background, but there was nothing new about the story.
Stories should be about people, not details. When you don't have conflicts, topics, some humour and unexpected events that were inspired by real life, the characters designs won't be much more than chess figures moving around a bit.
On the other hand, if you really have something to say, you can just as well use stick figures (as long as they have interesting dialogues, real conflicts, dynamics and some expression).
Artists shouldn't concentrate on design too much. The web is bursting with cool, flawless looking characters, but what we really need are stories with topics that are able to really move people. The design alone will be forgotten instantly unless it's linked with something that enables the viewer to get emotionally attached to it.
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Currently in pre-prod for a graphic novel (Writing currently) and this helps a ton in what to look for when I start going after some character artists, thanks a ton!
Cheers,
Juice
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i got some time to try out your advise here .. and houston, we've got a problem.
paradoxically the hugest problem for meat this moment is choosing a hairstyle. in the dA context it seems so many characters and i totally cant choose a hairstyle. because for example i think: i want a half-mohawk, there are loads of ocs with thgis hair, but this is only a hairstyle.. so why basically not. but as soon as i sketch a half-mohawk on a figure in the character sheet i think 'why my character looks like Nuvat' at once. and looking at a blonde/white longer hair i start thinking that everyoone here looking at him will think that he's apathetic and uke and i dont what that instant impression. gosh i feel stuck now. XD
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Lol I usually take references from real people when I need a certain hairstyle, but sometimes it looks a little unoriginal as well so I add something from imagination to it.
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well.. the problem is that i think it would look cool on a person but as soon as i try to draw it stops being original gosh. so complicated. but i think i've figured out the hairstyle i like. in fact it turned out really useful to draw a lot of tiny heads and sketch hairstyles and basic expressions on them and compare. i think you've mentioned the 'many expressions' that are sometimes included. i never though it would be so helpful and i will manage that.
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Lol I'm inspired as well. XD I'm currently working on some designs *-* Zo happy!
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cool! 
so thanks for writing an amazingly inspiring article!
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Tutto davvero interessante e istruttivo,grazie infinite!!!
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Di niente ^^ Poteva essere più approfondito ma è un argomento veramente vasto.
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There are a lot of these types of things on here and yours stands out, the information is solid and the variety of work you pulled into it is lovely. Good job.
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This is really great! As someone trying to get into character design, this is something of a big help to me. GREAT JOB!!!
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I'm trying to enter this field, and I've been in distress with how I would approach this area. I thank you SOO much. If you can do more of these, they will change my life. Once again, thank you!
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love the advice given here, thanks for the help
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This is a very helpful article. 
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I haven't done any character design yet, but now I'm thinking if giving it a try!
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Thank you for posting this, I am in the midst of working on some concept art for a game and had totally gotten out of sorts, this set me right again.
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Wow. Just, wow. I'm definitely using this for future use, and gosh everyone's character designs are amazing! 
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This reminded me that I need to get into characters more. Nice collection.
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Insanely Helpful! I hadn't been faving much
things lately cuz I'm only faving things that
inspire me to create something of my own now...
Not just because the art "Looks Good".
This is just JAM PACKED With Inspiration! Thanks alot
Ps. Did you have to ask all these artists to put their work here? Or could you just do this and indicate their names respectfully???
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I featured them all without asking. But you can still click on the images and see to whom they belongs.
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No biggie! I wasn't worrying about that part. I asked because there are a couple of pieces that I use as inspiration every now and then so I wanted to know if I could just post those...
Or ask every one of them... All the same. Great Help matey
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Wow, perfect. The tips, the features, the art, the sketches, everything.. incredibly inspirational!
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Very helpful tutorial, bbut I have one question. You said that white and pink are colors usually used for vouchers. What is a voucher ? I know vouchers as bonds of a certain monetary value, but I'm not sure what that has to do with character design.
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