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WendiBones — Character Design: An introduction
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Published: 2013-01-25 20:29:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 145651; 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
'Good people', the opposite of 'villains' I think.
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No, you said that's the hero, usually in yellow, red and blue. I think you meant "bystanders". Innocent civilians, NPCs and so on.
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Hey thanks, this probably will help me out of my drawing block.
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Thank you for this. It's very helpful!
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They're such beautiful designs, but some of the suggestions are so formulaic - why can't protagonists be sharp-lined or angular? Break the cliches a little... Generally very good advice though. And brilliant art ofc
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wow this is amazing! and all the links are just wonderful, thanks.
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A wonderful and very helpful read! Thanks alot for creating and uploading this. I didn't notice anything wrong with your english, by the way
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I was hoping for a more thorough sort of tutorial, perhaps with a little development of your own from beginning to end
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Awesome! This whole article is great and I love all the example work you included.
Thanks!
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This is a lovely feature, but I wish you would have showcased a wider variety of character types and designs. The vast majority of your pics are fantasy characters. Character design covers all genres, even regular joes in the modern day.
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wow! You've learned to me, your drawing is beautiful.
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This is something I've been focusing on since I first became an artist and its awesome.
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Character design is something I adore and hope to improve in. Awesome article!
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I'm glad I stumbled across this- as someone who want's to go into character design, this is incredibly helpful and inspiring! Thank you for making this.
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I would say most of these characters are better examples of costume design than character design, as they don't experiment much with character shape variations (there are a few great exceptions) but focus more on unique and detailed clothing.
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This is amazing! Thank you for the article!
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Thank you!!! 
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Whoa whoa whoa. This is amazing.
I feel like I just learned a lot from this. I feel like I have to go back and look at the designs of characters I've been working on and redo/rework them. :3
Thanks so much!
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Howdy! Thankies for making this awesome tutorial on character design!
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Thank you so much! I'm more than sure this is going to help me for the foreseeable future! I've gotta get my sketchbook!
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This was amazing and very helpful! C:
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Thank you so much! This will help me if I have problems with my characters! Thanks again!
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wonderful stuff! thanks for sharing! it's always nice to get a fresh view on something that seems quite... well, usual for me.
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Those designs are absolutely fantastic! *jawdrop* When I saw all of those details on clothing on 's design...so beautiful.
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I... sat down and pretty much browsed this entire thing. Good journal...
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THIS. I really appreciate you doing this! This is very helpful! Thank you!
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Gorgeous!!
Thank you for putting all this together!
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Penso che dovrò leggerlo attentamente, può essere molto utile...
P.S. Ho dato un'occhiata alla tua gallery e devo dire che hai davvero un bello stile, complimenti.
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Great! Informative and full of tons of resources!
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this is fantastic for an Animation student like me! I have troubles when it comes to Character Design subject so this journal helps me a lot in the said subject ^^
thank you so much for putting this up, really thankful to you ^^
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Helpful beyond words. thanks for this amazing post.
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