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WendiBones — Character Design: An introduction
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Published: 2013-01-25 20:29:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 146633; Favourites: 5223; 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
Wow that's really awesome, thanks a lot.
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this is really great!! it sums up the most important bits of character-creation so eloquently, it's very eye-opening!! thanks for taking the time to make this
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This is really helpful. I've been working on something and I've been having truble designing the characters for it. This has really gotten me re-focused on what I was doing and some new ways to go about it. Great job, and I had no idea english wasn't your first language! It's very well written but I'm also not a grammar freak lol :3
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A solid character reflects the passion of its creator. It's so easy to get caught up in the customization that many designs get muddled. Some designs might stand out, but for the wrong reasons, as you said, too much detail can get attention, but the wrong type of attention.
It's good to do research on costume in real life. Progress of new design is stalled with pop culture such as the Japanese amusement of french costume. It's hard to have your own point of view reflect in your designs because there is the chance it wont be as popular as "pop designs"
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Cool information. Thanks for featuring a few of my design sheets here
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You're very welcome. Your designs are really well done. ^__^
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Thanks a lot for this. I wanted to start doing character design alongside general concept design, but when it came time for creating characters, I didn't really know where to begin. I never really considered thinking about the personality before making the design, but IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW! haha thanks again for posting this.
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This is wonderful. Thank you, really helps to see the outline of how you make a good character.
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Thanks for posting something like this, it's pretty helpful and the designs that went into this are awesome.
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there's some fantastic tips in this article, lots of thing to think about, thanks!
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ALRIGHT! FINE!!!
I'LL WATCH YOU... you... talented bastard...
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Very good article, it helps a lot 
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Awesome journal! Thank you for this. I'm very certain that this will help me in the future.
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You're very welcome!!
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also so informative and amazing styles ugh I was gonna do something with a character line up tonight abububu
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when I was younger, this book helped me out significantly when poltting out all kinds of character designs. Its so useful I still use it today.
[link]
It covers different designs from elements to multiple limbs to their possible purposes and what their roles in stories would be. Its freaking fantastic and I HIGHLY reccommend anyone wanting to flesh out characters to use it. The artwork in places is genius in creations as well
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This was excellent. I'm learning more about illustrated character design, and this is very helpful (especially since you used examples). Thank you very much!
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Awesome tips 
xoxo
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this is very helpful. I know almost everything that I need to know about my characters except what clothing they would were and the colors that would best fit them. thank you so much for sharing this.
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First time I have seen a journal on the front page.
Nice.
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Bellissima selezione. Davvero un'ottima scelta e una splendida feature
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Grazie mille, era una mia cartella dei fav che volevo sfoderare da tempo! XD
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Guarda, mi hai fatto un grandissimo favore!! Io sto lavorando alle garfiche di un gioco al momento, e mi ero appunto fatta una cartella di character designs per documentarmi, quindi grazie a te ora ho mooooolto materiale
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very nicely phrased! and amazing illustrations!
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really nicely formulated, darling!
but it always feels so hard for me to start that. looks like a huge deal of patience needed. so i didnt manage any single character sheet to the end. ;A;
probably i should try at last. XD
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Puah, me neither. But I sometimes I need it ;__;
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you managed to finish couple of character sheets.
i think it helps with overviewing the story and get clearer understanding of the character.
but i cant get focused and everything was mixing in my head since lately so bad ;A;
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Om but they are not finished at all. They should contain 2 full figures and 2 head shots and main facial expressions. ;__; sigh
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@C@ damn. are you sure?? then it is IMPOSSIBRU! at least one full figure with description and in outfit is hard to finish imo.
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This is great! Thanks so much for posting this.
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You're very welcome! ^__^
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