But often, designers won’t go quite far enough to create a memorable character. Mistake #2: Not Asking Enough QuestionsĮarly in the character development phase (step #2 outlined above), you asked yourself several questions about your character, and that probably gave you a good start. This “arms dealer,” designed by Skillshare instructor Hayden Aube, breaks away from common cliches by peddling literal arms, rather than weapons. Pushing yourself to create something unique will help you design a well-rounded, expansive character design portfolio. As a character designer, you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with principles of proportion, exaggeration, and color to build the personality of your character. In other words, a character shouldn’t look like just any other person (or animal, or robot) on the street. Visual InterestĪ great character must be memorable. Creating your character with clear, identifiable shapes will help define your character more effectively. You would be able to recognize that character just from its silhouette, without any detail or color. Think of any iconic character-Mickey Mouse, Shrek, SpongeBob SquarePants. Recognizabilityīrent Noll and Maximus Pauson of the YouTube channel BaM Animation recommend designing your character in a way that makes it recognizable even when the character is just a silhouette. Stripping the character down of those details allows the audience to focus on the character itself. If you make your character too detailed (e.g., wearing a number of different accessories and holding multiple objects), it will be difficult to replicate or animate the character throughout the story. Your character doesn’t need to be devoid of detail, but some novice character designers get a little too caught up in complexities. However, there are a few basic concepts that can help you improve your character design art so that it’s effective and memorable. A complex, detailed character design drawing, for instance, isn’t necessarily better than a simple one-it’s just different. There are no hard-and-fast rules that define whether a character is good or bad. Like any form of art, character design is subjective. Take the Class What Makes a Great Character Design? “When you’re really invested in your character, not only are you going to have a good time, but the people who are going to see are going to get invested in it, too,” explains Skillshare instructor Hayden Aube.
Ultimately, taking the time to really think through your character’s personality and backstory benefits your audience. Sometimes, this can force you to extend your creativity and think beyond your typical ideas. If you have the freedom (i.e., you aren’t creating the character from a predefined brief for a book or movie), Skillshare instructor Jazza Brooks suggests simply flipping a coin to make these decisions. Is the character kind or evil? Patient or irritable? Outgoing or shy?.What does the character do for a living?.Other traits may not be as overt, but will influence the way you illustrate the character. Defining marks (moles, scars, tattoos, etc.).Some of the traits will be straightforward: Now that you have a good idea of the type of character you want to design, you can move on to pinpointing the character’s specific traits.
Step 2: Hone In on Your Character’s Traits
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Giving your character a full backstory can help you develop the character’s physical traits. Eventually, you may develop your own creative process for character design, but if you’re a beginner, the steps below will help you get started. To design an effective, well-developed character, you have to think beyond the drawing itself. Surprisingly, you don’t start designing a character by picking up a pen or pencil to draw. That’s why artists can’t just rely on good character design drawings they must truly understand the character’s personality and backstory. The key to good character design is creating a character that audiences connect with-someone eye-catching and memorable.
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Those characters are often used on screen (e.g., in a video game, movie, or TV show), but could also be designed for a comic book, illustrated children’s book, or graphic novel.