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Beyond mere drawings, iconic characters are meticulously crafted, given unique personalities and intricate details that breathe life into narratives. Here are 15 tips and expert advice for brilliant character design. This process is something that a lot of professional character designers use to improve their work. As you can see in these concept art thumbnails of ‘Obsidian’ by concept artist Andrew Erickson, thumbnailing is an awesome technique for testing out a range of ideas for your design. "When starting out on your character design, don’t get caught up in the details," says Pernille Ørum. A thumbnail sketch is a visual mockup of the character you want to create.
Convert to grayscale to check color value and balance
In the Sonic example, making the large swatches of beige a vibrant green would have rivaled the blue and potentially taken some of the focus off the hair — which is arguably Sonic’s most iconic trait. A tangent refers to the space or area where two things in your design are getting a bit too close for comfort, or are indeed overlapping in a way that the human eye will find uncomfortable. When done wrong, tangents can suggest that two lines in your illustration should be interpreted as if they belong together, when that was not your intention. Perhaps there’s not enough space between the crook of the elbow and the character’s torso, or the ears of the bunny you have drawn are too close together. A good way to control that your silhouette and shape language are distinct enough is to strip all colors away until all you have is a blacked out outline.
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"Some years ago I went from hating drawing hair to loving it," Ørum. If your character is going to exist within a 3D world, as an animation or even as a toy, working out its height, weight and physical shape is all important. Another good way to make your character distinct and improve its pose, says Ørum, is to turn it into a silhouette. The technique of exaggeration can be applied to characteristics, too. Anna Mantzaris' hilarious Enough film (above) shows everyday characters in mundane situations, doing the things we've all dreamed of doing on a bad day. "I think it's fun with animation that you can push things further, and people will still accept it as real," she says.
Choose colours carefully
Zeus, the king of the Olympians and father of Mount Olympus, returns to offer his aid in the fight. He looks pretty similar to his first design, except this time he’s got a sick new golden chest plate with abs. Fans are already theorizing that Schelemeus and Skelly from Hades have some sort of secret connection because of their designs and roles in each game. It’s too early to say yet, but I appreciate the quirky drill sergeant vibes this guy brings to Hades 2. Nemesis is one of the handful of characters you can meet at the base camp.
Add time-saving 3D elements
She doesn’t seem thrilled to talk to Melinoë, but maybe she (and therefore you) can win this muscle mommy over in time. Hephaestus might have been kicked out of the realm of the gods, but we can see he’s maintained his godly good looks. Out of all the new characters, he’s specifically drummed up a lot of excitement. With the sketch chosen, I decided to go for a full-shot portrait to add more details. Victorian fashion emerges as a symbol of elegance, standing out for its distinctive hourglass-shaped silhouette, which reflects the opulence and rigidity of the society of that time. This marriage reflects the interdisciplinary nature of modern-day practice, and the frequent cross-over of animation, illustration, typography, digital media and everything in-between.
Express Personality Through Poses
A bunny character for an educational video for kids will not sport dark or neutral color schemes that are more suitable for business presentations. To illustrate that the shape is the core of your character design here’s an example of how any kind of shape can be instantly imagined as a character. This is basically where the artist decides what character they will be making and for what purpose. Rhea is an Australian concept artist who is currently studying at Griffith University. When it comes to using triadic colours, it is best to choose one of the three to be the most prominent in your illustrations and use the other 2 for highlighting smaller details.
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Take the successful elements of your design and try to hone in on a single concept. Start by filling your sketch or silhouette with a mid-grey tone. If you have multiple characters, playing around with the proportions is important because it helps you create a more dynamic cast of characters. If they all follow a predictable pattern — some sort of Golden Ratio — they start to blend in to each other and the aggregated effect becomes stale and uninspiring.
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Step 2: Research and Inspiration
The driving force behind a character's personality is what it wants to achieve. This missing 'something' – be it riches, a girlfriend or solving a mystery – can help to create the dramatic thrust behind the stories and adventures your character gets up to. Often the incompleteness or flaws in a character design are what make it interesting. "When you know the basics of drawing a face, play with the expression of the character," says Ørum. It's also worth considering the balance between stretch and compression.
While I use Maya, Mudbox and Arnold Renderer, in this training you'll find a collection of tips and insights in the process of designing, modelling and texturing a character for rigging and animation. Your imagination, after all, comes from your mind, and your mind is informed by your real world knowledge and experiences. But while the client (or writer) may have already created a story for the character, that does not let the artist off the hook. Briefs are by their nature, well, brief, and it’s not uncommon for a client to have trouble expressing themselves in artistic terms. Maybe your character would look better with a hat or a completely different outfit.
Thick, even, soft and round lines may suggest an approachable, cute character, whereas sharp, scratchy and uneven lines might point to an uneasy and erratic character. Isabel Armitage suggests creating your characters a playlist of their favourite songs. "I try to stick to my original drawing style, because the instinct is to try and clean it up," says Laurie Rowan.
This defines the direction of your character, as well as being a helpful narrative tool and bringing a feeling of movement. As soon as you start to finalize the drawing, you may lose some of the dynamics. Therefore, having as much personality and life in the early stages is essential.
You can also combine shapes, but it is good to have one shape that is more dominant than the others. Finding inspiration can help you further expand your character or even bring it to new, exciting directions. Like the artwork above, you can get inspiration from culture and history. Or, you can observe nature, watch movies, look at artworks, and search online for your inspiration. This content has been made available for informational purposes only.
So before you start your design, take a moment to think about your audience. Answering these questions will allow you to cater your designs more toward your audience and therefore ensure your character is engaging. Sometimes finding inspiration for your designs can feel impossible! But don’t fret, there are a bunch of different ways to unlock your creativity. Instead, see if they can pick up the personalities and traits of your characters. Find who you think is the suitable or ideal audience for your work and get feedback specifically from them about it.
While you may think you need to draw every strand, think of hair more like a large, organic shape that moves with the character and the environment. So, it’s a great way to show movement and energy in your piece. Eyes popping out of the character’s heads; jaws dropping left and right. But there are also very subdued expressions like those of anime characters like Saitama in One Punch Man, whose entire persona is built around deadpan reactions. But while Blair’s guide is a fantastic point of reference, there aren’t many hard-and-fast rules on how to design your characters. In the same vein, negative character illustrations can be built of rounded shapes to mislead your audience about the character's true intentions.
Personally, I like to use the tetradic or triadic color scheme as it allows a wide range of colors to choose from. For example, yellow may convey warmth and fun, but it can also convey sickness. Keep in mind what you want to convey and choose your colors accordingly.
There are two main ways that artists add colour to their illustrations. The first, probably the most obvious method, is to start right away with colour or underneath your line art. This method is great for when you already know which colours you want to use and it gives a similar feel to traditional colouring or painting. A good way to gain an understanding of these differences is to frequently study photographic or real-life references. A character’s desires will determine what actions they are likely to perform, making it a lot easier to choose key poses to illustrate your character.
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