33 expert character design tips
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"A lot of my commercial project come out of my personal work. That's why I try to make my personal work so honest to what I like. I think it comes through to the viewer that I'm not just ticking boxes," says John Bond. The illustrator launched his debut picture book, NOT LOST, based on his Mini Rabbit character design. Whether you're creating a monkey, robot or monster, you can guarantee there are going to be a hundred other similar creations out there. Your character design needs to be strong and interesting in a visual sense to get people's attention. As well as knowing when to exaggerate, Ørum is also keen to highlight the importance of simplicity. One key aspect to consider when creating a character design is the line of action.
Have an open mind
"Previously, I used to view working out all the details and directions of the hair as a tedious endeavour. Now I think of it more as a large, organic shape, which like a flag in the wind indicates and emphasises the movement of the character or its surroundings. The drawn lines of which your character design is composed can go some way to describing it. 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. And most agree designers agree this is often where the essence of the character is captured. So when you're working up your design, make sure you don't lose that magic. Expressions showing a character's range of emotions and depicting its ups and downs will further flesh out your character.
expert character design tips
When devising The Simpsons, Matt Groening knew he had to offer the viewers something different. He reckoned that when viewers were flicking through TV channels and came across the show, the characters' unusually bright yellow skin colour would grab their attention. Other inspirations include ceramics – an organic texture and muted colour palette stop his work feeling too clinical – and folk costumes. According to children's illustrator Flavia Z. Drago, it's important to embrace all your ideas – even the ones that might not work – in order to move forward.
Choose colours carefully
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Hilda has changed over the years, from book to book, but Pearson explains that no one has pulled him up on it. "I like to think it means the design is strong enough to withstand being pulled in all these different directions," he says. In the same way that you create a history for your character, you need to create an environment for it to help further cement believability in your creation.
Light colours such as white, blues, pinks and yellows express innocence and purity. Comic-book reds, yellows and blues might go some way to giving hero qualities to a character design. It's also a good idea to look beyond character designs when hunting for inspiration. Although many of the well-known characters from cartoons, advertising and films look straightforward, in actual fact, a vast amount of effort and skill will have been exerted to make them so effective. (To start making your own creations, you'll probably want some software – get Adobe Creative Cloud to get cracking).
If you're after more design inspiration, check out Rafael Sarmento's Procreate character design masterclass. For a prime example of what not to do when creating a character, check out the hilarious Godzilla character design flaw that people are only just noticing. If you're planning for your character design to exist within comics and animations, then developing its back story is important. Where it comes from, how it came to exist and any life-changing events it has experienced are going to help back up the solidity of, and subsequent belief in, your character. Sometimes the telling of a character's back story can be more interesting than the character's present adventures.
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It's also worth considering the balance between stretch and compression. "Even a neutral pose can lead the eye by applying these two approaches, resulting in an effective character design," says Ørum. At one point one of her team members had to say to her that their Sea of Solitude design was looking a little too similar to The Last Guardian. She looked back at her initial artworks, and it brought back the feeling she had when creating them.
Another good way to make your character distinct and improve its pose, says Ørum, is to turn it into a silhouette. "Then you can see how the character ‘reads’ and if you need to make the gesture more clear. Do you understand the emotion of the character and see the line of action? Can things be simplified? Try not to overlap everything, and keep the limbs separate." "If you look at something and then you try and hazily remember it in your mind, that's when you end up making something new, rather than a pastiche of something," he says.
Create clear silhouettes
Isabel Armitage suggests creating your characters a playlist of their favourite songs. "This can be a great tool to help you understand the emotions of your character and begin revealing their likes, dislikes and guilty pleasures, all of which will help you layer on a good narrative," she says. Creating a new character can often be an exciting yet daunting task, but a great way to refine your ideas is to put yourself in the shoes of your character. Visualising your creation can be a great shortcut to nailing down those distinct features that make your character unique.
The world in which the character lives and interacts should in some way make sense to who the character is and what it gets up to. Depending on what you have planned for your character design, you might need to work out what it will look like from all angles. A seemingly flat character can take on a whole new persona when seen from the side if, for example, it has a massive beer belly. Geppert's Sea of Solitude video game is an exploration of her experiences of loneliness. Intensely personal though it may be, the game hit a chord with audiences because it deals with an experience that is so universal yet still strangely taboo.
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. "To choose effective colours, it’s important to understand the basic rules of colour," explains Ørum. Instead, see if they can pick up the personalities and traits of your characters.
This is key in cartoon caricatures and helps emphasise certain personality traits. If your character is strong, don't just give it normal-sized bulging arms, soup them up so that they're five times as big as they should be. You might have too many ideas floating around in your head (or none at all!). When starting a new project it's best to keep an open mind – inspiration can come from anywhere so keep your eyes peeled. Typically, dark colours such as black, purples and greys depict baddies with malevolent intentions.
Above you can see Wallace's new take on well-known festive figures, created for a Hong Kong department store. While inspiration needs to come from somewhere, the aim is to create something original. So Robert Wallace – known as Parallel Teeth – suggests not having the reference material right in front of you as you work.
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