character designs process

8/2/2019 Character Designs Process

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Character Design Process

Character designs have long been the foundations of many media of

expression and entertainment from games to comics to film and back.

We have all grown up seeing these illustrations seemingly effortlessly

presented on the screen and been inspired to create our own versions.

Just what makes a good design? How do I even start to draw a good

design?

Lets briefly start with appropriateness and cohesive design: when

approaching a character design, it is vital not only to thoroughly study

the atmosphere of the world around the character, but also

personality. Coming up with clothing for a pirate, for example, can

vastly change results according to age, wealth, status, environmental

and technological considerations. Having a clear vision of the time and

place of your character, as well as the world (albeit fantasy or space-

opera or sci-fi western, etc.) will impact what styles of clothing you

may want to draw from. Take for example a pirate in a future alien

planet populated by many sentient beings with relatively advanced

technology yet still using some older traditional items for decoration or

sentimentality this pirate may have sleek bodysuit-type under armor

with Victorian plating and decoration. And perhaps for color, the

patterning and silks are Indonesian-inspired with a little Moroccan

thrown in for flavor.

Taking cues from real-world references and cultures and then remixing

them onto your character is where believable and solid character

foundations come from. Its great to try to be creative and come up

with something new, but without drawing from some understandable

system, your viewer will have no point of reference from which to draw

to place your character. Think instead of making an old dog do new

tricks: if you can draw from one understandable, stereotypical

prototype (lets say, cowboy) and then trick it up by adding two

flavors of cultural design (Tibetan farmer, Mayan priest) and finally


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add a dash of personality (has a fondness for leaf patterns), then its

pretty nearly guaranteed that through your research and creative

cooking, what designs youll come up with will be original and

interesting.

You dont have to try and avoid old cultures for fear of looking dated or

clich; that just isnt the case in professional design. In fact, if you

DONT research, that will severely limit your design capabilities for you

can get the most interesting ideas from the smallest of places. I once

created a whole design for a noblewomans ball gown based off the

arch of the clearstory church windows of the gothic architecture in her

world. Then, taking some nods to 1950s cocktail dress necklines and

adding Colonial petticoats and wrapping it all up with a dash of

masquerade, you have the Kurzik noblewoman named Countess

Sandra Durheim in Durheim Archives, a character in the MMO game

GuildWars: Factions.

True story.

But just as the world impacts the character from the outside, so too

(and perhaps predominantly) does the personality of the character

from the inside. If you have a very outlandish character, this tends to

be reflected in the clothing choices: colorful scarves or rich tassels and

embroidery with a lot of jewelry might shine through. If the pirate was

moody and withdrawn, the colors might be more desaturated with a

lot of buckles and straps to hold on the layers of clothing like armor,

physically shielding them from the world. Or if the character was an

innocent pirate that just liked to look good in a scabbard, you might

have them wear more stereotypical pirate wear as overtones of a

more conservative peasant or merchant garment ---as if the pirate

parts were a costume and a rather un-researched assembly of pirate

essence rather than the legitimate thing. Theres a lot to be explored

in things like that: trying to show a character that wants to play pirate

and fit in, yet not fully able to do so. Such challenge and nuances of


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characters add the spice and interest that will keep your viewers

engaged fully into your creation. Its a matter of communication, and

every detail is key.

However, those nuances and theories arent the main focus of this

tutorial. That discussion is for another time. This particular tutorial is

surrounding the most basic question of simply: how do I draw a good

outfit design?

Believe it or not, there is a pretty standard formula for this: a clich

base mixed with one part indigenous culture, one part foreign culture

and a dash of unique quirk for flavor. You have probably heard of

similar details, this is simply a good method that when used faithfully

will teach useful steps to take in and coming to a well-thought out

result. If you teach yourself to always use a process like this in

approaching your character design, it will become faster and more

satisfying a journey from the point of pencil to page to paint.

You are going to create a new character design from the silhouette

first. What character, you ask? Why, just about anything you want so

long as its original and its yours.

Okay, so what kind of character design do I want from you? The skys

the limit, really. I chose a pirate, but thats because I was in the mood

to draw a pirate. The ruffles called to me, but you can choose

whatever you want. It can be an archer, a space-going leach, a

schoolgirl cyborg, a maniacal international man-of-mystery zookeeper,

a mechanic, a gym teacher, a safari penguin whatever you want. The

only thing I want to stress to you is dont make it something so

complex that youre having to learn how to run before you can walk.

Keep it something relatively simple but something youd enjoy. Do the

tutorial and learn the process method.


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Now once you have an idea of what you want, then its up to you to

start developing it. This tutorial will not teach you how to gather

reference or do that formula I mentioned to combine ideas into a

design. This tutorial is just for developing the design into something

clear and readable once you have that direction. This is also why I

stress you should do something simple at first.

So your thought process should go something like this: Okay, well, I

want to draw a guy. And make him a rebellious guy in a leather jacket

and spiked out hair, but hes really weird and likes to wear a kilt over

his jeans. Hes also into rope necklaces with shells on them like a

surfer. Okay, so when you read through the first step of silhouette,

you start doing designs of a guy in a kilt, jeans and leather jacket with

spiky hair.

Or maybe like this: I want to draw a mechanic. Hes going to be

oversized with a big chest and big forearms like Popeye a tiny waist

and turbo legs. Well then, there you go.

Remember, keep it simple. Learning this process for the first time will

be hard enough.

Preliminary Step: 100 words or less (complete this step)

Once you figure out your general idea, write a short description of

what you are going for. It doesnt have to be complex, just a general

summary like: Middle-aged male ranger in classic tunic and boots, but

with a specialized system of straps concealing knives and arrows/bow

gear. Design emphasis on overlapping flaps for cover. Or maybe even:

Schoolgirl ninja cowgirl who enjoys backpacks, lassos and high-top

leather half boots.


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Step 1: Silhouette

First line of character recognition on the most basic of levels is the

Silhouette. Silhouette design is nothing more than the outline of a

character as if it were a shadow on the ground. There are no details,

just black and white.

Think of the importance of silhouette uniqueness like the tiny far off

moving forms of two of your friends. You cant see their faces, you

dont know its them, but immediately you can recognize them 200

feet away in a crowd because of what? their shape and their

movement. You can tell them by their walk, by how they hold their

arms, by how they hold their head and look around. And youd be able

to clearly tell which of your friends were which, even if they were just

standing there. Well the same thing needs to happen with any

character you design.

Take game development for example. Silhouette becomes all-

important in this media, because of the need for class and side

differentiation. Even if its just you vs. them, you need to recognize

your teammate from the enemy when theyre only an inch high on the

screen, same thing with multi-class characters. From a distance, you

need to see whether the enemy coming up to you is a fighter, a mage,

a cleric, a demonlord, whatever. It becomes all-important because at a

distance, youre not going to see color or a different kind of belt or

even facial information.

This theory transfers largely into just about any media. In films, take a

look at your favorite movie characters Theyll have definite ways of

making all the characters have some unique defining feature, be it

hairstyle, accessories, overall shape, etc. And I would most highly

encourage you make these differences as clear as you can. How many

of us are frustrated with the anime trends where all the girls look the

same except for hairstyle?


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And just to drive the point home:

Ignoring the fact that my character choices date me, Im confident

many of you will immediately recognize most if not all of thesecharacters. This is why the silhouette step is so important. It needs to

grab the viewers attention at a distance so theyll walk up to the shelf

and take a closer work. For that, it needs to be clear, clean and

interesting. Because if youre going to rely on the color of hair or a

stripe on the uniform to tell the difference, your going to be in trouble.


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And here be the Step One graphic: (Part II of Project - 6 silhouettes)

As you can see, I took my idea of a pirate and started playing around

with shapes, tucks, lines and so forth. I didnt know how fancy or plainI wanted her to be at first, but I knew I wanted the mystique of the

flouncy sleeves and the large tailored coat.


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(The following type of information could be share with us during your presentation.

Why did you choose the silhouette you did to explore further?)

Pay particular attention to general geometric shapes and overall

proportions. For example, #4 has a very triangular shape to the coats

silhouette, and this would be the dominant design direction for the

flow. Notice how I tried to intentionally repeat the shape in the cuffs as

they drape over the hands, and the emphasized upside-down triangle

shape of the padded shoulders down to the waist. By keeping a bit of a

shape theme in mind and repeating the shapes essence, it has the

potential to marry the overall design effect into something pleasing.

Perhaps the most direct design for shape repetition is #7. You might

think it was more obvious in #8, but I only had the repetition in the

coat tails. I didnt carry it through to the rest of the design as much.

But in #7, the repetition is very much throughout all of the clothing

shapes. Notice the slant of the sleeves on the forearms this is

repeated in the cut of the coat skirt, the cuffs of the boots, the upper

sleeves of the coat, even the slant of the torso in the shoulders to the

waist and in the neck collar. That is even mirrored there, for if you

reverse the slant angle, youll see the opposite in the collar as it angles

up to the top of the head. By combining subtle shapes like this (and

even reversing them for key areas), youll have visually flowing lines

that help the reader find energy in the piece and thus look at it more

from the generated interest.

But oddly I didnt like that one. I went with #5. And I chose it for a

few reasons: one, #7 was far more fancy than I wanted and seemed

more like a courtesan pirate than mercenary; two, I really liked the

upturned pointy collar of #5 better; three, I loved the low cuffed boots

and thought by dropping them to the calf, it gave her a much more

lengthy line to the leg; four, I loved the drape of the thick sleeves;

and five, she looked hotter to me. Sometimes design choices are

based on cool-factor rather than math. But I would suggest you have a

lot of math in there too for foundation.


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So do yourself a favor and get this step down tight. It really is all that

important and you really do need to get it simple and readable at an

inch and a half big. And at that size, youll be forced to ration where

your shapes are, because to keep everything in proportion and still

show the design clearly and cleanly, youll have to omit the straggling

debris and get it down to basics. Keep it simple. Keep it quick. Keep it

clear. Work these out. Explore what shapes can convey your character,

and that can change body shape as well. Keep them black solid forms,

no details. Do at least 6; finished thumbnails no bigger than you see

me doing there (about 5 inches high). This doesnt mean you only do

6, this means you have 6 final choices cleanly turned into me as part

of your working assignment. And before you have them as finals,

make sure you shrink them down to an inch and a half tall to see if the

overall shapes still read.

Project: 6 finished thumbnails no more than 5 inches high, solid black

clean line. Include brief character description. (You already wrote this

above)


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Step 2: Refined Silhouette (Another area of Project - Part II)

So youve done your 6 thumbnails, pick out your favorite for discussed

reasons (for your presentation, you explain why you chose that design

and not others) and now you get to flesh out some of the details of the

silhouette. Dont get carried away, were still talking just a black

shadow shape its just a detailed black shadow shape.


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(For your presentation, tell use what you have fine tuned)

This is where you add nuance to your forms, putting tucks and folds

and cuffs and belts and all the accessories that make the basic form

interesting and show personality. However, the trick here is making

sure all those new details dont completely crush your existing design.

Just because you add some overlapping fold doesnt mean the whole

arm line gets bad. This may take some tweaking, but thats okay.

When in doubt, shrink your character down to 1.5 inches high and put

him/her next to a 1.5 inch high version of your basic silhouette. If the

details have changed the idea too much, you need to choose other

details. I particularly chose to keep my character design clean. You

can go more elaborate if you want, so long as it remains readable and

true to the original direction. If the details change the overall idea,

then scale it back and try something else.

Keep the shapes clean and crisp. You can get fancy with fluff later.

Right now, its has to be a straight geometric graphic approach. For

those of you who were lax in giving proper variety last round, this is

where you do more explorations of character variety and show me

more effort than just doing one sketch with bumps on it. Think about

what the objects can be. Think about how they go together. Show me

something with realistic nuance and good silhouette details. Show

personality. (Items you can tell us about in your presentation)

Project: Turn this large version in with a 1.5 inch high version next to

the original 1.5 inch high basic silhouette for reference.


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Since I see you guys struggling a little bit with value hues, I think it

might help you all greatly if you make the background a gray between

40% and 50%. Just like skin is a value tone, the background needs to

be a neutral in order to see how you are layering your lights and

darks. In this way, everything can start as a neutral and then you are

getting a more accurate representation of your tones.

If you start out with your background too dark, an average 40% tone

will look glowing. If you start out with your background as white, even

a 60% will look very very deep. So to equalize everything, make your

backgrounds 40%-50% gray.

Step 3: Value Pass and Value Alternates

Based off your silhouette, you might think the interior details were

pretty straight-forward. But if you take your refined silhouette and just

try to block out large value shapes, I believe youll be surprised at how

much variety that can achieve.

So with this step we reach the second most important step, aside from

the silhouette. Just as we took the silhouette and shrank it down to

inch high versions to judge the recognition and delineation factors, so

too will the value pass contain visual definitions to aide that cause. The

value pass is simply creating large defining shapes that break up your

character into its parts: tunic, pants, design shapes, etc. And its really

best done with just good old-fashioned gray tones to the point where

I would indeed make a quick chart up showing dots of 10% value

steps for easy reference.

Some discussion on values: for one, pure black and pure white are not

naturally occurring colors. And to use them create unnatural hotspots

of visual tension in your character, for there will be nothing to place it

in the environment properly. For example, if you have a bright white

snow environment, even that will be just a series of lighter gray tones.


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The only time it will EVER be painfully bright is if direct sunlight

bounces off it, in which case youre really just seeing near 100%

sunlight and not the legitimate color material of the snow itself. As

science dictates, the colors and values and materials we see are

nothing but the product of the material itself and the quality of light

bouncing off of it into our retinas. So even a white material absorbs

some of the light cast onto it for textural reasons: it will break up and

redirect the light as it sees fit. But pure light will only happen if 100%

of it is bouncing off the material, that only really occurring on slick

surfaces like mirrors etc, where you are essentially getting full blast of

the suns rays, or rather replicating the effect of looking directly into

the sun.

So if that isnt the case with your character, youre not going to see

that level of pure white on it or anything in your environment. Even ice

will have a good say on refraction and color based off of chemical

composition and texture. The end result in all this being, white doesnt

occur, so dont use it.

Same thing goes with black. Youll only get pure black in the recesses

of space where literally NO light occurs. And even then, dont use pure

black for the absence of saturation will severely flatten the tone and

depth nuance. In other words, it just doesnt make for pretty art. Keep

it between 10% and 90% grays.

Back to value shapes: as I was describing before, the shapes can

make your character design just as recognizable as the silhouette. This

is not the time for small details. For when you shrink your design down

to an inch high, that button or that fold line will not be visible. If you

keep checking your choices this way, youll start to learn what

details/shapes will read well and what will not. In this way, making

good and clear design shapes will start being quicker and easier for

you and not so much of a guessing game. But, of course, at first it will

take time.


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One last side note about values: the greater the contrast, the more of

a focal point produced. So if you dont want everyones eyes to

immediately go to a characters toes, dont put black and white spotted

cowboy boots on them and have that be the only place and largest

location for the pattern. High contrast will immediately draw attention,

and this power must be used for good. Choose very consciously where

you want people to look first and keep that with the most contrast.

Usually the chest/head area is the main desired focal point, with

potentially lesser focus on other parts as accents. Now this does not

mean all your characters have to have extreme blacks and whites in

their upper torsos. This means you put the most contrast near there if

you choose it as a location. Perhaps even a four-shaded difference

(30% vs. 70% gray) is used, maybe even a three or less, but if thats

where you want them to look, that has to have the greatest change.

(Tell us how you used contrast in this step of your design process in

the presentation.)

If you look at the example I gave below, youll see I very specifically

put a lighter gray shirt next to the much darker coat. This zeroes in on

the upper chest, with the cuffs and the skirt being smaller shapes of

the same theme. In this case, the line down the center was very

intentional because it was so graphic. It literally points up to the face.

Or, if you look at it in another way, it starts at the face and draws the

eye down to the rest of the design. But the point being, your eyes

start significantly in the area or moving to the area that I want you to

see.


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From here, I also did variances. Choosing that pirate theme, I did have

a main idea in mind, of course. But from there, the silhouette started

suggesting other value shapes to break up the silhouette into a nicely

designed costume. As you can see, great differences can be made

from the same foundations. And I did keep a mind on contrast andused it to guide the eye around the design. However, keep in mind the

purpose and feel of the character you want to achieve. The first one

felt the best for me, because I wanted a very solidly typical pirate with

subtle features and familiar shapes.


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In the alternatives picture, youll see my other choices. The second

one is also pretty solid: but the feel of that one is more of a royal

swashbuckling goody-goody rather than a freelance pirate. The feel of

her shape is far more regal and expensive. More like a courtesan coat

than something that routinely got salt water on it. And then the thirdexample is nearly outright jesterly. Its very harlequin and overly

ornate from the shapes and patterning. And that is not at all what I

wanted for a pirate.


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However, you can see that experimentation is a good thing: I more

certainly know what design direction I want, and particularly what I

dont want. And Ive even created other solid directions that might be

useful in the future for different characters. But the study and

experimentation was useful just as well. (stuff to explain to us in the

presentation, why did you like or dislike your results?)

Remember, the silhouette shape does not change at all from this

point. That was the focus of last step. So keep a firm hold on the

silhouette form. Were just coloring between the lines now.

Project: Turn in three solid, clean and finished designs experimenting

with value shapes to finalize your characters feel and look. Include 1.5

inch high reduced versions.

Step 4: Refined Value Pass and Color Pass

Refined Value Pass:

This, much like the Refined Silhouette pass, is to flesh out your chosen

Value Pass for your character with some of the smaller details. But just

like that step, any details you add cannot override the predominant

tone of the Value Pass. Here are where the guidelines of value

contrasts really come into play. If your chosen details are of a contrast

greatly removed from the main tone, you will create a focal point that

draws attention away from your main shape. Try to avoid this and

keep the detail tones relatively similar, especially dealing with up to

medium-sized shapes that might compete with the larger shapes for

attention. This isnt to say you can never add contrasting details. Just

make sure you know why youre putting them there and theyre small

enough to avoid changing the overall value shape with reduced: for

example, buttons.


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(Show us and tell us what you added for details)

Color Pass:

Color is just as critical for focal points and eye-movement as value

contrast is, particularly since color can lie. When choosing your colors

for your character, brighter warm colors tend to pop forward, leavingcooler colors to recede. This is somehow oblivious of value most of the

time, as the same value of blue and yellow will appear completely

different: the yellow will always look lighter, brighter and closer.


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Anyway, a good rule of thumb is to choose saturation (the intensity of

a color) areas sparingly and have the rest of the tones remain more

desaturated or downplayed with more gray in them. That way, where

you put your stronger colors will aid in the focal point.

As you can see in my pirate, the coat is a rather rich color, but thats

only because the sheer amount of it and its dark. Ive particularly

chosen the rich gold of the belt and shoes as an accent focal point of

saturation. If you take the image into Photoshop and use the

eyedropper tool, youll see most of the colors will reveal themselves to

be in the 50-70% of saturation with the buckle etc being the only truly

rich saturated color there. This is of course done on purpose. I like a

little glitz. And the pieces are small enough it doesnt draw too much

attention away from the value of the coat and shirt, seeing as the

buckle is in the same color family as the pants and belt. If it were a

bright red button, that might be a different story. (tell and show us)


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Project: One solid, clean finished Refined Value Pass with character

details, including 1.5 inch high version next to original Value Pass 1.5

inch high version for comparison.

---AND---

One solid, clean finished Color Pass with character details, including

1.5 inch high version next to original Refined Value Pass and Value

Pass 1.5 inch high versions for progress comparison.

Step 5: Final Pass:

This is basically a grocery list for you. Its the final stage in design

where you pick your materials and textures defining the costuming

choices. This is also important for helping you put together your pose,

because folds and movement of the cloth will be dictated by the

materials weight and this very much needs to be taken into account.

For example, that pirate coat is thick, textured wool of sorts and the

ruffled shirt underneath is a linen fabric. If the arm is stretched

outward, of course the cuffs of the linen shirt will drape downward

rather apparently, whereas the cuffs of the outer coat will more

faithfully retain its shape.

So have fun picking out what these materials are and draw up a nice

finished version of it with all the final details and such in place. Its a

nice formal step in your design, it helps figure out all remaining

questions concerning the character and it looks pretty swell in a

development lineup in the portfolio, too.


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Now I know this step seemed a bit overwhelming to you guys, but

what Im asking you to do is nothing more than gather reference

photographs (already done) and have fun playing with your new

character. From the beginning, you guys always wanted to jump to

this very step putting all the details in the refined silhouette pass,

putting too many details in the value pass. You even wanted to put in

hair highlights and shading on the refined value pass. This step is the

step where you can finally put in the little painting strokes and

highlights and shadows just like you wanted. This is where you get to

play.

The point of the lesson is I want you to THINK about what materials

you are using to create your character so that when you are drawing

the character in pose for your final, you have all these material details

and material weight questions answered for you. Youll know if theres

a thick draping sash or a light fluffy tunic. Youll know if its burlap or

cotton. Youll know if its a battered old worn metal or one thats been

finely oiled and cared for. These are the details I want you to KNOW

about your character to prepare you for the final painting. (tell us in

the presentation)

And to these means to an end, I provided you a direct example of how

the textures (in addition to the swatches) might look on your actual

character. This was just an example, as I was stressing the finding of

materials. This does not mean you have to scare yourselves silly in all

of a sudden trying to replicate my painting style. I said put in lighting

(like for example the hair highlights you were dying to do last step)

and then for your information, try applying the texture to the pieces to

try it out and see how it goes. To experiment.

And because I had a quick method for overlaying texture onto painted

surface, I explained this method to you in this paragraph, giving a

heads up that it would be most efficient to do the lighting pass (even

cell shading if you have to) before applying texture:


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Because texture painting can be a bit daunting and cumbersome, for

this step, I would suggest coloring your character design with a

lighting pass only FIRST, get that down pat before you worry about

texture as well. After you have lighting on it, THEN worry about

applying texture and final details. Texture will be a very final step.

Once you get your lighting down (remember, no using black for

shadows or white for highlights! Use a color tone it doesnt have to

be bright, it just has to not be black/white and flat.) then take your

textures that you find and turn them completely grayscale, and put

them on a layer over the part you want it and turn the layer blend

mode to overlay. This is a quick and dirty pro technique to get

texture down as a base before adding more details or doing another

hand painted layer on top of it. Just be sure that you level or curve

(using levels or curves in photoshop) the values of the texture layer so

when it lays on top of your clothing area, it does NOT change the

overall value of that shape. If you do not balance it so you only see

texture and not tone added, then you are changing your design. It

should just be added noise texture.

If you were having trouble with step four, this is also where you can

rework your issues before deciding on final materials. This step was

meant to be on the light side so as to give you guys some time if you

need it.


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Project: Final Pass on the character design, showing material

swatches and textures used for the costuming and other character

details as exampled. Include a 1.5" high version of the final pass and

refined value pass for comparison.


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***a note on Google fu*** to find your images,

www.images.google.com should be your best friend. But it doesn't

always list what you think it will list because it's not associating your

meaning of your search word with the results. So you'll sometimes

have to think outside the box. If, for example, you are looking for a

fabric trim, googling 'fabric trim' may or may not be kind to you.

However, if you type in 'embroidery' or 'ornate satin' or 'silk piping' or

'brocade' or 'lace' or 'tatting' (the method of making lace), you might

find a lot more results. If your straight-forward words are not yeilding

the images you want, try thinking of objects or clothing that might

have the element you want, and then cut that part out of the picture.

So if the kind of fabric trim you need is found predominently on

wedding dresses, search wedding dresses. Likewise, if it's on beauty

pageant or vegas showgirl tassles, then search with those terms.

Sometimes it'll be the trim on throwpillows or drapery ties. So

sometimes it's more about association than direct naming. Good

searching!

Resource:http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showforum=4

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