Character Design Tips

I decided to make this to test what I really knew about good visual character design, and also to help others who were stuggling with this subject. There's a lot to consider when designing a character for illustration, film or television, but hopefully by the end of this tutorial, it will all come second-nature to you.

A good way to start thinking critically about character design is by analyzing existing characters created in the industry. I call this a "character analysis". Look at every aspect of a character's design. The shapes, the eyes, the colours, the posture, the texture. Each element in a character's design is chosen with a simple purpose in mind - to visually introduce the audience to the character. Ask "why did they do that?", "what was the reason for that aspect of the design?". You see, every decision made in the design process sends a subtle message to the viewer, and understanding symbolism in character design can allow you to create memorable and instantly recognizable characters.

A lot of character design is thinking about the psychological impact of specific shapes, colours, proportions and symbols (as well as cultural symbols). You want your audience to "know" this character as soon as they see them. Like most artistic endeavors, there is no ultimately right or wrong way to go about character design, I'm just giving you some tips. For every rule there is an exception, you should learn the rules, and then learn when it's appropriate to break them.

K.I.S.S - Or Keep It Simple Stupid

Just a little hint. Try to keep the design as simple as you can, even in a realistic style. The simplest designs are always the most memorable (eg. Iron Man's costume is red and gold, with no tentacles or extensions growing out of it). Don't overload your character with complex appendages. Also try to minimize the finer details on your character. Get rid of any detail that your audience wouldn't notice (like a small keyring that hangs out of the character's pocket and is only visible in a close up shot).

Starting abstract:

This is where you take out your sketchbook or Photoshop and make a rough, aimless, messy sketch. Practically a scribble. Sometimes you may see something starting to form within the scribble, forming the basic structure of your character. Don't lift your pencil off the page until you're done with the sketch. Sketch roughly, lightly and quickly, because sketches that are done quickly have more energy in them.

Another way to start would be to use a blobby brush in Photoshop and paint roughly with it. The combined strokes could become a character silhouette (I'll touch more in silhouette later).

I was recently advised about a free downloadable program called Alchemy, which is like a digital sketching program, except there's no undo. It is designed to create abstract shapes to inspire you.

Get references:

If your character is going to be something that exists in the real world, it would be helpful to collect a bunch of photo references to help you. Constantly referring back to the photos and drawing on them in your own style won't design your character for you, but it will give you a starting point. Collecting references is a good habit to get into anyway.

I like looking at photos of animals and then making cartoon versions of them.

Who IS this character?:

The worst way you could possibly start designing a character is by telling yourself "I'm going to design a cute little teddy bear"...Okay. Unfortunately characters these days have to be deeper than that and it has to show in their design. Think of your characters as real people, develop their personalities, their histories and their physical appearances (hair colour, eye colour, height, body type, etc). Do they have any visible scars, injuries, birthmarks, deformities, etc? You'd have to remember those in the design. Write all this information down somewhere. Make a detailed profile of your character to help develop them.

It is essential for your character to posess an "inner life", which is shaped by their history and personality (actually in some cases a character's personality is shaped entirely by their history), and shows in the outer appearance of the character.

So in a way the best place to start is by developing the character's history and personality. Get to know the way the character thinks and makes decisions. If necessary, spend a day trying to think like the character. As you make decisions in everyday life, ask yourself "what would the character do?".

Once you have a history and personality for your character (that is deeper than "this is a cute, happy little teddy bear that lives in a house"), you can use that information to provide hints for designing the visual appearance of your character.

For example, I'm developing a character that is in excellent physical shape, and has fought many battles in hand to hand combat throughout his life. Some he has won, but others have ended terribly for him. He doesn't want to fight anymore, but he knows it's his responsibility. He's rather serious and extremely dedicated to his work.

Using that information, I would create a character that has a broken or bent nose, or missing teeth, along with scars and flesh wounds and maybe even a missing limb to symbolize the history of fighting and the battles he has lost. A hunched over, defeated posture would communicate a sense of exhaustion and struggle. Small, narrow eyes will be able to show a sense of seriousness in his face. Finally, of course the character will have well developed muscles, not so developed he looks like a monster, but more superhero kind of muscles.

Humans love humans:

It's true. Humans love to see stories about humans, humans can relate to humans. But what if you have a character that ISN'T human? Well, it is possible to anthropomorphise or personify your character so it looks at least a little bit like a human, but humans can see themselves in the most abstract of images, as long as you stick to a simple formula. The head and eyes on top (or in front) and the locomotion at the bottom (or behind).

Symmetry:

Viewers will most often look for bilateral symmetry, meaning one half is the mirror image of the other half. Symmetry can help you and the viewer in visualizing a full 360 degree view of your character, and makes 3D character models much easier, but in real life, living creatures are not completely symmetrical. One of our eyes could be a little lower or smaller than the other. We may have a scar on one of our cheeks and not on the other one.

Now I'm not saying symmetry is a bad thing, it can really help you in defining the basic shape and structure of your character, but breaking symmetry once it's established can really add new effect to your characters. Adding a little bit of asymmetry in the facial features and minor details like the clothes (eg. pocket on one side of the shirt) can help to add realism to the character (and make it not look like a mass-produced computer generated figure).

However going further with asymmetry, especially in facial expressions like terror, establishes a feeling of imbalance. Creating a completely asymmetrical character structure will result in a character that looks mutated or deformed, and enhance the feeling of imbalance.

Shapes:

No matter how complex a character is, it can be broken down into simple basic shapes, even with a realistic style. Shapes are the building blocks for basic character structure, especially in a simplistic cartoony style.

Rounded shapes convery a sense of innocence, an upside down triangle shows strength (since it's generally the shape of a well developed chest), while an upright triangle communicates a low centre of gravity. Sharp angles (particularly on squares and rectangles) can show rigidity and danger to enhance the effect of a stubborn and angry character. Placing sharp edges and points in a character design helps to create a dangerous or evil character (eg. Jafar from Aladdin).

Try rotating these basic shapes too for different designs. Try using ovals as well as circles in a rounded character. How about a yogurt tub shape?

Proportions:

It's important to play around with proportions to get a variety of designs (yes even in a realistic style, not everybody has exactly the same anatomy, but it's still important to learn human anatomy in realism). I like doing a simple cartoon style because I can distort and exaggerate the character as much as I want.

Anyway, in most cases the larger you make a feature, proportionally to the rest of the character, the more you're exaggerating it. If a character has large arms, you expect them to be physically strong with them. The audience would expect a character to use a long tail like a third arm (which is one thing I see neglected a lot in animation, tails that are long enough SHOULD act like third arms to strengthen a pose). A character with a large belly and short hindlegs would be perceived as slow and maybe even lethargic. Large eyes may present optimism or curiosity in your character.

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Take the size of your character's parts into account when designing them.

Posture and Movement:

Symbolism can even be found in character posture. A character that slouches over all the time will appear physically weaker or lazier than a character that always stands upright with its chest out. Keep in mind that even when standing still, a character's body (and spine) will still curve. Nobody stands as if they have a steel rod stuck up their back, not even soldiers.

Movement should mostly be considered for animation, but it is also useful to think about for poses. If a character is not athletic, you wouldn't see them running happily, they'd more likely be running just to get away from something.

Another thing that's crucial to character design is making sure your character IS ABLE TO COMPLETE THE ACTIONS REQUIRED BY THE STORY. For example you wouldn't design a fat character with short stubby arms and then expect them to be able to hang from monkey bars, or swing from a gymnast's bar. Would you?

While we're on movement, it would be advantageous to consider a character's balance. How does the character distribute their weight, especially when moving? Although this is a minor thing to consider because it is completely acceptable to design characters that would not balance at all in the real world (eg. Jessica Rabbit). To make a character that appears more human-like, it will be useful to know that men have a center of gravity (the point which gravity seems to pull on first) in their chest, and a woman's center of gravity is closer to their pelvis.

Ugliness:

I've fallen into the trap of making every character I create either cute or beautiful. It's tempting. We can't stand to see (let alone draw) an ugly character. Some people try to make all their characters beautiful, when really, there are many different kinds of beautiful, and characters would look even more beautiful if they had an ugly character standing next to them (eg. in Beauty and the Beast).

If your character is meant to be a villain or someone that is designed to scare and disgust your viewers, then it's okay to crank the ugliness RIGHT UP. The uglier a character is, the less your audience will empathize with them (however in some cases an ugly character can be so well internally developed that the audience will empathize with them anyway). Notice how in "Beauty and the Beast" that while the beast looked fierce and hideous, he didn't look so ugly that you couldn't feel for him? (Of course it was a kids movie so they could only go so far with the ugliness). He could have had warts, strangely distorted anatomy, bloodshot glowing eyes, etc.

Some people use only wounds and scars in an attept to make a character ugly. While these things do detract from a character's appearance, using them alone will only make the character look tough and warrior-like. It's the signs of ill health (eg. rotting teeth) and extreme distortion in anatomy (one eye being exceptionally larger than the other) that will help add to a character's ugliness.

Here are some things that are guaranteed to make a character look ugly:
- Discoloured teeth - not seeing teeth as their natural colour gives a feeling of strangeness and sickness
- Rotted or missing teeth
- Buck or misaligned teeth - You ever look back on your dental cast from before you had braces? Try exaggerating that
- Extreme distortions in anatomy - I mean stuff that is so extreme it might throw the character off balace. Try distorting the face into an extremely assymetrical image
- Pus - nobody likes pus. Try putting it around the eyes, in scars/wounds and around the teeth
- Bloodshot eyes
- Pimples and blisters
- Extreme flesh wounds - Try out huge scars and even areas where the flesh has been completely teared off
- Bone showing through flesh wounds - Enhances realism and anatomy
- Lumps and bumps - especially in places you wouldn't expect to find them
- Warts
- Veins showing through skin
- Bones slightly visible through skin - Like when a person is starved
- Unnatural spots or bruises
- Wrinkles - You know like the kind old people get. I'm not saying old people are ugly, but everybody does what they can to hide wrinkles

Don't forget, ugly characters look even uglier if these features look REALISTIC.

Eyes:

The eyes are a window to the soul, so I thought it needed its own section. Eyes can communicate a lot about a character, especially in facial expression. Large, wide eyes can show a sense of optimism and curiosity, while small eyes can emphasise a narrow minded character. Drooping eyelids can portray a sleepy character or a character that doesn't care about very much besides himself...or even a character that's stoned.

Bear in mind that asian characters have different shaped eyes compared to western characters. They are naturally narrower, but can be just as expressive. Just don't draw a coin slot to represent these eyes.

Experiment with the proportion and shape of the eyes for different expressions.

Colours:

The key to using colour effectively in character design is to use it sparingly. Just like fine details and complex appendages, the more colourful you make a character, the more your audience will have to remember and the less memorable your character will become.

The tip is, don't use a million colours. Try to use a maximum of three base colours for large areas on the character (like a whole cloak/coat or the skin) and two more colours for finer detail areas (like buttons on the coat). Try to use even fewer colours than that.

It would be advisable to use colours that work harmoniously together (don't clash) (like an analogous or complimentary colour scheme) and reflect the character's personality.

Be aware that certain colours represent certain symbols or emotions. For example red helps to signify action, romance and danger. Purple on the other hand is seen in studios as the colour of royalty, mainly because before digital colour was introduced, it was the most expensive paint colour available to animation studios. There are resources on the internet that list possible emotions and symbols that are connected to each colour:

www.princetonol.com/groups/iad…
www.squidoo.com/colorexpert

It also wouldn't hurt to learn a bit of colour theory so you can make pleasing colour combinations on your character.

Silhouette:

If you've kept the character's design simple and not overloaded it with details, then the character (and what they're doing) should be instantly recognizable as a silhouette. If not, you may need to go back and rework your character.

There will be times when you want the character to look mysterious and menacing and your don't want your viewer to be able to pick it from the silhouette. This is the only exception to the silhouette rule.

Using silhouette in posing your character is also a good way to utilize negative space, which is empty space that is not taken up by a character or object.

Fitting In With Other Characters:

One aspect of character design that was practiced well in the era of the 90s and classic Disney (but doesn't get much attention anymore) is considering how a character design will look when it's standing next to some of your other character designs from the same story. A good example of this would be from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Notice how the characters have colour schemes that do not clash with each other, and they blend in well with the castle interiors. Most importantly, all the characters in that film appear to come from the same universe, like they belong in the same world.

Only recently did I notice that in the classic series of Inspector Gadget, all the characters were designed with a cartoony style as a foundation, while Penny's design appeared to be more influenced by anime. Now that I've realized it, it appears to me that Penny comes from an entirely different world from the other characters.

Artistic style, height, colour schemes and negative space are the main things one must consider when "testing" out character designs alongside other characters.

Stereotypes and Cliche:

It is the mission of an animator and storyteller to avoid cliche, however in an effort to be clear and concise, it is very easy to default to cliche without realizing it. A cliche is an element in storytelling, be it a character, symbol, concept, line of dialogue or plot, that has been used so many times that it has lost its originality.

In a scenario where you want to surprise your viewers, you may design a character to communicate the opposite of that character's personality. For example a character that appears to be a fighter and a bodybuilder could actually be quite intelligent, and without interest in violence. When this is revealed, it's an unexpected surprise, because we were lead to think differently through the visual messages in the design.

Again, this is an example of breaking the rules of character design. I'm not saying you should do this for every character you create. That might be a bit too much surprise.

Finding Your Style:

Every artist has their own unique visual style, which was developed over many years of drawing. Even if your style is an abstract, cartoony one, it will very much improve if you learn realistic human anatomy and learn how to observe things in the real world.

The style you will be most comfortable with will greatly be influenced by the artists and media that has inspired you to pick up a pencil and start drawing in the first place. If you want to start defining a visual style, making a list of the things that have greatly influenced you and studying those sources of inspiration as a form of reference is a good way to go about it.

Avoiding Mary Sues:

Thought I'd put this last. In case you don't know, a Mary Sue is a character that is "invincible" in the story and doesn't have any flaws. They are usually beautiful and are admired by other characters for their beauty. Sometimes other characters (even the villain) become jealous of their beauty. In some cases, a Mary Sue can be so powerful they can easily reform the villain. It is also a Mary Sue trait for these characters to have powers, animals or objects that are not usually possessed by people in the world of the story (eg. a pet gryphon in a world where everyone has cats and dogs), and to be able to master advanced magic or weaponary in an extremely short time (eg. mastering a spell that takes years to learn in only a couple of weeks).

If your character does not have any physical or psychological flaws, then they won't be memorable. We remember characters like Woody because they have flaws, which make them appear more human and relatable.

If you suspect your character might be a Mary Sue, there are online tests you can take to find out.

www.springhole.net/quizzes/mar…
holepunch.deviantart.com/art/T…

Don't Be Satisfied With the First Drawing:

The best character designs were not just "designed", they evolved from previous designs. This pretty much means that you shouldn't do just one drawing of the character and assume that will do. Movie studios do pages and pages of character designs, some just trying out different hairstyles or features, before they decide on a final design. You never see the scrapped designs unless you buy the art book, if there is one produced.

Always look at your character and ask yourself what could be changed or improved. Experiment with different shapes and proportions. Allow the character to "evolve" until you believe there's nothing left to improve.

You may find your character design continues to evolve even after this "design" process is complete. This is completely normal and (in most cases) your audience will accept it. Take Bugs Bunny for example. His original design looks almost nothing like how we see him now, and Warner Bros are in the process of changing him again to suit a more abstract and simplified style. I've found videogame characters like Super Mario, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot have also "evolved" in design over the years.