Character Design Ideas List – Character design is one of an artist’s most fundamental skills, however, unlike most skills, there is no magic formula that will guarantee instant success for creating compelling and engaging characters. So why did I start writing this article on how to design a character, you might be wondering.
Well, even with something as personal and imagination-based as character creation, there are some best practices and processes that can help you get in the right direction of designing and portraying your character. That’s why today I’m going to take everything that top artists and illustrators have come up with and put together a guide to help you create your character.
Character Design Ideas List
“…When you look at a picture or realistic drawing of a face, you see a different face. But when you enter the world of animation, you find yourself. -Scott McCloud
The Giant List Of Perler Bead Patterns {fuse Beads, Melty Beads}
Character design is the process of creating and developing a character for a visual story. It could be a fantasy literature, a brand story, comic book, a campaign, a video game, or an animated film. What matters is that these characters and mascots are what drive the story forward and get people invested in it.
The main goal of every character creator is to design a character that is memorable and that the audience can relate to. Your personality can be serious about business, or it can be playful, goofy, passionate, or even mean. Whatever it is, the character must be relatable to the viewer. Successful and memorable characters that make people emotionally connect with your story come from the artist’s ability to truly understand the character’s personality and backstory.
If you already have a basic idea of what your character is going to be, it makes it easier. Imagine you want to make a sea creature. Your research includes browsing images of existing marine animals, landscapes, objects, color palettes, and anything else that will help you create a mood board. Browsing artists’ current works can also be an invaluable experience in gathering ideas and unlocking patterns for successful sea creature designs, their overall aesthetics, and more.
If you’re starting from scratch, you can start by browsing Pinterest boards, character design magazines, and trying to get the mood you’re looking for. Do you like human design? animal? Something in between? This is where the mood is important.
22 Oc Maker Challenges Ideas
Personality traits fall into 4 broad categories: outlook, physical appearance, personality, and ancillary traits. It is a good idea to use prepared paper on which you can write down your thoughts. This will give you a good view of your character’s development as a whole. In addition, you will also know what is lacking in your personality and can quickly come up with a solution based on the qualities you have already written down.
There are many free character design templates available. For example, you can download a free character design template from GraphicMama here.
Sometimes it’s hard to start with a general description, especially if you’re starting from scratch. You can finish the physical and personal characteristics first and then come back to finish the overview.
This is the front of your personality that will make a first impression and grab your audience’s attention. In other words, what does your personality look like?
Maureen Lukito Alkkiomäki
Great character design is rarely just about physical attributes. Your personality can look amazing and make an incredible first impression. However, it’s their personality that will win over your audience and keep them around.
Fortunately, there are several databases and techniques that can help you capture the trend. Writers who need to create engaging, relatable characters often use the MBTI and enneagram systems to help them develop their characters. With that in mind, even if your persona is specific to a brand and doesn’t have to be that complicated, it still needs to have a strong presence and personality.
This category is more about body language that conveys your character’s mood and personality. With the right posture and walk or the way they move their hands, your personality can appear very confident and assertive, shy or energetic. You can make it all perfectly visible with motion lines.
Drawing is the most important part of the character design process because it’s when you actually create. Everything else from there is just polishing. At this stage, you have to decide and draw all the visual information: the shapes that make up its shape and even its character, and the lines that connect its movement. This is the brainstorming session that will bring your imagination to life.
Character In Literature
You’ve done the hard part. Now it’s about relaxing and exploring your character design further by adding facial expressions, some movement and atmosphere.
Now it’s time for the proper presentation. You can do this by creating a few mood boards that contain everything that makes up your personality: drawings, poses, color palette, expressions, style, clothing, and catchy phrases. Sometimes, words are not enough to convey the whole concept, let your moodboard prepare the presentation for you.
By the way, you can also download a pre-made, editable mood board to get inspiration to show your personality. Here we have collected 20 free mood board templates that you can download and use for this occasion.
In this section, I’ll discuss some of the highlights that make up a good formula for a memorable character. Most of the things we have already discussed in several steps. However, here I will highlight these principles so that you do not forget these principles.
Character Development: How To Create Fan-favorite Characters In 5 Steps
It is very important that your character likes you, because he will wear the magic of your love that created him. However, remember that this character must also appeal to your target audience. In other words, who is your target character? children? Specific demographic of tech nerds? Agencies? This is especially important when your character is assigned. In this case, your personality is more restricted and predetermined, but still leaves room for creativity.
No matter what type of character you create, one thing is certain. There are, and will be, hundreds of people just like you. The key is to create something powerful enough to grab your audience’s attention. Something special, unique, even unusual. Wearing leather? Crazy hairstyle? Feet not equal in length? Why not?
Try making your character a silhouette and see if it still stands out and is recognizable. This also applies to postures and emotions. For example, if you keep the limbs separate, it’s easier to tell what your character is doing by the silhouette itself.
Realistic proportions are kind of boring and predictable. Unless realism is important to your current project, try to create a unique look for your character by playing with natural scale. Once you learn how to draw different body types, you’ll be able to customize any body shape to fit their personality.
How To Write A Character Sketch: Examples & Worksheets
If your character is a ninja or assassin, try to change the fact that they are fast, agile, and sneaky by making them small, skinny, with long legs, perfect for climbing and hanging from the roof. The features that define your personality are the best targets for exaggeration. For example, if you are designing a mighty warrior or barbarian, make his upper body muscles huge and distinctive.
And last but not least, think about the line of action that mostly determines the direction of your character. The action line is the curved line that gives the character action instead of the straight line where the character is static. The curved line of action gives posture and strength and makes the character dynamic and lively.
You have reached the end of the journey now on how to design a character. In conclusion, there is no set formula, however, there are some best practices and things to consider before jumping to the drawing board. Most importantly, your character is more than a visual appearance, it has a personality, attitude, and charisma that makes it stand out from any other character. I hope this guide has inspired you to bring your character ideas to life and make them totally awesome.
In the meantime, if you’re feeling inspired, there’s plenty more to be inspired by. Check out more articles with insights and inspiration like these:
99 Important Design Words You Should Know
Or you can head straight to our huge collection of inspiration articles with over 100 really cool character design examples that prove anything can be a character.
Graphic design inspiration 100+ really good character design examples that prove that anyone can be a character 100+ really good character design examples that prove that anyone can be a character
How to Add Audio to Google Slides: The Definitive Guide How to Add Audio to Google Slides: The Definitive Guide
Design Tips How to Create Video Ads the Easy Way [Beginner’s Guide] How to Create Video Ads the Easy Way [Beginner’s Guide]