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Tips for character design
13 years ago
So y'all ... I watch a ton of people on here and just about every person has their own special character ... I'm by no means a genius of character design, but there is one thing I think could be helpful for everyone to keep in mind:
You can have more than one character.
Seriously. I see a lot of people loading up their "fursona" with every feature they like ever. And there's not anything WRONG with doing it that way if you enjoy it, but ... man, it makes your character look way too busy and kind of like you made it with one of those online character generators that lets you pile on accessories.
In character design, it's a delicate balancing act. You don't want so few features that your character looks bland, but you don't want so MANY features that your character is overdone. Let's take a look at my dear Hazzy for an example: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5386697/ He's a yellow-furred wolf guy with a muscular build, glasses, long headfur in a ponytail, and a scar across his chest. That's a good level of distinguishing traits, where most people spot a picture of him and recognize him immediately, but not so much that he takes six years to draw. I mean, imagine Hazzy with a bionic arm, 38 piercings, an eyepatch, a taur body, silver filigree armor on top of his clothes, 8 nipples, candy-apple red tiger stripes and blue leopard spots and you can see what I mean about getting too busy. So instead of piling stuff on, try making a LOT of personal characters and spreading your favorite features out among them.
And it's not BAD to have a lot of accessories and stuff, but once you do that, you have to tie them together to make your character visually appealing. The biggest way people seem to stumble on that is color. Use this Color Scheme Designer to help you figure out what colors are often most visually appealing and work together well. You can also use things like motifs to unify the character's theme, for example, if your character wears a lot of jewelry and accessories, have all those accessories use the same design style and matching colors.
I'm not trying to pick on anyone or complain; it's your character after all, do whatever you want with it! But I just offer this as something to think about to help people getting the most out of their characters. If anyone else knows some good (constructive!) tips or resources/websites for character design, please share them in the comments!
You can have more than one character.
Seriously. I see a lot of people loading up their "fursona" with every feature they like ever. And there's not anything WRONG with doing it that way if you enjoy it, but ... man, it makes your character look way too busy and kind of like you made it with one of those online character generators that lets you pile on accessories.
In character design, it's a delicate balancing act. You don't want so few features that your character looks bland, but you don't want so MANY features that your character is overdone. Let's take a look at my dear Hazzy for an example: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5386697/ He's a yellow-furred wolf guy with a muscular build, glasses, long headfur in a ponytail, and a scar across his chest. That's a good level of distinguishing traits, where most people spot a picture of him and recognize him immediately, but not so much that he takes six years to draw. I mean, imagine Hazzy with a bionic arm, 38 piercings, an eyepatch, a taur body, silver filigree armor on top of his clothes, 8 nipples, candy-apple red tiger stripes and blue leopard spots and you can see what I mean about getting too busy. So instead of piling stuff on, try making a LOT of personal characters and spreading your favorite features out among them.
And it's not BAD to have a lot of accessories and stuff, but once you do that, you have to tie them together to make your character visually appealing. The biggest way people seem to stumble on that is color. Use this Color Scheme Designer to help you figure out what colors are often most visually appealing and work together well. You can also use things like motifs to unify the character's theme, for example, if your character wears a lot of jewelry and accessories, have all those accessories use the same design style and matching colors.
I'm not trying to pick on anyone or complain; it's your character after all, do whatever you want with it! But I just offer this as something to think about to help people getting the most out of their characters. If anyone else knows some good (constructive!) tips or resources/websites for character design, please share them in the comments!
Hehe yeah I agree making a unique looking character is tough these days, but I try to pull it off I'm a wolf, that's about all there is to say about me :) got myself some earrings, my bracelet both of which I haven't had done in ages and ages. I even created my own outfit in steam punk style that I like a lot. Just... always going back to the base of simplicity though.
This is kind of a good and bad thing. Good is that you have those favorite features spread out, the bad (at least to me) is that it's too much character juggling. Again, this is just a me thing, because if you can juggle and get that many character done, good for you, I just can't do it. XP In terms of design, I just really went for simplicity for Thunder. Then the one thing happened in a RP and I added the necklace and the shade of green hair. Not gonna do anymore, because then it just loses itself. x.x
Me, I have five characters, a sixth being worked on, and ideas for future ones. I mean, okay, three of the current five are lions, but amongst my characters, I've given them all their own set of traits, quirks and personalities to help make them stand out. My fursona is essentially me as a furry (with a physical changee or two), and my other characters get other traits and personalities, anything from age, to likes and dislikes, to job and hobbies, to general attitude (bet you didn't know Wayne's shifted from lovable giant to smug "bad boy"). Physically, my guys tend to be simple, but I still like to add bits and pieces. Remmy's build, Mason's short cut mane and lack of abs despite being muscular, Cyrus's white stripes on his mane and beard, Freddy's always wearing overalls and Wayne's red highlights on his hair.
I do have other characters that I've taken aspects of myself and molded their being from, but they're not particularly my "alt" or anything, just other characters that I can use for whatever. They have some attributes that Ic an relate to, but are different enough to be what, or "who" they are
Character design, I keep it fairly simple because I myself like simple things. But like you, not to the point of being nondescript. The trick isn't just looks, but the personality that seems to exude from the art that the character is in that makes me go "hey, I've seen that gray wolf before, drawn by another artist!"
I mean, my sona's simply a brown furred wolf, red hair and eyes, with four black stripes on his back...I pretty much stuck him with my nerdy, dorkish traits. Most of my characters share some small trait with me, whether it be how I would like to see myself, to simply being thought up on the dot. Yet each and everyone has their own aspects, strengths and weaknesses, likes and fears.
Basically, our characters hold a small piece of ourselves, however, they themselves are their own person, not us in anyway. That is something that should be understood.
I feel like I just missed the point of all this for some reason...eh...my mind just loves to ramble.
Something it brings to mind is, even if a character can have all of the same interests and such that we do, they can't just wear it all in their character design, because that would be like a real person wearing all their possessions on them at all times like the Junk People from Labyrinth.
I'm not sure how I'd go about fleshing out another character, as Thunderhoof has a lot of my personal mannerisms (just not the body :P ).
Certainly something to think about though.
From the get go, these are the key points to developing a strong design:
[Disclaimer: When I say "you" I am not directing it towards yourself or anyone in particular]
-Contrast
Big/small, tall/short, angular/smooth, detailed/general, dark/light, textured/flat, soft/hard. Contrast creates interest. Play with it, master it, experiment.
-Balance
When you quantify the above things, you want to make sure that there is not too much of one thing, or too little of another. When you have variation that reinforces other parts of the design holistically, you make an identifiable and believable character. Push it as far as you can, then pull back. It creates diversity.
-Body Landmarks/Form
Many people here on F.A. do not understand how to implement design well because of body landmarks and form, in my personal opinion. I struggle with form greatly. When you really want to make a good design, you design everything. That means the ribcage, the nose, the eyes, hair, legs, all of it. Amateur artists use their own tropes as crutches that hinder their designs. My trope is I like drawing thin guys, and I do it relatively realistically without too much variation.
This is where being critical versus being personal comes in. When you inject your personal interests in a design, your own comfort zone of drawing patterns, you create a crutch that may impediment your design. Everyone has a style, and draws the same character differently, some better than others. Those design changes in their interpretations are drastically different than someone else.
By creating landmarks of designing shape and form in the very core silhouette or breakdown of simple shapes of your character, you can pump a more universal consistency and recognition into it.
-Clothing
People wear clothes. You design clothes that fashion the personality of somebody. Hair styles change too. A strong design will make the character feel like the same character if those surface changes happen. The clothing should reinforce the person. Sometimes some designers don't strip their character naked, but make their clothing a part of them, and that's fine! But if you want to do everything with your character, chances are they will change and develop.
-Color
You brought up color fairly well! Yes, color is huge.
-Drawing Aesthetics
If I draw my character in highlighters, he'll look different than if I drew him in charcoal, or gouache. Sometimes different materials give different textures. Likewise, there are some designs that are intended to look flat and 2-D, and there are some that are more three dimensional. If you have the aptitude, try different approaches and aesthetics to your character and see how they change or develop.
For Artists:
The best way to break in a design is to draw it a shit ton. The more you do it, the more excessive shit you strip away, if you want to draw them fast. Sometimes the character itself is meant to have a lot of high amounts of detail, but I've only seen professionals pull it off with eloquence and grace. It's at the level where you've mastered the basics above and can break the rules with tact and reason.
And it's like, I don't expect every person on FA to have a superb artistic sense of design, but given how absolutely obsessed furry fandom is with artists, raising them up to a celebrity status, I should think people would at least be a little interested in such aspects of art and design.
I have a lot of problems with a ton of artists here on F.A. especially porn artists in particular. Not because of their mature work, I'm fine with being sensually titillated in an image, but because they fall under a lot of the same tropes that many laud over. The subject matter of sex becomes more important than their skill and technical merits.
Which is why I don't take many artists here seriously, and which is why it becomes easier for me to distinguish who knows their shit over someone who draws things that appeal to sexual popularity. There's nothing wrong with it, but I know only a few fursona's that I consider to be truly original and especially well designed at the same time. We all have practice to do. No one is truly at a level of mastery, and I'm not saying this in a perspective that anyone is inferior because of my opinions. I am a humble somebody, a student to my very core. I will never try to be in the ranks of the elite because I always have more learning to do from everyone who's wiling to contribute.
I love these types of journals though. Thanks for letting me participate, and thanks for responding!
Oh, and oversized naughty bits. Those tend to draw the eye! X3
Colours have to be matched and complement each other well, the most would be up to 3 different colours on a single character. More than that and its bound to look horrible.
I've seen some that have their fursona adorned with so many stuff on them that it makes Tetsuya Nomura's character designs look tame!
Hi, I'd like to say, yeah, it is true, complexating character design in order to stand out is a bit of a problem with some people. It isn't bad at all, but it takes great skill to implement all of the elements in the character and put it into one form because of how much it means to one. If acting on a haste, the fursona might look, overdone. I do agree with you on this. Personally, I don't mind that much complex designs, but I think it becomes more of a load if you constantly has to remember adding it. If you have a specific detail in your character that you find using the most, keep it. Other stuff, something that is part of, but doesn't help to bring out the character, discard. That is my personnal advice, no need to listen to it. You can use that characteristic to create another character and bring them to life. Cause if you like it that much, it might bother you that you didn't use it. I have my own set of characters, each with a unique set of characteristics I am happy to share! "Hopping and waiting for a response"........
For what it's worth, I pretty much agree with you overall. People can make just about anything work, even overdoing it can work well sometimes, it's just that it's incredibly easy to do badly.
Thank you for agreeing to my opinion. I have several of my own characters. And seriously, sometimes I would try to spare from some details, so that each character looked different. Don't know if I make any sense. Well, thanks for replying, I felt nervous actually.