Good Character Design: My Thoughts
Per request, here is a bigger, more consolidated post on what I believe creates good designs. Keep in mind I am still learning myself, and this doesn’t really constitute a guide you have to absolutely abide to.
There are many great guides and books out there to help you learn character design. One that comes to mind is Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation book. I’ve actually used some guides from that book in animation class! Check it out.
Okay, so, what makes a good character design? Here are some of my thoughts on the matter:
1.- Learn anatomy. You need to know the rules to break them.
This is usually the biggest mistake I’ve seen people do when designing a character. People either don’t know anatomy or flat out ignore it, thinking that their style doesn’t “need” it.
Let me tell you, anatomy is super important. Even if you think your art is so simple it won’t matter, it will, in fact, matter.
You don’t need to make realistic characters all the time, far from it. But knowing how to draw body parts and how they’re proportioned is vital for learning how to exaggerate them to create your characters. Trust me, after I took Anatomy my OCs looked better than ever, and I was able to create more since I knew what rules I could break!
A sub point is that you should never sacrifice anatomy for the sake of fitting a canvas. Either draw smaller or resize your canvas if you’re drawing digitally.
2.- Create characters with identifiable silhouettes.
A bigger yikes than sameface is samebody. Characters don’t have to be entirely alien to be recognizable, but things like height, weight, posture, fashion, hair, etc. go a long way in making characters pop and differ from one another.
3.- Don’t overdesign a character. Make sure they can be drawn again.
Something that will make a character design be terrible is making them a clusterfuck of details and/or accessories. Not only is it an eyesore, but it makes said characters a nightmare to draw again and a trip to the deepest pits of hell to animate.
This Big Yikes™️ is more common in anime. Many designers compensate having sameface with having characters have ungodly ammounts of accessories to set them apart. It’s also commonplace when people attempt to make designs edgier, take for example the new Digimon X designs.
If your character is going to be known for sporting something make sure you don’t overdo it with the details. It’s best to keep the design clean, this will make them easy to grasp, draw and recognize.
4.- Learn aesthetics. Just because you designed a character to be ugly doesn’t mean it’s exempt from criticism.
This is definetly the most opinionated of the points but I feel it still has some merit to it. Good character design is one that conveys what it wants to get across well and that is appealing to the eyes.
Of course one doesn’t need to create cute or pretty looking characters all the time, after all ugliness conveys an aesthetic truth. However creating disgusting sets of characters, either intentionally or accidentally, is a sure way of riding a one-way train to Uncanny Valleyville.
Surely you want your characters to be appealing, especially if you’re selling them or using them in a context where you want them to be marketable.
Think about it this way: Does your character being ugly relate to their story in anyway? Are they still fun to look at and draw? If so, it’s alright. Are they accidentally ugly-looking? Did you design them like that just for the shock factor because you’re an edgelord? If so, it’s bad design.
Aaaand that’s all I can think of on the top of my head. If you guys have any comments or additions feel free to post them! I hope this was at least somewhat helpful.
