>> Hey, art nerds.
We are going to be talking about character design.
Now, creating an entire character from scratch,
human or otherwise, takes a lot of creative energy.
Every artist has their own creative process, so there is no right way to create a character.
But, typically, the character design process for each artist begins at the same place.
Before even putting a pencil to paper or pen to tablet, a character designer should start
with the most important step of all, research.
It can be helpful to try and deconstruct why certain characters
and their characteristics work and why some don't.
Study other characters, and think about what makes them so successful and what
in particular you like about them, their personality, their style choice,
or maybe you just really dig their hair.
You need to take a deep look into your character's personality in order
to develop a visual idea of its physical features.
So one big influencer for your whole design is who your character is aimed at.
What group of people is your character intended for?
This group is referred to as your target audience.
Think about the age of your intended audience.
For example, characters aimed at young children are typically designed
around basic shapes and bright colors.
Be sure to also take a close look at your audience's gender, personality,
or subcultures that they may be a part of.
Whether you're creating a llama, robot, or monster, you can guarantee there are going
to be 100 other similar creations out there.
Your character needs to be strong and interesting
in a visual sense to get people's attention.
Even its silhouette needs to be striking.
So what special trait does your character possess?
Do they have any usual or unusual quirks?
Maybe some cool prop hat or weapon they seem to always carry around
or that illustrates some aspect of their being.
Exaggerating the defining features of your character will help it appear larger than life.
Exaggerated features will also help viewers identify the character's key qualities.
Is your character supposed to be super fast, curious, smart, evil, kind, strong?
What can you do to exaggerate or accentuate these features your character possesses?
Colors can also communicate a character's personality.
Typically, dark colors, such as black, purples,
and grays depict baddies and malevolent intentions.
Light colors, on the other hand, such as white, blues, pinks,
and yellows express innocence, good, and purity.
By changing only the color, you can change how your character is perceived by others.
Interesting looks alone do not necessarily make for a good character.
Its personality is key as well.
A character's personality can be revealed through animations or even as simply
as how he or she carries themselves.
While some characters appear to be confident, standing tall and relaxed,
others may appear very timid, with shoulders ever so slightly slouched,
keeping their arms close and eyes avoiding contact with all others.
The personality of your character doesn't have to be particularly agreeable,
but it does need to be interesting, unless your character is purposefully dull.
The basic shapes you use to construct your character can contribute
to its perceived personality.
If you want to learn more about this, I have a whole video that goes into shape language.
So be sure to check it out.
Expressions showing a character's range of emotions and depicting its ups
and downs will further flush out your character.
Depending on its personality, a figure's emotions might be muted and wry
or explosive and wildly exaggerated.
Subtle alterations in the shape of your character's eyes, mouth,
even eyebrows can change its expression dramatically.
As the old saying goes, the eyes speak louder than the mouth;
and emotions can be seen around the eyes.
Even with only being able to see the eyes of each of these characters,
I bet you can get a pretty close guess as to which emotion he or she may be expressing.
The driving force behind a character's personality is what he or she wants to achieve.
Often, the incompleteness or flaws in a character are what make them interesting.
And to help out -- figure that out, your character needs a backstory.
Developing its backstory for your character is important, especially if you're planning
for the character to exist within comics or animations.
Where does your character come from?
How did it come to exist?
What life-changing events has it experienced?
Having answers to these questions are going to help back up the solidity
and subsequent belief in your character.
Sometimes telling of a character's backstory can be more interesting
than the character's present adventures.
The deeper you go, the more real your character will be.
Relationships, hobbies, bad habits, routines, things they collect, things they hate,
what home is like, what they wish to accomplish, the list is endless.
Even when you think you are nearing the end of your character's design, question each element
of your creation, especially things such as its facial features.
The slightest alteration can have a great effect on how your character is perceived.
Things like head shape; hairstyle; facial features, such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth;
even the fit of your jeans on your character says something
about their personality or their mission.
Baggy, lazy, comfortable, athletic jeans.
Got some relaxed, stable, and more reliable jeans.
They got those stylish and creative skinny jeans.
Okay. So there's so many options, so please pay attention to every single detail.
The idea of character design is to go on a creative dive into the unknown and,
from that abyss, pull out the best design that matches the character description.
Great and memorable characters come as a result of the time and creative energy put
into making them by character designers.
And think about this.
Every single character you've ever seen on TV or played in a video game was designed by someone.