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Character Design

Character Design. Tips & Tricks From illustrator Jon Burgerman.

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Character Design

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  1. Character Design Tips & Tricks From illustrator Jon Burgerman

  2. “Character design can be a tricky beast to tackle, because although many of the classic characters familiar to us all through cartoons, entertainment and advertising look simple, that simplicity usually belies the many hours of work that have gone into their development.

  3. “From Mickey Mouse's famous three-fingered hands - drawn to save production time when the character was first developed for animations in the 1920s - to the elegant simplicity of Homer Simpson, character design has always been about keeping it simple.

  4. “But aside from clean lines and easily readable features, what else are you going to need to know? There's knowing what to exaggerate and what to play down, what to add to give a hint of background and depth, and what to do to develop personality. Getting started can be the trickiest part in any character development project, but once you've got some ideas these tips will help you breath life into your creation.”

  5. 01. Research and evaluate Characters are everywhere: TV commercials Cereal boxes Billboards Video games Mobile phone apps Etc. Study these character designs and think about what makes some successful and what in particular you like about them.

  6. 02. Design and plan "The process of thinking up concepts always starts the same: paper, pencil, green tea... lots of thumbnails, written ideas, scratches and sketches over sketches.“ - Nathan Jurevicius

  7. 03. Exaggerated characteristics Exaggerating the defining features of your character design will help it appear larger than life. Exaggerated features will also help viewers to identify the character's key qualities. Exaggeration helps emphasize certain personality traits. If your character is strong, don't just give it normal-sized bulging arms, soup them up so that they're five times as big as they should be!

  8. 04. Color me bad Colors can help communicate a character's personality. Typically, dark colors such as black, purples and greys depict baddies with malevolent intentions. Light colors such as white, blues, pinks and yellows express innocence, good and purity. Comic-book reds, yellows and blues might go some way to giving hero qualities to a character design.

  9. 05. Adding accessories Props and clothing can help to emphasize character traits and their background. For example, scruffy clothes can be used for poor characters, and lots of diamonds and bling for tasteless rich ones. Accessories can also be more literal extensions of your character's personality, such as a parrot on a pirate’s shoulder or a maggot in a ghoul's skull.

  10. 06. Conveying personality How can you show personality? In a drawing? In a 3D work?

  11. Expressions showing a character's range of emotions and depicting its ups and downs will further flesh out your character. Depending on its personality, a figure's emotions might be muted and wry or explosive and wildly exaggerated. Classic examples: Tex Avery’s Wild Wolf whose eyes pop out of its head when it's excited, or Droopy who barely registers any sort of emotion at all. Expressions!

  12. 07. Goals and dreams The driving force behind a character's personality is what it wants to achieve. This missing 'something' - be it riches, a girlfriend or solving a mystery - can help to create the dramatic thrust behind the stories and adventures your character gets up to. Often the incompleteness or flaws in a character design are what make it interesting.

  13. 08. Building back stories Where your character comes from, how it came to exist and any life-changing events it has experienced are going to help back up the solidity of, and subsequent belief in, your character. Sometimes the telling of a character's back story can be more interesting than the character's present adventures or not, in the case of the Star Wars prequels.

  14. 09. Release the beast Show people your creations and ask them what they think. Don't just ask whether they like them or not. Instead, see if they can pick up the personalities and traits of your characters. Find who you think is the suitable or ideal audience for your work and get feedback specifically from them about it.

  15. 10. Beyond the character In the same way that you create a history for your character, you need to create an environment for it to help further cement believability in your creation. The world in which the character lives and interacts should in some way make sense to who the character is and what it gets up to.

  16. Create Your Character! In your sketchbooks, brainstorm 4-6 DIFFERENT looks for a character you would like to create. Complete the provided worksheets for 1 character that you want to create. (select a second and third choice for the next assignment and as a back-up)

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