character design for dummies 101
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- badly made tutorial for school. maybe you'll find it helpful. at the very least I hope you find it entertaining.
0:00-1:31 intro
1:31-3:36 balance
3:36-4:52 shape language
4:52-6:49 misc
6:49-8:28 character review
8:28-15:55 redesigning
15:55-15:58 final result
I would like to add with using a notable part of the design. What is something that the character known for? Where on the design do you want the viewers to focus on? This can help with you character’s silhouette, alongside making poses. Check out iconic characters for their poses. My MHA OC, Oyumi has a long braid and a neck ruffle to draw attention to her face. Another, Zazaki is the wings of her hair and/or the shark teeth or her eyes having tiny pupils for the same purpose. It can be an object like an accessory that hints what the character does for a living or likes to do.
Color balance is another important thing. Like before, you gotta figure out or learn where the colors work and where you want the viewers to be drawn to, no pun intended. I highly recommend watching Digi Valentine’s “Who Dat” series for character design, even though it’s opinionated. His series helped so much in my learning of designing my future characters.
I had a Beyblade OC that had multiple redesigns and still couldn’t stick because I was too attached to the Ryuga clone idea. Making a huge overhaul of a rebooted design and story was the hardest I’ve ever done for a character, especially for one I’ve grown so attached to for years, but it was the best thing I’ve done.
Great video! Got me inspired to redesign my OCs!
Bro is just like me
Omg just like me frfr
samee
me too
Honestly!
I keep using the same color pallets 😅
Hi, person who has been studying character design for a couple years here!
This video was very well for beginners and people struggling with character design in general, but I wanna add one little thing. If you are someone who is fairly good at character design, making highly detailed designs that follow 'rule of cool' can also work very well. You have to be of higher skill to pull it off, and you do have to be motivated enough to draw the design over and over again. But a lot of highly detailed 'rule of cool' designs can look amazing if done right. One of the best examples of this is the designs from the game Genshin Impact, the designs are highly detailed and unrealistic but work extremely well for the world and show off their character!
(However if you are starting out I'd recommend sticking with more balanced designs like the video said)
I know this is barely relative, but thank you, this helped sm, I am happy I read this
yea i was def thinking ab how all of hoyoverses characters have so much detail yet it works
yeah, an animator i saw do the rule of cool really well was mintsk. they make extremely complex animations.
Yeah, I usually go for a rule of cool all the way and then I dial it back, you shouldn’t stop yourself from going way too far, just bring it back after, cause the design might not live up to its full potential if you don’t try everything
fromsoft designs fall into this category a lot. there are all sorts of souls bosses that have really awesome designs... which are also just a huge flurry of clothing and weapons and nonsense.
reminder that shape language is MEANT to be broken, is taught to people so that they can break it, formulate a character who goes against those rules of each shape, it truly creates an even more intresting character in media if you are breaking those rules, which is why characters like Kyubey, Pearl, Eda, etc are all cool characters, they break the typical rules of "soft" for circles and "villainous" for triangles
Girl same! I am also guilty of scrolling on Pinterest for inspiration it is a very helpful tool to get your ideas running, like I’ve literally made an entire board that is literally named art reference! Because for some reason I can’t draw arms anatomically correct ☹️
Oh my god,I have a Pinterest board full of art references as well
you're not guilty, that's completely normal for artists ^^
I don't understand how people do that..Like I just can't find anything on there, I struggle with more than one reference for my art but then again I don't know the name of different aesthetics and I'm picky lol
me too, i also have a pinterest board named art references
i also have a board for art references. over 4500 pins and ongoing...
Y’know, just as long as they’re recognizable as a silhouette.
oh
what if they are a mental ward patient so they can’t have any accessories
@@exspiravit66figure something out. accessories aren't the only way to give someone a silhouette, and a good rule of thumb that lots of people need to learn is that thermian excuses for why a design has to be bland are not a workable substitute for a non-bland design.
I've always liked scarves and capes. I don't know why, but it shows a sense of bravery and self value to me. Could also imply mystery or being lost in the world.
Whenever I think about the cloth, I always think about when it blows in the wind on a lonely night. The distant mysterious figure, who you can't recognize. Because you can't recognize them, they're normally left unnoticed. But once noticed, their impact is grand and could be good or bad. It's unpredictable and highly anticipated.
That's an interesting take!
@@skedizzle ty ✨
You are going to like Camil from aotu world. His design inspires me to re-examine my plain character design.
mhm!
Lol💀
Adding onto the silhouette: it's also helpful to mess around with the pose. Poses can really tell the viewer who the character is and most definitely help with the silhouette!
3:07
Everywhere I go...I see him
AMOGUS
Ok, so the super strength thing got me thinking. If a character has said super strength then it wouldn't make sense for them to be muscular, because for their entire life they wouldn't really be able to build the muscle because it would be easy to lift up things and stuff. So what I'm trying to say is that it would just be impossible to get that muscular with super strength, if that makes sense.
Or maybe there’s a variation of super strength that’s instead extremely fast mustle growth, so once they get to their ‘max’ strength they’ve unlocked ‘’super strenngth’’? I don’t know this comment got me thinking, thank you for the thoughts to think about
*All Might has entered the chat*
I think God just keeps bringing me back to the idea of balance. Have balanced designs is huge. Not too many details and not too simple. Simple is boring. Too man details is overwhelming for both the artist and the viewers. Thanks for the video. Stay safe.
4:27 I love how you showed pearl, personally for me pearl is a anti hero, implying how sometimes she was rude and arrogant but sweet in moments.
tbh the audio quality sounds kinda nostalgic
A little late but it reminds me of what you’d hear when you replay a recording on a ds / dsi!
I kinda like the first design you had for the girl one. I just think someone bringing a jumpsuit and literal kitchen knives to fight crime is a really adorable concept. She seems to be the "a little confused, but she got the spirit" kinda character.
This definitely works as a kick-off point for thinking more about some character design concepts (or I guess,, yeah what the title says hdjsks), though it fatally misses a lot of huge and really important topics, such as really thinking about the overall theme of the world and narrative (if any) when you make character designs, and the appropriate use of motifs. I'm kinda getting the vibe of, like, how to make a cool group of OCs, which is for sure character design, but just a real specific scope of it that doesn't look at a lot outside the One assumed context you're gonna have.
Literally I am just randomly nitpicking stuff I think wasn't done right here because it would make me all squirmy otherwise. I promise I am not a hater it's the autism. but also! There's not actually an issue with using large blocks of colour. A lot of artists get this in their heads and end up overcompensating not by using interesting shapes and variety, but by, uh, adding sprinkles. For the record, I don't think the redesigns did that, but I worry when folks hear like "these flat colours are boring" they'll swing to the other end and go bonkers yonkers getting lost in the sauce of random trinkets and detail lines like they're making the next genshin impact character /lh
"I am not a hater it's the autism" I felt that 😭
What you want to do with large blocks of empty space and spaces with a lot of detail, is to contrast one with the other. So if you have a lot of detail in one area the area right next to it will be an “ empty space”. In order to let the viewers eyes rest. If you have multiple blocks of heavily detailed areas next to each other they will blend together and you will lose the cool shape language of your character. Same for the opposite.
This is actually such a good video not only did it get me VERY motivated it also made so much sense to me. Usually people explaining character design, anatomy, or anything else like that never makes sense to me but this actually made sense. The points in this video actually made me realized that I haven't been thinking of where the character is from or what type of world the character is in. Thank you so much for this video and I will deff use this when drawing.
I LOVE THIS VIDEO i usually get bored watching tutorials but this one was very entertaining while being very informative! This has really helped me get better with my character designs! You deserve way more subs! Thank you for this tutorial! :] edit: AND OMG YOU LIKE ROTTMNT TO! :0
This is one of the best videos I've seen on character design THANK U
(also I would love to rant all day about TMNT (2018) or the other iterations for that matter BHSHQH
Bruh, my greatest struggle is always *what* to add and rarely when or how to add it. 😭 I can't get past the shirt and pant phase for the life of me. Looking up references is cool, but I only ever find things that are either nothing like I want or just incomprehensibly overwhelming. I also frequently struggle to recall any media that I consume with which I can borrow from. I honestly think I just completely fail to comprehend clothing.
It might also be an issue of my characters, whom I often give more modest personalities only to get frustrated with the modest, boring outfits I give them.
Maybe you could get better at it by practicing designing characters where you think about how they look visually before worrying too much about personality. Making there personality fit the coolest ideas for a design you have.
I normally let myself alter my characters personality in order to add cool things to them.
For practice instead of trying to design one of your usual characters try designing the most wacky exaggerated out there character.
Like try designing a badass apocalypse survivor with tons of scars, tons of different layers of clothes that are from the Viking era with a bunch of weapons while they ride on on big tiger in a nuclear desert.
Even if it’s not what you typically would draw I find drawing fantasy/ sci fi gives me the freedom to draw any shape and design I want. Then you can apply what you learn to what you would more typically design.
Once you you’ve gotten pas the point of only drawing down a simple t-shirt. You can come back to your characters with more knowledge on design
Also I don’t know what your art style is like but a really good cartoony artist to study for character design is Alexandre Zedig Diboine. His character designs are so insanely good and full of personality. And they all look so unique and original.
Mess around with things. Just add things even if you arent sure if it’lll look good. Eventually you will get attached to an outfit and boom. Now your character has clothing
Im someone who keeps and keeps at redesigning ocs a lot- currently in a phase to do so, but this video ended up giving me lots of hope on what I can do with my basicness and elaborate more into the world I imagine them in! This is an amazing first video by the way- it is very well constructed!!
Great video! and great tips! for OC designs
made me realize my OC for a story I have been planning to work on was too plain and not unique in any way so definitely going to redesign them
Thx for this fr. ;v ; oh and i love the details u gave during ur redesign on ur old character, love the redesign btw.
This video is lowkey so good. I genuinely learned something from it and now I'm inspired to redesign one of my more recent characters because she's pretty bland ngl lmao. Great job! I'd love to see more from you :)
Ahh I love this tysm!! Just one note- I loved the original character design’s flower on the mask- I thought it looked really pretty and if there was more of a focus on that on him, that oc could’ve looked so, SO cool!! I think you should do natural inspired themed character
THIS IS SO GOOD THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU HELPED ME A LOT!!!
you should do more of these! You're really good at explaining things and I would totally watch every video you upload
This was really useful for my non-existent story line in my head because I feel like I have a main character clog with to make perfection in each character but of course to make a good story you gotta have some faults 🙄
I really appreciate this video! It's refreshing to get tips from someone while they're still in their own learning process.
This was very helpful. I’ve been struggling with drawing a good character and revising my current ones. Thanks for this.
SO HAPPY TO SEE RISE OF TMNT THERE
It’s such a good use of shape language for characters
This video actually helped me and I love your Oc’s!
Wow, this tutorial is actually pretty cool, I'm gonna take in consideration a lot of these tips when desingning my characters
regarding the audio, it sounds like a retro TV show, honestly it's pretty neat! really cool!
great video, really helped! but THE SCARY JOKES OH MY GOD YOU'RE AWESOMEEE
THIS IS ACTUALLY SO SO USEFUL! Tysm for this, it is very beginner friendly
the editing in this is amazing!
i love ur editing style!!!!
Snake from metal gear is a memorable design to me :( it stands out to the other apocalyptic dudes :(
idk why but the way this video was made feels nostalgic
awesome vid for (maybe?) a starter youtuber, i usually don't watch small creators due to the usual bad advice they give but this one covers all the good stuff!! def gonna wait for a new vid. would love to see more from you!!!
4:17 i love how you included kyubey!!!
i'm so glad that everyone redesigns their characters a lot. i have gone ove 30+ redesigns on one of my characters because i have this certain feel i want to give off that none of the redesigns are showing 😭😭😭
I have such trouble with character design, so this was really helpful. I’ve always been sort of plain so my characters come off that way!
3:42 this part is actually a rule that I have broken when making a character before. Circles are normally used for designing characters that are supposed to be harmless, but I created a pretty psychotic character with the shape of her hands and her head literally being circles. This rule is one I break a lot when designing characters, and I had never really realized that.
Tbh using circles for a psychotic killer is good too, its like a twist
you don't always have to abide by proper shape language to convey a character's personality. if another aspect of their design already serves that purpose, say, their clothes or color pallet, then it's basically redundant. break the rules! subvert the ordinary! as long as you're having fun and don't lose sight of who your character is, all is well. :)
One of my characters, which is quite literally one of the gentlest and kindest beings ever, is all about being triangular and terrifying, I love them haha
Really great video, and REALLY helpful for beginners! Your rant was hilarius 😂 In Alya's defense, Tikki said the miraculous disorents people's ability to recognize their loved ones so there's that.
This is FANTASTIC and I now feel more equipped to write my comic book. TY!!
really good advices, really useful too! Gives me more and more ideas to create new ocs!
They don't know it's Ayin
AINT NO WAY THIS WAS A SCHOOL PROJECT THINGY AND YOU GOT KINDA FAMOUS FROM IT? SLAYYYY
Just what I needed. Thank you
This is a very helpful video made me inspired to work on my ocs
Woooooah! This is amazing! I do have a question as beginner artist, would you ever think to do a tut on your art style/anatomy?
have been thinking about redesigning my OCs so this was very helpful!!
im working on a comic right now, i think ive got some pretty good designs so far but im far from done. this is a big help, ty!! :)
Awesome video! Great anaylsis of character design conventions!
using this as a reference for my research project thanks
What a splendid video and I just love the grain of salt joke!
Thanks! I dont know how to draw but I usually like to write, little stories and this helps not just for drawing.
THANK YOU FOR THE TIPS I WILL DEF USE THEM!!!!!! I WILL ALSO GLADLY TALK ABOUT ROTTMNT I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING ABOUT IT AND THE MOVIE IS JUSTTTT AAAAAAFSFVSVSFSFSFSFSVSVSGGSBSBS 😭😭
I hope you got a good grade on this project. You did an amazing job! :3
It makes sense for the clover, but you said the wrong version of Celtic haha. “Sel-tik” is a Scottish football team (mon the ‘Gers, btw) and “Kel-tic” just typically means just the Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, Manx, and Cornish. It’s not a big deal, obviously, it’s just me being overly Scottish haha!
I love this video! The audio was fine, btw don’t worry, and the advice was solid! I’ve been wanting to make more army/heavy-duty based heroes because it’s so weird how, even if regeneration or strength isn’t their powers, they wear flimsy spandex or leotards that are NOT gonna hold up against villains. This helped a lot!
the problem with me is that i dont want to extend my limits because like, who the hell wears what im thinking of on a daily basis?
probably gonna think of a story thats a bit extravagant in their fashion, something like "to honor the hero's glory we wear these clothes"
yeah something like that, unfortunately a lot of my stories are set in worlds where i cant be too flashy, but what i realized is that color is great, i draw without color, because weirdly, i draw digitally using memo (i have no drawing tablet and yes its a notepad app) which doesnt have many colors to work with and also the line width isnt very adjustable, and im not confident in coloring in real life
anyway, color is great, even if your clothes are normal, you can just make it somewhat unique to that character using color
and those neck things, detachable turtlenecks or whatever, i saw it in the webtoon Unholy Blood, theyre cool
and you can kind of just look at the things you can do with ordinary clothes, for example, a hoodie which isnt fully zipped is cool, collars which arent folded may not look clean but it can tell you about their personality and it can look cool, tying a hoodie or whatever around your waist is a classic, mori jin from god of highschool does that, jackets which are kind of or are slipping off your shoulders, makise kurisu and power from chainsaw man do that, its like boundary normal, but if i were to go beyond that, then i would just go ham with belts, have some stuff around the neck, tighten some spots in the somewhat loose clothes, get some cool shoes which look kind of look like mini boots (which can be normal), and honestly thats it, well i guess accessories would work too in the normal category, like necklaces and stuff
In miraculous ladybug they actually explain that the magic around them sort of scrambles the brains around them making them not figure it out as easily
thank you so much! i don’t comment often but this one is an exception, your advice helped me a lot and i was writing this comment and got carried away so i just shortened it to this, amazing video 😊
Absolutely love this! Doing my own comic rn is making me realize some flaws that it might have. Thx
THIS WAS SUCH AN INSPIRING VIDEO THANK YOU
_also I would love to talk about the 2018 rottmnt I LOVE them SO MUCH PLEASE THEY'RE A HUGE HYPERFIXATION_
I love your style of making videos btw :D
YESSS I FOUND A RISE FANNN!!!‼️
Holy crap it’s Sweet from Sweet Cap’n Cakes :O
@@shadowingot3578 absolutely it is! I love deltarune
@@jarofjam8249 same :D
AROACE DELTARUNE FAN??? OMS SAME
I constantly think of ideas to which I then don’t write down, the cycle never ends…
you seem chill, you have been followed
btw love the music and you taste in aesthetics
Very good video! I hope you're able to learn and grow in your video making skills
little tangent on characters, but they are definitely my favorite part of any story. You can make a great plot, but i love talking about characters. Even if I see something with a terrible plot, if it has amazing characters, it literally will sometimes save whatever media I’m watching or reading. but also if something has a great plot, but terrible characters, it will ruin the entire thing for me. so yeah characters are super important to me :)
I find that the easiest thing to start with is basic lines, which is two lines that indicate the shoulders and hips. Depending on how wide or small the lines are, the better they can help you picture the characters body type. If they have wider shoulders than they do hips then that indicates a more masculine body type.
After adding in the hips and shoulder lines you can add a line for the spine, mostly so you can get an idea for posture and posing, when designing a character then it’s best to keep the pose plains so you can see everything.
Once the spine is in add a circle hovering a good bit above the shoulders and that will be the head, and of course a line to indicate were the face is pointing. With this basic thing up it might be easier to picture what you want to do, it will also be easier to get more variety within your characters so you don’t keep your characters looking the same body wise, but it’s a thin and delicate line your walking on if you go with this then it might be harder to keep drawing the character over and over, so don’t overdo it by adding in heavy detail, keep it simple if you will be drawing it over and over
Oh also keep in mind that this is my process and if your a beginner then it’s great to see other peoples perspective on similar topics, so you can develop your own method or idea. Test around and see what works :)
P.S if your feel like the poses of your characters are looking odd then check up on some anatomy to make sure that the arm isn’t bent backwards, or if the leg is actually not stable or not. You don’t need anything fancy, a TH-cam video can help and a quick Pinterest search of real people posing around in similar posing.
2:27 somehow mihoyo has done the undoable (that's probably not a real word) and animated characters with very small and complex details. For example: honkai impact animated short: everlasting flames
This is mostly because they use 3d models so they don’t have to draw the character every time, so it’s much easier and faster
AMAZING video dude!! got me out of a 3 week art block! great tips and art :)
I really enjoyed this video thanks!
I think the poor sound quality actually added a lot to the "aesthetic" of the video!
“NO CAPES.” Edna from the incredibles
Yeah I tend to stick to my first ideas too much so im inspired to redesign them!
I literally just get a bunch of OTHER characters that have the vibe I'm going for, once I already got the characters body n shit done, and go with whatever comes to mind and looks cool
Nice video :)) I would love to see a tutorial or something for editing, I love your editing style !!
THIS HELPS ME SO MUCH 😭
OMG I SCREAMED LOUDER WHEN SHE SHOWED THE CALAMITY TRIO
Great guide. Never drawn in my life but this is amazing for complete novices
Woah nice. Very helpful video. Keep making content!
VAST ERROR SPOTTED IN THE WILD
awesome video and great character designs! big agree especially on the point of balancing complexity in designs, ik thats something i personally struggle with a lot lol
I love these video!
I gotta try to make my Oc's story then gotta uh.. redesign them for the 4th time
Hey, thank you4 existing >_
thanks for the tips NaCl!
LMAO THE VERY END
loved the video btw!
2:14 Bruh, snake is as iconic as it can get. I don't know what you're talking about 🤨
i know re zero kinda falls into that plain mc stereotype, but i’d still argue the character design in it is pretty good. i mean i’m sure most people think so but i’ve seen some people say the character design is bad and i disagree a LOT 😢
I liked this and I went to get my binder of old ocs to give them life once more!!!
Great vid! Also I was rlly happy to find out you like rottmnt lol I love it sm, it’s unreal :,)
nice 100k on your first video, no pressure or anything
Scary jokes.
You have good taste my friend.
THE SCARY JOKES MUSIC? IMMEDIATE SUB
Thx for the tips I just started to redesign my ocs
My OC is just some guy wearing a hoodie and jeans. No backstory or any of that, just a normal guy that gets angry about everything
Thank you for this 🖤
underrated editing