I went to a library and drew tons of outfits from a fashion book that came with clothing references... ever since then I knew how to draw bomber jackets, halters, ascots, etc.
@@thatbelen i think any fashion designing book would work. I saw a bunch of them on my local bookstore. You can look up fashion or clothing on the section.
My own characters used to have shirts, pants, with lack of color, now that I look into personalities, occupation, ect. It inspired me to advance, I have a scientist character, t shirt pants was her original outfit, I now give her a scarf, lab coat, v neck sweater and skinny jeans! it shows her as a creative free thinker, fitting her better....she is a sci fi being, but the creatures take after people, in most cases, this really helped me with clothing!
Try to go to a rich people mall and just take pics of the mannequins That’s what I do since uh... I’m in the middle east, I can’t get actual refs from malls.
7:40 "Make sure when the character is posed, the clothes don't *magically* adapt to the pose/body" DigiBro would love to agree with this so hard (in reference to his "Hiding Anime Sex Appeal In Plain Sight" video)
Thank you for going into detail about specific clothing items! A lot of times, these outfit tutorials will just tell you to consider a character's environment and personality, but I'm always like, "I know what my character's personality is, but I just don't know what kind of clothes/items/motifs/colours can convey that personality!"
I like to think of colors as an extension of emotion. If a character is a happy, confident o e then I tend to use warmer more robust colors. For example, I am a cosmetologist, happy people don't normally come in looking for me to give them a really drab hair color. They normally ask for a very bright color or warm color. If it is a cool color it's normally bright and if it's wicked unnatural it's normally more like a pastel that requires prelightening.
@@therewasoldcringe that reminds me about my martial arts teacher. He’s really serious and formal. And right after the class before a break, I saw him in the parking lot, wearing a polo shirt and knee-high white shorts. Polar opposites.
I can't draw, but your videos still give me an idea and help formulate how my characters look mentally and how I can better describe them and their clothing. now I can even go deeper. Great vid.
Jacob Martin I can't draw super professionally either, and you're right. Some of the tips here help tremendously in the planning stages of a character. If only I could draw well instead of the crappy lines that I make…
This was a very robust lesson, and it is much appreciated! Clothing characters has always been difficult for me to conceptualize, unless the idea just strikes me out of nowhere and it works... but the moment I try to THINK about it, it becomes difficult! XD I'm really surprised you don't have more Subs, you are one of the most robust and genuine TH-camrs I've seen. Hopefully your channel will blow up soon, you deserve it!
Excellent video, I like how you went into detail about all the different aspects of when designing clothing for your characters. Looking forward to the next video.
I love listening to your videos in the morning while I get ready! Just a short question along with the topic, People change their clothes every day but also usually have a style. What's your opinion on how often/ if at all its okay to change the clothing? Is it okay to do it a lot of the character still has a recognizable "signature" look that everyone can recognize? Also: Can you do a short part on formal outfits vs daily wear? Because early on when I created a character he had a very formal look, but it was Definitly hard to transition his sort of sleek coat and scarf to summer months. Any tips?
Cancel thanks! a lot of it depends on the production, sometimes wardrobe changes are taxing on say an animated production. Having a contemporary character change clothes is totally normal. Perhaps have a signature set of shapes for the clothing and simply change sleeve length and colors. Your mileage may vary, that's honestly a judgement call to make on an individual basis.
Hello, and thanks for this very helpful video! I still have a question though- what about hair on a character? I think that can be very telling as well, but how?
Well, I would say hair can tell a lot about a person. If it's well kept, the character probably cares a lot about self image, or takes care of themselves. If a person has hair over their eyes, maybe they're more reserved. Just experiment with hair to get the most out of it!
Same as clothes. Along with the brush's ideas. Is the character wearing a culture-related hairstyle. Or a traditional hairstyle. Is it long or short? If it's long it can have a wild care free demeanor, or show they care about keeping up with long hair, or are traditional. People with long hair don't always wear it out either, they may tie it into a style for practical, cultural, or style reasons. Short hair can mean they are no frills, or masculine, or in a military-like setting, or may have little or no hair for health reasons, or according to the character's traditions. The character's society may have different social mores for hair length and style. Do they wear the hair in a presumably natural texture, or do they curl or straighten it? Color it? How forthcoming are they if they do. People self conscious about may color gray to hide aging or premature graying. Or the hair may be grey and they embrace it because they're cool like that. If they color it they may come across has "sloppy" by having undyed roots. Or the hair may be an unnatural color because they express themselves. Fancy hair-dos are expensive so whether a character invests in that or not says something. Does the character have facial hair too? Repeat.
I always have a really hard time deciding what exactly my character will wear, since I’m not very creative fashion-wise. I’ve found that having a doc or place to put character info can help, where you just put the general style they tend to wear. Is it street fashion, goth, athletic, more traditionally feminine or masculine, etc. along with what colors or color schemes they tend towards.
"One person was particularly frustrated that they only seemed to know how to draw t shirts and sweatshirts for their characters" Me, sitting with my character who only wears t-shirts and sweatshirts due to her personality, past traumas effecting her present and for practicality: *muhahaha*
photo reference! take pictures of your hands in different positions/doing different things. also, I find a webcam can be especially helpful for taking more dynamic reference photos if you don't have a friend handy to photograph/be photographed by!
A good piece of advice I recieved was to design your characters with practicality. Especially with abstract or futuristic stories, you want to make sure your characters clothes makes sense for the time period. If youre coming up with original clothing design, make sure it seems like a believable or practical outfit.
I actually mentioned that in the updated version of this video from a few months ago- absolutely, practicality is a big deal if the tone or setting of the story accommodates it!
Your comment about fashion was pretty strong for me. In the diamond is unbreakable manga, Yoshikage Kira wears a pretty simple suit. However, it’s cut and fit are quintessential 90’s, which tells a lot of information about the setting of Morioh. However, the anime had adapted his suit to match modern trend, which also altered his character and appearance. I just thought this would be a cool note.
The Evil Genius trilogy does a great job at clothing characters and trying to understand who they are based on their clothing, mainly because it's how the main character was taught to quickly evaluate someone.
I have a lot of outfits already for my characters, however it seems that many have similar outfits, many have leggings or jeans, since baggy trousers I just can’t stand 😂 glad this video can help with outfit design, I love drawing characters and expanding the outfit range is a great practise
I had to learn everything on my own, so I remember struggling on clothing choice and thinking, "What would they wear," and I've been going off of that ever since! I'm watching this to see if there's anything I haven't learned yet!
LUIS CARLOS Olano This seems like a good place to write this: I'm sorry everyone, I appreciate your interest through comments, and I did ask for your questions under one specific video a few weeks back, but in order to both feel useful, and to assist you with your comments, some basic etiquette, grammar, etc, would be great. Understand it's difficult when folks are only ever looking to take. This question here, I'm not able to help as I don't fully understand what's being asked.
like for example lets say i the character hair style is from this current year and a few year passes and the audience would say the character looks ridiculous and old. lets also compare Mario design which is age pretty well and the new audience dont find it ridiculous
Thank you for this video :) Another problem I have, much more than clothing, it's haircuts. I have a big problem defining a haircut that matches what is the character, his personality and all. Do you have any advices for that?
Jack1994hoo well, i'm not an expert on this stuff, but maybe i can help a bit with that: the first step is to think of these few key elements: what kind of hair your character is naturally born with, how much they actually care about their hair, and then lastly what their personal style is and what they like to do with it. There's different types of hair out there, ranging from super straight to wavy to curly and everywhere in between. normally, people tend to associate more sophisticated characters with straight hair, more lazy characters with wavy hair, and more carefree characters with curly hair - but this can be played around with a bit. in terms of haircuts themselves, a few things you can wonder about are like, how can you apply said haircut to this character's personality? maybe a more timid character probably has bangs and a kind of softer look to make them stand out less, or maybe a very 'chill' guy would grow his hair out and forget to shower/brush it (you know, the guys that look like they either surf or play guitar) - or maybe this character cares a lot about their hair and goes out of their way to gel and style and curl/straighten it until it's perfect. there's a lot you can play around with when it comes to this - for me, i just try to find something that suits them, but sometimes there's not much you can do. adding pieces that stick out in their own little ways is also cool, and makes for a more interesting design overall. hopefully that helped??
Sometimes haircuts are because it's more useful to wear it a certain way for a certain reason. For example, when someone asks me to give them bangs I immediately ask them what they do for work. The reason is because if I give them bangs and they work at a desk doing paperwork all day then when the bangs start to grow out they might aggravate the crap out of them so it worth a conversation to make sure they're sure they wanna keep it up. But maybe that's something that would be fun for a character to fight with and make silly mistakes because of if a character is a clutz or something. If a character is neat and tidy then a very structured haircut might be good while a fun loving character might have a ton of layers and maybe even be unruly. Also, different hair types will act differently with the same haircut so you have to figure out what hair type your character has. I also always have certain questions for those clients who don't know what they want to do with their hair and those are: 1) how much time do you want to spend doing your hair? 2)what do you do for work? 3)do you want me to cut it so your baseball cap fits better longer? 4)do you use hair products at home? Which ones? 5)what habits would you be disappointed if you couldn't do it anymore with your hair? (Like tucking behind the ears, pony tails, etc). 6)do you get cold/hot easy? 7)how short would be too short? These questions help clients start thinking about giving me the boundaries and pleases that I need in order to give them the perfect cut. I also use them to draw and imagine my character is my client. What would they tell me to give them for their haircut/style. Sometimes the questions I ask people are because of things I notice about them personally like the baseball cap question.
Thank you for this Brookes! I have a costume design background, so I love fusing my characters with costumes that contribute to the storytelling. You summed it up so well and gave me a good perspective of how I can continue to think about clothing for my characters.
One thing I use is the sims create a sim! It has a TON of really unique clothes and you can pick categories of the types of clothes you want to see (masculine, feminine, long sleeves, shorts, etc etc)
For awhile I've been having trouble giving a main character of mine clothing that I can definitively call her's. But just recently I think I've finally found the sense of fashion that's fitting to her personality and how she moves and it makes me so happy because it feels like she finally has gained an identity that I've been longing to give her for so long.
Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge In my language arts class we have to do an essay on a career we want to do in the future. The career I want to do is character design and or concept art for video games. So I was wondering if you would be willing to let me interview you?
I have gone trought this a long time ago but now after many years I will go back to drawing so this videos are great warmups for my brainstorming ideas for the looks of my drawings.
One of my characters wears a SUPER SIMPLE outfit because they like to be as cold as possible, but don't like showing skin. Their husband wears a sweater most of the time as he likes to be rlly warm. Another character wears a colourful top, to show her playful personality, and wears a schoolgirl-like skirt to show her innocence. And one of my newer characters only wears clothes from her clothes line because she can't find that specific style anywhere else and is very picky. The first character's friend wears a lot of orange because he likes to only have one colour (not including grey/gray), and likes to look simple, as he has quite a simple life. Though, sometimes he wears red. I'm still working on my other character's clothes (the ones above came naturally) since I'm finding it harder for them.
Quick question: What if the characters are living inanimate objects? can clothing acessories work? (ex: rings, scrunchies, braclets, necklaces, etc.). How can I deal with this problem, any tips?
I mean your case is very particular and already different. Depends what you're going for, if you think clothes can fit them then you could try, if not maybe you can pull it off without any clothes. It depends on what your aiming for with your story When it comes to humans it can be a bit hard to make them look unique or fit the clothing because all humans wear clothes. Most ocs wear t shirts or hoodies and jeans, whether it fits them or not
@@iputapipebombintoyourmailb6210 noice. not makin a furry show but i do have a kind of anti-hero show, which i have made a total of 2 characters for. anyways if you wanna help you can and ill credit you in the final product as well as profit share. (not a bribe just dont wanna run off with free content)
do you know how one would be able to predict fashion far into the future? i'm working on an apocalyptic story, and want clothes that are durable and practical, but with a personal flair? maybe cycling back to older trends, like fashion is now? also probably because most clothes are hand-me downs, i figure i can at least at interest in the patches on places fabric gets worn in and such? but other than that i'm stumped.
I have to thank you for making these videos!! you've helped me a lot when it comes to trying to figure out how to design my characters! thank you so much!
This topic may be too oddly specific for a video but whenever I'm designing characters, I have trouble with the bottom half of them. My characters all seem to have the same pants and shoes and I don't know what to do besides adding pockets or a belts to change it up. If you have any advice on this I would be really happy to hear it.
Issue I am having is preventing cloths from looking too plain or finding a way to keep them consistent. I have a character that wears a long royal gown but what I'm having trouble with is around the waist. As the dress hangs down it feels too plain and I'm not sure what to add that would make it look good while also not cluttering up the design.
I tend to google runway fashion models a lot. They have a wide selection, also very strange clothes. And if you don’t want to use it has a reference just enjoy the wacky wear they come up with.
So my main character is shy and quiet so I have him in a blue/gray or just a black hoodie bc he does have low self-esteem (lots of scars). He tends to hide in the shadows. He wears any jeans that he has which is usually worn out jeans. He then wears boots or sneakers. His clothing is dark to match his gray hair and blue eyes. Is this a good layout? I think it is for his personality.
I’ve found my own way of making unique clothing, like a tank top t-shirt combo but it has no sleeves or holes for the arms because it’s meant for characters without arms Or combining two different pieces of clothing, like a nurse’s shirt with farmhand overalls
the voltron picture came up and I screamed at the top of my lungs ///// side note though i struggle way too much with clothing and this is SUCH a great help!!! :D
I think many people grow up wearing big baggy clothings because children grow up fast and that's the way parents save money on their kids' clothes. Some of these people end up always buying bigger clothes even though they've fully grown because their parents fail to mention "hey, actually, it's about time you start to wear fitting clothings since you aren't growing like crazy anymore" I am one of those people. Somewhere in my brain there's still a corner being like: wHaT iF yOu gRow tALleR nEXt yeAr tHoOoOoooOoo No, brain. That's not gonna happen.
So the funny thing is I have a Mortal kombat oc, her name is Ari Stryker, and her appearance really only says what she's like and what she's into. She wears a black hoodie over a sort-of light red shirt sleeved shirt, torn up blue Jeans or dark blue-gray shorts, and she almost always wears a red beanie, tennis shoes, and blue fingerless gloves. But the bad thing was she was part of special forces which is like the army so she seems like an idiot XD
You have very useful videos! The timing for this is perfect XD. It would be nice if you had examples to go along with all the tips though. Thanks, and good job! :D
Well thanks for taking the time to respond. But I think that maybe designing a character to show as a visual. For example the personality section. You can show a loose clothed person in comparison to the tighter clothed person.
Idk if it's good so please tell me. I made a character with a puffy sweater but with tight short leggings to show she has upper body strength. She has warm colors to show her personnality. Her sweater is yellow because she is often happy. And it's a light color (Idk a black sweater while fighting isn't that good)
Something I also feel like you should have mentioned is *visual interest*. Imagine you have a t-shirt and jeans. Ok; functional outfit. Now, add an unzipped jacket and a belt. Suddenly, the outfit as a whole is so much more interesting. While you do want to keep stuff simple, you also want to add just enough so the viewer has something interesting to look at. An easy way to break down outfit design is to think about it in steps. First start off with a base outfit, something that’ll get the job done. Then, add more accessories, layers, and shapes until it’s too much (which you should probably take something away) or you’re satisfied.
I seriously need this. Creating fitting clothing for characters is the hardest part, for me. EDIT: Scratch that; I didn't learn anything that can help me. Guess I'm just stuck. Thanks anyway, though!
Honestly, now that I think about it, it's a little too specific to realistically expect anyone to put it in a guide video. Usually, when people give advice about designing clothes, they say to look up (or just find by any means) references. But, my problem is that I sometimes either don't know what I'm looking for, or even if I do find some kind of reference, I can't settle on what I want. Really, it's just that I can't decide on things, so again I can't expect you to help with that in a general advice video.
a thing i like 2 do is make my characters in dressup games (mainly everskies cuz of the divese fashion). its a lot easier when u have a limited ammount of things
I'm really bad with coming up with outfits, but I read this story once where the teacher character commented about how neglected kids wear heavier, bulkier coats & such, and I looked back to my time in high school where I was wearing a hoodie, 2 pairs of shirts and 2 pairs of pants- partially because it was cold but mostly just seeking comfort. Clothes seem to have some aspect in storytelling, even if it may be invisible to an untrained eye. I think clothes (or lack thereof) that show off a lot of skin exude confidence or is related to what activities they do. Like I know this one character with super strength who almost never wears sleeves after he unlocked the evolved version of his power, i wonder if he doesn't just because the sleeves wouldn't least long on him. I wish I was better at utilizing clothing to it's max potential, but coming up with good looking outfits doesn't come naturally to me.
@@CharacterDesignForge Thank you so much! =) She looks great and the few words of description you gave made me curious immediately! Thank you for this video, I'm still struggling with clothes, too, but especially the last part made me more confident in drawing them! =)
@@CharacterDesignForge Me too! =) The only thing in my way now is finding time to practice. Do you have any advice on how to pack drawing in a completely full day? Also, your comic is awesome! I really enjoyed reading Parcel's story and I can't wait for more stuff to read from you - please keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to it! =)
@@cleosan8150 Thats so great to hear! Yes, I've actually got a recent video all about finding time for your art: th-cam.com/video/tfN6xTNMwMQ/w-d-xo.html
What's your general inspiration for characters? I once was very creative with characters - then my novel flopped and my inner critique got soooo strong, that nothing comes out of my mind anymore :(
![IS SAME FACE SYNDROME RUINING YOUR CHARACTERS? [Why it Happens + How it's Avoided]](/img/n.gif)
Make Sure to Check out the UPDATED Version of This Video, Several Years Newer!: th-cam.com/video/HwiFuP71Hwk/w-d-xo.html
I went to a library and drew tons of outfits from a fashion book that came with clothing references... ever since then I knew how to draw bomber jackets, halters, ascots, etc.
nice
Nicely done
nice
do you remember what book it was?
@@thatbelen i think any fashion designing book would work. I saw a bunch of them on my local bookstore. You can look up fashion or clothing on the section.
Alternate Title:
*"How to Give Your Characters Dignity"*
*1. Don't draw koichi*
@@LuxasVTUBER but he is a very reliable guy tho
Character: What’s dignity?
Koichi really doesn't wear clothes? No dignity.
Dignity is nothing more than a social construct society uses to oppress and exploit
My own characters used to have shirts, pants, with lack of color, now that I look into personalities, occupation, ect. It inspired me to advance, I have a scientist character, t shirt pants was her original outfit, I now give her a scarf, lab coat, v neck sweater and skinny jeans! it shows her as a creative free thinker, fitting her better....she is a sci fi being, but the creatures take after people, in most cases, this really helped me with clothing!
So basically Freddy Jones from Scooby-Doo
@Aurora-Moon Studios
LMAO
the big work shirt quirk... that is honestly one of the cutest things ive ever heard.
I was like "oh no lil baby brookes!"
Oooookay...
Clothing folds are evil....
Yes but when you understand them they are magníficent
StarDust176 GURL YAS
Whenever I make folds, the cloth looks like weird raisins.
@T_T are you saying that you look like weird raisins or...
One tip is to simply calm down and not over doing the amount of wrinkles you actually use. So choose a few major defining folds and draw those.
i was just thinking about clothes on characters and then this video comes out, how convenient :p
Googles in your mind
I mean, if you didn't say it loudly then google reads your mind.
@@HotHeadCringe Same and I found myself on a comment I wrote 6 months ago. I completely forgot about it.
Phones listen to you
Yeah
Literally EVERYONE at my mall was wearing t-shirts and hoodies...
RIP!
😂
Try to go to a rich people mall and just take pics of the mannequins
That’s what I do since uh... I’m in the middle east, I can’t get actual refs from malls.
I was at the mall wearing a fancy dress
Still better than over here where I live, some chick was wearing a tube top and booty shorts in an air-conditioned mall
7:40
"Make sure when the character is posed, the clothes don't *magically* adapt to the pose/body"
DigiBro would love to agree with this so hard (in reference to his "Hiding Anime Sex Appeal In Plain Sight" video)
"Go to a coffee shop and see what people are wearing" I live in Aberdeen
It's rare you see anyone not wearing a tracksuit
Thank you for going into detail about specific clothing items! A lot of times, these outfit tutorials will just tell you to consider a character's environment and personality, but I'm always like, "I know what my character's personality is, but I just don't know what kind of clothes/items/motifs/colours can convey that personality!"
I like to think of colors as an extension of emotion. If a character is a happy, confident o e then I tend to use warmer more robust colors. For example, I am a cosmetologist, happy people don't normally come in looking for me to give them a really drab hair color. They normally ask for a very bright color or warm color. If it is a cool color it's normally bright and if it's wicked unnatural it's normally more like a pastel that requires prelightening.
I am going to make all my loud characters dress formally, and all my shy characters wear really loud.
to confuse everyone. what do you think? 8-3
Complete chaos!
@Sydney chaotic chaos
@@therewasoldcringe that reminds me about my martial arts teacher. He’s really serious and formal. And right after the class before a break, I saw him in the parking lot, wearing a polo shirt and knee-high white shorts. Polar opposites.
I can't draw, but your videos still give me an idea and help formulate how my characters look mentally and how I can better describe them and their clothing. now I can even go deeper. Great vid.
Jacob Martin I can't draw super professionally either, and you're right. Some of the tips here help tremendously in the planning stages of a character. If only I could draw well instead of the crappy lines that I make…
i thank you for existing. i needed this
This was a very robust lesson, and it is much appreciated! Clothing characters has always been difficult for me to conceptualize, unless the idea just strikes me out of nowhere and it works... but the moment I try to THINK about it, it becomes difficult! XD
I'm really surprised you don't have more Subs, you are one of the most robust and genuine TH-camrs I've seen. Hopefully your channel will blow up soon, you deserve it!
go outside to a cafe? OUTSIIIIIDEEEEE?
Mr. Tree Frog what is outside?
Nerds
@@assassincharmander390 think it's a type of cake
Sasha Gacha
I don’t like cake so I’ll avoid this “outside”
(I like cookie cake ;p)
Ew
Ah thanks man, I appreciate it. I was having trouble visualizing how to do the wrinkles on clothes. Thanks for helping me "iron that out". ;)
立黄 amazing pun
Excellent video, I like how you went into detail about all the different aspects of when designing clothing for your characters. Looking forward to the next video.
I love listening to your videos in the morning while I get ready! Just a short question along with the topic, People change their clothes every day but also usually have a style. What's your opinion on how often/ if at all its okay to change the clothing? Is it okay to do it a lot of the character still has a recognizable "signature" look that everyone can recognize?
Also: Can you do a short part on formal outfits vs daily wear? Because early on when I created a character he had a very formal look, but it was Definitly hard to transition his sort of sleek coat and scarf to summer months. Any tips?
Cancel thanks! a lot of it depends on the production, sometimes wardrobe changes are taxing on say an animated production. Having a contemporary character change clothes is totally normal. Perhaps have a signature set of shapes for the clothing and simply change sleeve length and colors. Your mileage may vary, that's honestly a judgement call to make on an individual basis.
Hello, and thanks for this very helpful video! I still have a question though- what about hair on a character? I think that can be very telling as well, but how?
Well, I would say hair can tell a lot about a person. If it's well kept, the character probably cares a lot about self image, or takes care of themselves. If a person has hair over their eyes, maybe they're more reserved. Just experiment with hair to get the most out of it!
Same as clothes. Along with the brush's ideas. Is the character wearing a culture-related hairstyle. Or a traditional hairstyle. Is it long or short? If it's long it can have a wild care free demeanor, or show they care about keeping up with long hair, or are traditional. People with long hair don't always wear it out either, they may tie it into a style for practical, cultural, or style reasons. Short hair can mean they are no frills, or masculine, or in a military-like setting, or may have little or no hair for health reasons, or according to the character's traditions. The character's society may have different social mores for hair length and style. Do they wear the hair in a presumably natural texture, or do they curl or straighten it? Color it? How forthcoming are they if they do. People self conscious about may color gray to hide aging or premature graying. Or the hair may be grey and they embrace it because they're cool like that. If they color it they may come across has "sloppy" by having undyed roots. Or the hair may be an unnatural color because they express themselves. Fancy hair-dos are expensive so whether a character invests in that or not says something. Does the character have facial hair too? Repeat.
陳諾亞 wait was your comment in the video?
陳諾亞 I relate to you on a spiritual level
I'll be working on texturing so I can get to the point where I can distinguish leather from latex or silk and cotton.
I always have a really hard time deciding what exactly my character will wear, since I’m not very creative fashion-wise. I’ve found that having a doc or place to put character info can help, where you just put the general style they tend to wear. Is it street fashion, goth, athletic, more traditionally feminine or masculine, etc. along with what colors or color schemes they tend towards.
I think you’re one of the best TH-cam art teachers. Very knowledgeable and articulated. Kudos.
Thanks Chris!
"One person was particularly frustrated that they only seemed to know how to draw t shirts and sweatshirts for their characters"
Me, sitting with my character who only wears t-shirts and sweatshirts due to her personality, past traumas effecting her present and for practicality: *muhahaha*
Any tips for drawing hands from all angles? I'm struggling with that right now.
photo reference! take pictures of your hands in different positions/doing different things. also, I find a webcam can be especially helpful for taking more dynamic reference photos if you don't have a friend handy to photograph/be photographed by!
or you could just draw your non-dominant hand, that's what I do, because I hate photo reference.
Try to break up the hand in 3d shapes and think about the hand that way,
If you have the moneyz. You can buy a mannequin. I got a small one from daiso for 4$
seeing Grace Liu's art used as an example was super cool-- I really adore her stuff!
A good piece of advice I recieved was to design your characters with practicality. Especially with abstract or futuristic stories, you want to make sure your characters clothes makes sense for the time period.
If youre coming up with original clothing design, make sure it seems like a believable or practical outfit.
I actually mentioned that in the updated version of this video from a few months ago- absolutely, practicality is a big deal if the tone or setting of the story accommodates it!
Great tips! Could you make video about names and how to make them fit with the character?
i chose a loincloth
Lmao I actually did give one of my characters a sort of loin cloth because it was supposed to be way back when in a hot, muggy environment.
Loincloths can express a lot of personality.
@@flavoredchin Yeah you can tell if they're a pervert or a gentleman
Your comment about fashion was pretty strong for me. In the diamond is unbreakable manga, Yoshikage Kira wears a pretty simple suit. However, it’s cut and fit are quintessential 90’s, which tells a lot of information about the setting of Morioh. However, the anime had adapted his suit to match modern trend, which also altered his character and appearance. I just thought this would be a cool note.
The Evil Genius trilogy does a great job at clothing characters and trying to understand who they are based on their clothing, mainly because it's how the main character was taught to quickly evaluate someone.
I have a lot of outfits already for my characters, however it seems that many have similar outfits, many have leggings or jeans, since baggy trousers I just can’t stand 😂 glad this video can help with outfit design, I love drawing characters and expanding the outfit range is a great practise
Character design just recently peaked my interest and your videos are super helpful. Thank you so much! :)
I had to learn everything on my own, so I remember struggling on clothing choice and thinking, "What would they wear," and I've been going off of that ever since!
I'm watching this to see if there's anything I haven't learned yet!
I just found your Chanel and have watched a couple videos and I’ve subscribed, amazing content with really helpful advice!
Thanks so much!
+Brookes Eggleston what about clothes for different times in one series? (like maybe a future arc)
i knew i was a culprit of paper clothing before this video so thankyou for all your tips on how to fix 🙂
How to make character design to age well?
LUIS CARLOS Olano This seems like a good place to write this: I'm sorry everyone, I appreciate your interest through comments, and I did ask for your questions under one specific video a few weeks back, but in order to both feel useful, and to assist you with your comments, some basic etiquette, grammar, etc, would be great. Understand it's difficult when folks are only ever looking to take. This question here, I'm not able to help as I don't fully understand what's being asked.
Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge I think hes saying If characters age like those story characters growing up to adults.
I think the question is either "how to age your character?" or "how to make a character design that won't feel dated? aka "age well"".
Rather beside the point, though.
like for example lets say i the character hair style is from this current year and a few year passes and the audience would say the character looks ridiculous and old.
lets also compare Mario design which is age pretty well and the new audience dont find it ridiculous
Thank you for this video :)
Another problem I have, much more than clothing, it's haircuts. I have a big problem defining a haircut that matches what is the character, his personality and all. Do you have any advices for that?
Jack1994hoo well, i'm not an expert on this stuff, but maybe i can help a bit with that:
the first step is to think of these few key elements: what kind of hair your character is naturally born with, how much they actually care about their hair, and then lastly what their personal style is and what they like to do with it.
There's different types of hair out there, ranging from super straight to wavy to curly and everywhere in between. normally, people tend to associate more sophisticated characters with straight hair, more lazy characters with wavy hair, and more carefree characters with curly hair - but this can be played around with a bit.
in terms of haircuts themselves, a few things you can wonder about are like, how can you apply said haircut to this character's personality? maybe a more timid character probably has bangs and a kind of softer look to make them stand out less, or maybe a very 'chill' guy would grow his hair out and forget to shower/brush it (you know, the guys that look like they either surf or play guitar) - or maybe this character cares a lot about their hair and goes out of their way to gel and style and curl/straighten it until it's perfect. there's a lot you can play around with when it comes to this - for me, i just try to find something that suits them, but sometimes there's not much you can do. adding pieces that stick out in their own little ways is also cool, and makes for a more interesting design overall.
hopefully that helped??
Jack1994hoo if none of that works tbh just flip through a haircut magazine or something idk
Sometimes haircuts are because it's more useful to wear it a certain way for a certain reason. For example, when someone asks me to give them bangs I immediately ask them what they do for work. The reason is because if I give them bangs and they work at a desk doing paperwork all day then when the bangs start to grow out they might aggravate the crap out of them so it worth a conversation to make sure they're sure they wanna keep it up. But maybe that's something that would be fun for a character to fight with and make silly mistakes because of if a character is a clutz or something. If a character is neat and tidy then a very structured haircut might be good while a fun loving character might have a ton of layers and maybe even be unruly. Also, different hair types will act differently with the same haircut so you have to figure out what hair type your character has. I also always have certain questions for those clients who don't know what they want to do with their hair and those are:
1) how much time do you want to spend doing your hair?
2)what do you do for work?
3)do you want me to cut it so your baseball cap fits better longer?
4)do you use hair products at home? Which ones?
5)what habits would you be disappointed if you couldn't do it anymore with your hair? (Like tucking behind the ears, pony tails, etc).
6)do you get cold/hot easy?
7)how short would be too short?
These questions help clients start thinking about giving me the boundaries and pleases that I need in order to give them the perfect cut. I also use them to draw and imagine my character is my client. What would they tell me to give them for their haircut/style. Sometimes the questions I ask people are because of things I notice about them personally like the baseball cap question.
Thank you for this Brookes! I have a costume design background, so I love fusing my characters with costumes that contribute to the storytelling. You summed it up so well and gave me a good perspective of how I can continue to think about clothing for my characters.
One thing I use is the sims create a sim! It has a TON of really unique clothes and you can pick categories of the types of clothes you want to see (masculine, feminine, long sleeves, shorts, etc etc)
Whelp, I learned a bit. I would always overcomplicate clothing, but you helped me find a smoother and better way to make clothing. Thank You!!!
omg I needed this video this week. How timely. Thanks!
For awhile I've been having trouble giving a main character of mine clothing that I can definitively call her's. But just recently I think I've finally found the sense of fashion that's fitting to her personality and how she moves and it makes me so happy because it feels like she finally has gained an identity that I've been longing to give her for so long.
Hey,that's me! Thanks for helping me out Brookes.It helped me out alot.
damn i used to only focus on fashion aspect when dressing my characters, rather than personalities and dynamic shapes ,, thank u :D
Hard to think of different clothes bc i love the look of cargo shorts with socks so i want all my characters to wear it xD
Your videos have helped me so so much with designing my charaters for my webcomic!!!
Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge
In my language arts class we have to do an essay on a career we want to do in the future. The career I want to do is character design and or concept art for video games. So I was wondering if you would be willing to let me interview you?
did he answer?
I have gone trought this a long time ago but now after many years I will go back to drawing so this videos are great warmups for my brainstorming ideas for the looks of my drawings.
can you please make a video about how to design an enviroment for a character like a house or other types of settings
One of my characters wears a SUPER SIMPLE outfit because they like to be as cold as possible, but don't like showing skin.
Their husband wears a sweater most of the time as he likes to be rlly warm.
Another character wears a colourful top, to show her playful personality, and wears a schoolgirl-like skirt to show her innocence.
And one of my newer characters only wears clothes from her clothes line because she can't find that specific style anywhere else and is very picky.
The first character's friend wears a lot of orange because he likes to only have one colour (not including grey/gray), and likes to look simple, as he has quite a simple life. Though, sometimes he wears red.
I'm still working on my other character's clothes (the ones above came naturally) since I'm finding it harder for them.
This was helpful, question: how do I incorporate symbols into clothing, specifically, like a Native American
Research idk
Quick question: What if the characters are living inanimate objects? can clothing acessories work? (ex: rings, scrunchies, braclets, necklaces, etc.). How can I deal with this problem, any tips?
I mean your case is very particular and already different. Depends what you're going for, if you think clothes can fit them then you could try, if not maybe you can pull it off without any clothes. It depends on what your aiming for with your story
When it comes to humans it can be a bit hard to make them look unique or fit the clothing because all humans wear clothes. Most ocs wear t shirts or hoodies and jeans, whether it fits them or not
You literally made my life a million times better in the first 30 seconds of the video qwq
It’s a good thing my character is a nudist.
That Random Encounter Guy hehe
EEEW! duuude...
WHAT THE F*CK!?
same. i mean its just some furry parkour violence genre for my character. they don't need clothes but some equipment like weapon holder or some sort
@@iputapipebombintoyourmailb6210 noice. not makin a furry show but i do have a kind of anti-hero show, which i have made a total of 2 characters for. anyways if you wanna help you can and ill credit you in the final product as well as profit share. (not a bribe just dont wanna run off with free content)
@@russiancheems2275 sounds good for me. ok
Yooooo what's that background music around 2:40 it sounds so familiar, I keep thinking its the moon theme from the ducktales video game
Very well structured and informed from hands on experience. Excellent video!
do you know how one would be able to predict fashion far into the future? i'm working on an apocalyptic story, and want clothes that are durable and practical, but with a personal flair? maybe cycling back to older trends, like fashion is now? also probably because most clothes are hand-me downs, i figure i can at least at interest in the patches on places fabric gets worn in and such? but other than that i'm stumped.
I have to thank you for making these videos!!
you've helped me a lot when it comes to trying to figure out how to design my characters!
thank you so much!
This was so helpful also I love Voltron!
This topic may be too oddly specific for a video but whenever I'm designing characters, I have trouble with the bottom half of them. My characters all seem to have the same pants and shoes and I don't know what to do besides adding pockets or a belts to change it up. If you have any advice on this I would be really happy to hear it.
baconlady 18 here's a few ideas . leggings, jeans, skinny jeans, shorts, short shorts, skirts, long skirts
Thanks!
Thanks for doing these awesome videos! As a career I want to be a writer for cartoons, and I find your videos extremely helpful!
This was very helpful I've had so much trouble with this for so long.
Issue I am having is preventing cloths from looking too plain or finding a way to keep them consistent. I have a character that wears a long royal gown but what I'm having trouble with is around the waist. As the dress hangs down it feels too plain and I'm not sure what to add that would make it look good while also not cluttering up the design.
I watched like 3 vids. You earned my sub.
That's awesome! Glad to have you!
I tend to google runway fashion models a lot. They have a wide selection, also very strange clothes. And if you don’t want to use it has a reference just enjoy the wacky wear they come up with.
So my main character is shy and quiet so I have him in a blue/gray or just a black hoodie bc he does have low self-esteem (lots of scars). He tends to hide in the shadows. He wears any jeans that he has which is usually worn out jeans. He then wears boots or sneakers. His clothing is dark to match his gray hair and blue eyes. Is this a good layout? I think it is for his personality.
Eren Daegmorgan sounds edgy
Xinyo. Because it is
I’ve found my own way of making unique clothing, like a tank top t-shirt combo but it has no sleeves or holes for the arms because it’s meant for characters without arms
Or combining two different pieces of clothing, like a nurse’s shirt with farmhand overalls
Could you post your 'big 'ol list at 4:23' somewhere in text form? It'd be incredibly helpful!
button down shirts, sweaters, flannel and plaid, layering, light jackets, tank tops, turtlenecks, v necks, collared shirts, vests, scarves, overalls, suspenders, jewelry, thin or thick belts.
Thanks!
Have you done a video on accents, speech patterns, vocabulary, etc for characters yet? I don't recall seeing one and I'd love to see that!
i need a video like this
@@mpqan Right?!
the voltron picture came up and I screamed at the top of my lungs ///// side note though i struggle way too much with clothing and this is SUCH a great help!!! :D
I think many people grow up wearing big baggy clothings because children grow up fast and that's the way parents save money on their kids' clothes. Some of these people end up always buying bigger clothes even though they've fully grown because their parents fail to mention "hey, actually, it's about time you start to wear fitting clothings since you aren't growing like crazy anymore"
I am one of those people. Somewhere in my brain there's still a corner being like: wHaT iF yOu gRow tALleR nEXt yeAr tHoOoOoooOoo
No, brain. That's not gonna happen.
lol I can relate to the tshirts and hoodies thing so well.
Haha I 3d printed your pfp
The bar thing at the bottom is so useful form skipping to what I wanna see
So the funny thing is I have a Mortal kombat oc, her name is Ari Stryker, and her appearance really only says what she's like and what she's into. She wears a black hoodie over a sort-of light red shirt sleeved shirt, torn up blue Jeans or dark blue-gray shorts, and she almost always wears a red beanie, tennis shoes, and blue fingerless gloves. But the bad thing was she was part of special forces which is like the army so she seems like an idiot XD
I needed this so much
You have very useful videos! The timing for this is perfect XD. It would be nice if you had examples to go along with all the tips though. Thanks, and good job! :D
GalaxyPros which things lacked examples?
Well thanks for taking the time to respond. But I think that maybe designing a character to show as a visual. For example the personality section. You can show a loose clothed person in comparison to the tighter clothed person.
6:13
Can I ask what show that is?
thanks, your videos have helped me with the comic book im making! subscribed!
really appreciate this video series
keep it up, Brookes!
I am loving this background music
Extremely useful video! Thank you for making it👏🏼
cloth character + fashion illustration Score!
As I'm watching this video, I'm wearing the same Kirby t-shirt as his and this video is about clothing. Coincidence?
Super duper helpful video. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this :)
can you do an episode on hair, its pretty hard for me, having some tips would really help
Idk if it's good so please tell me. I made a character with a puffy sweater but with tight short leggings to show she has upper body strength. She has warm colors to show her personnality. Her sweater is yellow because she is often happy. And it's a light color (Idk a black sweater while fighting isn't that good)
+Cookie Crystal That sounds like a great design!
Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge yay!! Thank you so much! I've been wanting to write a story with her ^-^
Something I also feel like you should have mentioned is *visual interest*. Imagine you have a t-shirt and jeans. Ok; functional outfit. Now, add an unzipped jacket and a belt. Suddenly, the outfit as a whole is so much more interesting. While you do want to keep stuff simple, you also want to add just enough so the viewer has something interesting to look at.
An easy way to break down outfit design is to think about it in steps. First start off with a base outfit, something that’ll get the job done. Then, add more accessories, layers, and shapes until it’s too much (which you should probably take something away) or you’re satisfied.
I definitely talk about visual interest a lot, if not in this video in others
Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge Oh sorry 😅 I didn’t think about your other videos
Y'know, my designs were kinda bland before I started binge-watching these...
This guy deserves more subscribers
I seriously need this. Creating fitting clothing for characters is the hardest part, for me.
EDIT: Scratch that; I didn't learn anything that can help me. Guess I'm just stuck. Thanks anyway, though!
Robert Poole what is it you were looking for that wasn't here, specifically?
Honestly, now that I think about it, it's a little too specific to realistically expect anyone to put it in a guide video.
Usually, when people give advice about designing clothes, they say to look up (or just find by any means) references. But, my problem is that I sometimes either don't know what I'm looking for, or even if I do find some kind of reference, I can't settle on what I want. Really, it's just that I can't decide on things, so again I can't expect you to help with that in a general advice video.
If you don't know what your character should wear specifically, why not test out various different outfit or clothing to see if anything fits?
a thing i like 2 do is make my characters in dressup games (mainly everskies cuz of the divese fashion). its a lot easier when u have a limited ammount of things
I have characters from another dimension. How could you make clothing for this?
What advice do you have for designing a cast of characters where the majority is in uniform for the better part of the story?
I'm really bad with coming up with outfits, but I read this story once where the teacher character commented about how neglected kids wear heavier, bulkier coats & such, and I looked back to my time in high school where I was wearing a hoodie, 2 pairs of shirts and 2 pairs of pants- partially because it was cold but mostly just seeking comfort. Clothes seem to have some aspect in storytelling, even if it may be invisible to an untrained eye.
I think clothes (or lack thereof) that show off a lot of skin exude confidence or is related to what activities they do. Like I know this one character with super strength who almost never wears sleeves after he unlocked the evolved version of his power, i wonder if he doesn't just because the sleeves wouldn't least long on him.
I wish I was better at utilizing clothing to it's max potential, but coming up with good looking outfits doesn't come naturally to me.
I'd love to read Parcel's story! =) Is this possible?
Absolutely! gumroad.com/bageldenizen
@@CharacterDesignForge Thank you so much! =) She looks great and the few words of description you gave made me curious immediately!
Thank you for this video, I'm still struggling with clothes, too, but especially the last part made me more confident in drawing them! =)
@@cleosan8150 Thats awesome, I'm so glad!
@@CharacterDesignForge
Me too! =) The only thing in my way now is finding time to practice. Do you have any advice on how to pack drawing in a completely full day?
Also, your comic is awesome! I really enjoyed reading Parcel's story and I can't wait for more stuff to read from you - please keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to it! =)
@@cleosan8150 Thats so great to hear! Yes, I've actually got a recent video all about finding time for your art: th-cam.com/video/tfN6xTNMwMQ/w-d-xo.html
Was that music in the background by fear of dark
What's your general inspiration for characters? I once was very creative with characters - then my novel flopped and my inner critique got soooo strong, that nothing comes out of my mind anymore :(
I'm actually writing a book, yet still i watch this xd
**Gives u a like**