Character Design: An introduction

Fri Jan 25, 2013, 12:29 PM

Arvalis-2012 by `arvalis

What does 'Character Design' mean?

The character design is the process which comes after the characterisation and consists in defining the character through his/her physical appearance.

We need to consider a character as a little fictional creature, human or not, that aims to please its creator and the public as well.

While the basic characterization of this fictional creature (his tastes, his fears, his behaviors) may take a little mental effort, as it is a sort of list of emotions, facts and feelings that come and go in the life of a character, the process of visual realization of this creature may not be as simple. That's why many writers and characters creators prefer to rely on experienced hands.
Also many of the mental aspects of the character are not possible to gain by using 'static' visual medium. For 'static' I mean all the illustrations and drawings unable to tell a story, but that's the beauty of writing and reading, isn't it? Anyway there are also plenty visual media that can graphycally or spatially recreate the emotions of a certain character, his thoughts, his complex mental structure that makes our creature a simulacrum of the human being. I'm talking about cartoons and comics, videoclips, anime and manga art, where the design of the character is a real milestone in the realization of a story of success.

Which are the differences between a design for cartoons and a design for games?
The first one requires a simple shape, highly recognizable at a first glance. The second one requires a higher complexity, able to show the real power of rendering of the console (or the power of your video adapter). The higher complexity design works really well for concept art and trading card games as well.

Slugterra Development 6 by *CreatureBox

Tips from experts?

Take a sheet of paper and write down the psychological characteristics and traits that you want to give to your character. If the character is not yours but you already have a description of the author, the better.

It's also important to see the character in proportion to the medium on which the character will appear and the target audience it should have: keep the design simple if it's going to appear on small media, use more structured design in case of larger media, use bright colors if the character is designed for children. In any case, the design must be strong and original to make it look interesting to its public.

Now you can start sketching. Take inspiration from the world that surrounds you, from fashion magazines, from other original characters. Starts from a successful design and work on how you would change it for the better. Add items to its design and remove others.

In cartoons, the consistency of the line should be the protagonist: use curved lines for good and sweet characters, use hard and sharp lines to present cruel and evil characters. You may also need to exaggerate the physical features that correspond to mental characteristics: thick arms for a strong man, thick lips for a seductive woman...

Colors ay be really important. Dark colors, black and purple (and sometimes acid green) are used to identify the villains. Bright colors, white and pink are for vouchers. Heroes uses yellow, red and blue.

Oriental enchantment by *TorqueArtStudio

Oritental Enchantment by *TorqueArtStudio

Add accessories to your character. Animals could work as accessories as well, but their symbolic meaning can be very vast and ancient. New items will help add personality to your character, or they'd give you ideas for their background story. Clothing is a very important accessory to identify the social class and taste of a character. A warrior will have an armor, a mage will have a stick or a scepter, one who wears sandals will not be a great walker unless he/she is poor...They say the clothing doesn't make the monk, but in Character Design the bow makes the archer and the sword makes the knight.

Works a lot on your character behaviours and facial expressions. Is he/she the angry type? Or is he/she curious? Well, in both cases it will affect his/her appearance!

Good designs are well balanced. Doodle many designs without planning but don't add too many oddities to the same character. Just one but a good can be enough. Try to work on the silhouette of your character, make it immediately recognizable.

Develop your design both on your computer and using a sketchbook. The world is the best inspiration, especially when you can look at so many human types all together. Look at their make up, hair, facial features, clothing...Everything!

Works on characters with different physical characteristics that can help identify the 'type' at first sight.

Some good design sketches

Items study and different races or types

Rift Necromancer Tank Minions by *ArtofTy

Process: from the sketches to the final version

Some finished character designs

Sources:

Characterisation

Character Creation

Character design

20 character design tips

1. Animal based characters

2. Human based characters

Credits:

All the images belongs to their respective owners. Click on the image to see the fullview from the artist gallery.

English is not my mothertongue. Be gentle.

188 Comments

Anatomy Lessons: How to improve faster in 6 steps!

Wed Feb 20, 2013, 4:36 PM

'Life Drawing 5' by ~algaegoblin

Do you know how to sketch human figures but do you want to refine your anatomy skills? Or do you not know anatomy at all and you are tired to trust your imagination? Did you notice you create disproportions in your drawings?

If you are aspiring artists and you already have your own style, you might as well believe you have no need of a guide, but you are wrong. Before exaggerating human proportions and begin to have your own style, you first have to know the basics.

This little guide is the result of an accurate research and 5 years of high school of art, and it's created for all those who want to learn something new or just make a useful review.
For those who have already studied art, my suggestion is to go to step 6 or trying to repeat all steps in Digital format.

STEP 1

First of all, if you want to learn faster you should draw using traditional tools. It may seem a stupid or banal rule but it is not.

You will need a piece of paper and a pencil, preferably a medium-hard pencil or HB ("H" stands for "hardness," while "B" stands for "blackness"). If you have already familiarity with this hard drawing medium you could obtain different soft pencils instead: B, 2B and 4B will be fine. A putty rubber and a white rubber from a good brand will work fine.

However, I'm not here to describe which tools are better for drawing traditionally, and for me a hoe would work fine as well: it's the passion that counts!

Now that you have a pencil and F4 paper (F2 is less thick and if you erase often you could ruin it, that's why F4 is ideal) you can start your work. You can also make out with A4 paper which is thicker than normal, otherwise you will pass the sheet if you use a hard mine (or if your hand is too heavy, if you know what I mean...).

Well, now that you have the tools, sharpener included, get in a bright spot of your house, preferably on an inclined surface (otherwise your future drawing will look in perspective, and you may not be happy with the result!) and copy the hand your not using for drawing. Try not to erase too much. Try to grasp the structure of your hand through many sketches in which you should only draw the outlines of your hand and fingers, you should forget about the shading for a moment.

Fill the paper with these sketches of your hand in different poses and please include your wrist if you can. Continue your workout every 2/3 days (preferably daily) for 2 weeks, what am I saying? Do it until you could see significant improvements!

Write the date on each work you have done and keep them carefully without rubbing them. The first step to be a good artist is to give value to your works. When the hand really looks like a hand and not a mass of sausages then you're ready for Step 2.

The result will be similar to this, only the folds of flesh and contours of the hands should be visible.

Hand proportions work this way...

Hand Tutorial -Tips+Reference- by *Qinni

STEP 2

So now we better move to the second point. Ok guys, do you remember your own hand? That hand you copied so many times, that fist, that cramp that came while you deformed it? Here you are, you should repeat the procedure but this time you will not have to copy only the outlines of your fingers. You must work hard and point on your hand the dramatic light of a lamp, because this time you should draw your hand and shade it.

If you are drawing using a HB pencil then shade using a B or 2B. You will realize soon that it is not so difficult to find the darkest points: the hard part is not to make the whole drawing uniformly black or uniformly gray and creating well balanced halftones.

You may find some difficulties, yeah right! all normal, because in fact you're seeing your hand in colors (as long as you're not color blind) and you're just simplifying your hand colors using the greyscale instead. So, don't give up! It was hard for everyone at the beginning.

Repeat this exercise every 2/3 days until you can see a clear difference between the first hand (remember to write the date on the drawings!) and the last hand you drew. Are you satisfied with your improvemente? Good, because you will have more fun following STEP 3.

These are practical examples of a good result.

STEP 3

Since you are already conversant with your left hand (or right that it is) and you say you know it by heart (if you say so...), now I'm asking you to take your colored pencils and do an experiment. This time I'm asking you NOT to do a preliminary sketch in pencil of your drawing: just draw one or both of your feet, using colored pencils only on semi rough paper F4 of different colors (I recommend a white, a grey, a blue and a black for a good start). Again, do not stop until the result satisfies you. Write the date on the work because now the interesting part begins.
The result should be similar to this, of course in colors.

Feet proportions works this way...

+TUTORIAL-Feet drawing guide+ by *goku-no-baka

STEP 4

Now that you have experimented with various techniques and you quite understand how your hands and feet are made, you need a model for understanding how the face works.

Ask one of your friends, your parents, if nobody wants to pose for you then use a picture (but it's always better to do life drawings first!). As tools you will need a ballpoint pen, preferably black or blue, and a white smooth paper (A4 copy paper is fine too). Now make a copy of the person in front of you (face, neck and shoulders), and remember well that you can not/must not erase this time! Yes, I'm evil. Try to do several sessions of the same person until the drawing is really similar to the original and recognizable from others.

Begin with a front and profile view, then try out 3/4.

'Portraits 2' by ~ArandaDill

The proportions of the human face work this way...

STEP 5

It 's time to understand how the human proportions work. A tip? Never stop taking references from the human figure (as long as you're learning) or you will make a lot of mistakes or exaggerate many anatomical features without even noticed it!

Now use your live model of choice, or look in fashion magazines and copy a full human figure in different poses, focusing on lines, shading, dynamism and execution speed.

To improve your speed you should first start with 15 minutes poses, then reduce the time to 10 minutes and 5 minutes at last. Use a timer: leave the drawing unfinished and start another one when the time elapses.

Do many of them, every day.

The results should be something like this...

'Life Drawing Collage 4' by ~travelingpantscg

.Life Drawing 2010: 5 Mins. by *hino-kit

Life Drawing Collage 3 by ~travelingpantscg

If you didn't understand how the anatomy works, you can study some good tutorials for the human body...

STEP 6

The time has came. It is time to finish something guys! You should be really excited: you reached execution speed and some anatomy skills but you lack accuracy.

Use your awesome live model again and ask him to pose for a longer session (2/3 hours minimum). Use the tools you like the most, sit comfortably, tools in the hand and start your session.

Here are some good results you may find inspiring.

I really hope you will find this journal useful and I really hope you enjoyed the journey. ^^

Ps: Sorry my English is not my mothertongue.

129 Comments

TUTORIAL FEATURES II - Paint Tool SAI

Sat Dec 8, 2012, 1:45 PM

SAI or Easy Paint Tool SAI (ペイントツールSAI) is a lightweight raster graphics editor and painting software for Microsoft Windows developed and published by SYSTEMAX Software.

The painting application is available in both Japanese, and an official English translation. An unofficial fanmade translation for the software also exists. It can be purchased directly through the developers' website,and purchases through PayPal are now also accepted in addition to the BitCash and TelecomCredit payment systems that have been available for Japanese users.

Paint Tool SAI is available on Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

SAI Official Web site (Japanese)
SAI Official Web site (English)

FEATURES

I would like to take this opportunity to feature and promote a few tutorials that I've found and considered to date for Paint Tool SAI users around deviantART community! ^^
Take a look at a few of the incredible submissions below, I hope you find them handy, inspirational and beneficial for your art creation:

BASICS

SHORTCUTS GLOSSARY

DEFAULT SETTINGS

SAI TOOL PRESETS
If your Easy Paint Tool Sai DOESNT have tools (or if you messed them up and cant get them back to normal)

1) Right click on a blank tool square

It will then come up with a list of options.
Choose the tool you wish to make. Heres my order:

Click PEN a new PEN tool will come up.

To make basic pen set the little slide bars too -
Normal/Multiply- Normal
Edge shape - Last selection (Square)
Size - Any
Min size - 0%
Density - 98%-100%
Texture - None (A drop down box)
Layer - None (Another drop down box with canvas paper etc in it)

Tick advanced

Quality - 4 (Best)
Hardness - 0
Min density - o
Max density - 100%
HardSoft - 100
Pres Default Brushes Paint Tool Sai
Default Tool Settings for Easy Paint Tool Sai

I couldn't find these any where so I figured I'd just down load a new copy of Sai and write down the configurations.

Paint Tool Sai has some great features but it is  missing a few things, like a tool reset button.

But fortunately now we'll all know what the settings are and can manually reset them :

Pen

Tip style:  Square (1st)
Min Size : 0%
Density: 100%
Simple Circle
No Texture
Quality: 1 Fastest
Edge Hardness : 0
Min Density : 0
Max Dens Prs. : 0
Hard Soft 100

Press: Size Checked.

Air Brush

Tip style:  Thin rounded (4th setting)
Min Size : 50%
Density: 50

HOW TO INSTALL MATERIALS

CUSTOM BRUSH SETTINGS

LINEART

COLORINGS

→ GENERAL:

→ HAIR:

→ EYES:

BACKGROUNDS & EFFECTS

RESOURCES: BRUSHES/TEXTURES

If you want to share here with us some epic tutorial/s just write a comment ^^

-----------

That's all, people! I hope you will enjoy these features!

MORE FEATURES

_{FANART FEATURE I - Character: XELLOSS (Slayers)
FANART FEATURE II - Character: SASORI (Naruto)
TUTORIAL FEATURE I - Digital Manga Style Coloring
TUTORIAL FEATURE II - Paint Tool SAI}

60 Comments

PE: Decorating Your Profile

Fri Apr 26, 2013, 3:21 PM

Community Week

Your profile page is the first thing people will see when they click on your name, so it's very important to leave a good impression! This article will provide some useful tips and tricks for both premium and non-premium members who want to convert their profile into their own, unique page. First off, some Do's and Don'ts of profile decoration:

Do:

Use dA's profile widgets-- there are lots of great options to chose from
Show off some art (that's what people are here for!)
Express your personality through colors, stamps, gifs, etc.

Don't:

Add so many images that your profile takes forever to load
Use garish or headache-inducing colors
Make text difficult to read with dark backgrounds

Master Profile Decorators

Here are some very epic deviants I've come across with mad profile decorating skills. Check out their profiles for some inspiration:

Non-Premium Widgets

While many widgets are restricted or locked for non-premium members, there are still a variety of great widgets that you can add to your profile, even without a membership.

Gallery: Featured Deviation*, Newest Deviations*
Faves: Favorites*
Prints: Wishlist*, Prints*, Featured Print*, I Just Sold...
Misc: deviantID*, Critiques*, Donate Points*, Watchers, Friends, Journal, Journal History, Webcam, Groups, Commissions

The widgets marked with a * have a text box that can be customized with thumbs, images, gifs, stamps, plz accounts, and more (all are covered later on in the journal). If you click the pencil in the right hand corner of these widgets, there will be a text box that you can fill up with all sorts of awesome decorations, even if you are a not a premium member!

Premium Widgets

(Premium Membership Required)
Along with all of the widgets mentioned above, premium members can also use the following widgets to decorate their pages. Once again, widgets marked with a * have a textbox that can be used for adding decorations.

Gallery: Gallery Folder*
Faves: Collection*
Misc: Custom*, Delicious Bookmarks*, Polls, Visitors, Twitter, Shoutbox, Forum

Please note that backgrounds cannot be added to these widgets the same way they are for the Custom widget.

Custom Box Backgrounds

(Premium Membership Required)

One of the great features that comes with a premium membership is the ability to add backgrounds to your custom boxes. Click the little pencil button to edit your custom box, and copy the following into the text area:

<div class="popup2-moremenu"><div class="floaty-boat"><br><img src="IMAGE URL HERE"/></div></div><div class="gr-box gr-genericbox"><br>TEXT HERE</div>

Background from [link] by =Gasara

Links to get started:

Custom Box Resources

(Premium Membership Required)

Now that we have our backgrounds, the next place we should visit is `CypherVisor's gallery of Custom Box Resources. Here you can get all sorts of neat resources such as content holder boxes and customizable buttons. All you have to do is copy and paste the codes into your custom box.

Fonts

Remember that you don't have to stick with the default fonts for your profile. Make your profile more interesting by using different fonts!

To change the size: <font size="#">Text</font>
To change the font: <font face="FONT">Text</font>

You can also use <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc. to make different headings.

More detailed guide to fonts here:

dA Font Formatting Guide by =LabLayers

Images and GIFs

To add images to your profile/journals use the following code: <img src="IMAGE URL HERE"/>

Image (not clickable):

vs. thumb (clickable):

by ~miemie-chan3

You can also link images so that they act like buttons. For example, if you want to link an image like the one above to a different page (such as your commission journal), copy and paste the following:

<a href="NEW PAGE URL"><img src="IMAGE URL HERE"/></a>

Serves as a button to go to #projecteducate

To change the size of your image size: <img src="IMAGE URL HERE" width="#" height="#">
You can change either width or height, or both:

Set only width to 200 pixels: <img src="IMAGE URL HERE" width="200">

Set both width and height to 200 pixels: <img src="IMAGE URL HERE" width="200" height="200">

Stamps

Let people know what kind of person you are by adding some stamps to your page! Just copy the thumb codes (:thumb000000000:) onto your profile/journal.

Links to get started:

Plz Decorations

There are tons of plz accounts for decorating out there, such as those that make borders like these:

These can be used on profiles, journals, and artwork descriptions by both premium and non-premium members. To use these, copy: :iconUSERNAME:

For example, the first divider can be added by typing: :iconbummy1::iconbummy2::iconbummy3:

Links to get started:

Dividers

Just copy the thumb codes (:thumb000000000:) onto your profile/journal.

Links to get started:

Groups

Looking for more resources? Check out the galleries of these two groups which focus on collecting decorations for your page!

Now go and make your profile pages shine!

Good luck, and I'd love to see how you guys decorate your pages!

134 Comments

Green green green

Journal Entry: Fri Sep 28, 2012, 12:02 PM

128 Comments

TUTORIAL FEATURE I - Digital Manga Style Coloring

Journal Entry: Sat Dec 1, 2012, 10:32 PM

Hi!^^

I would like to take this opportunity to feature and promote a few tutorials that I've found and considered to date for digital manga/anime artists (I've also featured one traditional tutorial though) around deviantART ! ^^
Take a look at a few of the incredible submissions below, I hope you find them handy, inspirational and beneficial for your art creation:

LINEART COLORING

CEL SHADING

SOFT SHADING

DIGITAL MEDIA:

TRADITIONAL MEDIA:

HAIR COLORING

EYE COLORING

If you want to share here with us more anime style tutorials just write a comment ^^

That's all, people!

I hope you will enjoy these features!

More Features

FANART FEATURE I - Character: XELLOSS (Slayers)
FANART FEATURE II - Character: SASORI (Naruto)
TUTORIAL FEATURE I - Digital Manga Style Coloring
TUTORIAL FEATURE II - Paint Tool SAI

40 Comments

Things dA Needs to Fix - an art feature

by $wreckling, Jan 20, 2011, 3:48:49 PM
Journals / Culture / Art Features

Let's be honest, folks.

Things are not going my way, so there is something very wrong with dA right now. To help solve this, I've devised a small list of things that could be done to make my time here more enjoyable. Your list may vary from mine, but I figure that I'll go over the things that I feel need to be the center of dA's attention until I am personally satisfied.

First and foremost, every time I log into dA, a cake should be hand-delivered to my door, perhaps one like one of these.

The more colorful and whimsical the cake, the better.

Next, every time I submit a deviation, I should get a complimentary fireworks show that can be seen perfectly from my window, so that all I need to do is look away from my screen in order to see the fireworks.

And it should be an elaborate fireworks display, I don't want any slacking on the organization.

When I leave comments on a work, coins should start appearing on my desk. Depending on the quality and thoughtfulness of the comment, I should get more or less coins, ranging anywhere from a penny to enough money to pay for my school fees.

Any sort of coin will do, so long as I can exchange it for usable currency later. And while this may be pushing my luck, I do think that paper money would be appropriate every time I leave a good critique.

:thumb28774570:

Sometimes people on this site sincerely anger me, and I would like nothing more than to be able to hit them. So I kindly request that dA installs a program that allows me to press a button that will trigger a mechanism that will punch the offending commenter across the face.

...okay, maybe that one was a bit drastic. Nonetheless, I think it ought to be developed and certain users ought to have privileges to use it once or twice per year. That seems like fair compromise.

Finally (and most importantly), I demand that every time I am about to leave dA for the night/morning/afternoon, the site must show me something exceptionally cheerful or adorable so that I leave happy. Something like puppies.

Or kittens.

...or dinosaurs.

Or monkeys. Lots of monkeys.

:thumb88090618:

What. I like monkeys.

That's all that comes to mind for me, so I kindly request that you drop everything you're currently doing to take care of my problems, staff. My complaints are organized and posted in a news article with images, so I very clearly deserve priority.

Hope you all enjoyed the features!

$wreckling

276 Comments

Fluffy paws and tail, big eyes

Journal Entry: Wed Feb 27, 2013, 9:18 AM

286 Comments

Myths and Legends Across the World

Journal Entry: Fri May 27, 2011, 7:04 AM

Myths and legends are somewhere deep in the subconscious of every nation, often unique and wonderful tales, yet different from other stories - once they were alive. People lived with them, considered them true... and in a way, they are all true. They are a part of our heritage, and with every legend forgotten, something inside us dies. I wandered wide and far through dA to gather these tales. Sit down by the fire and listen…

Mesopotamia