What makes character design good or bad?

Good character design is when practicality, originality, and purpose match the tone of the character.

Bad character designs usually have too much going on along with bad color choices.

>>91602414
You can see a good character design right off the bat if the color choices are solid, not over designed (or under designed) and most importantly if the character's personality shines through.

>>91602414
whats this from? that reptile guy is cute. cute!!

>>91602414
>Egyptians
>white

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Simplicity, mostly.

The atrocities you posted, OP, are very well-drawn, but they're so busy with details that they border on sparkledogs.

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>>91602941
>what the fuck is this overdrawn shit, 0/10

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>>91602414

depends on what you (or whoever's paying you) want this character design to accomplish. eye of the beholder i suppose

Palette
Proportions
Personality

>>91603024

When the tattoos and hair patterns have more detail than their faces or bodies it's true

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>>91602414

Remember Mummies Alive?

>>91603024
He's right when it comes to animation.

Imagine having to draw all those scales and tattoos in different angles.

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>ctrl f
>"silhouette"
if you dont not to be a weeb but my favorite example of this is One Meme Man because it is a satire about anime/super heros and Saitama is suppose to have a generic bland silhouette but that just adds to the character.
Also in JoJos I am almost positive if you black out every character in JoJos and put them side by side you could differentiate them apart easily (at least in part 3 and 4)
If they dont have a defining out line its probably not a good design also "good" design is subjective, iconic or generic might be a better argument for this thread.

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>>91602414
Symmetry and weight are important. You don't want too much detail on only certain parts of a character, and should really avoid cluttered design in general. Most importantly, you should try and maintain design consistency. Often the first characters you design are uniquely design, but as you make more characters you start to follow a pattern, and those first characters look out of place from the rest, pic related.
Ultimately, you don't have to be Alex Ross, you just have to create the illusion that all of your characters belong in the same world.
Stephen Silver is a character designer, a lot of his videos are really helpful in this field.

>>91603254
TF2 shows the power of silhouettes, since you can tell who is who despite the one million artstyle destroying hats.

>>91602414
If i like it or not

>>91602414
>that depiction of petsuchos
Not enough jewels.
0/10

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>>91603024
To be fair that's not exactly character design.
>>91603144
I wouldn't say that either. Look at Loki from SMT, Very complex design but the elements are used very well to make a cohesive design that doesn't just clash with one another
The designs in OP aren't particularly bad, nor are they particularly good. I guess I wouldn't really remember them, they're all just kind of generic skinny white people with animal parts.
But then I guess there are so many designs I DO like that can be called just a regular do in spandex and the only thing that got it as iconic is it came first. Like Superman is a top tier design to me, yet almost literally everyone except maybe Captain Marvel that uses the same design is just shit tier I won't waste memory space on this.

>>91603648
It wasn't just good characters design, but a gameplay mechanic that let you see and know who had what and how to approach before engaging. You know what class someone is just from a glance even from retarded distances away.

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>>91603889
>>91603648
Anyone have the full breakdown of TF2 designs? There was a pdf. It was really interesting.
http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2008/GDC2008_StylizationWithAPurpose_TF2.pdf
Actually it was really easy to find.

>>91603648
>>91603889
It was also really simplistic to be able to keep its design clear and visible even through low resolution.

They clearly did a really great work on it.

>>91603688
that thing actually hurts my eyes a little

>>91604568
Simple.

>>91603688
That's not good character design, the black and white patterns are very erratic and not pleasing to the eye, that alone ruins the entire character

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>>91602414
first of all
>white egyptians
now to answer your question, it's mostly subjective and depends on the vibe of the show/comic you're doing. but it's a good idea to have your cast stick out from background characters, and have them be recognizable even as a silhouette.

>>91602941
your taste in designs in bad and you should feel bad

>>91605048
>>91602905
what color were the Egyptians, anons?

>>91605160
dark olive?

>>91605160
Probably brown.

>>91605160
they're north african what do you think

>>91603648
>>91603889

this is why people relate it a lot to overwatch

>>91605160
Medium brown. Not black, not white.

>>91602414
I can only recognize Sobek and he should not be some happy, carefree bastard as well as missing his weapon.

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>>91605160
Brown equal or darker than a Greek

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Among these, which one is the best and worst design?

>>91605354
He should also be more bejeweled.

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>>91602414

It angers.

>>91602414
i only recognize sobek cus is obvious
the horned one is supposed to be khnum
the stargirl is nut, who are the others ???

>>91605452
86 or 04
Atleast if you're counting the shield. If not then 86 through 91 are pretty equal. The next iterations trimmed a lot of the unnecessary details of the first design down to the strong elements. The minish cap just complicates things with a dumb bird head but that was the gimmick so it's not really even that big a deal.

>>91603140
...is the dude on the left, the World

>>91605160
Similar to Mediterraneans. Not everyone from Africa is an unga bunga.

>>91605452
2000, I love block shadows.

>>91605660
Shadows are always black retard.

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>>91605048
>>91605160
And away we go.

>>91604699
In that specific case it's ok, he's supposed to be hard to look at so they included elements of optical illusions in his design.

>What is every single pokemon

Nintendo are pretty god like at timeless character designs.

>>91602414
i want porn of that girl

>>91605774
There's no optical illusions though, if there were and it was done well, then sure maybe. It's obviously randomly done as it came to mind. It's badly designed.

>>91602414
iconicism, they have to be memorable, if its overdesigned and complicated is going to be hard to remember, if its too simple or bland it wont leave an impact, its a fine balance.

also aesthetically pleasing, it has to look good, not preety as in beautiful but preety as in becoming, it has to feel like every part of it fits with the whole, like things have a purpose and fulfill it, like its the best version of itself. it has to be coherent, harmonious

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>>91605048
this is the pretty much the best answer in this thread.

>>91605160
Light roasted with a little milk and a hint of cinnamon.

>>91604699
>>91606090
>Loki, Norse god of chaos
>covered in chaotic, maddening patterns
>bad character design

>>91606575
>it's badly designed on purpose! therefore it's good!
If I drew a shitty character called "Hitta Hitlah" that's dressed urban but also had nazi symbols thrown all over, that doesn't make it good just because it fits the theme.

>>91606648
Then what should Loki look like?

>>91602414
Silhouette test

>>91606694
Not shit like >>91603688.
That design has potential, just fix the fucking retarded skin design or the form of his body to make the optical illusion look work.

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>>91606648
Well let's see the design and decide if it worked?
>>91604699
I like it and it's not really erratic. While constantly changing it's not just a bunch of random stripes wherever, it's still adhering to a consistent pattern.

>>91606648
It was designed by the Japanese, of course it was gonna be shit. Look at anime and jrpgs, it's a wasteland of awful character designs.

>>91606712
Hands down the best and most basic method.

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it all depends on what you're going for.

If your style is cartoony, light-hearted and zany, adding a million belts and rugged equipment items and whatnot to their design conflicts with the entirety of the design. It adds too much clutter to what appears to have been intended to be simple.

In the meantime, if your design is more grounded and looks more like something Bridgman drew rather than Disney, detail is not a crime Now of course, you don;t want to go full on Liefield and clutter it up. Clutter si never good. However, you want to be able to distinguish between clutter and detail. Clutter is random and distracting. Detail is nuanced parts of a whole. For example, look at these DEVGRU operators. They certainly have tone so detail, but it's not clutter: every strap, every piece of gear, is part of a whole: the MOLLE is part of the plate carrier, the knee pads are part of the pants, etc. Every detail ties back into a basic form.

Also, what Guts here said >>91603254

Distinction and uniqueness in design should also be factors, but there's tons of subjective stuff that one cannot easily quantify.

>>91602414
>What makes character design good or bad?

The alligator guy is a good design.

The rest, meh at best.

Why?

The alligator guy has enough surface detail to make his easy to position in space as you draw him. The colors are bland, but that's easily fixed. A hard-contrasting color for the kilt would do it.

The long hair, weighted at the ends with gold, lets you be very dynamic with showing movement of his head, very good design.

The tail, ditto, plus it lets a good artist have tons of fun showing how prehensile and muscular he can draw it. Characters with tails are always huge fun.

The over-sized, inhuman, contrasting-colored feet with the big, obvious claws makes for a ton of fun and allows his spatial orientation to be solidly defined with just a few elements. There's a reason why designs with big boots usually look pretty good, the footwear lets you position the limbs easily.

I could go on, but that should make it obvious.

The girl is kinda cute?

The winner is Croc-guy, by a mile.

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good character design is like a good porno. You just know if its good or not when you see it.

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>>91607635
Why are the demons suddenly kawaii

Not that I'm totally against that