Character Design Thread

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>>2689852
You already kinda touched on what makes a good design. Recognizable silhouette, good colour scheme etc.

The thing about a lot of these designs is that the clothes don't really matter, so lon as the stance of the characters stay consistent with their personality. There are a lot of archtypes and tropes that character designers fall back on imho (which is not a bad thing). With Luffy, I don't even really notice the clothes, just how he presents himself in them. It reminds me of Goku. Same with the colour scheme; mostly warm/neutrals and some gold.

I don't even watch One Piece and I can already kind of tell what kind of character Luffy is without any added explination, which I think is the hallmark of a really good design.

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>>2689856
I see.

But what about in the context of a story? I notice that in manga, even though characters can go through a lot of variations on their costumes, there is still a degree of consistency in their design. Typically, radical changes in design is reserved for radical progressions within the story, not just a jump from one arc to the next (which is what the costume change tends to be for).

So, what exactly is pushing it too far? What would you say are the parameters for a character to stay within in terms of consistency?

For example, I see that a lot of manga characters more or less always keep their hairstyle, and any variations tend to be very minimal. The only ones that come to mind to break this rule are Nami and Bulma. Bulma in particular had a lot of radical changes in design, from arc to arc, but I also feel that she could get away with that BECAUSE she wasn't the main character.

Thoughts?

>>2689864
>So, what exactly is pushing it too far?
depends on the world you build, if you are gonna make a world where drastic changes are common things your consumers won't be throw off by big changes in the character they attacked to

This is a good thread

>>2689875
This video is really on point for both design, and writing. Thanks for the share anon. The art of simplicity.

One thing I see in both these designs >>2689852
>>2689856
Is that they're both very simple. And I gotta agree with Jim, simple designs are more iconic.

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>>2689864
In context of a story or a show, I would say costuming is important because now there's more than one characteristic discerning to the viewer on which character is which. In the mangas or graphic novels, things can get a little muddy (especially when you make radical or non sequitur changes) because you're just stuck depending on the visual again, but to me character design should go past the surface-- deep into the heart of what makes a character into a person as opposed to just a design.

A deal breaker for me when it comes to costuming is when all of the key elements are removed out of context (like with Vegeta and that God forsaken moustache) or they make the outfits and features too complex. It feels haphazard and random

I do agree that there are usually some thematically placed designs when it comes to characters and their clothing though, which could be said about people IRL as well. Everyone's got their own sense of style; A good example would be Batman. No matter what Universe he's in, you can always tell it's batman despite the armor design changing.

One thing I've always wondered is when they know to stop adding things, and its something I struggle with a lot. Sometimes it's obvious when there's too much going on with small things like tattoos, hair colours, piercings etc. Other times it isn't so clear, like with clothing or hair. Do you ever experience difficulty with this, OP?

Also facial variation drives me crazy. You can take the hair off of every DBZ character and know exactly who you're looking at despite the fact everyone looks so similar.

>>2689919
Yeah I have to agree, simplicity really does make things better. Look at how simple some of the most iconic logo designs are. McDonald's, Nike, Wendy's, Toyota. Would make sense that it extends to characer design as well.

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I don't know if it's just me, but doing a few 8x8 challenges on /v/ got me thinking about how a design is iconic. It's very interesting to see how you can make something recognizable in just a few pixels.

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>>2689992
another example

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>>2689964
Well, I'll post what I'm working on atm.

This is a character I came up with a couple years ago, and I really enjoy drawing and redrawing her. She's the MC for a comic I may or may not get around to doing (I keep writing and rewriting a lot of things, and I have other projects in the works that are a lot more concrete), but I still enjoy drawing her, and as I improve in skill, I like trying my hand at playing with her design some.

On the top left is a more defined version of her main design, and the other 7 are the best of 12 total variants I made while playing around with her design, based on arcs and/or inspiration. The 3 with question marks are the 3 that I just don't feel work at all, however, they have elements that could integrate into the main designs a lot better I feel. Or just have concepts that could work really well if I elaborated in different ways.

As far as personality goes, some of the designs capture her youth and immaturity in some way, and you can even see a sort of progression into her becoming a more experience adventurer/mage of sorts.

Going with what we've discussed ITT, I think her main recurring elements are her bright blue hair, the ahoge, the booty shorts with an exposed midrif (sometimes), and an occassional scarf or something around her neck, with an over all Warm Blue/Yellow color scheme, with a hint of a pinkish red.

Looking at the Luffy designs I posted in the OP, I noticed that even in the most radical variations to his design, there was still a certain degree or recurring elements in all his designs, and I think this might be very important. So I tried to look at my character, and see what her recurring elements are/should be.

Now, bear in mind, these are still as WIP, and I haven't gotten around to playing with her design some more since I opened this thread. But so far, I do feel all the input and examples seen ITT have really helped.

>>2690019
cont...


As far as adding things, I think that the Jim video really explained well. Thinking on it, I think here should be a balance between "open" areas in the design, where there isn't much clutter, and small portions where you add more detail or flait. Batman, Luffy, Goku, etc... they all seem to adhere to this rule. Kinda separate the areas you know? Not so much that it's clutter, but not so little that it's boring. Even in HxH where you saw very simplstic designs, you'd see that the boots, and belt areas tended to have a bit more detail to them. I think the key lies in finding that balance.

>>2689992
>>2689993
Is there any way to quickly apply this to artworks in PS or something? I really wanna try this with my characters. I think it's a good tool.

>>2690021
>Is there any way to quickly apply this to artworks in PS or something?
Not sure what you mean, it's just drawing at 8x8 pixels (these are a little bigger because it wasn't enough, so I expanded them later) then resizing in Nearest neighbor. I guess you could make a workflow around the idea, kinda like thumbnails for landscapes.

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>>2689852
> Character Design Thread
>Starts with shitty weaboo designs
>>>2689864
>>2689856
>>2690019
Welp
the thread is crap already.
Why /ic/ always was cancerous about character designs? Nothing triggers me harder than when people talk about character design and post weeb shit.
Holy fuck. There is nothing more bad and generic than anime.
>>2690019
I just read your post and you wouldnt believe me.
i was 100% from thumbnail, that you just posted "design" art of that anime girl that had similar body and pose and color hair. I dont know her name but in some boards people flood threads with her pictures (she often seen singing on a stage).

- you posted 1 anime girl
- you know how all of them look

>>2691590
I like the 90s.

>>2691590
this guy

>>2691590
If you have other styles to post then post them. I don't even draw anime, and I design characters all the time. I grew up on Thundercats and Ed, Edd, and Eddy; however, It was what started the thread, so I don't see how its harmful to continue on the same examples. They're not even bad designs, at that.

Also, pretty sure you're talking about Hatsune Miku.

Aside from all that, really like the 90's one. It reminds me of Happy Harry.

>>2691590
>Nothing triggers me harder than when people talk about character design and post weeb shit.

That's because you don't actually know anything about character design and you try to compensate for your lack of knowledge with a false sense of superiority.

If you can't see how lots of anime have incredibly iconic and recognizable character design, you are never going to make it as an artist. Not even sure what you're trying to say with the image you posted either. A lot of the "western" 80s cartoons we remember fondly were actually animated and designed in Japan.

How can you make a recognizable silhouette if you prefer semi-realism for characters?

This is something I have trouble with. It's easier with stylized drawings.

>>2691590
>i was 100% from thumbnail, that you just posted "design" art of that anime girl that had similar body and pose and color hair.

And you don't think that might be because when he drew this character, he might have been inspired by that same anime girl you are thinking of, you fucking dumbass? If anything, that proves just how effective that character design is. You've seen it being posted a bunch of times and you immediately recognize it and can easily spot the influence in other people's derivative designs.

>>2691590
Nothing makes me harder than people who get triggered over anime.

>>2691590
>Shes ofter seen singing on a stage

That's VOCALOID. VOCALOID is not an anime. It's software. Shows what you know. Absolutely nothing. That's hilarious seeing people rage about subjects they nothing little to nothing about.

Go crawl back into your Tumblr hole where you came from.

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>>2691627
Character design gets less about silhouette the more you go for realism.

Instead go for a well thought out wardrobe that 1. fits the character, 2. fits the setting, 3. Shows the character in relation to other characters

It's basically the same as being a costume designer for a movie. The really good ones can give you a sort of iconic look.

Take the main characters of Star Wars (sorry for the bad pic, look up better ones). Han you can instantly tell is some sort of roguish type. His outfit has a wild west sort of feel, and he’s kind of scruffy looking overall. His belt with the blaster helps this image. But, to not get too boring, the designer also spruced him up with his yellowish shirt, which makes him stand out against the other two as well. Color is a really good thing to focus on with more realistic characters.

Meanwhile, Luke has sort of a peasant-ish getup, but because it’s mostly all a light, sandy color, you kind of get the idea that he’s a good guy from maybe humble origins (especially when contrasted against the all black, mechanical look of Darth Vader). Leia of course has a fancy hairstyle (as silly as it is) plus all white, flowing robes, so you can tell she’s probably someone important and a good guy.

So instead of silhouette focus on color, outfit ‘type’, and how the character looks in contrast to other characters. You can still come up with some really iconic/recognizable looks this way.

>>2691668
Fuck off.

>>>/t/umblr

>>2691662
>That's VOCALOID. VOCALOID is not an anime. It's software. Shows what you know. Absolutely nothing.
holy fuck you know what it is? congrats on useless trivia
Also why the hell i should know that crappy character? I dont stuff my head with such information.

>>2691662
>That's VOCALOID. VOCALOID
also if you INSTANTLY thought what im talking about it only proves my point that all weaboo lolis look the same including that one from that post

>>2691590
>One Piece
>weebshit
>posts that garbage as a response
yeah, fuck off to /co/ murricunt

>>2692447
This is the equivalent of me cropping the eyes of 30 paintings and then chastising it saying they're all the same.

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about if your rebuttal is 5 seconds on google and a bunch of stupids buzzwords you read offhand in /v/

>>2692447
To be fair on Miyazaki, he tries to make all the girls look average and honestly, asians look alike (a lot of white people look alike, lots of blacks look alike. It's not racist it's just truth). Asians especially do though because they have more androgynous features than some other races. The fact that the supporting characters usually have unique faces to them is enough for me to overlook it and chock it up to the japanese looking japanese.

>>2691822
Oh dude that helped me a lot, thank you! A lot of character design resources never really touch on it so I was always unsure of how much of a "rule of thumb" it was yknow. Thanks!

>>2689852
Any must inspirations or books to study from?

>>2692620
Heroes and Heroines: Japanese Video Game + Animation Illustration

Illustration 2016

^I've got both of these, they're not bad for inspiration.

Eisner Awarded or Nominated comic,graphic novel & manga.

>>2692447
Dude, if you delivered your criticism in a calmer fashion more people would listen, and possibly agree.

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>>2692447
>mfw Soejima is a "weeb" artist by this guy's standards

Rekt

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>>2689852
whenever people talk about character design in anime/manga i'm always reminded of this part from bleach, and how half of what makes it so memorable (for me anyway) is just ichigo's design. it's really reflective of everything he went through in the arc

it's a shame bleach completely went to shit near the end, though. the character designs were still great at least

>>2692685
>bleach completely went to shit near the end

More like it went to shit well before the half-way point.

For those who are interested, Stephen Silver has made a book about character design, and it's on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stephensilver/character-design-with-silver-a-drawing-guide-book

>>2692695
it went to shit then, but it didn't COMPLETELY go to shit until near the end

>>2692685
Can anyone link the scene? All I see is an edgy character dressed like a grim reaper to appeal to cringy teenagers. Big ass cape, overcompensating sword, weird hair style.. I must be missnig something here.

>>2691822
It's refreshing how plain their outfits are. Three out of four characters have a single dominant color! Even the robots were simple. C-3PO is all gold and R2-D2 is mostly white with bits of blue.

>>2692712
You're really not. That's the MC of Bleach and he is pretty much one of the lamest characters. The bad guys are usually the more interesting ones design wise.

googles must die

googles are subhuman scum who are responsible for 60% of the crime in the US despite only being 15% of the population

>>2690019
pls can I hab ur blog, your amazing dude

>>2689852
I hated when they made his hat so big.

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Y'Know, despite not being a Part 3 fan myself (I think its full of plotholes and Polnareff takes too much spotlight), I think Jotaro has probably one of the best-looking, most memorable character designs in comic media.
It talks a lot about his personality, it fits with not only his profile of a student but also gives him a much buffer appearence to fit with his deliquent personality, and the design itself sort of reflects the "bizarre" aspect of the manga.

In terms of character design; Goku, Jotaro, Saitama and Spike Spiegel are among the best examples of a good work in /a/ character design.

>>2691590
>no weeb shit
>posts jew shit
kys
you in no way have contributed anything useful so far, you are the cancer in /ic/

>>2692449
The fact that you don't care and think that all anime looks the same proves that you're an autistic tumblrfag that should fuck off.

>"weeboo lolis"
>samefagging
>typing in all lowercase

>>>/co/
>>>/t/umblr/

>>2695025
>In terms of character design; Goku, Jotaro, Saitama and Spike Spiegel are among the best examples of a good work in /a/ character design.
Sounds like you've only watched four anime series in your entire life desu.

>>2695549
they're popular and iconic for a reason

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>>2689852
Can someone please destroy this for me please?

>>2697247
its not memorable

>>2697280
#destroyed

>>2690019
The main design reminds me of Hatsune Miku so it's not unique enough, I think. Teal pigtails. Unless you wanna ride on Miku's popularity.

Start is the most drastic and I kinda feel like it's from another story.

I like the right upper corner design, but I feel the cut off pants is too short. That and because the orange doesn't really look great.

I also like the lower left corner one since I think it stands out more and there aren't extra colors to distract my eye.

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>>2697247
looks like some character out of a brazilian disney ripoff

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i didn't see this thread when i posted this earlier, so here it is again. some medieval fantasy animals, a la redwall or armello. let me know if any of them are workin or not.