Character Design Crash Course
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ncco rccsCharacter Design Crash Course
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ncco rccs haracter Design Crash
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Course
Introduction
ere is a simple, straight-forward approach to self-directed character design practice for
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illustrators and animation artists. In this document you’ll find a series of assignments,
each one is presented with a particular design style, follow the instructions and create a
new character that matches that style.
urther down you’ll see the setup for 10 assignments, with a total of 28 different
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established design styles to learn from. For each Assignment you’ll have provided
references and a section called ‘Support Material’, these are external links to design
packs, videos and articles aimed at giving you more knowledge from a wide range of
sources. If you already know all about howdesignsheetswork, along with the process
and theory behind them, and you just want to get to the practice exercises, then skip
ahead toAssignment #1. Otherwise, keep reading throughthe materials below, to
learn about the foundation and process behind the craft of character design for
animation.
<<< Quick links to each topic and chapter in the left column.
his document is for learning & self-training in the art and process of character design.
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Throughout your career you will upgrade those fundamentals with new and relevant
techniques. Just like cooking, standup-comedy, or carpentry - you begin with the
foundational skills and you build up from there. Over time, with practice, you will gain
more applicable and significant skills to have in your toolbelt.
o be a character designer for TV/film animation, you must be able to diversify
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into a variety of art styles. This course is specific to 2D animation, however, most
of these methods and techniques apply to character design for 3D/CG productions,
video game development, toy design, stop-motion films, and any other series &
shorts for animated commercials/streaming/media projects.
By Shannon Hallstein
y reverse-engineering a wide assortment of different character designs, you begin to
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develop fast and efficient analytical skills for knowing how to replicate a new character in
t he chosen visual style. This way you become more proficient in creating new characters
in these design styles, and begin to develop instincts on how to blend styles together
and therefore create new styles for productions in the future. The more you do this with
different techniques, the more you start to recognize the patterns and arrangements
used to create these designs. You will get faster at figuring out what makes a design
work and how to reproduce it.
What Does The Character Designer Do?
haracter designers visualize and create the look of individual characters. They work
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from descriptions given to them by the art director, showrunner, or creative producer.
These might include notes on a character’s personality as well as physical traits. Early
concept art or visual development work or online research/imagery may be used as
reference or springboards to work from. Character designers take inspiration from the
script, character descriptions from the pitch deck, and any provided concept art to
create the characters. They communicate the characters’ personalities through artwork
of facial expressions, costuming, structure, scale/proportions, and physical poses.
By Adam Fay
haracter designers carry out research into exploring the anatomy and costuming of
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characters. They discover and use anything they can to inform their work. This role
relies heavily on drawing ability. Characters can be drawn on paper but usually created
digitally, especially in the later stages. Character designers create a variety of designs,
usually including multiple versions for a single character.
hey present these to the director or producer and address any of their feedback to
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achieve a result that they are happy with. In the early stages, very loose and rough
quick sketches are made to ascertain where the design sensibilities may be, and to
essentially rehearse some visual concepts.
haracter designers create entire casts of characters that all must share the same
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aesthetics and look to have them all consistently appear to be from the same world.
By Rune Bennicke
nce a rough design has been completed & approved, character designers createmodel
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sheetswhich show the character from different angles. In 3D animation, these will be
used by the modelers to create the characters. In traditional animation, the animator
uses the model sheets as reference to ensure each frame of animation is “on model”. In
2D puppet/rigged animation, the builders use the model sheets as direct reference to
assemble and produce a finished rig for animators to use in their scenes. Storyboard
artists will also refer to these designs while they visualize the scripts, to incorporate the
models into their work as they lay out all the scenes.
By Bryan Konietzko
What is a Character Designer good at?
● D rawing: have a strong level of artistic and technical skill, be able to create work
in a variety of styles showing a high attention to detail
● Creativity: use your imagination to come up with original and innovative ideas
both for the artistic part of the designs and for resourceful problem-solving, and
create work that sparks the director’s imagination which helps to tell a story
● C ollaboration: understand what the director wants and be able to take and act on
feedback to alter your designs, while working well with other artists and designers
● Understanding of the Pipeline: know the capabilities of the artists and animators
that will take your work and use it, create designs appropriate for the medium and
technology used on the production - be aware of the many design stages & review
stages throughout the process
● Watching/Analyzing Animations: have a passion for the medium and a love of the
industry - it doesn’t matter if the production is for 2D or 3D/CG or stop-motion,
the ability to research, collect, and gather reference and provide quick sketches is
invaluable
profession in character design for the animation industry demands the artist to switch
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into new art direction styles all the time. The more you attempt and replicate other
artists’ design styles, the more you start to recognize the patterns and similarities that
exist in all styles of production design for TV/film animation, and gradually you learn to
apply elements of these learned styles & absorb the contents of your collected visual
libraries to your own tool belt and skill sets.
nalyzing character art styles and re-creating them to match a chosen look, is the best
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way to accelerate the growth of your draftsmanship. This type of practice is the most
efficient way to develop a long career as a designer and character development artist in
animation. Improving your artistic skill levels comes with commitment and hundreds of
hours of dedicated practice.
oing through this process of copying, tracing, breaking down, researching, analyzing
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and then producing designs of your own in these established styles - you will see
advancements in your personal artistic growth and you will unconsciously absorb and
learn new techniques.
By Jerimiah Alcorn
his course will just guide you along the way, and show how to self-train as an artist,
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and this will help to put you on the road to becoming a well-rounded and sought-after
character designer.
By Patrick Schoenmaker
ByAlessandro Vergonnier
By Johan Ravit
haracter design has always had a key role in the concept-design & animation industry.
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Whether you are designing for film, TV, games, advertising, or any personal project, it
can take a lot of work and skill to create an effective character.
By Chris DeRose
haracter designers can be employed by the head of production or the animation
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studio’s producer, and they can be hired as freelancers, part-timers, full-timers, or as
permanent residence of the studio, but usually (like all productions) it is contract-based
work, where the length of your term depends on the design work available for the
department you’re in.
hese designers come from all sorts of backgrounds; illustration, storyboarding, comic
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books, and especially2D animation. Practicing a widespectrum of established design
styles will push you outside your artistic comfort zone, making you experiment with art
styles that may lie far away from your own personal drawing preference.
ike many aspects of animation, similar to storyboarding and writing, character design
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can feel like a fairly solitary job. Sort of like solving a large puzzle, you navigate through
the process, trying many different things. Where some of the pieces seem to fit together,
you start to make progress after many hours or days of experimenting and exploring,
only to have some setbacks, and realize and it still isn’t quite working. Until finally you
have that “aha!” moment.
here can be times where a client/director loves your first or second attempt,
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other times, you have lots of people needing to provide their input, opinions, and
approvals, so it can take dozens of tries before you slowly refine things to a final
design.
o knowHOWto break the rules, we must firstKNOWthe rules, and know them well.
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But most importantly; learning the principles makes you see how other characters are
constructed, while learning their structure, visual language and the methods behind how
they are built. There's no better way to learn than bydoing, so let's get started.
First off, let’s learn the language used in the process of Character Design for Animation…
What is a Model Sheet?
character design sheet, also known as a model sheet, character board, character
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rotation, character sheet, character pack, or character study - It’s an illustrated
document used as a guide for the appearance, poses, views, and gestures of an original
character in animated film/series, comics, and video games.
o help get you started, here are a few tips on constructing character model sheets for
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animation!
By Dermot O’Connor
By Danny Hynes
Samples of typical model sheets:
Character Sheetis a specific industry-standardformat that communicates the design
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of a character. It is used to introduce potential investors to a cast of characters, tell us a
little bit about their personalities and relationships, and give us a general sense of what
the character looks like and how they might move or behave. As shown above, there can
be many different types of templates, every studio/production has their own preference.
These Character Model Sheets are used in virtually every entertainment field from game
design to animation. Though they can be used in a variety of fields, all character sheets
contain roughly the same information: Turn-around views, Expressions, Poses, and
Color.
hese model sheets are like guide documents that are typically illustrated during the
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pre-production phase of a production for a film or animated series. In feature films, the
concept art and visual development stage eventually lead to more final character design
sheets to be properly made for the Builds team to use later on.
bserve the image above and below… Notice how this iconic character would change
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styles every few years since its creation, these are two of the design styles he’s been
depicted in.
↑By Jessica Borutski↓
→Bugs Bunny is 100 years old,watch thisto see howmuch his design style has
evolved.
ain Design Packsare usually the model sheets forall the main cast of
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characters compiled together. To be used as reference for the story artists
and animators.
or an animated series there’s an on-going episodic design process, as new sets of
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character sheets are made for each new story as they get written. When working
collaboratively with art directors or production designers, all the characters in the film or
series should have their own model sheet created by the character designer. Depending
on how large scale the production is, this could be just one or two individuals creating
the main characters, or it can be a whole team of artists working together to illustrate a
large cast of characters. With multiple episodes always overlapping and many aspects of
the design process needing to be made for each character, like Turn-around views,
Expressions, Poses, Color, Head Angles, and Mouth Charts, along with strict scheduled
deadlines each week - there can be lots of coordination and organization needed in order
to meet the needs of the production.
How to use a model sheet
haracter design sheets should be used as a guide for any members of the creative
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team who will need to work with the character. They should have a simple layout that is
easy to understand without too much cluter. When it comes to drawing characters for
design sheets, it is important that you keep things relatively neat to avoid any
inconsistencies in the characters’ design further down the line. When you begin to
develop and conceptualize your character, you’re free to be very rough and messy. Once
things get refined and polished off, the model sheets are meant to display a more clean,
formal and official version of how the character looks.
reating characters for the purpose of animation production is a little
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different from what you may be used to. When it comes to working in this
industry, the design process is only one aspect of a vast pipeline, as you
can see fromthis flowchart.
ven comic book artists follow model sheets as reference, here’s artwork from the1982
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DC Comics Style Guide, by the master,José Luis García-López:
Watch these short clips:
● Sony Pictures Animation: Character Designer Patrick
Mate
● What Makes Good Character Design
● Inside Out: Designing Characters for Pixar
Creating a Character Model Sheet for 2D Animation?
hen you think of2D animation, your favorite WarnerBrothers cartoon or classic Disney
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film may come to mind. There are two primary types of frame-by-frame animation used:
hand-drawnandpuppetanimation.
and Drawn:
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This animation method requires the animator to draw each frame of the animation by
hand, illustrating small changes between each frame to create the illusion of movement,
also known asTraditionalorClassical Animation.
Animators use the model sheets to learn
how to draw the character at any angle.
As you can see, there can be several variations of how model sheets can look.
he style of the production will determine in what level of detail the designs have to be
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expanded and elaborated upon. The morehand-drawnthe style is, then the more angles
perspectives the production will bestoryboardedin. Therefore the more references
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you need to create for the builds and animation crew.
igged Animation:
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This style of animation requires animators to create a puppetrigof their character. This
is done by illustrating all of the characters’ body parts and props on different layers and
attaching them together to create joints, also known as2D Puppet Animation.
hen it comes to designing for 2D animation, keeping your designs relatively simple is
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the best way to ensure an easy conversion to animation. However, technology and
software for allowing complex designs to be still well-animated are being improved every
year.
Example ofsimplevscomplex:
hen possible, small details that do not add much to a character’s personality should be
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removed during this simplification process. Sometimes the client/showrunner/art
director has requirements that need to be met, so there can be lots of versions and
revisions made in order to fine-tune the designs to be to everyone’s liking.
Watch this clipdemonstrating the different typesof animation and
→
how they work.
ost 2D animated series nowadays are a hybrid betweentraditionaland
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riggedanimation methods. In an effort to make itlook as classically
hand-drawn as possible in appearance, this way it makes it appear more
hand-made and less computer-generated, therefore looking more like an
animated picture book or comic book, giving the characters and backgrounds
more of a hand-made feel and more appeal.
ome series are completely frame-by-frame animated but still paperless and entirely
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digital, simply made to look like the old classical style, right down to the pencil graphite
textured line work:
o matter what the art style is, or the method and approach in which it will be
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animated, it always starts off as rough concept sketches by the designers, and it builds
up from there.
Creating a Character Model Sheet for 3D Animation
reating a character model sheet for 3D/CGI animation is nearly identical to the
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process for 2D with only a few key differences. To help the artists who will be
creating the 3D model of your character design, it is best to illustrate characters in
a T-pose, displaying both the line art version and the color version as separate
images. This is because the character modeler will import the design into their CGI
software as a guide, so the character’s outlines need to be easily visible, UV
mapping and shading comes later for the coloring portion of the modeling. As
you’ll see from the samples below, certain details on angles and views need to be
shown in more precise details, so the sculpting of the 3D model can be built more
accurately.
he “T-pose” is more common in designing characters for 3D animation since the
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modeling/rigging aspect of translating the designs into sculpted builds, requires the
character to have the arms stretched outwards to properly model them.
ead →Designing Characters for a 3D Animated
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Short Film
ATCH→How the Peanuts Movie converted 2D designs
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into turn-able 3D characters
Creating a Character Model Sheet for Stop-motion Animation
haracter design sheets are made in a similar way for stop-motion/claymation puppet
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production as well. Illustrating full turnaround views, the many expressions and mouth
shapes for lip sync, and full breakdowns for rotations and costume changes.
nowing how your designs will be brought to the next stages can help inform your
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decisions on how better to design them and provide more references for those artists
that will be building your creations, whether it’s for 2D, 3D or Stop-motion in how your
artwork will turn intomodels/buildsfor animatorsto use. For example, see how these
studios created their puppets forPinocchio,ParaNorman,Kubo,Coraline,andMissing
Link.
Research & Preparation
he start of any foray into character design begins with research and sketching, then
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more research and more sketching. Whether you’re creating a character entirely on your
own from your imagination, or you’re beginning with designing characters for someone
else - you will need to start gathering, collecting or producing material and info for
yourself to use as a starting-off point.
Preliminary Process
hat style are you looking to convey? Is this for a client? Do they have a design style
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already in mind? What themes and topics will these designs have to say? Put some
thought into what personalities you want to visualize and what moods & identities you
want to explore. Research can mean looking up illustrators and artists you admire and
setting a framework in place to model after. This includes searching for places, objects,
and people who may provide more subtle or indirect inspiration for your work.
For example, the character Ethical Bug from the moviePuss in Boots The Last Wish:
Was inspired by the character Jiminy Cricket and actor James Stewart:
I t’s time for information gathering - There’s a few approaches to take for the research
and discovery phase of your character design. The first, which may feel the most
satisfying and fun to many of us, is brainstorming (to figure outwhatit is you are
looking for). The second is to really dive in with an intensive research and study. The
t hird, is to create a mood board or reference sheet for yourself, this is a collection of
visual themes and imagery that connects with you and the character you’re trying to
create. This could mean spending some time on stock image sites likeGoogle Imagesor
searching through artists’ portfolio sites likeArtStation,DeviantArtand the big one…
Pinterest(examples:Cats/Horses/Anthro Creatures/Alien Creatures/Centaurs/Griffins/Chibi/
Vikings/Ninjas/Knights/Pirates/Cowboys/Steampunk).
How to Find & Create References for your Character Design
Let’s say you need to design some D&D style medieval/RPG/fantasy characters:
○ Start where you’re comfortable, with abrainstorm
○ Dive deep into the subject, with an intensivestudy
○ Whether it’s analog or digital, get lost in thereferencesyou’ve gathered
he idea is to find a wide range of styles, then narrow it down to what feels most
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appropriate for the character you’re creating.
Inspiration / Reference Material:
These designs appeared in just page 1 of 100 from searching for DnD/Fantasy/Medieval
↑
characters ↑
As you can see, not only can you find inspiration for some design styles to explore from this genre,
but you’re gathering ideas for costumes and props as well.
he most memorable characters are the ones that make an impression, so getting their
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individual attributes and personalities correct is key. Think about some of your favorite
characters from movies, television, internet and literature—they all started as an idea,
perhaps partially based off of a real person the author/creator knew, and was developed
and visualized with careful intention and hard work.
nce you’ve got your initial thoughts down, dive into researching some images for
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attitudes and how to portray them physically, look around for design inspiration. Let’s
say you’re required to design agroup of pretentioushigh school girls…
xplore and reference real people & photo references for the types of
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personalities,
ethnicities and clothing styles you are exploring for your characters.
By Brittany Meyers
hink like you are casting for a movie. Look at real people or photos and take notes on
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what makes that person them. Everyone is different - they have their own stories,
tastes, habits, body shapes, and attitudes.
inding references can push your style and characters into all sorts of different
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directions, often times a happy accident occurs when sketching and exploring a wide
range of personalities:
veryone has different charms in their own way, and paying attention and capturing
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these details in your characters will make them feel genuine and unique.
“The currency of the modern age is authenticity.” - Robert Myer Burnett
ood boards (inspiration boards / reference boards) are the perfect place to work out
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what the foundation is before you start building the house around it. Knowing basic
details about your characters that you can reference on your board throughout the
writing or drawing process will keep you focused. It will also help you to create
believable characters because the small details about them will always be the same.
Reference Sheet for the visual development of the short filmPhantom Limb.
Build Your Visual Library
eek out and collect reference material everywhere you can.
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To begin - explore the variousavenues onlineto getyour creativity sparked and ready to
go.
ollect sites with resources on character development, sift through archives of design
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packs, and have them saved and ready at your fingertips for quick reference. And most
of all, seek out tips andadviceon style and technique,and always search out daily
inspiration.
Backstory
I f possible - as part of your initial brainstorming session, create the character’s
backstory, it doesn’t have to be super detailed. If someone else created the character,
then find out what their backstory is, by asking the client (or the writer/creator/director)
of the production. But if you are creating this character entirely on your own, then start
with a few words or short sentences. Write a summary of their personality traits and
history, or write a short blurb about who they are, or make a chart about who this
character is, and try to capture their key essence. What kind of character do you want to
bring to life? What kind of character do you need to tell your particular story?
Some questions you want to ask yourself are:
● ow old are they?
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● Where are they from?
● What are they like?
● Are they shy, fierce, serious, goofy?
● What do they sound like?
● What do they do in their free time?
● What kind of music do they listen to?
● What does this person’s day look like?
he list goes on. Asking these kinds of questions before you start researching and
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designing allows for a better understanding of your character and their
personality/history. By doing this, you’ll get to know them and the rest will become
easier. If you are creating a character that someone else has written their personality for
- ask that person or the client/producer about these questions, it will help inform your
decisions in how tovisualize your character.
he character’s backstory will show us ideas of what makes them unique and what kind
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of wardrobe/accessories they could have. This will also make the development for poses
and attitude drawings flow more naturally and convincingly later on.
I t’s very common too that all you’ll have to go by is a paragraph description or maybe
even a brief conversation with a director.
● Remember, if you arecreatinga character, you arealso
helping to develop their personality, and by doing so, you
essentially become awriter.
What are the 4 types of characters?
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1 tatic charactersare characters who never changeduring a story.
2. Dynamic charactersare characters who go through aninner change within a
story.
3. Flat charactersare underdeveloped, one-dimensionalcharacters without a
layered backstory, motivations, or internal conflicts.
4. Round charactersare characters with well-developedstrengths, weaknesses,
goals, and relatable flaws.
Static vs. Dynamic is a different dichotomy than Round vs. Flat:
● S tatic vs. dynamic refers to whether or not a characterchanged and evolved
throughout the story.
● Round vs. flatrefers to whether or not a characterhas depth and layered
characteristics.
hese can help you distinguish your character development and properly balance their
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stories in more satisfying ways.
By Bastien Pouchier
Archetypes for Memorable Character Design
1. The Hero or The Warrior:A brave and confident characterwho is working to
help a cause. Heroes are typically the main character and you will see a lot of
square shape language in their designs. This archetype is perfect for characters
that stand out and really care about protecting others. An alternative would also
be the Everyman, this archetype is ideal for helping the reader or audience see
themselves in the story. These types of characters are ordinary people, often
thrown into extraordinary circumstances. These protagonists don't need to have
any special talents and are often reluctant to continue their journey, even though
it's usually the right thing to do. They are often Humble, Sympathetic,
Overwhelmed, Quietly Courageous.
Disney Pixar - The Incredibles (2004)
2. The Rebel or Outlaw:A character who is talented butwho may not work for any
cause or dislikes authority figures. This type of character is often known as an
anti-hero,the anti-hero,a character who lacks traditionalcharacteristics that are
associated with a conventional hero. While typicallyguided by the best of
intentions, the anti-hero is a classically flawed character with a history of bad
decisions and a questionable moral code.They stillreally stand out but can often
be more morally gray than your typical hero/protagonist. You will see a lot more
triangular shape language used in this archetype. Thefallen heroor theanti-villain
are also options to explore, while the classicantagonistare more of the
conventional villain.
DreamWorks Animation - Megamind (2010)
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he Explorer:These characters are rugged, free-spirited,and always looking to
discover new things. Explorers are typically a combination of square and triangle
shape language, providing them with a lot of interesting design possibilities!
DreamWorks Animation - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)
4. The Creator/Innocent:An inventive and creative character- often nerdy and
introverted. This character style will typically have a combination of curves and
angular shape language. It is also common for creators to have an exaggerated,
large head size to communicate their intellectuality. Traits -Driven, Asocial,
Fixated, Perfectionist.An alternative in this categoryisThe Orphan, another widely
used archetype that's fairly easy to spot. The Orphan doesn't have to be a child,
although it's common that they are. This character type doesn't even have to lose
his or her parents to be an Orphan in this sense. Sometimes Orphans have
abusive or absentee parents and are looking for the “family” that they can be
happy with.
Disney - Meet the Robinsons (2007)
DreamWorks Animation - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
5. The Ruler:A leader character who is focused on maintainingorder. This archetype
usually depicts a controlling character with very strong features. Shape language
for these characters can vary, however, square shape language is always a solid
foundation. An alternative is also, The Leader,they are a well-known archetype
that often mixes well with others, such as the Hero and the Warrior. The Leader
has a goal and a plan to get there, which makes for conflict when something
happens to derail the character from his or her goal. Leaders have the ability to
inspire action in others. Since power attracts all types, the Leader can come as a
hero or a villain.
Sony Pictures - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
.The Magician:An eccentric character who is ableto create/wield magic. You can
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have a lot of fun with exaggeration in these characters - their shapes are typically
angular and whimsical.
Disney - Frozen (2013) Concept Art by Claire Keane (2013)
.The Caregiver:A caring character who has a soft,comforting appearance. Caregiver
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designs use primarily circular shapes, giving them a wholesome, huggable aesthetic.
These traits make them a typically cute character type.
Disney - Big Hero 6 (2014) Concept Art
.The Jester:Acomic reliefcharacter with a quirkyoften endearing appearance. This
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is another archetype where you can experiment with exaggeration! Jester’s design will
often veer away from the confines of the ideal beauty standard in a way that can be
both comical and comforting. As an alternative, this can also be The Sidekick,always a
staunch ally, supporting sidekick characters come in all shapes and sizes. You've seen
them as robots, humans, pet animals, and supernatural creatures. Helpful, Devoted,
Humorous, Loyal (sometimes to a fault). Examples - Ron Weasely fromHarry Potter,
R2D2 fromStar Wars, Robin fromBatman, Tinker BellfromPeter Pan.
Disney - Lilo & Stitch (2002)
.The Lover:A character who is devoted to what theylove. There is no right way to
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depict the lover, as different characters will be attracted to different appearances.
owever, if you are stuck, using features that are usually associated with society’s
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beauty ideals can be a good place to start.
Disney - Enchanted (2007)
0.The Sage or The Harold:A character who guidesother characters – typically
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portrayed as old and wise, perhaps monk or wizard-like. This archetype often has a
combination of circular and angular shape language.
DreamWorks - Kung Fu Panda (2008)
nce you are aware of thesearchetypesyou will beable to create designs that will
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clearly communicate your character’s personality. If none of these categories feel quite
right for your character, you can always combine multiple tropes, or subvert them
completely to create endless unique designs!
rends in storytelling and character development for archetypes have evolved over time.
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There are many other classes to explore and choose from, seeherefor more lists.
Who is Your Demographic?
hen you design a character, it is important to know who your audience is. For example,
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a design that appeals to children may not always appeal to adults or vice versa. So
efore you start your design, take a moment to think about your audience. How old are
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they? Are they any gender in particular? Where do they live? Answering these questions
will allow you to cater your designs more toward your audience and therefore ensure
your character is more engaging for them.
The Main Categories:
- Preschool (3-5)
- Bridge (5-7)
- Kids (6-11)
- Co-viewing/Teen
- Adults
What is the Genre?
he world and story places your characters in the direct context of what style they
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should be visualized in, it will influence the look of your final character designs. A dark
animated horror film for adults will have a very different aesthetic to the designs,
compared to a whimsical adventure series for preschool kids. For example, here’s a the
main genres:
Comedy, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller, Adventure, Mystery, Science Fiction,
Musical, Educational.
There are several sub genres as well, and you can mix them up too, most series and
films are categorized as at least two.
ick and Mortyis considered to be Science-Fiction/ Action / Comedy (and even Dark
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Comedy)
Over the Garden Wallcould be known as Fantasy withbrief elements of Horror / Comedy
/ Musical / Drama
Gravity Fallsis seen as Adventure / Mystery / Comedy
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesis Action / Adventure
Blueyis known for being an Educational / Comedy
efining these isn’t too important (and not usually your job), just be aware that
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knowing the Genre and Demographic can give you an idea of what the art
direction might look like. Sometimes you dive into it and you accidentally discover
the best design appropriate for the character, and this can influence or change the
intended personality and art direction as well. Your client or director should be the
one to provide you with this sort of information. If you are working alone and
creating the character entirely yourself, then determining what the Genre and
Demographic is for your world and its characters can help to get you started on
the look of your characters.
ometimes subverting the look of the character designs is the goal as well; like
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the seriesDrawn Together, purposefully mixed various styles, but was a series
made for a mature/adult audience.Gumball, mixes stylestoo, and it’s made for
kids 6-11, howeverSmiling Friendsmixes styles inthe same way but is intended
more for Teens/Adult audiences.
Inspiration
esearch more and more, explore lots of options, discover new and different artists,
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saving collections of examples of the potential styles you may need to refer to later.
Doing this makes certain you’ve considered all your possibilities before starting another
round of rough drawings. There’s thousands of character art styles out there, it’s easy to
be overwhelmed, begin your searches as broad explorations, then refine it down to the
ones that you feel fit best with what you’re doing and what you’re looking for.
et Inspired by artists on Instagram and Pinterest. Examples like the art style ofJin Kim
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orGlean Keane. Looking at the amazing works of yourfavorite artists can really help
improve your creativity and give you new techniques and ideas to try in your own work.
arrow down your search to what the world/story your characters are set in, and focus
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on what their personalities may be. If you’re working with a client or director, gather as
much information as you can from them, to determine what parameters or limitations or
pre-established art style they may have in mind to drawinspirationfrom. Seek out,
find, build, gather information & references for you to use as a springboard for your
rough exploration sketches.
he goal is to put all of your inspiration in one place so that you can reference it as you
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work on your project.
Samples of some art styles:
By Pablo Hernandez
By Cihan Gelerli
By Sean Galloway
By Soyeon Yoo
By Conner Fawcett
By Alexandre Zedig
By Dan Hipp
By Juju Sole
By Hugo Cuellor
By Selvam
By Derek Laufman
By Arthus Pilorget
By Mirjam Plettinx
By Frantz Hofmann
By Ben Balistreri
By Maxime Mary
By Cartoon Saloon
Thumbnails
lanning is a critical stage in theprocess. You’dbe surprised how important it is to really
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think through and plan your designs before you get started. It’s extremely important
and helps you avoid problems that could show up later, and also discover things that can
really enhance and bring out the best in your potential designs.
hile you are collecting references and preparing the info you need, you will begin to
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have an idea of what you want this character to represent. Start sketching the
character(s) you have in mind, but keep your sketches very loose and rough at this
stage.Make LOTS of sketches!
ou can say there’s no difference in the volume of these two circles (shown below) and
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you wouldn’t be wrong. The one on the right is two dimensional and so is the one on the
left. What is important is what you do not see—the thought process behind the
lines—that helps you to create moredimensional sketcheswith flow to them.
on’t get caught up with the details in the beginning; this is the moment to play with
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proportions and shapes and see what feels right for the character. Try to come up with a
lot of variety at this stage.
lways start off very loose and rough, then draw over your own work, over and over to
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refine and shape the character. Sketching is NOT aboutrefinement. The darker lines
show your “decision lines” and the lighter “searching lines” become less important.
ByGriz & Norm
● Remember, all cartooning is to some degree,
essentiallycaricaturing
Here’s some good advice from KeshArt:How To CartoonPeople
uantity will find quality.When starting a sketch,be sure to draw quickly and
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confidently. Gloss over mistakes and don’t spend too much time erasing. If you’re not
happy with the way your drawing is going, just start a new layer to build something
fresh or iterate again. Through this process, something will eventually click and you’ll
know when things feel right. A lot of the time you may not know what you want to draw
until it’s directly in front of your eyeballs.
here are several ways to do thumbnailing, but it is always a way to jot down lots of
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small visual ideasas a rehearsal. They can also bejust blocks and blobs and simple
silhouettes, or quick gesture drawings made of squiggly lines, or just various shapes and
forms to see what works and what doesn’t work.
fter some sketching, ideally you create something that you want to push further. At this
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point you can create a new layer while also lowering the Opacity of the previous one, so
you can easily draw on top of it. It’s important to stay loose and to not stiffen up when
starting a “cleaner” drawing. Strengthen the design and the shapes you already put
forth. In the past I often strayed too far from the sketch and became unhappy with the
drawing. You chose to move forward with your sketch for a reason, so don’t disregard it
too much when fleshing it out.
Sketches By Erin Shin:
Sketches by Jay McKay:
eep spending time researching and discovering plenty of imagery to inspire you, go
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online, find the types of design aesthetics, costumes, and environment that your
character will be in. Compile lots of references, then start by roughing out some
concepts of what the character should look like, explore and experiment with loose &
uick sketches. All of this will help you to learn in a moretactical way.A well-researched
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character will have a lot more credibility and really resonate with their audience. When
you are finished researching, you should have enough reference material to start
designing your character.
Sketches by Glen Keane:
igital sketching is a low-stake scenario, so try not to stress too much about drawing.
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It’s okay to make mistakes in the beginning. Embrace it and try not to worry about the
details. The main goal when doing initial rough sketches is to jot down your wild ideas
and then build upon them afterwards. It can look like senseless blobs, but as long as it
makes sense to you, you’re doing the right thing.
Thumbnail Rough Clean-up Color
WATCH & LISTEN:
→Drawing Shapes and Forms in Perspective
→Tracing vs Studying vs Using Reference
→Elements of Character - Gesture & Form
→Ben Eblen’s Method of Breaking The Rules
Shape Language
here are three basic shapes in your toolbelt: round, box, and triangle. If you follow
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your intuition, each shape conveys a personality. For example:
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● ound = charismatic, harmless, endearing, friendly, soft, cute, innocent
● Box = reliable, uniform, traditional, stable, balanced
● Triangle = cunning, movement, harmony, dynamic, competent (downward
pointing more aggressive or villainous)
● Shapes can also becombinedfor more complex characters
here’s a variety of other combinations/variations like diamond-shaped,
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tear-drop-shaped, oval/egg-shaped, hourglass-shaped, and bean-shaped.
hen we deconstruct visual images, most objects will break down into one or more
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familiar shapes, each carrying their own visual signposts. See how the characters from
Pixar’s Upcan be visually broken down to basic shapes.
quares and rectangles are reliable, rigid and sturdy. Visually they’re used to symbolize
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order and robustness. Think of a robot or a heavyset man, which are often represented
by rectangles in caricature, and note the correlation of sturdiness to each one.
ircles (and ovals, ellipses, egg-shape) are friendly, harmless and fun. Due to the
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continuous nature of the line in a circle, they also represent progress and synergy.
Animated characters made up of the circular look are generally protagonists, though
sometimes bumbling or innocuous ones at that. Think about the Powerpuff Girls, Homer
impson and Santa. Babies, teddy bears, dopey types and jolly characters all fall under
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this category of cuddly, friendly circular fun.
riangles are dynamic shapes, indicating both balance and energy. Down-pointing
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triangles are used in character design for fit, active characters: think of the V-shaped
chest of an athletic character, or the classic hourglass figure of a femme fatale which is
largely a series of triangles stacked on top of one another.
s you can see from the image above, it can help to think of the human body as a series
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of relatively simple shapes when you are starting your design.
→Watch this approach to defining cartoon anatomyand shape
language
These main shapes can be squashed, stretched, combined & mixed
together:
There’s always shapes within shapes:
Head shapes of various sorts create a personality with your character:
hen exploring the various possible design elements that make up
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your character, think about whatassociated imageryyou can use:
n a cast of characters, you want to work with contrasting and
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complementary shapes:
by TB Choi
By Kenneth Anderson
ByNico Marlet
ombining shapes together will have their own visual significance depending on their
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arrangement. A rectangle and triangle together can make a house or an arrow, just as a
character design with a rectangular body and circular head could be a dimwitted lackey
(large rectangle, small circle) or a mega-mind genius (thin rectangle, large circle). Of
course, you can always flip the tables to play with expectations. Maybe the small circular
little girl is the powerful dynamo, or the stocky square guy turns out to be unstable and
hyperactive.
Look at the many different shape combinations used here:
Exploration Sketches
hen you first try to experiment with what your character might look like, produce some
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rough drawings that allow you to rehearse, explore and discover a variety of shapes,
sizes, and proportions to see what feels best.
by Pablo Hidalgo Fernández
By Erin Shin
By Steven Sanders
by Luigi Lucarelli
by Jesse Aclin
By Jerimiah Alcorn
By Alexis Page
By Zetsy
By Nikolas Ilic
By Mina Roy
By Dave MacDougall
By Amanda Jolly
By Cesar Vergara
By Basma Hossam
hese preliminary sketches can be referred to as theConceptstages of the characters’
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visual development. Where several variations and iterations of the characters are
sketched up. Usually very rough to start with, to visually explore and see what works
best.
↑Character Sketches (and final paint model comparison)for toy figure designs↑
“ You need to be smart with where you spend time. If you focus on detailing everything,
things can become overly cluttered quickly. You can see that this elephant warrior has a
lot of implied details. The lines on the elephant’s core wrap around its form. Although
this is rather simplistic, it gives you a good idea of what the armor can look like with just
a few strokes of the pen. There are also scribbles on the deltoid armor pieces and in the
elbows, implying some kind of sigil or crest. All of these “details” are conveyed with
minimal work.” -Erik Ly
his stage of visual development for the characters are all about trying out
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lots of different things, to see what looks good, what feels best, and what
orks the most for the character’s function and personality and the
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story/themes being portrayed. Sometimes color concepts are asked for as
well to be mixed in with the roughs.
These sketches explore variations of the same design with color concepts thrown in
there too.
Various animal and creature designs are also an aspect to explore.
Animal exploration sketches by Russ Cox:
Animal Character Design Inspiration - Part 1
→
→Animal Character Design Inspiration - Part 2
Creature Design Tips - Part 1
→
→Creature Design Tips - Part 2
→Dina Norlund’s process for designing a new creature
Sometimes your director/client will ask to go straight to color concepts with your design
explorations:
By Olivier Silven
Character design should feel fun, but for it to resonate with people, it must also feel
authentic and real.
Observe thecharacter development sketches forFoster'sHome for Imaginary
Friends:
Early development sketches by Alex Kirwan forKickButtowski
way back when it was still called “Kid Knievel”:
Concept art forJustice League Action&Beware TheBatmanby Shane Glines:
References and Design Explorations forL’Épopée Temporelle:
Guillaume Fesquet’s character design explorations fromMerry Little Batman:
Exploration drawings (and final designs) forCaroland The End of The World:
Check out the style development art of David Colman forClass of 3000:
Early Character Development Sketches by Anthony Holden forDuck Tales:
Tara Billinger’s character development concepts forClone High:
hapes, forms, proportions, anatomy, costuming and many other aspects of “style” must
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be experimented with. Once certain parts of a character are nailed down, there may still
be other aspects that need further exploration. Usually clothes and hair are specific
areas that can be further explored separately to show many more varieties there can be,
to see what feels best, as they say with actors; the hair styles, make-up and costume
choices help to define the characters:
Designs by Daphne van der Woude:
Designs by Amber Kennerson:
Even explore patterns on your character:
Or explore how certain details or body parts should look when posing the character:
By Esther Morales
Observe these character exploration sketches by Matthieu Cousin:
Final model sheet:
Observe these exploration drawings by Kiana Khansmith:
Final Model Sheet:
Character Development concepts from Pete Oswald forCloudy With A Chance of
Meatballs:
Model Sheet by Mike Milo for the illustrated book "Ribeye the Bullbarian and the Jewel of
Baloni":
Observe here how artist Ben Balistreri’s character evolved from his exploration sketches
to his final design sheet:
Jordan McCracken-Foster displays the rough exploration drawings made before the final
model:
Watchthis videothat has him explaining his process.
bserve the early explorations made for the characterDashfrom “The Incredibles”. They
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experimented with various graphic shapes and forms:
ee how shape design was implemented in their character
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designs early on in this film’s visual development processhere.
eeherefor a guide on the structure of characterdesign anatomy byRad Sechrist.
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Analyzing the inner-workings and construction of various cartoon characters, how they
are rooted in realistic forms and volumes, found in figure-drawing from referencing
people and animals.
eeherefor a guide on the advantages of using morestructural drawing, from Tracy
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Butler. Her works are great to sift through with plenty of tutorials.
eeherefor samples of exploration drawings, silhouettestudies and thumbnails by
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Fabricio Oliveira, going from concept art to breakdowns and full color with character
lineups.
ee more sampleshere, showing the design processfor a cast of characters, as various
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options are explored and presented.
xploration sketches allow you to create many versions of the character too, so that you
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(or your supervisor/client) can narrow down some options to arrive at the ideal solutions
and get closer to the look you’re all searching for.
oughing out exploration sketches like these help you to discover what style you (or
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your client / director / producer) may be looking for, and allows you to figure out how
the anatomy and mechanics of your character may work. Also if this is the established
style, then roughing out poses and body parts and expressions like these help YOU to
learn the strengths and weaknesses and limitations the design style may have and how
to create new characters that fit this style as well.
Exploration sketches and final color design be Cesar Vergara:
ere’s exploration sketches for a cast of characters made by Design Master, Margaux
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Zinnser.
First some basic body shapes are explored:
hen a variety of designs are experimented with.
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This was for the Mum:
fter all these variations for hair and outfits were made, then discussed with the
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client/producer, one was chosen and finalized:
The Dad:
Choir Singers:
Bus Stop People:
And other incidental and secondary characters:
J ust like for the exploration sketches, the costuming and color design process consists of
exploring various clothing options with several colors palettes as well:
ere’s exploration sketches & concept art for ‘Puckhead’ byTavis Silbernagel.Developed
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for a video game that was meant to be a parody/ripoff ofCuphead:
Character Turnaround
ow that you’ve collected all your references, sketched out lots of concepts and
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exploration drawings, and started choosing which roughs to nail down for the look of
your character, based upon any prerequisites or parameters you have to follow. You are
now beginning to lock down what it is you (and your supervisor/director) are looking for.
You are now ready to get started in producing the actual individual views of the
character design by refining the look and various angles of the character’s physiology, so
you begin to explore how the physics and anatomy of the character work, it’s time to
begin developing a model sheet for it!
Front Three-Quarter Side Back
Front Three-Quarter Side Back
¾ Front Front ¾ Back Side
ow many views you must create for your character, often depends on the production’s
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needs and even the time constraints of the schedule. The more primary the character is,
the more screen-time they’ll have, the more views and references need to be drawn.
sually the script and storyboards are a good indicator of how much the character will
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be present for. The more screen-time they have, the more they’ll act and move around,
therefore the more likely you’ll need more detailed model sheets to depict how they’ll
look from various views and angles. Main characters will be seen the most and will be in
the most episodes (in a series) and therefore will need more references since more
detailed builds will need to be made since they will be doing the most action and acting.
@doublecrossanimation
@Spodness
@randybishopart
By Evan Palmer
By Bob Flynn
By Stephen Silver
By Fabien Mense
By Julie Goodwin
By Adrian Massenburg
By Juan Pedro Arroyo
By Zackery Clarkson
By Margeaux Zinsner
otice all the horizontal guidelines? ↑↑↑ These are vital to getting your
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turn-around views accurate!
o illustrate a character model sheet or turn-around sheet, typically you will be required
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to draw your character from 3-6 different angles (minimum), to develop a rotation (or
partial rotation). Depending on how much of a main or primary character they will be in
the story, another factor is the style of the animation (will it require lots of turning or
changing perspectives), it can be 5, 8 or even 14 views needing to be produced. But to
start off, your primary views will typically include:front,front three-quarter(¾),
side(profile),backandback three-quarter(¾)views.
1- Draw the front view of your character
irst pose is the full frontal view. Your standard turnaround should have 5-views of the
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same character: a front view, a back view, a profile view, a ¾ front view and a ¾ back
view, these all help modelers/builders and animators better understand the volume of
the character. But a 4-view turnaround works good too, it’s the bare minimum for most
productions, but for asymmetrical characters you may need up to 8-views to accurately
get the full rotation, since the left and right sides of their bodies aren’t mirrored.
good way to ensure consistency between these different views is to use one of the
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poses as a background for the rest, and the frontal one is the best one to start with.
2- Create some guidelines
nce you have your character's frontal view, place some guidelines at different levels to
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keep consistency between the poses. These lines will help the character have the same
height throughout the sequence, but also maintain the proportions of the different parts
of its body.
ccuracy in the proportions and positions of all the elements of your character’s rotation
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is always important. Creating these guides in Photoshop is very simple. Just drag the
mouse from the document rulers. Make sure that the "Snap to..." function is not active
because it will make the drawing process difficult.
3- Draw the 3/4 view
he 3/4 pose next, using the front view as a template. Imagine what the features of the
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character would look like if they were a little tilted. The nose and other facial features
will have to be altered slightly and not quite in the same position. The shoulders,
symmetrical in the front view, will now change and have slightly different sizes. The legs
will no longer be the same size, either. One will be wider than the other because it will
be closer to the imaginary point of view.
I t's essential to pay attention to the feet and the relationship with the ground and make
sure they don't appear to be shifted.
nce you have made the first approach to drawing the new 3/4 pose, do the flipping or
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mirroring method. It will be easier to see if something doesn't have the proportions it
should.
4- Check the guidelines
nce the first rough drawing of the pose is finished, check the guidelines to make sure
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everything aligns properly. Not all of the elements will at first, but that's ok. Just make
adjustments and corrections as needed.
I t is essential to spend a good deal of time on this and check carefully because it is
better to notice any possible mistakes now than when we are already working with the
refined version of the drawing.
ne of the most important things to remember when drawing your character turnaround
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is that each part of your character should line up exactly in each angle. A good way to
make sure you are getting your proportions correctly is to draw guidelines that
correspond with key elements of your character.
xample: top of the head, eyes, nose, mouth, shoulders, and other key parts of the
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body and costume, and where the joints are.
- Draw the side view
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For the side view, it is crucial to consider that it is the pose that will show the character's
volume, especially for facial features like the nose or lips. Some designers draw the arm
as a separate detail in this view or raised up so that it doesn’t block what the torso looks
like, but it's up to you. Don't forget, as with the rest of the poses, to check that every
element is properly aligned before refining the lines of your sketch.
6- Draw the back view and 3/4 back view
he ¾ back view might be one of the trickiest poses, but don't despair. The back view is
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more straightforward. Just copy the front view's silhouette and add all the elements in
the back of the character. You may never have considered what your character looks like
from behind, things like how long the hair is, or what decal might be imprinted on the
ack of their sweater, for example. These are important details in a turnaround because
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modelers will use them to achieve a more faithful character reproduction. Just keep in
mind areas like the hands and feet, which will look very different from behind. Usually
the last view is the ¾ back view, using your ¾ front view (as a rough silhouette
reference) as a reference, is often a great starting point to complete this angle with the
details you created for the back view as your guide.
hen comes cleaning up the linework and choosing final colors (more about this later, in
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theColor Stylingchapter). Often providing a fewdifferent color schemes and variants
can be helpful if you have a producer, director, or client needing to do approvals on your
work - offering a few choices can be helpful in arriving at a consensus for the final color
pass.
epending on your chosen line art style, yourclean-uppass is essentially tracing your
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art with a ‘final line’, ensuring consistency and volumes are maintained.
→Here’s a great short summary of this process
Another similar approach to the turnaround process:
ough out some concepts & exploration drawings to find the shapes, structure, and style
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you’re going for.
Then refine your character(s) down to a few possible body types and personalities.
efine the look and body type you want to lock down.
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To make your turnaround views, setup your horizontal guidelines - rough out basic
forms:
Then a detail pass to refine the shapes, decisions on anatomy, clothing, hair:
ine Art pass (clean-up) - you pay attention to the accuracy of the rotation, the volumes
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and proportions and position of all details and body parts:
Color pass - this may include shading & shadows, if that’s the style you’re going for:
on’t forget to have those guidelines there as reference for the position and
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volume of your character as you figure out how to make the rotation for the
turn-around.
nce you have completed the design you can hide the guidelines and you should be left
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with something that looks like a finished design turnaround. Of course, don’t be afraid to
revise and refine your work.
5-point Turnarounds:
By Tommy Kinnerup
By Soyeon Yoo
By Maaike Scherff
It can be challenging to rotate characters that are graphically stylized.
Observe this wide variety of styles:
4 point turnarounds:
When creating the perspective for the foot placements, just be sure to stay consistent.
By Rudy Hill
8-point Turnarounds:
By The Line
here’s also an optional ⅝ and ⅞ views (the views between the Front and ¾ views and
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between ¾ and Side), sometimes calledOff CentreorFront Near Left / Front Near Right,
these are usually reserved for the main cast of characters, since they get lots more
screen-time than incidental or secondary characters. Adding these inbetween views
makes for a more complete rotation:
10 point turnarounds:
ven more inbetween views can be made, it all depends on the production style of the
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animation, and what is demanded of the characters in their stories.
12 point turnarounds:
Model sheets for traditional animation have evolved quite a bit over
the decades,
observe how Alex Toth would create his design sheets in the 1960s:
Tribute to Character Design Master Alex Toth
→
(Video Essay)
→The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth (Book)
urnarounds are not the only type of character model sheet you may want to create for
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animators to reference. Some other common design sheets include: Expression Sheets,
Pose Sheets, Color Keys, Mouth Charts and Style Guides!
Expressions Sheets
reating an expression sheet is a great way to provide the animators with a basic guide
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on the way a character expresses different emotions. Try to include a combination of
extreme and subtle expressions in your illustrations for these model sheets. Expression
heets are super fun to sketch as you can really explore a range of personalities for your
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character.
@randybishopart
Maintaining structure and volume consistency when creating expressions takes practice
and experience to master:
By TB Choi
More Samples of Expressions Sheets:
ead tilts and rotations can be difficult to do, often you need to create a construction
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reference for yourself to see how it will look three-dimensionally. This way you can plan
out how to accurately to show the facial features at various angles:
Head angles like this are common to be made for primary characters for important
reference material for animators:
ow extreme you get to be with the expressions depends on the personality of the
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character and the style of the production.
ave fun with poses and facial expressions -Whatyou will find really helpful in the
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design stage is sketching the characters in action (poses) as well as their facial
expressions. Think about how this character would act in different situations. What kind
of faces do they make when they are happy or excited?
Let them emote and communicate! This is the moment when the characters reveal
themselves and come to life.
Expression Sheets by Virginie Kypriotis forThe AmazingWorld of Gumball:
Breaking down a character design’s expressions can be great learning practice:
reate your expressions to be unmistakably clear as to what they’re doing, how
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they’re feeling, and what is happening. Basically, always think about producing
strong poses & expressions, not ambiguous ones.
n inspirational example here is some oldTiny Toonsexpression sheets. There were
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some fantastic moments and some incredible animation shown in this series, and a
few times some crazy over-the-top & hilarious situations were shown. The
cartooniest and most enthusiastic artist on the crew wasEddie Fitzgerald. Here are
some of his sketches of theTiny Toonscast:
his Buster character looks pretty conservative for Eddie. His exaggerated style of
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expressions seem a bit subdued here, but these are still really good, really pushed,
and great inspiration.
here's soooo much to learn from these. It's free, loose, energetic, and seemingly
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effortless drawings of expressions and body language.I really like Eddie's Porkys.
These show a special love for the character. Late in Eddie’s career, he actually got to
storyboard on the 1999 version ofWoody Woodpeckertoo.
heck out these awesome expressions. You gotta be a real cartoonist to realize the
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creative beauty and humorous potential of Warner Bros' seemingly most
conservative character.
hese are some more great poses. It's weird to see Porky wearing pants, but
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somehow Eddie manages to draw it well. He knows what people like about the old
Porky Pig character.
ou know somebody can really draw if they like to do back poses - and can make
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them funny! Many artists are afraid of drawing characters from the back - not Eddie.
He embraces the backside.
ee how he can get perfectly clear poses, construction and attitudes in just a few
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lines on a tiny thumbnail drawing. Eddie's storyboards would be super fun to lay out,
because he's done the hard part for you. You can't go wrong with appealing poses
like this.
ere's some Plucky Duck expressions that look way better being rough and
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exaggerated than the final version that got toned-down on screen.
ddie was one of the first directors during the idealistic days ofTiny Toons' birth in
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1989, and he was the perfect choice for the job. He had a unique vision, a strong
individual drawing style and a really funny way of seeing the world. Plus, he
intimately knew all the originalLooney Tunescartoonsthat they were basing these
baby versions on.
se this as inspiration to stay loose in your roughs, be exaggerated, and use the wild
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poses/expressions as a starting point, then tone down, refine, and afterwards,
reduce them down to the style and structure they need to be.
Pose Sheets
imilar to expression sheets, pose sheets/action poses are used to show the type of
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gestures a character is likely to make. These can be really important to provide your
animators with information on the way a character moves in accordance with their
personality and how far to push dynamic poses as well. Whilst traditional character
turnaround sheets can feel a bit stiff, pose sheets allow for a much wider range of
motions and body language to be expressed.
@randybishopart
→Inspiration forposescan be found online, like“dynamic action posing”
here.
Use C- Curves and S-Curves in contrast when Posing your characters:
heline of actionis a key ingredient to making yourcharacter’s poses look more
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dynamic.
This helps your poses "read", it makes them clear and understandable and gives them a
distinct non-ambiguous direction.
Drawings by Sherm Cohen↑
ushing the pose doesn’t always mean exaggerating the gesture to the max - it means
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that each exaggeration is further supporting the ‘big idea’ of the pose with readable
emotions:
Drawings by Christian McCord↑
What does your pose say about your character?
he pose you choose for your character can communicate a lot about their personality,
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emotions, and desires. For example, using a concave (c-shaped,) line of action for your
character’s pose can help them seem timid or sad, whereas a convex curve can be used
to make them seem more confident or happy.
o, before you choose your pose, think about what you want to say about your character
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and how you can best illustrate this information through curves, tilts, and expressions!
@pumbaaguy
There are so many different ways you can alter your character’s pose to make it more
effective.
nce you have got your pose roughed out, you can start thinking about how you will
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pose your character. An easy way to check whether or not your pose is working is to
create a silhouette of the pose and see if it still reads well. Good poses are easily
understandable even when silhouetted!
lock in the character. If you can still recognize what their body language is doing, then
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it has a strong, readable silhouette.
y making strong posing choices for your characters you will greatly improve the
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readability of your character designs!
ecognizability in silhouettes can be great for your audience to instantly identify the
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character on screen.
ome thought should be put into the character’s outer shape, especially when making a
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cast of various characters. Ideally some contrast between a pair or trio of characters
makes for a more appealing ensemble.
When posing your character, you will come across some logistics you may not have
considered before:
Not all design styles have varied line weight or tapered lines, so follow the style
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reference first and foremost, if you are designing the characters and determining these
varied line weights, experiment with and without them, and consult your
director/producer/client for any advice on preferences and how it can impact things
down the line in builds and animation.
Pose Sheet samples:
↑ Gravity Falls Model Sheets By Joe Pitt ↑
↑Darkwing DuckModel Sheets By Master Character Designer& Story Artist Toby Shelton↑
↑ Rough and Color Model Sheet for the concept character of He-Pumpkin by Ben Balistreri ↑
↑Rough poses for the comic bookRevolutionbyMelodyCisinski↑
↑Rough and ColorModel Sheet for the concept character ofThe Book Thiefby Tegan Clancy↑
↑Rough Poses by Oliver Acker ↑
↑Designs and Poses by Ruby Poon↑
↑Pose Sheets forMerry Little Batmanby Ben Tong↑
tart off loose and rough to figure out what body language or attitude you want to try
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out, then draw over these foundational sketches with your character’s design.
Discover the range of motion with your characters:
his stage allows you to see details you couldn’t see before. Look back to what you
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found out about the character before you started designing, when researching different
aspects of the character, you’re being purely creative and exploring, you do a
Turnaround but once you start POSING your character, you see areas in the design that
might need to be revisited and tweaked. It’s like taking your model out for atest drive.
hen you enter the “clean-up” phase where you refine the posing, correct any issues
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with proportions, volumes and find the final line you want to have.
hen posing, start off loose and rough to get a feel of how the character’s acting and
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attitudes could come through.
ometimes pose sheets and expression sheets can be combined, their purpose is always
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to show animators and builders/riggers what the range of anatomy and flexibility is
intended for the character’s style, and how to illustrate various attitudes and postures.
ee Victor Navone’s collection of thumbnail sketcheshere. He developed these to
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work out the posing and acting for the characters in his shots prior to animating
his scenes. Created as a way to rehearse the poses for the best performance and
actions, finding the attitude and mindset of the characters. He’d use these
sketches as a way to explore how to depict their mood and body language.
Illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt has this incredible95-minute video about how to improve
→
your character poseshere.
Variations & Re-dressing:
ften, creating variations in costuming and hair styling can be common practice before
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full turnarounds are drawn. This way the director can see what looks better for the
purposes of the story, location, and the sequence the characters are in.
ther variations are often designed for extras and secondary or incidental characters,
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they serve as background filler and often share similar interchangeable design traits to
keep things efficient and simple:
By Marta Andreeva
ariations for character age are more rare, but still a possibility depending on the story
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being told with the character. For example, if there will be flashbacks or visual ways to
chronologically depict the character at various stages in their life. In which case,
displaying the states of their changing physical appearance needs to be mapped out.
xploring how your character would look at various ages can help you discover certain
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aspects about them, and have you see your character in a different way, which can help
your visual development process:
haracter “redress” is when a different versions is required to be designed for your
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character, this could be a drenched in water version, a dirty/muddy version, or a
covered-in-paint version, but most commonly it’s a hairstyle or costume change:
Pose sheets can include Hand Charts too:
Anatomy & Structure
o maintain the volume consistency andstructureof your character when posing them
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for their turnarounds, you must analyze and practice the fundamentals of anatomy and
how to simplify them and stylize them.
eople create cross-sections and skeletal structure interpretations to show how
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impossible the physical anatomy is for many cartoon characters, this is a great way to
see how much stylized characters are cheated for the mechanics of their movements:
hese breakdowns are rooted in all forms of structural anatomy and these theories can
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be adapted to most design styles, but every character has their own unique
construction:
How to Improve Your Character Drawing forms?
key part of creating good cartoon characters is having a strong understanding of form
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and anatomy. Some exercises to improve your skills include:
1. Do anatomy drawing studies.
2. Take a life drawing class in person or online.
3. Practice drawing areas of the body that you find the most difficult - hands, feet,
etc.
4. Visit a zoo or natural history museum and sketch the animals.
5. Go to a park and draw different plants and people you see.
Samples of breakdowns for the construction of a character design:
Doing breakdowns of specific body parts is common as well.
very character you create will have their own unique style of anatomy, the key is to
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stay consistent within your own style, you will have different body types and body
shapes for different characters, but as you create a cast of characters in the world/style
you are creating. The more you’ll see the range of proportions you will need to do, the
more you’ll refine the anatomy to match that character’s physique and personality.
his sort of approach to how your characters are constructed from the inside out, takes
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time to develop, like any illustration skills, there’s several ways to mold and shape your
characters, and every style has their own brand of anatomy.
efore you can begin adding personality and stylization to the bodies you draw, it is
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integral to understand the proportions of human anatomy. Getting the body
proportionally correct can be difficult, but there are a few shape-work techniques you
can use to sketch the human body as shown in the samples above and below.
rawing a body is a difficult task, especially because there are so many different
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components to consider. Trying to create ananatomicallycorrect figureis not always
easy. But don’t worry, in this detailed guide, we will share some simple methods to make
drawing a body more achievable.
he body is integral to many aspects of artmaking; you need it for any character you
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might want to create or even in environmental artworks with people in the background.
o studying and practicing how to draw a body is important. You want to feel
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comfortable creating stylized figures in whatever poses and designs you would like.
he body is difficult to capture through art as there are many components to consider.
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You must remember to engage thefundamentalsof art,specifically considering form,
structure, and composition – as well as considering proportions and figure anatomy,
body movements, and stylization.
Gesture Drawing
rawing quick gestures is a great method of practice as it is a significant exercise that
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can help you fully grasp how to draw a body.
The practice of gesture drawing involves making a quick and simplified sketch of your
subject matter (typically a human body).
When gesture drawing, you are trying to plot down the main elements of the figure in
quick and simple linework to capture the general feel of the body and the pose you are
trying to communicate.
his is very helpful in allowing you to get a feel for the flow of the body and how to
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visually communicate body language, gestures, and poses, in a very simplified manner.
o do gesture drawing, all you really need is a pen and paper, or maybe a drawing tablet
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or an Apple Pencil and iPad, and some sort of reference.
his can simply be an online reference image, or if you wanted to try gesture drawing
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the traditional way, you could use a live model—maybe even try to find a class to attend.
hen, all that’s left to do is start sketching the body as simply and quickly as you can,
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ignore specific details, and instead try to draw the flow and linework of the body.
emember to give yourself a time limit, ranging from half an hour to under a minute.
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As well as this, don’t use an eraser. Just let your pencil flow as you try to capture the
essence of the body.
This time limit and lack of eraser will force you to really try and quickly plot down the
main elements of the human form, making you more easily grasp any important details
and therefore providing you with a better understanding of how to draw a body.
@art_bymemo
How to Stylize Your Body Drawings
ow that you know how to draw a body using these helpful techniques, you may want to
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know
tylization involves you finding your specific and individual style of drawing, and sticking
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to it consistently throughout your artwork. There are countless ways of creating art, and
everyone will find their own style through practice. It's all about how to make these
drawings feel like your own.
ne method you can use to find your style is to test out different ways of drawing a
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body until you find something that works for you, adapting it until it becomes your own.
Seethisandthis.
xperiment with linework; try different sketching styles, like using harsh confident
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linework or smooth-flowing lines.
Because styles are so limitless, there are so many methods you can use to learn how to
stylize your body.
Color Styling
color stylist(also known as color designers) choosesthe colors for characters, props,
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and effects in an animated production.
I t’s a full time job because you have to do that for every single character, prop, or effect
in every single lighting situation that happens in a show. The character designer(s) on a
production can sometimes do the colors for their own characters. The smaller the
production, the more tasks each artist is made to do. On small productions, a designer
may have to do concepts, roughs, turnarounds, clean-up and colors. While on large
productions, those tasks could be divided up amongst 4 or 5 different people since there
is such a large amount of characters to do each week.
olor Design might sound like a relatively simple job, but it’s not. You have to take into
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account a lot of things: how the colors will read on multiple surfaces and backgrounds
(and multiple colors within one background), when you should have shadows on the
model, how the shadow actually affects the model, why you’re choosing cool colors or
warm colors, how colors look after they’ve been compressed to be seen on phones
versus broadcast TV, the subconscious meaning of colors culturally, etc.
I f you watch theInfinity Trainpilot, Tulip is adifferent color palette in the puzzle car, a
different palette outside, a different palette in the corgi car, a different palette inside the
temple, and a different palette in the foggy area. Then she has to have a different
palette every time she looks at glowing numbers on her hand in each of those locations.
All of that just for one character, not including any props or lighting that affects other
characters.
ere’s a quick rundown from that pilot episode (note, the colors are a little washed out
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because the screenshots were from youtube, but you can still see the difference):
s you can see, she doesn’t just have a green hoodie, she has like 9 different green
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hoodies. When eye-dropping these colors, there are colors in there you don’t even
realize were being used in there. These are all decisions that a color stylist makes.
→ Here’s an excellent portfolio example of an experienced color stylist:Grey Chen
olor stylists create and set the character palettes for the characters, props and effects
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within an episode, taking into account lighting changes that might happen while said
elements are on screen.
Here’s a short guide byJess Marfisi:
or example, a character wouldn’t be colored the same in broad daylight than in
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complete darkness, right?
lsoPropsandFX(EFX)need to be colored as well,keeping the character and
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background colors in mind while designing the color palettes, so that they will go well
together side-by-side. Every object that a character touches and every puff of smoke or
falling leaves that might show up in an episode all need to be designed.
pool cleaner from theCraig of the Creekepisode“Lost in the Sewers”. Note that the color stylistshave
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set the palette for when the object is in shadow. The episode was designed byMaaike ScherffandAngie
Wang. Color byCarolyn Ramirez.
ere’s an example of very specific FX design from theUnikittyepisode “Action Forest”.
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The eye glint effect has been given several frames of action for animation reference.
Designed and colored by Jess Marfisi.
Seeherefor the fundamentals of color theory andterminology.
→
→Seeherefor how color combinations can be applied.
nother thing that can improve the effectiveness of your character design sheet is a
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color guide! To do this, all you need is a simple key of all the color swatches used in the
character design, alongside an example illustration of the character in full color. This is
really helpful when you are handing off a design for a whole team of artists to use, as it
ensures all of the colors remain consistent.
“ Digital media gives access to every color out there. While this is truly amazing, I
think limiting yourself to a few key colors is actually a better strategy. Using a
limited color palette helps a sketch feel cohesive. Using too many colors can
sometimes create a sense of messiness and a lack of focus. I would say to stick
with between one and three primary colors initially. Afterwards, you can dive
between the values of each tone when detailing. I truly believe that color is the
most important piece of the puzzle when creating eye-catching art. I’ve done a
few “tests” on social media. When posting a drawing with no color, versus the
ame drawing with added colors, the latter will always get a stronger reception. So
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if it vibes with your artistic vision: be bright, be bold. It also doesn’t hurt to get
inspiration from photos or other artists’ color palettes.” -Erik Ly
arly color explorations models can be made to determine which combination works
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best.
By Shaun Bryan
COLOR CONCEPTS
lacing the color exploration over the background art of the location the characters will
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be at, is usually a great way to see how the colors will work together. This way you can
arrive at the colors most appropriate for the scene:
sually a character stays in their same outfit for the entire episode or most of
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the time for entire lengths of multiple seasons, so the background colors are
usually more subject to change since we want the characters to stay consistent
in their color schemes.
olor explorations are often needed to see which tones and palettes work best.
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Also, placing your painted character in their environment (if one is available) is a
goodway to spot any clashing colors as well, or to adjust for the possibility of the
character blending in with the background too much.
The Color Wheel and How it Works!
→
→Color Theory Tactics!
→Wouter Tulp’s Tips on Color!
→Color Theory in Storytelling!
ometimes less is more. You can limit the color palette for unity and impact. When
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working with three colors, keep the60-30-10rulein mind. Pick one color to make up
about 60% of the character, a second color to make up about 30%, and the last color is
about 10%.
hen working with just two colors, use the70-30rule.One color is about 70%, the
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second is about 30%.
olors have a similar subconscious effect on our visual interpretation. Creating
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characters with an appealing and suitable color palette can make an immediate impact
in grabbing and holding a viewer’s attention. There are a few different aspects of color
theory to consider when designing your character:
ymbolism
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Each color carries its own innate effects on a color scheme. Red is universally alert
and energetic, white is universally neutral. Warm colors are associated with action
while cool ones are linked with calmness.
I f you’re creating content for an international audience it’s worthwhile keeping in
mind that different cultures have different views on color symbolism. Red, for
example, can signify danger in the western world, but happiness in China.
Likewise, blue represents freedom in many parts of Europe, but can symbolize
villainy in Japan. Your intended audience will determine your use ofcolor
symbolism.
olor Relationships
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The relationship between the different colors in your character design is just as
important, if not more so, than the separate color significance. Some of the most
well-known color arrangements include: monochromatic (different light values of
the same hue); Complementary (two colors which are directly opposite each other
on the color wheel), Analogous (colors which are adjacent on the color wheel), and
Triadic (three colors spread around the color wheel in a triangle formation).
ach color scheme and color combo has its own advantages: monochromatic and
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analogous palettes are often soothing, complementary colors are both contrasting
and harmonious, while triadic color schemes are dynamic and rich. Take a look at
these color wheels and use these systems to help find a color scheme that’ll be
naturally pleasing to the eye.
You can see how the character’s colors can showcase their personalities.
Complementary Colors
omplementary colors are the exact opposite of each other on the color wheel. This
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gives a highly contrasting, bold look. If you want your character to stand out, a
complementary color scheme is perfect!
s you can see in the below example, the use of complementary colors for a character
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design really allows for the details to pop in the illustration! This can be a useful tool
when you are creating a protagonist who needs to be the focus of your drawing.
@meikearts
Monochromatic Colors
monochromatic color scheme uses only the tones, tints, and shades from a single hue
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on the colour wheel. This creates a really unique and often emotive look in an
illustration. If you are looking to make relatively simple colour choices, this could be the
best method for you!
his color scheme is great for creating characters with well-defined traits that may be
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best expressed through a specific color. If you have a very complex character design,
monochromatic colors can also help simplify their appearance and make it more visually
appealing.
A monochromatic color scheme is also a great choice if you are looking to improve your
understanding of values when coloring and shading your work!
@meikearts
Triadic Colors
I f you are looking to have a bit more variation in your color scheme, the Triadic method
might be just what you need! These color combinations use 3 colors that are equally
spaced apart on the color wheel.
When it comes to using triadic colors, it is best to choose one of the three to be the
most prominent in your illustrations and use the other 2 for highlighting smaller details.
his color scheme creates a very vibrant look, even when the colors are toned down. It
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is best used for characters with playful energy, as these color combinations can often
feel very youthful. This makes triadic colors perfect for characters aimed at a younger
audience!
@meikearts
Warm vs Cool Colors
hen it comes to using warm vs cool colors there are a few key things to consider.
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When added to an illustration, warm coloured objects will typically feel closer to the
viewer, whereas cooler ones will feel further away. This is because of atmospheric
perspective, which is essentially just the effect of particles in the atmosphere making
things further away have a bluish tint.
he color temperature of your characters will have a similar effect, for example,
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warmer-coloured characters will stand out and feel confident, whereas cooler-toned
characters may appear more closed off and mysterious.
@meikearts
@rheatibbey
By Noah Ruff
emember, sometimes there’s added details that need to be inserted in. Like rotations of
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hands, the underneath area of hair, arms, robes, capes, cloaks and wings, including
underneath the feet and the inside of mouths - these are all factors that need to be
designed for certain productions in order to provide consistent design and color
reference for animators later on.
Video essays to watch:
→Color Theory in Character Development 1
→Color Theory in Character Development 2
Terms to know:
● ue is color (blue, green, red, etc.).
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● Chroma is the purity of a color (a high chroma has no added black, white or gray).
● Saturation refers to how strong or weak a color is (high saturation being strong).
● Value refers to how light or dark a color is (light having a high value).
● Tones are created by adding gray to a color, making it duller than the original.
● Shades are created by adding black to a color, making it darker than the original.
● Tints are created by adding white to a color, making it lighter than the original.
uted colors are the opposite of vivid colors, and they are created by simply adding
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black, white, or complementary colors to a base color, making them grayed, dulled, or
desaturated. Dull or muted colors refers to colors that have a low saturation or chroma.
By Dermot O’ Connor
ther elements to include incolor keysare night-timecolor schemes, semi-transparent
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elements, and what colors can be found in their inner sleeves and under their shoes:
By William Nichols
hen a whole cast of characters are arranged together, often adjustments need to be
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made so that the color schemes for each character that are often seen together should
compliment each other, and not clash or compete with each other.
I n 3DCG animated productions, these color designs are used by UV/Texture artists to
re-create the surfaces & color shaders for the character models.
Mouth Charts
or reference for lip sync animation, designs must be made of the various mouth
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positions that animators will need for reference. There are many different ways of going
about it, typically there’s anywhere from 8 to 14 main key positions to make.
s with everything, the style of the production will dictate how exaggerated or subtle the
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changes in the mouth shapes will be, and how far to push mouth shapes and
expressions. Also, usually there’s a ‘happy’ versionand a ‘sad/angry’ version made for
each speaking character, sometimes a third ‘neutral’version as well. For main
characters, a front, side, and ¾ view is made for each set of mouths as well.
ven with simple/cartoony mouths, keep the character’s anatomy (and graphic style) in
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mind, think about what range of squash and stretch you may need, what are the
limitations, many characters need to talk without teeth as well, many factors need to be
considered:
hese mouth shape guides are usually the last step in the creation of a full character
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model pack, as you can see, different productions have different codes and slightly
different variations on the look for each syllable.
Sample mouth charts:
Guides
tyle Guides, Posing Guides, Drawing Guides, Breakdown Sheets, Design Guides -
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there’s lots of names for them, depending on which department creates them, which
studio produces them, and what sort of production they’re for. These are becoming more
numerous and more frequent in the industry to be made and used, and usually
assembled once characters are all completed and finalized. The more time there is in the
schedule for them, the more ‘DOs & DONTs’ and ‘How to Draw’ guides are drafted for the
character designs to help artists understand their construction.
or example, here are some DOs & DONTs/breakdown sheets made for
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animators to use as reference for the Devil character from theCupheadseries:
Here’s some DOs and DONTs fromPickle and Peanut:
ometimes they’re only made to show the rough structure of the characters,
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for animators to know the three-dimensional construction, to help them
re-draw and pose the characters with consistent volume and proportions:
Hand posing guides for a character fromMy Father’sDragon:
Structural guides for a character fromMy Father’sDragon:
Here’s the Posing and Expressions guide forMollyMcGee:
The DOs & DONTs guide fromGlitch Tech:
Here’s some drawing references fromEmperor’s NewGroove:
Here’s some fromRick & Morty:
Here’s some fromThe Simpsons:
atch thisvideo essayon the story behind the “No-NoSheets” for The
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Simpsons.
Here’s one from the Style Guide fromClone High:
Here’s the Style Guide fromKing of the Hill:
Drawing Guides fromMy Life as a Teenage Robot:
Samples of drawing guides fromSteven Universe:
Drawing breakdown sheets fromWolfwalkers:
Guides are also made for 3D/CG productions ---
The Bad Guys:
Zootopia:
Wreck It Ralph 2:
I f the production is more traditionally-animated in style (hand-drawn), then there will be
more guides produced on how to draw and pose the characters. If the style is more
puppet/cut-out style, then libraries of pre-drawn body parts are made. The animators
pick and choose which body part and pose they need. Then stop-motion-style, they
move and swap the pieces around frame by frame, therefore much less drawing is
required.
↑DOs and DONTs guide from Nickelodeon’s“InvaderZim”series↑
Character Designs with Poses + Expressions Sheetsby Julien Chheng for his short film "Le
↑
Royaume"↑
Other guides from various productions:
Sherm Cohen’s guides forSpongeBob SquarePants:
See lots more here:
The Art ofSpongeBob SquarePants
ne of the most common guides that are made are hand poses, this is because no
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matter how much of a “rigged” series it may be, custom drawing/posing the hands is
always something animators need to do for their scenes:
Hand Guides by Dermot O’ Connor:
Size Comparison Charts
ine up your cast of characters side by side to create a reference chart for every
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character’s scale relative to one and other. This is usually made later on the the design
process, once the main/primary characters of the series or film are made. All other
characters and props created afterwards, use the one main character as the ruler to
visually see the scale for all other designs in comparison. Storyboard artists and
Animators will use these charts as reference throughout the production.
See more line-upshere.
Distance Models
less common aspect of character design for animation is creating ‘distance models’.
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These are characters re-designed to have less details so that they are more easily
read-able as they are further away in the distance.
sually only seen in 2D animated series. Simply shrinking down the usual design causes
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the lines to get mashed together, so to make a better, more readable design, these new
models custom-made for far shots are created.
Here’s a typical turnaround model sheet:
And here’s a custom design made for Distance Models:
So they can be reduced in size and their simplified linework will be more recognizable:
More samples:
Here’s they are in action:
hese models are made forWide Shots/Long Shots, whenthe subject is far away
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from the camera.
Not every production uses them, but something to keep in mind.
Also you can have ‘extra detail’ versions of character models for close-ups:
Function and Purpose
esign for Animation Needs:
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A further consideration when designing characters is how they will function with the
chosen animation style. A character animated with the puppet tool in After Effects will
have very different animation needs to one designed for traditional frame-by-frame
animation in TV Paint or Harmony.
Designs can range from the very simple…
To the very complex…
ith a wide spectrum inbetween them all - characters can go fromrealismtocaricature,
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inhabiting many degrees ofstylization:
he character designs you create will influence how the animation style of movement
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will develop.
ut also there can be a predetermined style of animation that may influence how you
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design the characters as well.
or example: you may be on a production that won’t be able to accommodate for
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drapery and long flowing capes, cloaks and hair, for either a 2D or 3D production,
because these technical limitations could be beyond the scope of the software, and
would restrict you to creating more tight-fitting clothes and maybe LEGO-style short,
blocky hair.
conography in Character Design:
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Digging a bit deeper onthe use of images and symbolsto represent ideas and how
there’s a range within the spectrum of all art and illustration when it pertains to realism,
stylization, and visual symbolism. Adding symbols, icons, or signs to your character
esigncan add another layer of depth and mystique. This could be giving your character
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an object that is strongly associated with them, adding symbolism in the character's
clothing, or including a unique scar or tattoo.
emember,symbolism is a representation of a conceptthrough symbols or underlying
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meanings of objects or qualities, while iconography is a set of specified or traditional
symbolic forms associated with the subject or theme of a stylized genre of art. This
refers to the symbols used within a work of art and what they mean, or symbolize. For
example, in different cultures, a snake may stand for evil, temptation, wisdom, rebirth,
or the circle of life.
See this excerpt from Scott McCloud’s wonderful book:Understanding Comics
esign for Technical Needs:
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If the production is using cut-out/puppet-style animation, you’ll need to design each part
of your character with a mindset in how it will connect and rotate with other body parts.
2D rigging, with bone tools and deformers, requireslots of forethought on the
interactivity of the body parts and often a trial-and-error process to determine how each
body part is connected and what pivot shapes will work best for creating smooth or
believable movement.
I t’s also worth considering which character animation style will work for your chosen
aesthetic and carefully research what type of world your story is set in. A cartoony,
squash-and-stretch animation style may work great for a quirky cast of characters, while
a more rigid or realistic structure & anatomy will work better for stories holding a bit
more gravity.
nowing the Limitations:
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Being aware of the production’s parameters and any restrictions involved is important
knowledge to have and use to help you determine the style. Oftentimes, because the
design process can start very early in the process, there are no clearly defined lists of
conditions to be conscious of. At some point, your thought process should be mindful of
any constraints in the artistic and technical aspects for the characters’ anatomy and
physical capabilities. Budgetary concerns and even what software/technology is being
used can also be factors to consider.
or example - the seriesPickle & Peanuthad the image/texture of an actualpickleand
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apeanutas part of the main characters’ designs. Some testing had to be done to
ensure the rigging of the characters inToonboom Harmonycould be made practical and
functional for animators. The stories and circumstances the characters would find
themselves in required them to manipulate, bend, deform, and contort their bodies to
meet the needs of the animation style.
very traditional animation approach was taken for some aspects of the
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animation, since their faces and limbs were so flexible and unique in their poses
and expressiveness from scene to scene. A unique production pipeline had to be
made: Where the character rigs were customized from scene to scene to meet the
demands of the exaggerated and dynamic posing the characters had to do. This
way, the models the artists would animate could perform the actions depicted in
the storyboards. Very rough storyboards were made followed by a team of
character layout artists who would clean-up and add details and extensive
posing/acting to every shot. Then a team of posing artists would customize the
rigs and re-create the character layout poses using builds and breaking them to
make them match, then a team of animators would animate the movements from
pose to pose.
I f you’re designing with no finished scripts in hand, you may only have some rough ideas
as to what sorts of stories these characters will find themselves in, this is also common.
Getting just a hint of what the characters will need to perform in their scenes by
analyzing scripts from the episodic stories will help in the refinement of your designs. On
feature films the story is constantly evolving through to the very end of production, you
simply adapt with the changes from the very beginning as things are developing right
until the end of the main production phase as you assist and change designs according
to the needs of the production.
he termfunction over formcomes from the architecturalprinciple “form follows
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function,” which means that the shape of the building should primarily relate to its
intended function. Make-up Design, Set Design and Costume Design have the
same principle. In interior design,function overformmeansprioritizing how you
will use the room or piece of furniture over how it looks. In character design, the
same term can be used when trying to reach a balance between the artistic needs
and requirements of your design, versus its practical use for the purpose of the
story being told. “Form” is the look of your design, how good, and how cool, and
how appealing it looks. “Function” is how practical and usable it is for animation
production.
hen developing the look and structure of your characters, you must ask yourself: why
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are you creating this character, what environment are they from or live in, what are the
tories and scenarios they will appear in, and who are you creating these characters for;
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the target audience is something to consider when designing your characters.
esigning how characters move can often be overlooked. The manner in which they
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move the mechanics or how they move, how much stretch-ability and flexibility they
may have are factors to consider. Especially once the demands of the production kick in.
Getting to explore and design how movements communicate and enhance character in
Pre Production Test Animation stages can often spotlight some changes in your designs
that need to be made. Never forget: your work will be taken by many other artists and
they will animate your designs!
famous story in animation:
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Bill Melendez, the director of the 1965 TV Special “A Charlie Brown Christmas”,
had to explain to broadcast executives that the characters in aPeanutscartoon
simply could not hold items ‘above their heads’ - No matter how much the
producers insisted upon it, this wasn’t physically possible since their arms were so
short. Socheatsand creative solutions always hadto be made.
nimated series likeGreen Eggs & Ham, Animaniacs,andCentral Parkhad traditional
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model sheets drafted for animators to use as reference, there were NO rigs or builds
created at all for the characters even though they were entirely digitally-produced.
Classical frame-by-frame animation methods were used to create every scene in every
episode, and it was animated usingHarmonysoftware.They were made to look as if
drawn traditionally on paper. Tablets and Cintiqs were used to essentially animate in
classical methods with entirely digital paperless-animation tools, with very specific
custom brushes built for the clean-up animation process for the look of thefinal line.
he more traditionally-animated the characters are, the more beneficial it is to keep the
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characters simpler in design, this reduces the amount of work for animators and makes
it easier to have the characters perform complex actions and acting.
Animation By Tim Larade
I n some cases, animation tests are made, and the outcome of those tests causes there
to be revisions in the designs. As unforeseen limitations or obstacles are discovered in
the process, and adjustments need to be made to the designs and builds in order to
make them more functional for animation purposes. If the story requires a character to
perform an action that is physically impossible for them to do, then changes to their
design may be needed in order for the performance to work.
Cartoon Saloon Animation Tests:
igged animation test forLoud House, this was notonly a way to see what the
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animation style would look like but also to test the limits of the design and how far
poses could be squashed, stretched and exaggerated:
Thoughts on Appeal
pend enough time talking to animators and you’ll start to hear the word ‘appeal’ come
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up. In terms of animated characters, appeal is what makes an audience see the
haracter as charismatic, relatable or realistic. It’s what makes us feel for them, and
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remember them, even after the animation is over.
Advice from Dean Heezen:
I t’s imperative to keep in mind the purpose and intended audience of the animated work
you are designing for, and how your character design will fit within the context of the
production.
From simplistic with a wide range of exaggeration:
And simplistic with a more limited range of expressions and exaggerations:
To more complex in details, with a wide range of exaggeration:
nd complex with a limited range of exaggeration with more realistic
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mechanics of movement:
esign sheets can offer a wide range of information for several departments
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in the production.
he art direction, your client’s needs, and the requirements of the production will dictate
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how simplified your character style needs to be. You may want a more artistic look to
help your characters stand out from the crowd - this may call for more of a ‘broad’
character design, or a stylised, abstract, or angular look. Maybe a combination of
realism and strong graphic qualities.
→Listen to Brookes Eggleston talk about the subjecthere.
reating appeal not only comes from the way a character moves, but the very building
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blocks of how they arevisually designed. Animatedcharacters come in many different
shapes and forms of complexity, from minimal/icon-style all the way up to near-realism.
● Watch this excellent profile on Character Design Master,
Torsten Shrank
Breaking down the structure and shapes of character designs & poses can be a great
learning venture:
See more of his stunning workhere.
ilt, Rhythm, & Twist- Here’s tips to use when posing. Former Disney animator Glen
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Keane coined tilt, rhythm, and twist; if you have a background in studio art or art
history, you’ll be familiar with the term Contrapposto (“Counter Pose”) Tilt and Twist are
easy enough to explain: you can get tilt/twist in the head, shoulders, and hips, this will
help the pose feel less rigid–you’re essentially applying overlapping action to the pose,
causing counter-weights or contrast in the postures.
hythm is a slightly more complex concept. Rhythm is about the flow of your lines and
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how they lead the eye around the drawing. It’s hard to describe in words, hopefully this
graphic helps:
imple vs. Complex- Rhythm is also tied into theconcept of simple vs. complex. You
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see simple vs. complex in the elements that make up a character, but also in the pose as
a whole, and the textures within the character design and scene composition. These
contrasts within the pose itself helps to create appeal.
Seeherehow the designs inPrimalcan show offthe characters’
→
unique personalities and display a certain appeal for the graphic style
of the series.
by Stephen DeStefano
→How to Create Your Own Aesthetic
→Advice From Some Experts
art of achievingAppealin character design is toapply these theories when you can,
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it’s all known as theSolid Drawing Principlein 2Danimation.
D models also get draw-overs in order to make adjustments, boost up overall
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appeal, and to push the sharpness and balance of the shapes, forms and
contours that make up the character:
reating appeal in your designs can be the most challenging aspect of the work. There’s
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thousands of variables that all play off of each other, only with time, lots and lots of
practice, and countless hours of study & keen observations can build up your instincts to
know how to recognize it and recreate it.
By Shiyoon Kim
By Maël Gourmelen
By Jin Kim
By Rad Sechrist
reakdown of Appealing Design - The drawing structure
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and posing guides for the seriesWander Over Yonder:
By Alex Kirwan
or a glimpse into the high-level of thought and draftsmanship required for
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top-tier character design, watch these videos on ‘How to Draw Jesper’ -
Part 1&Part 2
What is Art Direction?
rt direction can be a broad term depending on which industry and what types of
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productions you’re referring to, but this usually pertains to the designstyleof the
backgrounds(locations / sets / environments / scenery)for an animated production.
However, in a broader sense, it also includes thecharacterart style as well, which also
consists of props & FX, and how well they all work together - for the overalllookof the
entire production.
hese are important aspects to know since character design does affect other aspects of
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the design process on a production and often communication between various artists
creating other characters or props or backgrounds can be challenging. Be aware that as
a character designer, you may have aDesign SupervisororCharacter SupervisororArt
Directoras your manager/department lead. The titleofArt DirectorandProduction
Designerare often interchangeable. Sometimes theycan be a solitary artist working on
concept designs and visual development alone, or they can be the lead on a team of
designers and held responsible for keeping consistency and cohesiveness through the
many departments and stages of the design process.
By Alan Stewart
he duties may vary from production to production and studio to studio, butArt
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Directors are usually responsible for all aspects of the visual style of the animated film or
series. They decide how the characters, props and environments are going to look and
provide a basis for the rest of the design department to work from. For example, you
can have cartoony-looking characters within hyper-realistic environments likehereand
ere, or semi-realistic characters with highly-stylized or minimalistic/abstract
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backgrounds likehere. The art direction of any animatedproduction can be a very wide
spectrum of visual possibilities.
→Life on an Art Director
rt directors start by examining the script or story premise and working with the director
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and any lead production designers to understand the vision for the film or series. Then
they create concept designs and determine the tone, mood, and color palettes of the
story.
By Alex Kirwan
oncept art is the earliest exploration for finding the look of the production and to create
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visual ideas for everyone to see and comment on and their work is often used as part of
a pitch to sell the project, film or series, before production is fully underway.The work of
an art director is more specific and directive than the work of aconcept artist or visual
development artist.
oncept artists are usually freelancers, they come in, bang out a few sketches or color
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concepts and out they go, and they are the first to draw the exploration sketches for the
production. Sometimes when a concept artist’s work becomes the style that the
production is targeting to be the one they are going for (whether it be for environments
or characters) then they stick around for longer since their art is the template that all
other designs will be based off of. Usually a few different concept artists are brought in,
so they can do a scatter shot of possible visual styles for the creative leads to use as
reference so they can see which artistic direction they rather go with. Their artwork is
then used as a reference point for background and character designers further down the
line.
I n these very early stages, they produce artwork and collaborate with the studio and
directors to find a visual style that works. It’s important that they communicate well with
the client (creator/producer) to understand what they want. They will often have to go
back and redo their designs several times before they find something the studio is happy
with. Sometimes the first passes are quick and loose for a fast turnaround. Other times,
they add more detail and quality. They use computer software as well as hand-drawing
and painting to create their art.
ometimes concept boards or “look targets” are made, where lots of reference is
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gathered as an initial inspiration pack by the concept artist to see if they’re in the proper
direction before committing to sketches, these style boards can cover color palettes,
costuming and hairstyles of all sorts. They can also be made by the art director or
creative producers to give to the concept artist to guide them in the general direction
they need to go.
hese can also be called mood boards or aestheticboards; they are the best place to
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start before you begin working on your characters/story. It’ll be where you lay out the
inspiration for your character as a whole, from their personality and traits to what they
wear and how they look. Think of it like a collage of ideas for who your character is. It’s
a chance for you to brainstorm and gather your thoughts before diving into the writing
or drawing part of your project.
rt directors determine the‘design language’of thefilm, which requires them to have an
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understanding of what the final, on-screen image will look like and how to get there.
They work with the concept artists to develop sketches and artwork that communicate
the artistic vision to the rest of the crew. In big-budget feature films, the Production
Designer tends to be the one to give the consistent and singular LOOK for the visual
style of the world, and the team of Art Directors supervise the many departments at
every stage, to execute that vision into realization.
By Nikolas Illic
ssociated with Art Direction is the process ofLookDevelopment- it’s the stage in most
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3D/CG animated productions thatbuilds the world andcharacters by creating the colors,
textures, and materials for everything you see in the final rendered images. Look
Development also explores how to actually achieve the intended visual look, pursuing
the technical side of taking the concept art and discovering the process needed to
practically attain and achieve thelookfor the actualproduction.
→Portfolio of a Visual Development Artist
I n many 3D/CG feature films, Art Directors are involved throughout the entire project,
up to its release, acting as a supervisor to the other artists, such asmodelers, character
designers and environment designers. This is a job that involves a lot of communication
with people and needs strong management skills. They are responsible for ensuring all
artwork is of a high quality and in keeping with the director’s vision. They are also
responsible for making sure everyone in the art department stays on budget and on
schedule. Art directors are sometimes employed as freelancers working on a project by
roject basis. Art Direction usually splits into two main categories -Environments(also
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known as: Sets / Backgrounds / Locations) andCharacters.
- Environment Art Direction -
Set Design Concepts forHotel Transylvania:
- Character Art Direction -
Design Language Guide forSpies in Disguise:
Design Language Guide forNimona:
or animated feature films, hundreds upon hundreds of sketches & color concepts are
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drawn and painted in order to explore and later refine the final look of the characters
and settings found in the movie.
I n a 2D animated series - Character Design is a portion of theProduction Design
phase of animation (which can also include Environment & Background Design, FX
Design and Prop Design), which is all part of thePre-Productionprocess, where
scripts, voices, visual development, and story art are also produced.
o see the differences inLocation DesignsversusCharacter Designsfor animated
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films,
see the works ofSylvain Marcas he presents his conceptdesigns for locations onHotel
Transylvania 2,
and then his concept designs for characters onBoxtrolls.
I t’s not too often the same artist can contribute to both these areas of art direction in
such a major way, usually production designers specialize in one area or the other.
Study Hans Bacher’s book for more insight on this process:
→Dream Worlds - Production Design for Animation
tudy the art direction and design exploration process for these animated
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properties:
→The Art ofOnward
→The Art ofCraig of the Creek
→The Art ofNimona
Lots more info about this here:
➪
Overview on the Production Design & Art
Direction Process
Prop Design
quick note about prop designs: Most of the time prop designs are made by a separate
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artist from the design department, there are times where a character designer may be
asked to help design props as well. Items like any hand-held objects or vehicles and any
item the characters interact with, that are separate from the background or environment
are known as ‘props’.
Prop and FX Designs byNofio Pecoraro:
Prop Design Explorations by Mirjam Plettinx:
Prop Designs by Anand Duncan:
rop designers have very similar skill sets to character designers and background
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designers, usually with a strong sense of perspective drawing and structural drawing,
with the ability to sketch complex objects in various three-dimensional views and angles.
Seethese samplesby Brent Noll.
Seethese samplesby Cat Sukiman.
J ust like character designs, prop designs are created in a certain visual style, usually
matching the graphic art style of the backgrounds/environments. Sometimes they match
more closely to the character art style, especially if the backgrounds are very different
from the characters’ aesthetics. For example,Lilo& Stitchhas watercolor-style painted
backgrounds, so the prop designs needed to look like they could easily fit within the
environment around it, but still match the characters’ overall art style, for when they’re
interacting with them.
ntire massive buildings can be considered as props if they are animated (2D or 3D),
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even if they are levitating around by magic, and not turning or rotating, they still
become an object needing to be moved around, therefore they become props.
● I f you are interested in Prop Design, seethis tutorialby Philip
Dimitriadis.
● When researching for various styles, there are hundreds of places to
be inspired from:X/X
J ust like character or background designs, props are subject to exploration sketches
during the conceptual stages as well:
There can be somepersonificationinvolved in propdesign:
The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something
nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract qualityin human form. Like a tree
designed with its branches resembling long arms reaching out, or simply adding a
tiny face or an eye on a prop design, all these can add a quality of personality to
the object. Examples found in creative writing:“Thesun smiled down on us.” “The
story jumped off the page.” “The light danced on the surface of the water.”
Personifying an object means figuratively describing it (or designing it) with
human traits in order to craft a vivid image of that object in your reader’s mind, or
as seen in illustration and animation; to subconsciously have the viewer identify it
with a personality type or behavior. The simple act of making a prop look old, worn
out and sagging, versus making it look fresh, young, new, clean and firm, can
drastically change the feeling of how the design will be perceived and what history
may lie in that prop’s story.
rinciples of appeal, structure, and contrasting shapes also apply to prop design, even
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the most simple objects:
By Isaac Orloff
Just like characters, props need to be designed from various views and angles:
By Alexis May Lambert
Christine Klein’s Prop Design Explorations:
I n a typical 2D animated series, there’s frequently more props to be designed than they
are characters. Sometimes props and character designs cross paths, like when a
character removes an article of clothing from their body, then it becomes this
independent item that comes off the character and is now technically a ‘prop’, becoming
an item another character could grab and pick up and interact with or left on the ground,
then becoming part of the scenery.
here are sites likehum3d.comthat are great forobserving hundreds of objects,
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props, vehicles and anything else of that nature at various angles, for drawing
reference.
ometimes, as part of the character design, the model sheets need to have props
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included, like a samurai warrior with their katana, or a wizard that’s always holding their
magic staff, or a butcher always carrying a cleaver with them. Usually it’s items that are
inherently linked to the character at all times, making it part of their character design by
default.
hen it comes to prop design, an element of selective exaggeration and caricaturing is
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often implemented as well, just like you would for character stylization - it all depends
on the needs and the look of the production. Often the environment designs, props
designs and vehicle designs must be shaped and constructed in very particular ways,
they can evoke lots of life and personality in their appearance, but they are usually built
to beappealingandfunctional. As an example, let’slook at one particular aspect of
prop designs; focusing specifically in the area of vehicles in the “choro-Q” style:
“ When designing vehicles for an animated production, it’s always good to showcase the
characters’ faces. Many shows have the characters with larger proportioned heads, so the
windshields should be adjusted accordingly. Toriyama knew this, and a lot of his manga work
featured appropriately-designed vehicles, but cartooned in a style that works well for showcasing
the characters. This chibi-style of vehicles became a Japanese toy fad in the early 80s ‘choro-Q’,
they were known in North America as penny racers.” -Murray Bain, Art Director
Toriyama:
Drawing vehicles can be one of the most challenging aspects of designing prop models
for animation. See how various other artists handle the same approach to designing
vehicles with thisChoro-Qstyle of proportions…
Miyazaki:
James Gilleard:
Justin Rodriguez:
Matt Herring:
Frederick Gardner:
Lorenzo Etherington:
Tim Probert:
George Brad:
Nick Kennedy:
Aleksandr Pushai:
Aleksandar Stojsic:
Ailantd Sikowsky:
eep in mind that the props your characters handle and the vehicles they operate, are
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essentially acting as supporting characters, they need to be practical for the needs of the
production and what is happening in the story, how the characters USE the props must
be kept in mind when constructing their shapes, forms and proportions.
ehicle concept designs fromParaNormanwere wellcaricatured and still made functional
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to accommodate the characters that would be using them:
oncept designs forCloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,are shown to have adopted the
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same idea in order to accommodate the tall or large-headed characters that were going
to be inside the vehicles:
or whatever props you may be designing, experimenting how to exaggerate and
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simplify is part of the design exploration process, as with everything else,researchis
crucial. For example, drawing vehicles can be one of the most challenging aspects of
prop design. For finding vehicle designs to be inspired from, here’s just a few…
Illustrations byJoe Borer:
Archive of hundreds of drawings in this stylehere.
From the Hot Wheels toy seriesTooned:
Design guide fromCorner Gas:
Designs fromCarol and the End of the World:
Designs fromBluey:
Design fromTheMitchells vs. the Machines:
Other various artists, and their versions of this similar design motif:
Drawing Tips from the Etherington Brothers:
As mentioned earlier for breaking down and making studies of a character’s design, the
same can be made for props to learn their structure and how they are built:
atch this, for learning more about the structural drawing aspect
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of vehicles as prop designs and how to insert some personality in them:
→DRAWING CARS
ll these vehicles are just one of many facets of prop designs where you can vary
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proportions to give them personality.
Caricaturing architecture in a similar way is very common too:
hape Language plays a major part in the design process for props & backgrounds, and
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an exploration phase when creating the concept art is important as well.
rops can also be attached to backgrounds, a common example are doors, they
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are first designed by background artists, but then handled as prop designs once
they need to rotate and be shown at many angles, while turning and being
handled by animated characters. A car parked in the background will only need to
be designed from that one angle, only once a character steps inside and begins to
rive it around will it need to be properly designed and built with many angles and
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views, both the interior and exterior.
rops and certain assets for background designs need several views and angles (for
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locations that will be seen very often):
By Steven Sugar
tyle guides can be made for prop design packs as well, as seen here for theBig Hero 6
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series:
otice hhow interior design and furniture as well as exterior architecture and be
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“caricatured” to give buildings a sense of personality and distinctiveness as well:
he spectrum of Realism vs Caricature is present in all aspects of design stylization,
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including Backgrounds and FX designs as well. Some productions can barely have any FX
design in them due to the nature of the stories, they don’t require too many animated
elements like, water, smoke, fumes, fire, splashes, ripples, sparks, electricity, and
explosions. Other shows can have massive amounts needing to be made, depending on
what the style and genre the story and world are set in. Sometimes the FX animators
create their own FX designs based upon the storyboards and established art direction,
other times dedicate 2D FX animators become designers to create key poses and colors
to make sure the FX animations will stay on-style and consistent in its design and
appearance.
→Rise of the TMNT movie: concept art and design sheets
Finished Product
Let’s show off a sample of how the process can turn out from start-to-end.
Here’s a character from the works of designerAndyIvanov:
EXPLORATION SKETCHES
See how his shape language is based on the meat that is part of his livelihood.
TURNAROUND - ROUGH
TURNAROUND - CLEAN-UP
POSES
EXPRESSIONS
COLOR KEYS
Here’s a character from the works of designerLissyMarlin:
EXPLORATION SKETCHES
ROUGH CONCEPTS
CLEAN-UP
COLOR CONCEPTS
PROPS - EXPLORATIONS
PROPS - CLEAN-UP
POSES & EXPRESSIONS
ere is the design process for creating the character “Fisherman Who Dreams of
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Performing on Stage” from designerGillian Reid:
RESEARCH & REFERENCES
EXPLORATION SKETCHES & NOTES
THUMBNAILS
ROUGH POSES & EXPRESSIONS
ROUGH TURN-AROUND
COLOR CONCEPT
Here is a character design pack fromPuba24:
TURN-AROUND
POSES & EXPRESSIONS
PROPS & HAND MODELS
See these exploration drawings and color keys byCé
cile Carre:
nce refined and definitive choices are made, a full model sheet with sample
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poses/expressions can be made:
→ Tips on the complete process from Sandra & Al Boicheva:X/X
s a character designer you may be asked to create the full cast of main characters for a
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story. You will eventually need to assemble your designs into a model pack. At first you
may only be assisting a lead designer, but if you are in charge multiple characters and to
make an ensemble out of them, a model pack is inevitable:
he Model Packrefers to the character design sheetsfor a cast of characters
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from an animated film or series. A Model Pack attributes to just the characters.
While a Main Design Pack (MDP) usually refers to all main characters and key
locations/props, that sets the style and tone for the entire series or project.
full model packwould have the main characters withfull turnaround views and
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poses/expressions sheets + select incidental characters with some various views
drawn out for them as well, all contained in a workbook / reference guide as
shownhere. Some studios also refer to the term “FunPacks” - these are usually
reserved to being a bundle of bare-essential designs, like main characters and key
locations/environments, for the Storyboard Artist to use as reference.
I n an animated series, Storyboard Artists must often create all sorts of new
incidental/secondary and alternative designs that go beyond the initial design pack
they were given to use as reference. Therefore, after a storyboard/animatic is
done and approved, apost-board design passis done;A new comprehensive list is
made, artists then complete all remaining on-screen design elements that will
need to be animated later on, this builds up and finalizes a more complete design
pack. Layout Artists and Build Artists/Riggers use these new designs to complete
all remaining assets needed for the animators to have in their scenes to animate
with.
consolidated design pack is made after the storyboards are done, and before
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Rigging,Background Layout/Paintand Scene Planninghas started.
ltimately, these designs are made to be used as references for all the artists that come
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afteryou, to use for production. So keep in mind,the more visual information you can
offer, the more helpful it will be to the crew that will bring your characters to life.
here are many more specific aspects for applying character design methods
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and theories to your work within the rest of these chapters - you will see as
each assignment gradually covers more principles and techniques with
tutorials and advice on various subjects.
ou will notice a wide range of design aesthetics to learn from, and some
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visual guides showing how you can explore these design styles even further.
So far, this document (and the many links provided) display a solid starting
ground, which can help inform your decisions in the early stages of the
development for your character design process. Now to place all this
knowledge to use, there’s a few more technical things to be aware of, then
you’ll see a series of practice exercises for you to try, with lots more links
and visual aids to be inspired from, keep scrolling down to see.
Software
se Photoshop or any illustration software like Gimp, Procreate, Clip Studio Paint,
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Krita or Paint Tool SAI will also suffice. Anything that allows you to export layers as
bitmap (PNG alpha) images for the next artist to grab and use to build the
character as a 2D (or have as reference) for the 3D rig, is all you need. Your
employer or supervisor may have specific requirements to use certain software,
templates and resolution settings, these are all easy to ascertain and adapt to. Ask
your client/director so that you can get familiar with the tools ahead of time.
→Guide to all the various file types for design andillustration
en Tablets are an essential tool nowadays, whether you are designing with bitmap or
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vector-based software.
- H ere’s a quick intro to using Photoshop as your character design tool:X/X
- Using Harmony as your character design tool:X
- Here are some additional tips:X
Terminology
ntellectual Property: Pertaining to creations ofany artistic works, usually referred to
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as “IP”. It can include designs, symbols, logos, names, and images used in all film,
television or video games. It can be for individual characters, the series or film title, and
even the concept of the world and story they reside in. See more info on the termhere.
DA: A Non Disclosure Agreement is one of the firstthings a producer will have you
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sign for them, even before a work contract. This is becausean NDA is a legally binding
contract that establishes a confidential relationship between you and your employer
(producer/studio). The individual or parties signing the agreement agree that the
sensitive information they may obtain will not be made available to others. An NDA may
also be referred to as a confidentiality agreement. If you are employed by a studio,
oftentimes you need to sign one just to visuals or written info about the
characters/productions before your studio bids on the production or negotiates for the
contract and budget.
on-disclosure agreements are also common for businesses entering into negotiations
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with other businesses or a producer wanting to share information (scripts, designs,
information about the production) with you, or the studio you’re with. They allow the
parties to share sensitive information without fear that it will end up in the hands of
competitors. In this case, it may be called a mutual non-disclosure agreement. But they
are all the same in their intentions and purpose. They are very common and nothing to
be afraid of, it means that you agree to not talk about the property with anyone else.
This includes anything online, emails, texts, conversations, social media as well, and
usually extends to after you start working for the production.
common practice and understanding is that you cannot divulge any information about
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the property you are working on to anyone that isn’t working on the property, before or
during production (sometimes even a while after production has ended). And you cannot
place samples of the work you are doing (or have done), online, or in your portfolio,
until the production has been broadcast, streamed, published, or made public.
nboarding:A human resources term referring totheprocess of introducing a newly
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hired employee into an organization. For a new designerin an animation or gaming
studio, it’s an important part of helping employeesunderstand their new position and
job requirements. This usually consists of tours and documents showing contact info of
your leads/supervisors, descriptions of the production you are working on, workflow
guides, schedules and deadline lists, info as to how to submit your work and receiving
any references for the tasks that are required of you.
ipeline: A term that refers to theworkflowfor theentire production. The bigger the
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production the bigger and longer the pipeline. Design departments sit near the
beginning of the production pipeline, but various forms of design tasks continue
throughout the entire production, especially on an episodic-based series, and even in
feature films where designs are needed even in final visual effects stages. Seethisfor
where and how designs fit into the pipeline of a typical 2D animated series, and seethis
for how the production portion of the pipeline works in a 3D animated feature film.
emographic:This term is used to describe who thedesigns (and the production) are
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aimed for. In most cases there’s an age range (or a target audience) for the animated
characters being created along with the stories & world they’re a part of.While designing
the character you should keep in mind the nature of the audience viewing these
characters. For example, if you are designing the characters for children it should be
designed with basic shapes and colors.The genre andrating on the game or the genre
and rating of the film you are designing for is usually your main indicator of what age
group this production will be targeted for. Designs for a horror game will have a very
different art direction than what you will find in a kids’ game likeMinecraft,Lego,or
Little Big Planet. A game for an animated series formature audiences will have
haracters looking differently compared to characters found in a game or series made
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for kids under 12 year-olds, and even more different for preschoolers.
isual Development:The building blocks for any typeof visual art, from concept art to
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graphic design, illustration, animation, and gaming. The scope of a visual development
artist’s work gives them a level of professional creative control that can be rare. This
comes from the versatility of their work being applicable to a wide variety of media
formats. They’reresponsible for creating the mood,tone, and color palette of these
worlds created through film, series, and video games. No task or element is too large or
small; as a visual development artist, you can design sets, environments, characters,
clothing, vehicles, props, furniture, lighting, visual effects, and just about everything
else that appears in the background of a visual work.More infohereon the skill sets
required in being part of a Vis Dev team. More infohereon Art Direction and the process
behind it.
hape Language:A concept used in design and animationto communicate a mood,
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story, or history behind the design. Giving familiar meanings to the shapes the
characters are made with. When used in character, prop, and background design, shapes
can tell a story, show personality, and elicit an emotional response in the viewer without
using any words. Depending on the character’s overall shape or combination of shapes
that make up their physicality, it can give visual hints as to the character’s nature and
core identity.
humbnails: Small rough sketches, drawn fast to createlots of ideas for designs or
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poses, and used to explore various concepts, creating a way to visually rehearse and see
what works and what doesn’t.
eference: Materials, assets, and images providedto (or researched by) the artist to
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have as a casual or strong guide to follow. These can be used forinspirationto the art
direction of the property being designed. There are many richsourcesof production
design reference tools online to search with.
urnaround: The rotation of the character displayingmultiple views/angles to be used
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as reference for the building and animating of the character, seethis guideon the
process.
ead Sheet: A spreadsheet outlining all design elements.In an animated series all
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characters, props, FX, and environments/locations are listed and cataloged for which
shots they all appear in for each episode. As the production moves forward and more
episodes are completed and locked at script and storyboard stages, the more lead
sheets are made and updated. These breakdowns are sometimes calledRoute Sheet,
Assets List, Design ListorLog List. A script ‘breakdown’is the process of extracting all
the information from the story to produce lists of all design assets like this, the process
is done again after a storyboard/animatic is finalized to list all the on-screen design
elements that got added.
esign Brief: A document created by the creative director/ art director or episodic
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director to give to the design crew as a guide for each episode’s breakdown, for any new
design elements that need to be created. A process usually reserved for 2D animated
shows where each script is analyzed and visual reference is compiled for specific
direction on how to produce the new key backgrounds and characters found in the story.
This document often just looks like excerpts from the script pages with images on the
side of the text; Showing visuals like sketches, photos and thumbnails for the artist to
follow as reference.
esign Launch: A meeting with the designers, thathave the producer or director talk
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about the specifics of the design tasks that are next to be started in the production. Also
known asDesign Kickoff, these are discussions onthe direction and approach for new or
being-revised characters.
esign Kit: Also known as aRef SheetorGuide Sheet,a document containing various
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visual references or guidelines for specific aspects of the designs that can be used by the
designers as a target to have in mind. It can contain focused step-by-step process and
technical information as well. These kits can be handed out during the design launch and
are made for designers to use to know the intended look and style of specific designs.
edress: A character that’s already been designedand finished, but is now partially
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re-designed to create new and different versions. Usually alternate varieties like hair
style or costume changes. Examples can be a new jacket, torn clothes, a backpack, wet
hair, gloves added, different boots, burned/charred pants, dirty shirt, or a new hooded
sweater pulled over the head.
ineup: When one view of multiple characters is placedon one sheet to see them all at
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once forsize comparisonpurposes. It’s importantto show the scale of all your
characters relative to each other.
tyle Guide: Similar to themodel packbut refersto both character and prop/location
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design reference for the film or series, and expands upon it with guides on how to create
the backgrounds and characters in its particular style. It covers many aspects of the
production’s art direction; as shownhere,here, andhere. They can be documents that
outline DOs & DONTs for the animation teams and background painters, or specific
“how-to-draw” playbooks for the character design or animation crew.These are also
calledPasteup SheetsandBreakdownSheets. Styleguides can also be made for
background layout designs and storyboarding; as shownhere. Style guides are a great
way to bring together a group of people to create one cohesive style for the design,
cinematography, and layout/animation teams.Styleguidescan even be created before
the concept goes into production. You begin by laying down all the visual rules and
standards, thinking about what your style guide would look like is a great place to start
really developing your show or film concept as a pitch idea. These can also be called a
Series BibleorDesign Bible, usually seen in animatedseries, and one can be made for
each department: Script Bible, Storyboard Bible, Animation Bible, each one made
specific for the team of people working in those stages of production.
orkbook: Usually used in animated film productions,it is an expanded upon style
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guide/lookbook & background design guide. It is made during the character design /
production design phase and it keeps growing in size and scope while overlapping
storyboards and layouts. It’s a collection of artwork and guidelines for design, color,
lighting, staging and layouts, for all artists to use.
ff-Model:A term used to point out how a design orthe drawing/posing of a character
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is off-style. When some feedback is given on some designs, character layouts, or
animation poses the notes can refer to them as being “off-model”. They need to be
revised and redrawn to be “on-model” by using the reference shown in the provided
style guides and model sheets. Sometimes moments are drawn to purposefully look
off-model to capture the intent of the scene for the more extreme nature of the
expression/pose at the time,Ren & Stimpyfamouslydid this constantly. Other times the
designs go off-model but for the purpose of creating or copying another art direction
style entirely, therefore creating new models specific to that sequence or episode, as
often seen inTeen Titans Go!
raw-Overs: When a supervisor or director sketchesover a pose or designto visually
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show what adjustments need to be made.
lean-up: The process oftracing-overrough designsto produce thefinal lineson the
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characters. Various styles and weights/thickness to the lines can be used. Depending on
the art direction, sometimes a much thicker outline is required (likeDexter’s Laboratory
andThe Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy), or verythin linework (likeFamily Guyand
Bob’s Burgers), or wobbly/boiling linework (likeEd,Edd & Eddy), or thick-to-thin
tapered lines (likeSam & Max,The HollowandPrimal),or a messy dry brush style (like
Foster’s Home for Imaginary FriendsandJacob Two-Two),or a loose/sketchy line style
(likeTante Hilda), or a graphite pencil-texturedline art style (likePenn ZeroandGreen
Eggs & Ham), or a nearly lineless style (likeSamuraiJack).
elf-traced: Also known as ‘self-colored’ or ‘self-inked’,referring to the colored line art
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in your design. The line work is sometimes just a lighter or darker version of the base fill
color found around the line, instead of the typical black lines on a character design.
Example;Spongebob’scolored outlinesare just a darkertone from his base tone.FX
designslike water, fire, and smoke are often madeof colored outlines or no lines at all.
Also, see howSylvesterandDaffy’sarmoutline colorsturn white when crossing over
their body so they don’t get lost as the dark-on-dark color overlaps. Self-traced lines can
be used to make the lines visible when they would normally disappear or blend in too
much, or can simply be painted lines, anything other than black, to make the line work
stand out more clearly.
olor Stylist: The artist on the design team who createsandchooses the colors for
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characters & props on an animated production. Color Key Artist is another similar term
but usually referring to the color schemes of the scenic design for the film or episode,
when backgrounds and environments are painted and used as reference for the colors
and lighting of the main locations.
raw-Throughs: When you need to show what is underneatha design element or body
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part, usually hair, capes, cloaks or even an arm that is overlapping the torso.
conomy of Line:The concept of the economy of lineis a familiar one to anyone who
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has studied figure drawing. Basically, it means thatwe should strive to draw efficiently
y using fewer lines to say what we need to say, rather than a lot of unnecessary lines
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that lack a sense of intent. In character design thistranslates to visually depicting
everything you need without unnecessary details, capturing the shapes, forms and
personalities with as few lines as possible. Also associated with the term ‘line mileage’
which means the amount of lines drawn in a design, illustration, or typical
frame-by-frame hand drawn animation. The morelinemileagea design has, the longer
it takes to re-draw that design over and over again.
el Shading:Also known as ‘toon shading’,a techniqueused in illustrations and
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animation to give 3D objects a more 2D/cartoon-like appearance. The term "cel" refers
to celluloid, the clear plastic sheets that were once used in traditional animation to
create hand-drawn animations. Most commonly seen in anime, where the shadows are
hard-edged as opposed to a soft-edge.
uilds and Rigs: When character designs are brokenthey are then converted and
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assembled into fullysetup rigswith all theircoloredassetsincluded. Mouth packs for lip
sync, body/head rotations & tilts for various views of the subject, andblink compsfor
the eyes are just some of the many components created in the rigging process. These
rigs, once completed, get handed over to scene setupand then for animators to use in
t heir shots. Often referred to asBuildsorModelsin 3D/CG animated productions. Also
referred to asPuppetsorRigsfor Stop-motion productionswhere the 2D designs are
translated into handmade sculpts and fabricated into 3D-printed body parts to be
assembled with armatures for them to be posed, animated, and filmed.
tock: Referring toStock ArtorStock Animation.It’s when there's a pre-made set of
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designs, animated movements/cycles or body parts that animators use to recycle and
implement into their scenes. Stock Hands could be a library of hand poses that
animators extract from a build to use in their scene. Stock Walk Cycle would be an
animated walk that was created for animators to grab and insert into their scenes to
save them the trouble of re-doing one from scratch. Actions and poses like Jumps,
Turns, Blinks, Runs, Expressions and Mouth Shapes (mouth charts for lip sync) can all be
consideredStock Artto be saved, archived, and re-usedby the builds & animation crew
when needed.
pecial Poses: When a designer or character layoutartistdraws certain momentsfrom
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the storyboard that need more attention to make sure they’re clear for the animator. The
artist essentially does a re-draw of the storyboard pose to be more on-model and more
specific. A director or supervisor chooses which drawings get to be made into special
poses. They’re moments that are either pivotal to the episode or gags that need to make
a super clear translation from the storyboard to the final animation.
↑Special Poses by Bob Flynn
↑Special Poses by Earnie Gilbert
↑Special Poses by Chris Battle
↑Special Poses by Mike Milo
↑Special Poses by Serapio Calm
↑Special Poses by Jerimiah Alcorn (with storyboardreference)
Summary
Designing a New Character
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● tep 1: Research and discovery
● Step 2: Hone in on your character's traits
● Step 3: Do lots of sketching
● S tep 4: Finalize your character design drawing (begin with a front
view or ¾ view)
● Step 5: Create the full rotation for the turn-around views
● Step 6: Explore color options (if required)
• Strategies on your Approach •
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○ ersonality!
○ Visual Interest!
○ Simplicity & Recognizability - Add details and complexity later,
if needed
○ Avoid Clichés - Unless that’s the intention
○ Know The Character’s Story - When does a character begin,
when does it end, and what does it do in-between?
○ Focus on the Form - Practice this, while you are searching for
that character of yours, play around with shapes, hair/fur
styles, various attitudes/postures and costumes/outfits!
○ Learn the character’s linework - Is it thick or thin, tapered or
varied, bumpy or textured, without lines or colored lines?
○ Detailing/Surfacing - Are textures & shading or shadows
needed?
○ In the beginning, when you’re only exploring concepts; draw
more loose, rough, and fast - create lots of thumbnails!
ave this awesome advice from the amazing Brittany Myers:
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Drawing Tips for Character Design
our factors to consider when designing your new characters from an
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established property (and general rubrics):
1) Recognizability of the intended visual style
2) Shapes and volumes are consistent throughout the rotation
) Linework and details all follow a natural sense of logic and
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appeal
) Overall anatomy, proportions, and costumes/surfaces are
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consistent to the established graphic style
his is a great thing to do at the beginning of each day before starting on your design
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work!
→Warm-up Exercises
he assignments and theory covered below are more intended for 2D animated
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series/films, but the practice and approach for them can all be applicable to
3D/CGI/Stop-motion & Video Game development as well. The most important thing to
remember is to have fun with them!
n terms of timespan; you can hit these assignments full-time and expect to complete
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them all in roughly 30 to 60 hours total -- Depending on research-time and personal
speed, your results may vary. This was originally created as part of an animation
rogram where students would spend 3-9 hours per week, executing each assignment as
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homework.
he hours increase as the requirements & parameters go up in the later assignments - in
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which case, picking away at these exercises and completing all assignments within 10
weeks at a very casual pace is often the preferred approach. But this could be all done
within just a 1 or 2 weeks at a more steady and dedicated pace. So don’t be concerned
about your output, go at your own speed, and produce the best work you can.
ou may use the designs you create from these assignments for your portfolio
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development, while citing credit to the original studio/artist. Example:
©Disney ©WB ©Matt Groening
Assignment #1
se these two reference packsSTYLE GUIDE&MODELSHEETSto learn the style of this
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series and create a new character that would fit in theAdventure Timeanimated
series.
esigns by Cartoon Network’s Pendleton Ward, Andy Ristaino, and Natasha Allegri
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(another series in the same style isBravest Warriors).
Read this:Tips from Adventure Time’s Lead Designer
Produce a 4pt turnaround model sheet;Front | ¾ Front| Side | ¾ Back
ine quality:Tiedowns→ tight roughs, not clean,but not too loose/rough
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(samples shown below)
1 Image file (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
Support Material:
● Form & Structure in Design with Antonio Stappaerts
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● haping the Way You Think - Universal Geometry
● Sketching Forms in Spatial Direction
● Blocking-In with Alphonso Dunn
nce you’ve done one view, use it as a guide to match the proportions and positions of
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your body parts so they’ll line up properly:
ake sure you have those horizontal guide lines in place, it will help drawing the
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rotation:
By Adem Kaan
Sample of finished assignment:
Other samples of4 pointturnarounds:
The difference between ROUGHS, TIE-DOWNS, and CLEAN-UP:
Tiedowns are cleaner than roughs, but arenotthe‘final lines’ either.
Typical tiedown line quality:
More samples of this design style:
oing clean lines and colors are completely optional at this stage, later assignments
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explore color.
lean-up and color pass is encouraged, but ALWAYS optional for these
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exercises. These are intended to be more black-and-white line art only. Later
on, color becomes more compulsory.
Process for Designing Characters
he secret to being a versatile character designer is to absorb the knowledge from as
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many artists as possible and filter-in the aspects that speak true to you. Take your time,
watch and listen to these video essays provided in all these chapters above and a few
more below (and many more to come later on). Absorb the aspects that make sense,
and filter out things that don’t appeal to you. But be open to everything. Various styles
and techniques are explored and displayed, these are just to get you in the proper
mindset, they explore an assortment of different principles, methods, and theories:
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● haracter Design Fundamentals from Robert Cory
● Learn to Draw in Any Style with Joshua Adeoye
○ Talking About Character Design with Daniel Arriaga
■ Wouter Tulp Design Tips 1
■ Wouter Tulp Design Tips 2
→Brookes Eggleston Process 1
→Brookes Eggleston Process 2
alerio Fabbretti was the art director forThe Fungies!animated series and Becky
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Dreisdadt who worked as the character supervisor forAdventure Time: Distant Lands.
Have gone over the process together involved in a typical cartoon character design and
how to build a portfolio focused on this aspect, these are portions from a webinar they
had hosted:
CHARACTER DESIGN FOR AN ANIMATED SERIES
I n terms of character design, Becky comments that it is important to know how to draw
in a great variety of angles. Depending on the relevance of each character, it may even
be necessary to include additional information and sketches. That’s why it’s better that
you are deeply familiarized with each character, in case you ever need to bring up more
details about them as needed.
ither way, with every character that you work on you need to create a register on how
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the mouth moves when making sounds or speaking. This is of great help to the
animators when they need to work on scenes where there are dialogues. Of equal
importance is to draw the characters with different expressions on their faces, for
example, when they are happy, sad, scared or angry.
nd although it is something not done frequently, Becky admits that one of the most
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difficult tasks in character design is to draw scenes where there are crowds involved. You
need to know not only which characters are going to be in the crowd, but also how many
of them will be and how to draw them together but in a way that each one is easily
distinguishable. Of course, you need to avoid making tangent lines. This can be difficult
while working in a unique character design and even more so where there are multiple
ones in a crowd. If this isn’t hard enough, you also need to be able to draw the crowds
as seen from different angles.
ometimes you also need to modify a character design that’s already established. This
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can be either because it needs a new costume, accessories or to show some battle
damage in their attire. In this case, you need to follow the references provided by the
artist that made the original design, but you are also free to take your own approach
and give it some of your personal style. This way you can come up with new and exciting
versions of a character design.
THE PROCESS BEHIND CREATING A CHARACTER DESIGN
hen a team of artists gets a new storyboard, Valerio explains that they first analyze it
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to find if there are any new characters or elements that need to be designed for the
episode. After taking note of any new designs that need to be done, he assigns them to
each artist taking in consideration their strengths and weaknesses, as well as what they
tend to like drawing more.
eing the art director, Valerio is responsible for making sure that each character design
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stays true to the show creator’s vision. Not only does he supervise the design process
for the characters, but also the way color is applied on them and finally, the way they
are animated. After all, it’s his job to make sure that there aren’t any errors and that the
final art is top notch.
s for Becky, being a character supervisor, she is also deeply involved in this process.
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She is in charge of supervising her team of artists specializing in character design, as
well as reporting back to the art director. One of her tasks is also making a guide of rules
and important elements that every artist on her team must follow while creating a
character design.
his can be like the way eyes should be drawn, the proportions that must be considered,
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general mistakes to avoid and so on. This in turn helps to decrease the times a design
needs to be corrected, speeding up the process of working on each one of them. Also
she is the one responsible for creating the designs for the major characters in each
episode.
THINGS YOU NEED TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO
alerio says that one of the most important things is to know about anatomy. That’s why
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he is so keen on observing if an artist is capable of drawing eyes, hands and feets. In his
opinion, this is an indication that the artist knows about anatomic proportions, thereforth
is easily able to adapt to different art styles while maintaining the correct proportions.
I t’s also vital to know about perspective, because as a character design artist, you need
to be able to draw in a wide range of angles while giving a sense of depth in your work.
Becky, on the other hand, says that it’s fundamental to know about storytelling. That is
why she prefers portfolios that show some experience or at least understanding in
toryboards and comics. Of course, authenticity is greatly appreciated, so you need to
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include mostly designs for original characters that you created.
ow about showing off that you are proficient in drawing multiple art styles? If you are
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really great at it, then go for it. But it’s not necessary in Valerio’s opinion. He says he
prefers seeing an artist with a unique style in which he truly is good at. After all, if you
are talented enough at drawing and understand about anatomic proportions, you can
learn the art style for a series over time. Becky agrees with this statement, saying it’s
preferable to show consistency and mastery of one art style than regular or poor abilities
in multiple ones. But if you’re sticking to one style (your own personal style), then make
sure it’s appealing and consistent.
hen including your character designs, you must show them not only in static poses but
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in movement also. A good artist is capable of showing some of their character’s
ersonality through movement, and that’s why Valerio says he values a portfolio where
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he can see characters with more dynamic poses.
nd while a finished character design is the most valued work in a portfolio, you also
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need to show the creative process behind it. Valerio comments it’s helpful to include at
least some quick sketches, so a recruiter can see your ability in cleaning up lines and
strokes. Finally, this may seem obvious but Becky states that you need to include
colored works of art. While it is true that most character design artists only need to work
in grayscale or monochromatic schemes, including some colored pieces can make your
portfolio look more visually appealing.
Assignment #2
sing these two referencesSTYLE GUIDEandMODEL SHEETS,create a new character
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that would fit inThe Flintstonesanimated series.More characters to referencehere.
Designs by Ed Benedict & Craig Kellman(originallyfrom Hanna-Barbera Productions,
later acquired by Warner Bros Animation Studios).
Here’s a great book covering the style and design trends in 1950s animation:
→
Cartoon Modern
Produce a4pt turnaroundmodel sheet;
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back[Tiedowns]
1 Image file (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
SUPPORT MATERIAL:
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● haracter Design Tips and Tricks 1
● Character Design Tips and Tricks 2
○ MakeYour Character Design Sheet
Successful
○ Keep it Simple
Notice the foot placement’s perspective in the rotations of each view.
he show is set in a comical version of a family living in theStone Age, but has added features and
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technologies that resemble mid-20th-century suburban America. The plots deliberately resemble
thesitcomsof the era, with thecavemanFlintstoneand Rubble families getting into minor conflicts,
characteristic of modern life. The show is set in the Stone Age town ofBedrock.Dinosaursand
ther prehistoric creatures are portrayed as co-existing with cavemen,saber-toothed cats, and
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wooly mammoths, Brontosaurus are all used as petsor tools in everyday life.
he series draws its humor in part from creative uses ofanachronisms; elementsbelonging or
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appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, especially a thing that is conspicuously
old-fashioned. The main one is the placing of a "modern",20th-century society inprehistory. This
society takes inspiration from thesuburban sprawldeveloped in the first two decades of the
postwar period. This society has modern home appliances, but they work by employing animals.
They have automobiles, but they hardly resemble the cars of the 20th century. These cars are large
wooden and rock structures and burn no fuel. They are powered by people who run while inside
them. This depiction is inconsistent, however. On some occasions, the cars are known to have
engines (with appropriate sound effects), requiring ignition keys and gasoline. Also, the stone
houses of this society arecookie-cutter homespositionedinto neighborhoods typical of
mid-20th-century American suburbs.
he origins of The Flintstones (Hanna-Barbera) visual style is rooted in the
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history ofUPA Studios:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Shape Expressions in Design
Practical character design tips from the Etherington Brothers:
ll character designs, no matter how complex they seem, can be broken down into a set
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of simple shapes. The more through lines there are from one shape to another, the
etter the shapes combine as a single form. Bold silhouettes come from a symbiotic
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combination of shapes.
To expand upon the three basic shapes of Round, Box, Triangle - there are these 7
shapes you need to design any character.
If you can draw these shapes, you can draw anything.
here can be squashed and stretched variations of these as well, but these are the main
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ones used for all foundations of character design. The less shapes at the core of your
design, the more iconic it becomes.
Building your design around a primary and secondary shape is very effective.
Primary / Secondary can be applied to the face as well.
Using one shape in multiple positions and angles allows a more complex design to
remain visually balanced.
Sometimes combining shapes inharmoniously can work well.
↑You can see how these design principles apply tobackgrounds as well↑
Dividing Characters into 3 Sections
A great approach for designing a wide range of distinctive characters is to divide them
up into three sections.
1. Begin by randomly choosing the height of each section as either short, medium or
tall.
2. Next, randomly make the width of each section narrow, medium, or wide.
3. If we just draw these as standing boxes we can already see the range of body
proportions.
4. Connect the shapes using either curved or angled lines.
. With your proportions in place, draw small thumbnail sketches of characters within
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them. try lots of designs for each shape, it always works!
he 3-shape approach is so effective, you can use it to take one character and generate
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endless variations! Let’s start with this simple robot…
There’s no end to the options, just change the width and height of the three sections!
lthough the 3-shape process is just one of many approaches to character design, it also
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helps you to better analyze other characters’ proportions.
Notice the effect on the feel of the character when you cluster the main volume around
different areas.
See how Porky Pig starts off as a kidney bean-shape:
See all the various shape combinations at work here:
By Chris Battle
By Stefano Camelli
Assignment #3
sing thisMODEL PACK&STYLE GUIDEcreate a new characterthat would fit in one of
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the following animated series;Fairly Odd Parents,Dexter's Laboratory,Powerpuff
Girls, orDanny Phantom.
Additional Support Links:
Dexter’s Lab Model Pack Part 1 Dexter’s Lab ModelPack Part 2
Fairly Odd Parents Style Guide Powerpuff Girls ModelPack
hese shows each have their own design sensibilities but they share many similar traits
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in their anatomy, shape language and aesthetics.
airly Odd Parents - Designs by Butch Hartman with George Goodchild (Frederator
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Studios)
Dexter’s Laboratory - Designs by Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCraken (Warner Bros)
Powerpuff Girls - Designs by Craig McCraken (Cartoon Network)
Danny Phantom - Designs by Butch Hartman (Nickelodeon Studios)
ther artists you can research with similar styles areGordon Hammond,
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Chris DeRoseandShane Glines.
Produce a 4pt turnaround model sheet;
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back[Tiedowns]
1 Image file (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
SUPPORT MATERIAL:
→Practical Tips for Character Design
→How Animators Draw in Any Style
→Straights & Curves in all Design
→The Art of Various Nickelodeon Cartoons
Similar design style can be found in the works of Steve Lambe:
Stephen Silver:
Gordon Hammond:
Shape Blocking
by Steven Silver
by Griz & Norm
Watch and listen toNick Swift, as he covers somepoints on shape design
→
here.
Straights & Curves
Straights Against Curves can work for many different types of anatomy:
By Dermot O’Connor
Contrastingsimpleon one side andcomplexon theother:
By Alan Stewart
By Radford Sechrist
Breakdown by Tod Polson
Proportions
hen it comes to a character's age in comparison to their head size - it can become
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quite arbitrary and puzzling. When examiningproportionsand their relationship to a
character’s age- it's all contextual and relativeto the universe they reside in. For
example, what do all these male cartoon characters have in common?
They're all 10!
A different kind of test: How good do you think you are at discerning age from a line-up?
he top row kids fall into a younger category ranging from 2 to 6. The bottom row kids
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range 7 to 9.
ow design choices are made, like height and face shape, is all about the surrounding
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characters and environment.
Their age is easier to specify by comparison.
Satsuki (11 years old), Mei (4 years old) — drawings by Miyazaki:
nother fun way to compare proportions is to match the character heights up.
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It puts the head-size into perspective.
Courtesy ofBob Flynn
ee how changes in proportions (both subtle and drastic) can alter the character’s
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personality:
by TB Choi
by Puba24
Assignment #4
C'sBatman- Also known asBatman The Animated Series,The New Adventures of
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Batman, and Batman Mask of the Phantasm.
sing thisSTYLE GUIDE 1/STYLE GUIDE 2/STYLE GUIDE3, create a new character
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that would fit in this DC animated universe. Other series with a similar style;Justice
LeagueandBatman Beyond
esigns by Bruce Timm (Warner Bros Animation)
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Along with others: Dan Riba, Craig Kellman, Chen Yi-Chang, Michael Diederich, Kevin
Nowlan, Ronnie Del Carmen, and many more
esearch these legendary artists who have similar art styles:Darwyn Cooke/
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Shane Glines/Alex Toth
Produce a 4pt turnaround model sheet;
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back[Tiedowns]
1 Image file (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
SUPPORT MATERIAL:
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● ow to Rough-out Various Body Shapes
● Structural Drawing with Alphonso Dunn
● Aaron Blaise’s Tutorial on Straights & Curves
○ Drawing Better, Faster, Learning How To Practice
○ Drawing Full Figure Bodies
○ Drawing References for Hands
■ Costume Design Inspiration
he main thing to keep in mind isstructural drawingwith the
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straights and curvesmethod.
Model sheet samples:
↓Designs By Marcelo Trom↓
hink about the many possible costume design variations there could be for your
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character. If you ask any actor, the clothes and make-up their character wears will
always help to place them “in-character”.
WhyBatman The Animated SeriesChanged its CharacterDesigns:
→Paul Dini Explains the Controversy
WhyBatman The Animated Seriesis the most influentialcartoon of all time:
→How Batman TAS Changed Everything
Exploring the Art of Bruce Timm:
→Video Essay 1
→Video Essay 2
Construction & Rhythm
Study the awesome works ofTacoand observe hiswonderful methods of
→
simplified anatomy and structurehere.
Assignment #5
Choose from one of the following design styles:
(A)Alex Hirsch'sGravity Falls
Reference: STYLE GUIDE 1&STYLE GUIDE 2
esigns by Joe Pitt(Disney),Robert Ryan Cory, ChrisHoughton, C. Raggio, Ali
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Denesh, Stephanie Ramirez, Alex Kirwan, Alanzo Ramirez, Bryan Arnett, Andre
Medina, Andre Medina, and Ian Abando
Another series worth researching with a similar style isInside Job(Netflix / Jam Filled
Entertainment). It looks like a blend betweenRick& Morty+Gravity Falls, designed by
Francesca Natale, created by Shion Takeuchi and Alex Hirsh. Look through sampleshere.
(B)Luke Pearson'sHilda
Reference: STYLE GUIDE
Designs by Steve Lambe, Andrew Ferguson, and Victoria Evans(Mercury Filmworks
/ Netflix)
hoose one, then research and practice the character design style of that series.
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Produce 1 new character that would fit in that universe.
he fun part with these two shows is you can choose a human character or a creature to
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design.
Create a model sheet with a5pt turnaround(clean-up& color)
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back | Back
1 Image file (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
SUPPORT MATERIAL
→Clean-up Tips:Make Smoother Strokes For Your FinalLine Art
→Tutorial:Quick Color Flatting & Shading in Photoshop
→Book:Sherm Cohen’s Guide to Cartooning Basics
→Reference Guide:How to Draw Cartoon Hands
→Intelligent Failing:Tactics To Apply When
Drawing
→Analysis:Hilda's Brilliant Use of Color
→Article:Creating Your Own Color
Palettes
ough out your design, experiment with many different shapes & forms, then build up
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and refine the anatomy and structure of your design:
irst, do exploration drawings to find the character you want to create, then explore
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poses and colors to see what looks best:
Explore various proportions:
emember to draw light horizontal guide lines for helping to your rotations
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accurate:
I n whichever style you choose, carefully study the features, shapes, forms,
colors, patterns, where lines are placed, and where shadows lay.
Don’t design ladders…
Advice from the Master, Bob Camp:
ou’ll start to notice some familiar patterns while exploring more and more different
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design styles. We can see how many can share some similar traits and features:
An additional experiment to explore is to draw the same one character in various styles:
By u/ccarucci10
Contrasting Shapes
ne vastly important aspect of all design isContrast- it improves your character art by
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providing the viewer with two (or more) things that play off one another, simply by
being different.
Contrast = Interest.
his applies to almost every aspect of art, but it’s especially important when we dive into
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character design.
esigning characters around base shapes for contrast and appeal is a time-tested
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tradition among animators and illustrators.
ake a look at this image of Po, for a few great examples. First, his color scheme is
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classic contrast: Black and white. There is no greater contrast than these opposing
forces. Look deeper into his design and you’ll see a myriad of contrast from shape. As
you can see, the design of the pose itself is a factor in the appeal and clarity of the
character and its attitude.
e is made up of many circles overall, all these elements work together to create a
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visually interesting character. If he was made entirely of one shape it would not be
nearly as interesting. Yet at the same time, there is an overall form to adhere to rather
than placing things sporadically or randomly. His overall pose is a triangle, which you’ll
see repeated in many of the promo images and poses Dreamworks puts the character
in. Everything about his design speaks ofheavy, friendly,solid.
Samples of contrasting shapes:
Unique Shapes + Contrast in a Cast of Characters
I t doesn’t stop there, though! Not only should characters have contrast in their
individual designs, there should be contrast among the whole cast!
hese rough drawings from theAladdinsheet are aperfect example. You see the
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characters each have a variety of base shapes showing how they contrast nicely against
each other. Providing a lot of visual interest, appeal, individuality, and insight on each
character’s core personalities.Seehereon how contrastcan improve your character
poses.
Advice from the Master, Sherm Cohen:
→ Video Essay:How Spongebob’s Design Evolved OverThe Years
Assignment #6
singSTYLE GUIDE 1&STYLE GUIDE 2&STYLE GUIDE3as reference, create a new
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character that would be easily integrated in theRickand Mortyuniverse.
esigns by Justin Roiland, Steven Chunn, James McDermott, Elisa Phillips,
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Stephanie Ramirez, Zach Bellissimo, and Kendra Melton(Adult Swim/WB)
The model pack must include 3 pages:
1 model sheet;4pt turnaround (clean-up and color)
Shading/shadow work is not necessary for this assignment, keep it flat colors, and study
•
the chapter onColor Styling
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back(in full color)
1 pose sheet
1 expression sheet
he pose sheet must have4 various poses[Tie-down]that show the characters range
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of mobility and body language. The expression sheet is a collection of headshots,
displaying6 different facial expressions[Tie-down].
TOTAL of 3 image files (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
• Support Material •
→ Reference:The Art ofRick & Morty
→Painting Characters:Color Techniques
Character Expressions:Research Various
→
Methods
Conceptualizing Intent:Jack Burke’s
→
Process
Samples for expressions and poses:
→More guides on expressions and poses
nother series worth researching with the same design style isSolar Opposites,
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created by Mike McMahan and Justin Roiland, designed by Lindsay Smith, Ali Gunthrie,
Pasquale Ricotta, David Crosland, Alex Horan, and Lotan Kritchman.
he Rigging of characters for a 2D animated series is the process of clean-up,
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building and setting up the models to be ready for the animators to operate with
and pose in their shots.
See the Process for Clean-up/Color and Rigging ofaRick & Morty
→
Character
Thoughts on Color
→How to Use Color Theory
→Understanding Color
→How Movies Tell Their Story with Color
→The Psychology of Color
→ For Production Design and Costume Design
→Online Color Designer 1
→Online Color Designer 2
→Online Color Designer 3
By Julián Van Bores
Assignment #7
Choose fromoneof the following design styles:
(A)Disney'sKim Possible
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs by Stephen Silver
(B)Mark Dindall'sCats Don't Dance
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs by Brian McEntree(Warner Bros)
(C)Joaquim Dos Santos'sLegend of Korra
Reference:STYLE GUIDE 1/STYLE GUIDE 2/STYLE GUIDE3/STYLE GUIDE 4
esigns by Kim Il Kwang, Lauren Montgomery,BryanKonietzko,Ki Hyun Ryu, Christie
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Tseng and Jin-Sun Kim(Nickelodeon). Other seriesof similar style areAvatar: The Last
Airbender,Voltron: Legendary Defender, andYoungJustice. In addition, research
designs byPhil Bourassa, and study the chapter onConstruction & Rhythm. See the art
book for Avatar TLAhere, and the Legend of Korrahere. Watch Ethan Becker’s tips on
drawing Avatar stylehere.
hoose one of these then research and practice the character design style of that
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property. Produce a cast of four new characters that would fit in that universe. Think
about various shapes and sizes, genders and personalities.
reate4 Different Characterson one sheet, each onein a¾ Front
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view (Tiedown).
1 Image file (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
Support Material:
● Ralph Eggleston’s How to Make a Cohesive Cast of Characters
● Stephen Silver’s Design Process
● Marco Bucci’s Draw Better Hands
● David Colman’s Story-Driven Shapes
● Cloth, Folds, and Armor Tutorial
ere’s designs for incidental background characters from the seriesMike Tyson
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Mysteries. Just a small example showing how variousbody types and costuming needs
to be constructed to populate the world your cast of characters will reside in:
hen studying how to re-create any particular design style, discover and analyze the
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structure of the anatomy. For example,Kim Possiblefollows this design language:
I t’s not only the pattern of shapes that make up the body parts, but the characters’
graphic style as a whole. Practice with really loose and quick roughs, to figure out the
forms, arrangement of shapes and what techniques are needed to adapt your drawings
to the intended design style.
hen you’re doing more realistic human anatomy, there are different
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factors to consider, compared to when you do more flat/graphic/cartoony
styles.
HIGH-RES
Clothes and Costumes
Assignment #8
Choose fromoneof the following design styles:
(A)Matt Groening'sThe Simpsons(orFuturama&Disenchantment)
Reference:STYLE GUIDE&ARTBOOK
esigns by David Silverman,Kevin M. Newman, DwayneCarey-Hill, Robert Stanely,
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Evan Jackson, Beverly Laxa, Alfredo Mercado, Tim Kummerow, and manymore.
(B)Raphael Bob-Waksberg’sBoJack Horseman
Reference:STYLE GUIDE&ARTBOOK(also seeTuca &Bertie)
Designs by Lisa Hanawalt andDante Tumminello(Netflix/ Shadowmachine Studios)
(C)Disney'sDuck Tales
Reference:STYLE GUIDE&ARTBOOK
Designs by Sean Jimenez, Sarah Craig, Tapan Gandhi, and Timothy Moen
Pick one and research the character design style of your chosen property.
roduce1 new characterthat would fit in this universe.Create a model sheet with a
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4pt turnaround;
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back (clean-up and fullcolor).
his design pack should include 2 other pages;1 expressionsheetwith4 expression
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drawings(color), and1 pose sheetwith2 action poses(c
olor).
→There’s other samples of expressions and ideas forhow to do them in an earlier
chapterhere.
TOTAL of 3 image files (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
Support Material:
→ Rotating Basic Forms:Tips for Drawing Items forTurnarounds
→ Tips by Aaron Diaz:Costume Design
→Industry Advice:Color Stylists in Animation
Finished sample of the ‘Simpsons style’ with poses and expression sheets:
lthough the Simpsons characters and their appearances have become a familiar part of
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our everyday lives now, it’s not hard to imagine that it must have taken people quite a bit
of time to get used to, when these characters first came on-air with their bright yellow
skin tone.The Simpsonscreator Matt Groening hasspoken about what it felt like to finally
arrive at a decision, as he was choosing his characters’ skin color.
pparently, Groening’s main motivation was simple: He wanted to make the Springfield
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residents look memorable and interesting. With all of the other animated series on the air,
Groening felt it was important to make sure that Homer, as well as his family and
neighbors, stood out from the crowd. Although he considered other colors, yellow was the
one that shone through in the end.
“ This is the answer! When you’re flicking through channels, and a flash of yellow goes by,
you’ll know you’re watchingThe Simpsons,” Groeningonce stated.
Boost your Art IQ
Explore theIterative Drawing Methodto improve yourdraftsmanship.
There’s many examples of people learning and improving through repetition likehere.
ome advice on your state-of-mind when it comes to procuring art fromGreg
S
Broadmore.
ne good warm-up exercise is to draw circles and ellipses. This exercise improves your
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hand dexterity and ability to draw circles and ellipses while also getting you into the
mental state of calmness needed to start work on a real drawing.
Practicing drawing cylinders is a good way to warm up and it is surprisingly useful.
ylinders are surprisingly versatile. You’ll often end up in a situation where it is useful to
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be able to draw them. For example, it is helpful to approximate arms through cylinders
when drawing a manikin of a human form.
You can also deform cylinders into organic shapes.
I t’s just useful to be able to freehand cylinders! And it is a great drawing exercise when
you have no reference to work from or no inspiration. Become better at drawing by
doodling cylinders.
Assignment #9
Choose fromoneof the following design styles:
(A)AppleTV'sCentral Park(created byJosh Gad, Loren Bouchard & Nora Smith)
Reference:MODEL PACK&STYLE GUIDE(also see Bob’sBurgershere&here)
Designs by Celeste Moreno, Michael Camacho, Orlando Velez, and Layron DeJarnette
(B)Chris Prynoski'sMotorcity
Reference:STYLE GUIDE(also seeTron UprisingandAgent Elvis)
Designs by Robert Valley, Junpei Takayama and David Vandervoort(Titmouse Studios)
→Robert Valley’s Character Design Tips
(C)MTJJ Mutou'sLegend of Hei
Reference:STYLE GUIDE&THE ANIMATED FILM(BeijingHanmu Chunhua Animation)
ick one and research & explore the character design style of your chosen series/film.
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Produce1 new characterthat would fit in this universe.
Create a model sheet with a4pt turnaround[Tiedown].
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back
his design pack should include 2 other pages;1 expressionsheetwith6 expression
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drawings[Tiedown], and1 pose sheetwith4 actionposes[Tiedown].
TOTAL of 3 image files (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
Support Material:
→Harry Patridge’s Character Design Tips
→Good vs Bad Design Observations
→Another Cloth and Drapery Tutorial
Explore Gesture Drawing
One way to accelerate the growth of your drawing skills is through gesture drawing.
What a Gesture should be:
Loose
Fluid
Tells a Story
Try to get a line of action
Don’t be a slave to the model
7 Principles of Gestures:
Line of Action
Shapes
ilhouette
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Space
Exaggeration
Extrapolation
Story
Line of Action
What is the MAIN IDEA of the Pose?
How do I represent that idea with a LINE?
Show the main idea of the pose with 1-2 lines
It’s a base for your drawing
Dynamic poses = angles and harsh/straight lines
Relaxed poses = curves and soft lines
Shape
Represent the pose in a simple shape
Dynamic pose = Obtuse Triangle, Extreme Rhombus
Relaxed pose = Semicircle, Relaxed Peanut
Silhouette
Needs to be clear/readable
Should be able to tell what every part of the body is doing
Space
The model in relation to 3D space
Avoid always placing the feet on the same plane
Exaggeration
Avoid a literal translation of the pose
Push the pose
Communicate the idea, not the pose
Extrapolation
Draw animals oralternate charactersfrom the modelusing the same pose
Push past what you see for the idea/emotion
Story
Tell a story with the pose
What is the main idea of the Pose?
How do I best communicate it?
[The Science of Drawing] vs [The Soul of Drawing]
-Anatomy - Emotions
-Light -Feelings
-Proportion -Ideas
-Technique
[Science of the Soul]
Draftsmanship vs Vitality
Tedium does not equal Sophistication
Realism does not equal Quality
How to do a Gesture drawing
Observe the pose for 10 seconds
Try to find the main idea/feeling of the pose
Grab a loose basic drawing or a small thumbnail
Push that pose
No one will know you changed it!
Emphasize the pose, don’t always make it dynamic
Use the model as a jumping off point
Go with your first impression
Assignment #10
Choose fromoneof the following design styles:
(A)Cartoon Saloon'sWolfwalkers(orSong of the Sea/Secret of Kells)
Reference: STYLE GUIDE/ARTBOOK&STYLE GUIDE forSecret of Kells
esigns by Barry Reynolds, Tom Moore & Ross Stewart, see variations on a similar style
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here&here.
(B)Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera'sNiko and the Swordof Light
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Tips onCreature Design
The OriginalAnimated Comic
Designs by Jim Bryson(Titmouse Inc / Amazon Studios)
(C)WB'sScooby Doo
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs inspired by the works of Iwao Takamoto(Hanna-Barbera)
here’s been many series and movies with the Scooby gang;Scooby-Doo, Where Are
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You!, The Scooby-Doo Show, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The New Scooby and
Scrappy-Doo Show, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, andmore recently,Scooby-Doo and
Guess Who?All of these generally follow the samestyle guide shown above.
ick one of these properties, then research & explore the character design style of your
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chosen series/film. Produce1 new characterthat wouldfit in this universe.
Create a model sheet with a4pt turnaround[Tiedown].
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back
his design pack should include 2 additional pages;1 expression sheetwith6
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expression drawings[Tiedown], and1 pose sheetwith4 action poses[Tiedown].
TOTAL of 3 image files (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
Support Material:
→Knight Zhang’s Level Up Your Costume Designs
→Drawing Folds & Drapery
Assignment #11
Choose fromoneof the following design styles:
(A)Gabrielle Vincent'sErnest & Celestine
Reference:STYLE GUIDE(also seeThe Big Bad Fox)& study thefilm.
Designs by Zaza & Zyk(art direction by Stéphane Aubier,Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner)
(B)Patrick McHale'sOver The Garden Wall
Reference:STYLE GUIDE&ARTBOOK
Designs by Nick Cross, Graham Falk, Seo Chung Kim, and Phil Rynda(Cartoon Network)
(C)Simon Wells’sBalto
eference:STYLE GUIDE(also see thisModel Pack)*Must design a quadruped
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character
Designs by Carlos Grangel, Nicolas Marlet, and Patrick Mate(Amblin Entertainment /
Universal Studios - Art Direction by Hans Bacher)
I nformative tutorials on designing quadruped characters:Part 1,Part 2,Part
3
ick one and research & explore the character design style of your chosen series/film.
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Produce1 new characterthat would fit in this universe.
Create a model sheet with a4pt turnaround[Tiedown].
Front | ¾ Front | Side | ¾ Back
his design pack should include 2 other pages;1 expressionsheetwith6 expression
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drawings[Tiedown], and1 pose sheetwith4 actionposes[Tiedown].
TOTAL of 3 image files (JPG or PNG format)
Dimensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi
Support Material
than Becker is a skilled draftsman, prolific YouTuber and all-around madman.
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Check out these clips on how to refine your own personal style and develop some
useful techniques:
→Draw Gestures with One Shape
→Never Draw From Imagination
→Solidity in Your Designs & Using Reference Part1
→Solidity in Your Designs & Using Reference Part2
By Mikkel Sommer
Assignment #12
Chooseoneof the following six options for your finalCharacter Design task:
(A)Tom McGillis’sTotal Drama Island
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs by Todd Kauffman(Elliott Animation)
(B)WB'sGreen Eggs & Ham
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs inspired by the works of Theodor Seuss Geisel
(C)Nora Towmey'sThe Breadwinner
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs by Reza Riahi and Ross Stewart(Cartoon Saloon)
(D)WB'sTeen Titans Go!
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs by Chris Battle & Junpei Takayama
(E)Disney'sMickey Mouse Works
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
Designs inspired by the works of Ian Gooding, Carl Barks, and Floyd Gottfredson
(F)Cartoon Network'sFinal Space
Reference:STYLE GUIDE
esigns by Olan Rogers, Adam Fay, Brad Lewis, Maya Shazvin & Devin Roth - See more
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production arthere.
nce you've chosen one of these, produce1 new characterin the relevant visual style
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that would fit in this universe. Create a traditional5-page model pack.The first2
sheetsshould include a full8pt turnaround(samplesshown below).
esign all 8 views infull colorwithclean lines.Include1 expression sheetwith8
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expressions(clean, no color),1 pose sheetwith4action poses(c
lean, no color),
and1 mouth chartwith 10 mouth shapes (clean, nocolor). See the images shown
below for reference on how to create the expression sheets, action poses, and mouth
charts.
Character Model Pack
age 1:Turnaround in color - Front, ¾ Front Right,Side Right, ¾ Back
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Right
Page 2:Turnaround in color - Back, ¾ Back Left, SideLeft, ¾ Front Left
Page 3:Expressions - 8 clean line art drawings
Page 4:Poses - 4 clean line art drawings
Page 5:Mouth Chart - 10 clean line art drawings -sampleshereandhere
[ 30 Design Elements in all ]
TOTAL of5 image files
imensions: 1200x700 pixels @ 300dpi (JPG or PNG
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format)
An examplehereof how a nearly-completed characterpack
→
can look like.
Support Material
→Ergo Josh’s How to Improve
→Kyle Latino’s Tips for Character Design
Sample for Pages 1 and 2:
* All views in the rotation must becolored.
Be mindful of all asymmetrical elements throughout the rotation.
Samples for Page 3:
Samples for Page 4:
Sample for Page 5:
A: m, b, p,
B: ee
C: a, ah, eh
D: A, AH (extreme)
E: oh, er, ur
F: qu, oo, wh
G: v, f, ph
H: L
TH: th
I: closed, t, ch, s, g, sh, j, k, d
Conclusion
Build Your Portfolio
reate an account with one of these;artstation,behance,carbonmade,wix,
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blogger,weebly,dribbble,format,google, or anyother free portfolio-making site of
our choice. There's dozens to choose from, they all do the same thing, research
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through them, find the one that you like best, and sign up for it. What you'll do with it is
very simple - you don't need anything fancy; you're just displaying your work, and it’s
good to show some versions with yourprogression.The important thing is to have your
contact infovisible everywhere, to keep your sitesimple, easy-to-navigate, and only
displaying your very best work.
For inspiration, here’s samples of top-notch professionals and their portfolio sites:
Adam Fay
Justin Rodrigues
Megan Phonesavanh
Anya Butler
Sarah Doo
Moss Lawto
Steve Lambe
Hong Soonsang
Rian Trost
Matt Utsunmoyia
Danny Hynes
Jenny Calabro
Joel Mackenzie
Bassem Salman
Rebecca Chan
Chris Battle
Deanna Marsigliese
Nikita Greer
Hollie Mengert
Uwe Heidschötter
Harley Huang
Isabella Ceravolo
Maxime Mary
I f you’re showcasing samples of your character designs created from the exercises off
this site or just your own original creations (or a bit of both), know that the portfolio site
ou’re creating is primarily to present your diversity in the styles you are capable of
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producing. The quality of your designs will depend on the time you spent on them and
how much research and preparation you’ve done beforehand. It’s easy to be intimidated
by the refined styles of these pro character designers, and the sleek layout of their
portfolios. Your portfolio needs to show your range as an artist, keep things simple and
straight-forward.
atch these clips from Ethan Becker:Finding YourArt Style/Art
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Motivation Tips
atch these clips from Bobby Chiu:Managing Stress& Expectations/
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Advice on Your Career as an Artist
Watch this clip fromAndrei Terbea:How I Became anAnimator
ave this awesome guide from Brittany Myers:DrawingTips for Character
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Design
I f you are worried about having no production experience -- it still truly doesn’t matter,
your portfolio is meant to display your vast potential. If you DO have experience, then
your rés umé(LinkedIn) can show off your versatilityand skill sets as well with listings of
what productions you’ve worked on in the past, including any personal projects and
courses you’ve taken, no matter how small. Your portfolio site should always be focused
on keeping the very best of your designs on display. Always think about clear and simple
page layouts, and indicate you are more than willing to receive and complete design
tests. Your skills, your dedication, and work ethic will ALWAYS matter most to
employers.
I f you happen to be humble, timid, stoic, shy, soft spoken, introverted, or nervous --
that’s totally fine! A studio head, talent recruiter, employer, director or producer will
always want you more for your skills, ideas, creativity and artistic abilities above all else.
Be aware of the fact that the odds of anyone stumbling upon your portfolio and being
impressed enough that they contact you right away are very, very slim. You need to
reach out to studios, their talent recruitment person, HR person, line producer,
operations manager, and give them the link to your work and ask if they have any jobs
you could do for them.
→Collection of Various Designers’ Portfolios
ven with an almost-empty rés
E umé and little-to-noexperience > don’t be discouraged!
You can apply for other types of design work within the studio pipeline to get started and
to get your experience points built up;Prop Designer,Character Clean-up Artist,
Assistant Character Designer, or Design Revisionistare just some of the alternatives.
sk any employer or studio about how to start off as a junior artist or a design intern -
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they’re all excellent ways to get your foot-in-the-door, it’s all about how to get your
start, convince them to give you a chance, to complete some tests or a short internship.
Then it’s your responsibility to do the best work you can as fast as you can, show them
you at least have some potential, to grow, learn, to be helpful and useful to their design
team. While you are waiting for work, keep drawing and keep adding to your portfolio!
Tips on Creating a Character Design Portfolio
→
→Process for Creating Your Portfolio
→Getting Noticed Online
→How to Network in this Industry
Job Applications
here are only a few places online to search for character design work, the most
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common places are:X/X/X
here’s no need to wait for a studio to post up a job ad for the work you are going for,
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once you have a portfolio site assembled, send that link to the email required that takes
in submission to any studio you can find.
ere’s samples of what online ads look like and what a typical character design job post
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is:
Junior Character Designer
ob Description
J
We are looking for a 2D Character Designer to join the team for a feature film.
Full-Time Contract for 6 months (with potential for extension).
esponsibilities
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Over the course of the 9 months the artist will:
– Work on digital designs for an animated feature film
– Work in the platforms Photoshop and Harmony
– Collaborate with the team on the design style and look of the production
In detail the position includes:
Work with Director to design characters in the style of the show in digital
–
platform
– Sketch character designs in various forms from rough concepts to finished
rotations in Photoshop
– Produce character expression and pose sheets
– Additional design as needed such as prop design, character illustrations, special
poses, mock-ups etc.
– Demonstrate commitment to creative collaboration in a time-sensitive
environment
– Learn the process to Break and Rig characters in Harmony
kill Development
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Excellent drawing and design skills (strong knowledge of humans and animals,
anatomy and posing) Have an intuitive sense of what makes a character appealing
and appropriate for the needs of the design. A thorough understanding of
character design and a clear understanding of how the designs will be used
through the production pipeline.
Skills Required
● Experience with Photoshop and Illustrator – knowledge of other art/graphics
software an asset
● Knowledge of designing characters is an asset
● Excellent creativity and demonstrated ability to generate innovative concepts
and ideas
● Able to design within certain specifications (maintaining pre-determined
proportions and keeping within an overall look)
● Character rigging experience is a plus
● Ability to communicate in a professional and positive manner
● Time management
● Understanding character design for animation
● Ability to organize and manage time effectively to meet deadlines
● A positive attitude and dedication to the success of the project
● Capable of taking direction and working collaboratively within a team
Senior Character Designer
ob Description
J
We are currently seeking an experienced Senior Character Designer / Concept
Artist to join our team for an exciting new production with worldwide exposure.
We’re looking for Designers with portfolios that demonstrate versatility, passion
and a strong understanding of 2D animation. This talented individual will work
losely with the Director / Art Director to design and develop characters for the
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series while ensuring all elements of the design are flawless and ready for
animation.
Job Responsibilities
● Work closely with the Art Director to understand show concepts and style
● Translate character description and attitude from script to visual design
● Create engaging, high quality characters and/or props, from initial rough
drawings to final designs
● Submit multiple design variations and revisions based on feedback from the
Art Director
● Create model sheets of character turnarounds and facial/anatomical
expressions
● Collaborate with other designers and departments to ensure smooth
deliveries throughout the production pipeline
● Provide feedback to the entire team on a regular basis.
● Be accountable for ensuring that our high quality standards are met and
complete on time.
● Must have the ability to effectively coach, train and mentor junior Character
Designers.
● Work closely with our Character Designers, animators, artists and technical
departments in order to identify and solve problems.
● Must be able to communicate artistic and technical concepts clearly and
concisely in either verbal or written format in order to guide team members.
Job Requirements
● Strong grasp of character anatomy.
● Must have an understanding of traditional animation and design principles.
● Able to work and communicate effectively in a collaborative, fast paced
environment.
● Strong critical thinking and problem solving skills.
● Uncompromising attention to detail.
● Must be flexible and willing to learn.
● English is a requirement.
● You are accountable, self-motivated and possess strong time management
skills required for a fast-paced environment
● You have excellent attention to detail
● You’re able to professionally and productively discuss, make decisions, and
communicate ideas in a wide variety of aesthetic areas
2D Character Designer
ob Description
J
We are currently looking for a Character Designer to join our studio and our new
and exciting series, for a 10 month full-time contract on a 2D animated series.
Responsibilities
● Create characters in ToonBoom Harmony as required for use by various
departments within the animation pipeline.
● Collaborate with Design Supervisor and Asset Coordinator to troubleshoot
creative and technical issues as they arise
● Resolve design problems with creative supervisors
● Ensure all deadlines are met
● Communicate progress of work to appropriate production staff
● Ensure all artwork is properly backed up and stored appropriately
● Must demonstrate proficiency in style of show
Essential Qualifications
● Previous experience on production design for animation or a kick-ass
portfolio
● Strong character design and construction/mechanical skills
● Knowledge of drawing software including Photoshop and Harmony
● Strong time-management skills
● Ability to work flexible hours if and when necessary
● Ability to work in a collaborative environment and take direction
● Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
● Ability to work under pressure with tight deadlines
ou can see how there’s many similarities for what studios are looking for in an artist.
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You might also see employers asking for 2,3, or 5+ years of experience, but you should
STILL APPLY, no matter how much or how little experience you have. Because they will
judge your skills based onyour work, and there’salways a chance that your ability to
switch styles, along with showcasing your own personal design style could be what
they’re looking for. For every job post, there’s anemailto contact the talent recruitment
person. Send them the link to your portfolio, and await a reply.
fter you’ve had a few more years of knowledge under your belt, you’ll see a job post
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for a position looking like Character Art Director, Character Supervisor, Character Design
Lead, that might target you and your experience. Naturally, more responsibilities are
mandatory with these sorts of positions. If it’s for a 2D Animated Series, you may be
required to supervise other artists as part of a small team, and if it’s for a Video Game
or 3D/CG production, you may be required to have a basic working knowledge of certain
software as well:
Character Art Director
ob Description
J
We are looking for an exceptional Character Art Director to join our incredibly
fast-paced and exciting art direction team. You will be responsible for creating
original and captivating characters, visual assets, and art deliverables for our
studio and our clients. You will work closely with and supervise other designers
and artists to produce high-quality character turnarounds, graphics, and more.
This position is a full-time and fully remote role.
Responsibilities
- Create original, beautiful, compelling and engaging 2D characters and
elements for the studio. Be able to take ideas from rough sketches to
polished finished pieces.
- Actively participate in concept development and storyboarding phases,
providing creative input and ensuring character designs are well-integrated
into the world's narrative and style.
- Have high proficiency with character art fundamentals such as silhouette,
palette, exaggeration, composition, shape design, anatomy, proportion, etc.
- Collaborate with other artists, external vendors, freelancers, and partners
to expand and enrich our character design capabilities. This includes
identifying, evaluating, and selecting talented external artists or studios that
align with the artistic vision and standards of our studio.
- Manage and coordinate projects with these external clients to meet their
design prerequisites and schedules, serving as a potential point of contact
for all communications related to character art design. This entails providing
clear briefs, timelines, and feedback to ensure their work aligns with our
project requirements and quality standards.
- Oversee the character design process from concept to finalization.
- Work within established art and design guidelines to ensure consistency.
- Be excited by and stay with the latest industry trends, emerging
techniques, design best practices, and pop culture to continuously deliver
the high-quality of engaging characters and elements.
- Utilize a variety of traditional and digital artistic techniques to produce
high-quality visual designs.
Requirements
- Professional experience in 2D character design, and experience in gaming
companies is highly preferred.
- A strong portfolio showcasing a wide range of character designs, styles,
techniques, and high-quality work from past projects.
- Excellent skills in explaining your work, process, and decisions to
cross-functional stakeholders and crave feedback to help you produce your
best work.
- Obsess over details and are excited to push the boundaries of your skill set
in art that excites and delights.
- Ability to collaborate effectively in a team environment, take constructive
feedback, and incorporate it into the work.
- High skill level across industry software tools such as Photoshop and Clip
Studio Paint, and basic knowledge of other tools like Illustrator, AfterEffects,
Sketch, Painter, and Blender.
ome studios require to fill out aformon their website,this way it always goes to the
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same talent recruiting / HR officer on staff, where they can process the intake of
applications and will forward them to the relevant department heads, studio director, or
the creative lead, that can ascertain the skill sets displayed in the portfolio. This process
will then have them determine to hire you, or place you on a waitlist, or have a test
delivered to you, to bring you to the next phase of potentially being hired.
illing out and submitting those forms are easy. There’s usually a spot to fill out for a
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body of text, where you can insert a type of cover letter or brief introduction about
yourself. In either case, if you seem enthusiastic, straight-to-the-point, open to start
anytime and anywhere and eager to help them out, it can go a long way to reveal your
solid work ethic and positive attitude.
Here’s a sample of what that cover letter or email from you could look like:
I 'm sending this email to apply for the Character Design position at your studio. As I've
just recently finished my portfolio that you can see here (insert website URL), I'm very
eager to start gaining some real-world experience in the animation industry. I've been a
huge fan of animation and cartoons my whole life, and I have been drawing my own
characters and developing my own stories since I was a child.
his passion has only grown as I've gotten older, as cartoons have begun to expand into a
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vast array of different genres and are constantly exploring more and more concepts and
ideas. I'm currently a huge fan of series such as (insert name of an animated series). The
use of color in the character designs and their costumes truly evoke a strong sense of
what the characters’ struggles & personalities are and how they fit in their environments. I
also adore the art and animation style of (insertname of another animated series), its
unique qualities within the series' universe, such as its loose regulations for physical
consistency within the characters - while still maintaining its own set of logics and rules
within the world and show itself. At the same time, it seamlessly blends the cartoony style
of the characters with its detailed backgrounds.
ince my education has ended, I have been keeping myself occupied by expanding my
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knowledge in (Photoshop&Blender). I've been teachingmyself the principles of designing
characters in a variety of different styles. It's for this reason I would absolutely love the
opportunity to work at (insert studio name here).I feel I should also note that I’m willing
to take any character design test as well, to show you where my skill sets are planted,
and how quickly I can learn, and I would love an internship or any junior design position
like prop design and character design assistance, so that I may contribute to tasks like
finishing turnarounds or doing clean-up on artwork and poses.
Thank you kindly for the opportunity.
(Your Name)
his is just an example, and you should customize and personalize this template to
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make it fit to the work and parameters of the job post; Replace the names of the shows,
the name of the studio you’re writing to, and the software names with your own. But
this gives you an idea of how it can be kept short-and-sweet, while showing your
appreciation for the craft. You need to demonstrate that you’re a total nerd about the art
of character design!
Studio Design Tests
fter applying to a studio by sending them the online link to yourcharacter design
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portfolio, you may receive a design test from themso that they can determine where
your skill sets are and to see if you can adapt to their production’s art style. You’ll be
given reference and you’ll need to create a small cast of new characters (or a
turnaround for a single character) that matches the art direction provided to you. Your
ability to match the style of the property while showing your originality, accuracy,
consistency, and creativity will determine if you get accepted on the team. Make sure
you know what the parameters are, do they want color, how many views to draw, and
what the deadline is. Exceed their expectations by drawing clean, keeping the characters
alive, expressive, distinct, non-ambiguous, and instantly-recognizable.
by Ray Santos
hese tests are sometimes paid, but usually not, and they are structured to test
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your creativity, resourcefullness, to see where your skill levels are at, and to see if
your style (and interpretation of their style) are a good fit for their production. It’s
essentially acting like ajob interview, like whenthere’s try-outs for athletes to
see if they qualify to be in the competition or a member of the team. If hired, they
send you the contract with the details outlined on the specifics of the job.
by Karen Lessmann
ometimes a design test will consist of designing several versions of a single concept,
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like when the employer wants to see 10 iterations of the same character. Here, the
design test is to design a Mailman in the style ofLoud House:
And here, to design Lori’s Boyfriend:
by Jerry Suh
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● dvice from Chris Battle
● Advice from Dennise Casurra
Salaries
n the subject of salaries and pay rates, when you get a character design job - this all
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depends on many different factors: Average hours of work, amount of designs being
asked of you, deadlines and expected output speed, amount of revisions being asked on
you to do, your personal level of experience, how much is involved with each design
(2-point turnaround? Full 8-point turnaround? Head angles? Poses/Expressions/Mouth
Charts/Color?). So there’s many elements involved, which is why a good starting point is
to settle on for yourself at adaily rate.
his means that regardless of whether you only do 3 characters per week with full
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turnarounds and color and two revision passes, or 10 characters per week with only two
views and one revisions pass, you assume that your are full time, exclusive to this
studio/director/client, and if you are consistent at putting in 8-9 hours per day (5 days
per week) of work, and that is how much you are willing to dedicate to this production
and to this client - then your fair rate of pay can be determined from that.
he daily rate system:
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The client may want to pay a certain amount per hour or a certain amount per character,
this is fine, from this info you can determine thedaily rateyou’re comfortable with,
knowing you’ll work full time, 8-9 hours per day, then you can easily determine what is
fair and reasonable. Perhaps the client only has enough work for you to do 2 or 3 days
per week? Then your daily rate still applies
or example, if you set your daily rate to be$200per day-- Then it doesn’t matter how
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many characters per week, or how many revisions on your designs are requested. From
this rate (or whatever rate you feel is fair) you can determine how much your income
would be for a weekly rate or a per-character rate (on average).
<< This is only an example, it’s between you and your employer (and the
production budget) what the adequate rate should be based on the work and the
schedule >>
You know you’re working 8 to 9 hours daily. This may translate into 5 characters in one
week with 4-point turnarounds and color for each, or it may be only 2 characters
because the client wanted to see several rounds of rough concepts and then had a few
passes of notes on your turnaround views and color passes. Either way, your TIME
coincides with yourrate of pay.
I f the client wants to pay you $500 per character and each character is a 5-point
turnaround, clean line-art, no color, only two rounds of notes at the rough and color
stages, at a rate of3 characters per week, and thatis the agreed-upon consistency of
work - then you must determine if this is do-able in the time constraints laid out. Once
the style is established, are you able to do that amount of work to meet their weekly
quota? If you are able to do this amount of work within the 40-45 hour time span to
complete it, then you are meeting your personaldailyrate, and your client is receiving
the adequate amount of designs from you, so everyone is happy; the client gets the
characters from you, and you are getting paid well for the work.
I f the client wants to pay you $1500 per week, flat rate, with a yet-to-be-determined
amount of work per week, then make certain the deadlines are realistic, as they can
quickly overlap, as we’ve seen in this document there can be many stages in the
creative process simply in attempting to find the character’s personality in the design
along with locking down the style itself. This could have you spending weeks in the
oncept art phase, and then weeks to go through approvals for costumes, turn-around
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views, colors, and the many other technical aspects to complete the design sheets.
here are a few factors to consider:
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Is there an established character design style to follow? If not, how many days or weeks
of time is there for you (or someone) to do the necessary visual development ahead of
time in order to ascertain the design style? If there’s lots of steady feedback - how long
will this feedback from the director/client take? Be aware (and make your boss aware)
that the development side of the design could take several weeks, and could be treated
as its own contract or its own project. Because when it comes to discovering the style,
then this one first character could take WEEKS to complete, and only once this style is
locked down then the creation of the other characters will go much much faster.
gain, you expect a daily rate no matter what, they arepaying for your time, if it’s
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$250/day, then you know you will commit a certain number of hours weekly to help get
the production’s character development style into view and made to their liking. How
this gets quantified is up to them. The norm is to get paid every two weeks for the work
performed during the time of theprevioustwo weeks.At first the nature of the work can
present itself in a few different ways. It could mean exploring lots of different styles
before even a single character is approved. But once the first one is approved, it sets up
the template for all other characters to follow on the same visual path.
haracter #1 could take 3 weeks to complete, as you’ll be required to discover or refine
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the style for the main lead character(s) that will have the most time on-screen, but after
that you can be creating a single-view character at a rate of 1 to 4 per day, so your
output will accelerate considerably. Your personal speed translates into the amount of
work output. The more efficient you are at producing a higher rate of characters per
week, the more valuable an employee you become to them.
ou may be asked to fill out timesheets; these are logs that they will ask from you for
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how many hours you do weekly. You may only do 20 hours of actual work on a particular
week if you were put on pause while approvals were waiting to come in and you didn’t
have other tasks to work on in the meantime.
I f the style is already established, then it’s up to you to start drawing/designing in that
style as quickly as possible, which might mean your first few characters will take lots
more rounds of revisions and notes before you can get on-track. Which might mean
you’ll need to put in more unpaid overtime in the first two weeks so that you can get
your skills up to the standards required. There’s nothing worse than falling behind
schedule within just the first week or two of production, but don’t worry, this is VERY
common. Clients and directors will expect you to get accustomed to the style as soon as
possible.
his is a very normal expectation for the animation industry, and then after the first
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week or two you should be in a more solid groove and in a more consistent routine for
your own personal workflow. As with ANY new production, the first couple weeks are the
most difficult, as you might struggle to find your footing, and you will need to burn more
hours of time in order to prevent falling too far behind, along with absorbing lots of
notes and feedback on your designs.
ry to figure out what the parameters are and how to get into a workflow, from week to
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week it might vary a lot, for example:
eek 1
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2 Main Characters - Rough Concepts
2 Secondary Characters - Rough Concepts
eek 2
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2 Main Characters - Revisions - Rough Concepts
2 Secondary Characters - Approved - Produce Clean Line art and 4 point
turnaround
eek 3
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4 Character Redress - Re-use Old Secondary Characters and place new costumes
and new color scheme
2 Main Characters - Approved - Produce Clean Line art and 4 point turnaround
2 Main Characters - Produce Roughs of up and down head angles
eek 4
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2 Secondary Characters - Line Art Approved - Produce Color pass
2 Main Characters - Revisions - On 4 point turnaround
2 Main Character Props - Backpacks, Goggles, Walking Stick
4 Character Redress - Revisions
eek 5
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4 Character Redress - Revisions
2 Main Characters Turnarounds - Approved - Produce Color pass
2 Secondary Characters - Revisions on Color
2 Main Character Props - Revisions
2 Main Characters - Revisions on head angles - Revise and make line art version
eek 6
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2 Main Characters - Mouth Charts (3 views each for happy/sad)
2 Main Characters - Rough Poses (6) and Expressions (6)
2 Main Character Props - Color pass
4 Character Redress - Color pass
New Main Characters Rough Concepts
1
3 New Secondary Characters Rough Concepts
ee how every week’s tasks tend to pile up, and there’s lots of different aspects to take
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care of. By the 6th week there’s at least 8 days of work compressed in there. As you
wait on notes, the tasks begin to overlap, so be mindful of the hours you put in. Keep
track of the assignments you’re given,stay organizedwith all the stages needed to be
completed for each task, and which stage of approval each design is in. Always triple
check to make sure you re-read all the notes and that you cover everything that is
required of you to change or implement in your work.
he longer it takes for your client/director to come back with notes on a design you
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submitted, the higher the chances of overlapping tasks will accumulate. Simply take into
account that there will always be some unforeseen circumstances and you don’t have
control over these circumstances - like how long it takes for designs to be reviewed or
approved. Sometimes it needs to go through several levels of approvals, filtering
through many different people. After a design is complete it can take several weeks
before feedback returns to you, sometimes it can take just a few hours. It depends how
many people need to see it, how readily accessible they are, how quick they are in
providing comments and criticism, how fast they are with other aspects of the
production, and how fast they are at reviewing and handing out notes.
( \_/)
( •_•)
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f the workload becomes too much to handle, there’s a few ways for you to
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tackle the situation:
- S ee if the over abundance of work will be temporary, like only for this week where
everything converged and coincidentally multiple deadlines have fallen on dates
that merged in the same week, then you can push through this exception and do
the extra time and effort to get the job done.
- Is the style of the designs more difficult and demanding than originally expected,
or more laborious than initially agreed upon, then you talk to your
supervisor/director/production manager and see what can be done to alleviate the
work, extend deadlines or have the volume of work and/or notes be reduced?
Otherwise, deadlines will be missed, request an assistant to help you in your
tasks, or inform your supervisor of the delays, make a prediction as to the date of
completion and make certain you meet that date.
- Unforeseen circumstances like the clients being unable to be decisive in their notes
or creative decisions have led to a pile up of designs having to be redone,
disrupting the flow of work and forcing you to spend more time than predicted to
complete the designs that were assigned to you. Communicate with your direct
lead, inform them of your progress, your estimated time of completion, the
reasons why you will need more time to finish the work, and discuss strategies on
how you can get help, so that the work can continue to go through the pipeline
without causing more delays.
- There might be ways for you to be more efficient in your work. Does the client
trust you to bring the design task to the next stage if what you complete will
include the revisions they gave you? Therefore reducing the number of passes,
and making you consolidate more stages of approval to make things go faster with
less submission & review time, which means less wait-time and less overlapping
tasks.
hese tactics can help to prevent you from being overwhelmed with too many assets to
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complete at one time. Or perhaps MORE stages of review are needed in order to prevent
unnecessary work from being done. If you produce lots of clean, polished artwork only
for it to be torn apart and rebuilt from scratch, then maybe to have a few rough stages
as concept passes in the beginning would work better to prevent unnecessary revisions.
This way you’re not wasting time making too much clean line art, only to have it
re-done.
his works best for more hands-on directors and creative producers that are artists
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themselves, doing quick rough thumbnails for them with lots of options and variations
for them to choose from will have them see and understand your work, and depending
on the director they may love to do draw-overs or sketches to help visualize their
revisions for you.
his route works best when clients tend to approve a design at the rough stage but then
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change their minds at the next clean/color stage. It’s faster to do these concepts, and
will minimize the revisions later as you gradually refine the process and hone in on the
pproved look. This way creates more submissions and more review stages, but each
a
stage is quicker and faster to do, and makes things slow at the start with lots of
revisions as you are searching for the proper design. But the process is faster at the
end, because it increases the chances of not having to re-do work and then once roughs
are approved, all the other stages are simply working off of that approved work to bring
it to the next stage more smoothly.
lso be prepared to accept the fact there will be periodic times when work will pile up
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and will seem overwhelming, just know that the wave will pass.
very project is different, when you are getting overwhelmed talk to your
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supervisor/boss/client about how to relieve the pressure or to push back deadline dates.
I n terms of your weekly salary or hourly rate, you rarely have room to negotiate. All the
strategies outlined above are for you to use in various situations. Later on in your career,
once you have lots of experience under your belt, there’s a better chance to arrange and
haggle on your salary as your skill sets, speed, and experience will make you (as an
artist) of higher value to their production and the studio at large. In the first few years
of your career as a character designer you are still learning the ways of the production
pipeline and what works best for your own workflow. In terms of salary, you can base
the many combinations oflabor vs time vs incomebystarting with thedaily rate
system, and work your way up or down from there. How much do you value a full day of
ork to be for your skills? Assess the difficulty and demands of the production, adjust
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your rate accordingly and then compare with their contract offer. As you grow older and
increase those skill points, that rate gradually increases.
Commissions
hile waiting on feedback from the animation studios on your application submissions,
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or design tests, or just during your free time between work contracts, many artists do
online freelance work through commissions. There’s lots of advice for freelancers out
there for how commissions work, from one-time gigs to full-time regular client work, and
online character illustration requests, including portraits and caricatures. Commissions
are far more informal and very casual, a simple agreement between you and a client.
or one-on-one commission work like this, where you do a single illustration for an
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individual, there’s no need for signing contracts.
here’s varying opinions on how artists should handle commission work, seehereand
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herefor just a few of the many guides you can findon the subject. With this advice in
mind you’ll have all the info you need to dive into this realm, here’s some additional tips
on self-promotion:
● How to Market Yourself on Social Media
Freelancing
ere are some contracts to use for more professional works onbigger projectsto
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consider using between you and your clients:
● Professional Artist / Client Toolkit
hese are pre-made contracts where you really only have to fill in the blanks with your
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name, date and signatures for whatever occasions, be it cease and desist / original
artwork / commission work / all rights for limited time purposes. Read these contract
templates and arm yourself with them, and be sure to use the appropriate ones. These
are for you to use as anindependent artist, for bigprojects between you and an
individual, purely for freelance work, not to be used for character design studio tests
from animation/game companies.
An article by Mark Mayerson:
I f you are not on salary or working under a contract and somebody asks you to produce
some art or character designs, here are the things you need to know in writing before
you start work.
•How much will you be paid and what is the paymentschedule?
•Are there royalties or other compensation you areentitled to in the future?
•What are the specifics of the work you are providing?
•What format are you delivering the work in?
•When is the work due?
hen there is the question of rights. What exactly are you selling in exchange for the
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money?
•Are you selling the work outright?
•Are you selling the work only for a specific use?
•Are you selling the work for a limited amount oftime?
•Is the sale for exclusive or non-exclusive rightsto use the work?
•Will the artist get screen credit or be allowedto sign the work?
I f the client provides this information in a written document, you have the right to ask
for changes to anything that is specified. The client has the right to say no, but so do
you. An agreement implies that both parties (the client and the artist) see eye to eye on
conditions under which the work will be produced.
ou also have the right to consult a lawyer, agent or other professional on the
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agreement before signing it.
here is a tendency for artists to be so thrilled that somebody wants their work that they
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skip all of the above or worse, they agree to work on spec. Spec work, (work done on
speculation), means that the artist produces work for a client with no promise of
payment. There are also cases where a client promises no money but offers the benefit
of experience or exposure.
here is a word that describes working for free: slavery. Slavery can only occur through
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force, which we have not yet sunk to in North America, or complicity, where the artist
agrees to be a slave.
here are occasions where artists may choose to work for free. Work gets donated to a
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charity or done to help a friend or family member. But if a profit making company is
asking for artwork, they should pay for it and all of the above conditions should be met.
lease note that the above is different from pitching. In that case, you are creating the
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artwork for yourself and hope to interest a buyer in it. If no payment is forthcoming, you
are free to take that artwork elsewhere to try to market it. Doing free work for yourself
is different from doing free work at the request of a profit-making company.
I 'm going to talk about two instances that I've been consulted on in the recent past. I
have to be vague so as not to break any confidence.
I n the first case, a distributor was interested in a student film made by a Sheridan
graduate. The distributor wanted non-exclusive theatrical rights and exclusive rights for
DVD, TV, internet and merchandising. In exchange for these rights, the distributor was
willing to pay $50. I told the grad that for the low fee, none of the rights should be
exclusive. If the grad had the opportunity to sell the film again in any market, he should
be able to do it. The student asked for changes to the contract and the rights were made
non-exclusive.
I n the second case, a college grad from an animation program was commissioned by a
company to produce a short film for a fee. When the film was delivered, the grad was
told that the person who commissioned the film didn't have authorization to do it. The
company was sorry and felt bad about it, but could only offer the grad half the agreed
upon fee as a gesture of good will. The grad asked me for advice. I warned the grad that
if she made a fuss, there was a chance that the company would refuse all payment. The
grad wanted to proceed anyway, so I counseled the grad to tell them that she had an
email from a company employee and she looked upon that as a contract. If there was a
problem, it was between the company and the employee, not the company and her. If
they didn't pay her in full, she would publicize the fact that the company had ripped her
off and would warn other artists not to do work for the company. Furthermore, if the
company didn't pay the full fee and used the work, she would sue the company for
copyright infringement.
he company responded that they regretted her aggressive tone. This is known as
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blaming the victim. However, they did agree to paythe full fee.
here is no shortage of companies looking to take advantage of young artists. It is
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important to understand the proper way to do business, demanding a signed, written
greement that covers the payment, the rights, the deadline, and the deliverables,
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before the artwork is created. Your art and your time are what you are selling as a
professional. If you work for free or don't proceed in a professional manner, you are
merely a hobbyist and you are hurting people who are professionals in this industry.
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here’s varying opinions on how to break into freelancing, here’s a few tips:
X/X/X/X/X
Staying Productive
our journey in learning has only begun! Here are a few strategies that can really help
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boost your creativity and productivity:
1. Have a Designated Creative Space
ecause of the way our brains are wired, it can be much easier to get creative if your
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brain associates a specific location with your artistic practice. So, allocate a nice,
comfortable space for yourself. Whether it's a desk, couch, bed, or even somewhere
outdoors that you enjoy. The most important thing about whatever creative space you
pick is that it should be cozy and functional. Remember to make sure your tools are also
easily accessible in or nearby this space!
2. Start a Multi-Part Project
great way to motivate yourself to get creative immediately is to set yourself a project
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that requires multiple different pieces. Maybe it's a small comic, a collection of paintings,
a series of character profiles or even just participating in a month-long art challenge. By
providing yourself with an ongoing project you are going to add structure and stability to
your creativity and ensure that you are practicing and developing your skills more
consistently. This could just be a simple low-intensity self-improvement schedule, like
this:Artist Starter Plan
“ Always, always invest in yourself, invest in your ideas,
and in your passions. Regret can be worse than failure.”
- Larry F. Houston
3. 15-Minutes a Day
5 minutes a day seems pretty easy, right? By setting yourself an achievable amount of
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practice time you are much more likely to be consistent. You aren’t always going to have
infinite time each day to practice, and setting larger time goals can make creativity feel
like a daunting chore! So, aim for just 15 minutes a day, some days you might even
start and then decide you feel like creating for hours instead! Either way, you will be
achieving your goal. During these 15 minutes, focus on drawing/painting a new style, or
learning a new piece of software, or just watching a tutorial for a new software or
technique.
4. Create a List
hen you are experiencing art block it can be great to have a list of ideas that inspire
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you. So, next time you are feeling super motivated and full of awesome ideas, note
them down on your phone or in your sketchbook. That way, when you are struggling to
come up with new ideas, you will always have a list to refer back to!
5. Take Breaks
very hour, take a 5 minute break. It’s important to get up, stretch, look out the window
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to get your eyes adjusted to focusing on distant objects again, hydrate, or get some
coffee/snacks in you, but doing this refreshes your brain too, it’s a mini-reset, before
getting back down to focusing on the work.
6. Just Get Started
et’s call it'u
L sing inertia'. It’s a million timeseasier to keep doing something once you
have started. So if I don’t feel like working out I tell myself I’ll just do a short work out.
Or if the dishes need to be done I’ll tell myself to do one. More often than not, once I
start doing something my brain stops fighting so much against it. It’s a psychological
trick you play on yourself to get motivated.
he important thing though is to let yourself only do the short workout or that one dish
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if you start and still are fighting yourself. Otherwise you just don’t start in the first place
because you know you are really talking about doing the whole thing.
lso known as the 'Theory of Momentum'. Usually, it's the initial push, the start, which is
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the most challenging or difficult, but once we start what we want to do and build up
momentum, continuing that task is easier. The same can be said about going from one
task to another. If you go to work, then immediately go to the gym - cook dinner - put
away laundry, without taking a rest between each task, accomplishing each becomes
easier. The momentum helps you to flow from one task to the next without having to
expend that initial starting energy for each individual task. Sketchbook drawing and
character design should be approached the same way.
7. Don’t Stop Learning
ou’ll never stop learning. Art and design is a life-long journey of this non-stop habit of
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exploration and discovery, where practice will never make perfect, it will only lead to
more practice, and that’s OK. Be inspired by other people’s journeys like:
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● dvice for Starting Out
● Drawing Advice by Cam from Struthless
● Kyle Webster’s Illustration Masterclass
● Pro Artists’ Secrets to Their Success
● Art is Hard byMattias Pilhede
● Brooke Eggleston’s Ways to Break The Rules
● A Conversation on Character Design with Shiyoon Kim and Jin Kim
● Jason Wang’s Drawing Fundamentals
earn the rules, so you know how to break them properly!
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Collect and absorb all the knowledge from all the books available online like:
The Character Designer/Fundamentals of CharacterDesign
ontinue to expand your knowledge from other inexpensive online programs like the
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Learning Character Development and Designcourse,theSchoolism Expressive Character
Designcourse, theSilver Drawing Academy, theAaronBlaise Creature Designcourse,
Evan Cheng’sCharacter Design Course, Jesse LeDoux’sBuilding Your Character, Brookes
Eggleston’sLearn Character Designcourse, Tony Bancroft’sDrawing Character Poses
with Personalitycourse, and Mitch Leeuwe’sDrawingFundamentals Tutorials. Also, make
ure to collect as manybooksas you can, along with any other well-establishedanatomy
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books.
here’s so many videos to learn from, that tackle the same methods and theories
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covered in this document, but in slightly different ways and from various points of view,
consume and devour all of it:
Designing with Shapes 1
Designing with Shapes 2
Designing with Shapes3
Designing with Shapes 4
Designing with Shapes 5
Designing with Shapes 6
8. Practice Practice Practice
efore starting your daily work, try getting into the habit of completing 5-10 minutes of
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warm-up exercises.
earch for and discover any online trends you could participate in, for examplethis
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exercisewhere you pick a movie celebrity or pop culturecharacter and draw them in
various styles.
ractice merging styles together into cartoon mash-ups, like how Dirk Schulz re-skinned
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some classic characters:
Tom & Jerrydrawn in theAmerican Dad&Family Guystyle
And Savannah Alexandra drawing Pokémon in the Chuck Jones style:
Dive into more complex areas, like giant monster designs:
→Watchthis videoby Scott Flanders on his drawingprocess.
reate some tasks and artistic experiments for yourself. See how master cartoonist
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Mike Holmespursued a personalprojectto flex hisartistic muscles by producing a pose
of himself (and his cat) in anew styleeach week.He chose certain properties,
illustrators, and comic artists as his inspiration, and created a great collection of self
portraits. He learned a lot about himself, and it made him explore & discover new
drawing habits, which quickly expanded his skill sets in the process.
Cram as many different characters as you can on one page:
9. Organize Your Self-Improvement Lessons
ou should start by setting aside time to draw every day. This might be 30 minutes or it
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might be 4 hours (or even more, depending on the time you choose to commit to this).
The point is to stick with this timeevery singledayto never avoid drawing.
“It’s not about the journey, it’s not about the destination,
it’s about the person you become on the journey.”
- Jimmy Carr
ou might have some days where you can’t make the time because of an unforeseen
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circumstance. If that’s the case just move your drawing to the next day. Or tack on extra
time throughout the week to make up for lost drawing hours.
he point of working with a rigid schedule is that it keeps you honest. Every day you’ll
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be working towards building a subconscious routine that just sorta happens whether
you’re thinking about it or not.
I t really doesn’t matter what you’re drawing in the beginning. If you never had
much practicedrawing as a child- doodling in yourschool scribblers and such,
that’s totally fine, most likely you need to catch up for that lost time, and do lots
of line mileage now, to get your skill levels up!
he benefit of being a newbie is that you can draw pretty much anything and
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improve. If you drew lines for 30 minutes a day you’d see your line work improve.
But at some point you will need to actually start focusing your drawing efforts and
trying to practice certain skills.
eginners rarely know where to start. This is why it’s so difficult to jump right into
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drawing because there’s so much to learn and there’s no specific direction to walk.
o handle this just organize a small lesson plan that fits into the time you have. If you’re
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only drawing for 1 hour each day then you might do a breakdown of 20 minutes of
gesture drawing, 20 minutes of shape drawing, and 20 minutes of geometric/perspective
drawing.
hen first getting started you need to put the most effort into your fundamentals.
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It’s fine to make time for fun drawing. But this isn’t real focused practice and won’t
yield the quickest rate of growth.
ake yourself a lesson plan that moves between different topics. Practice perspective for
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a few weeks and then move onto value or anatomy. Switch between different subjects so
that you give yourself a well rounded art education.
or inspiration - observe, search through, save and study online boards like these
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character design studies, along with many manyonlinevisual libraries, and purchase
good books!
I t cannot be stressed enough: the importance of getting on a schedule. It is
possible to just draw whenever you have free time. But that sort of loosey-goosey
scheduling isn’t how you build consistent month-over-month progress.
Regimented, continuous, steady - with a list of topics, subjects and items to mark
off to practice on.
I f you stick with it and get into the habit of drawing every single day, then you’re
guaranteed to see improvements. Self-motivation and perseverance will help you get
through the early stages. Learning art has little to do with inspiration and everything to
do with hard work. Just like working out your muscles, consistency is the key, always!
An Article by Clara Lieu, Visual Arts Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design:
rawing is a highly complex beast which involves so many different elements at various
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skill levels. Rather than get into all of those details, I'm going to boil it down to four
fundamental directives that will help improve your drawing abilities across all skill levels
and media.
) Draw from direct observation
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This sounds so simple, and yet I'm appalled at how many artists don't work from direct
observation when they are looking to improve their drawing skills. Photographs may be
convenient and easier to work from, but they're a cheap shortcut that will lead to the
development of all sorts of bad habits. The amount of information that a photograph has
pales in comparison to seeing a subject in real life. This is not to say that one should
never ever in their lifetime work from a photograph; I work from photographs all the
time now.
owever, I'm able to do this because I've developed skills based on many, many years of
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working from direct observation.
When you work from life, you experience your subject matter in a way that a
photograph could never allow you to: you can touch your subject, smell it, walk around
it, and see the subject within the context of its environment. This overall sensory
experience is vital towards your understanding of your subject matter and will translate
into your drawing.
rawing is as much about learning how to see as it is about the marks that you put on
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the page. Experiencing your subject in real life will teach you how to hone your skills in
observation. The skills that you will gain from working from direct observation will
tremendously inform and support your ability to work from all sorts of other references.
) Practice daily
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Drawing is very similar to athletics. If you were an athlete, you would have a rigid
schedule of training set up that you would adhere to. Drawing is the same way: it
requires serious focus, rigorous training, and intense physical stamina. Every time you
sit down to draw, it's an opportunity to sharpen your eye, and become more proficient in
coordinating your mind and eye with the physical movements of your arm and hand.
Many people get impatient with drawing and expect results right away. You have to be
committed, and be able to recognize that improvement is a slow and gradual process.
One would never expect to be an Olympic-level skier after one week of training, the
same way you can't expect to be a master of drawing after working for a few days.
) Look at historical drawings
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Go to the library and check out books (or goonline)that feature drawings by historical
artists. The drawings that you'll learn the most from are gesture drawings and quick
sketches done in sketchbooks. In these quick sketches you'll get to see all of the visual
evidence: you get to see all of the mistakes, all of the troubleshooting that happens in
an artist's drawing process. This is what is so unique about drawing that you won't see
in other media like painting and sculpture -- the opportunity to see traces of an artist's
process in a drawing. Investigate and analyze what kinds of strategies these artists take
in their drawing process and try to use them in your own.
) Practice gesture drawing
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If you can do strong gesture drawings, you've already won half the battle. Gesture
drawings are the core of any drawing, they capture the essence of what a drawing is
trying to say in just a few strokes, in just a few minutes. The first two minutes of a
drawing are critical in that they lay the foundation for the rest of the drawing. It doesn't
matter how polished your drawing is if the initial gesture isn't there to begin with.
By Maaike Scherff
I deally, one should practice gesture drawing from a nude model, but if you don't have
access to a model, there are plenty of other options. You can go to a local cafe and
sketch people sitting in the cafe, or draw a bunch of friends who are hanging out. One of
my friends always liked going to the beach to draw because people sit still, and they're
practically naked anyway. I had a peer in art school who used to go to college parties
and draw all of the drunk people sitting around. Get creative and find as many contexts
as possible where you can practice your gesture drawing.
ry out free onlineFigure Drawingclasses and resources(warning - nudity):X/X/X/
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X/X/X/X/X/X
o create a strong gesture, it's important to keep your arm moving and circulating
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throughout the page, moving from top to bottom, side to side, very quickly. Start very,
very light with marks that barely show on the page. This allows you to make lots of
mistakes that will not show later because they'll be so light. Develop all of the parts of
the drawing together so that you don't neglect any area. Try to aim for continuous
movements and fluid lines rather than fragmenting your lines into choppy marks. Look
at your subject more than you look at your drawing; your subject is where the
information is. Keep your gesture drawings about two to five minutes in length, any
longer than that it's too easy to get lazy and fall back into bad habits.
Figure Drawings byMatt Cassan
10. Carry Your Own Sketchbook
very professional artist has a sketchbook and knows how to use it. This is a big part of
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being an artist as you can go out into the real world and draw real stuff.
ou can findhelpful guidesthat teach you the basicsofdrawingin a sketchbook. But it’s
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ultimately just a way to loosen up and draw away from the computer. This is especially
useful for concept artists who plan to work digitally, but character designers need to
practice in their sketchbooks too!
heMoleskine sketchbookstend to be the most popular and they’re super easy to carry
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with you. All you need is any drawing utensil (pencil or pen) and some free time. The
sketchbooks are lightweight and easy to handle in any climate, and search around
there’s plenty ofless expensivealternatives.
ook into this guide onchoosing the best sketchbookto find one that works for your
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needs and goals.
henever you’re on a trip that might break your typical routine, the sketchbook
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can keep you on task. Even 15 mins of daily drawing & doodling is better than
nothing. You just want to keep yourself in that mindset of putting pencil to paper
every single day.
reat this littlesketchbookas your personal scrapbookfor new ideas, or to test out
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ideas, doodles and designs and characters and creatures and plants of all sorts. Be
willing to try stuff and don’t feel like anything in your sketchbook is finished work.
You never have to show anybody your drawings, because they’re really only for
you to practice freely without limitations or judgment.
An alternative exercise to do, is to fill a sketchbook in 30 days, as story artist Matt Jones
once didhere.
And check out his techniques in his fast and loose gesture drawing videoshere.
heck outthis posttalking about how to train yourselffor steady drawing
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improvements. There’s a recommended schedule (if you don’t have a full-time job) of
drawing 5 hours per day: 2 in the morning, 1 after lunch and 2 in the evening.
Not everyone will have time for this but it gives you a solid model to attempt.
hen you are not working at a job, it’s important to keep upgrading and
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improving your skill levels. Whether it’s perspective, anatomy, clothing, plants,
buildings, animals, or whatever, find aspects you’re weakest at, and focus on ways
to improve upon them:Sketching tips to help elevateyour skills
rawing for 5 hours is much better than 1 or 2, and you’ll seeimprovementsquicker
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which will then positively impact your confidence too. Even if you can do it 10-20
minutes per day, even if it’s entirely digital sketching too, every little bit helps. Stay
focused, keep practicing.
“ The best way to draw in your sketchbook? The messier the better, just
let it all out. Doodles, scribbles, notes, sketches, finished drawings ...
everything. Trying to keep your sketchbooks neat and tidy with only
"nice" drawings can actually end up holding you back from making the
leaps of progress that truly-free experimentation allows. That's not to
say your sketchbook can't be neat, or tidy, or have beautiful drawings,
but if you make those things your exclusive goal, you may be missing
out on a big part of what a sketchbook can do for you and your art. At
its best a sketchbook is not your best-ofs.” - LorenzoEtherington
Sketchbook doodles by Laura Horobin
11. Work Habits
ere is a collection of videos/podcasts on various subjects, from advice on career paths,
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to tips & tricks for illustrators about learning new techniques:School of Visual
Storytelling
nimator, Patrick Smith has some good tips and strategies on healthy work habits and
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how to set yourself up to efficiently work-from-home:Staying Productive and Motivated
work ethic isa personal set of values that determineshow any employee approaches
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their work. Artists with strong work ethics are highlymotivated and produce consistently
high-quality results.Costume designer, special effectsartist, and model-maker Adam
Savage has great advice about learning from your mistakes:Don’t Take Things
Personally
ractice ‘Monk Mode’— inspired by the disciplinedlifestyle of monks — refers tointense
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periods of uninterrupted focus to optimize productivity.It involves hyper-concentration
on a single task and removing all distractions:BeProductive with Immersion and Focus
Nothing will serve you better than a strong work ethic. Nothing. And it's
“
something that you can't teach. You have to be thrown into it, where
you're going to sink or swim.” - Robert Downey Jr.
12. Compile References / Do Some Studies
few habits you must motivate yourself in doing before every big design task, but also
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to do in general when you are out of work and waiting on your next job - hone your
skills, work on any weaknesses…
ractice your techniques, gather & collect references, and always
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explore and experiment different methods to improve your
draftsmanship:
ll the imagery shown above was gathered from Pinterest as a way to gather
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various designs and how-to-draw guides for certain things. Creating reference
boards like this for yourself is vital for exploring facets you might be weaker in.
Cataloging visual information like this will help you to learn how to design
these assets in the future.
ow to breakdown and learn from the references you save &
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compile…
Here’s a post from the amazing,HelpfulHarry:
o let's make Bad Art of a Deer because I happen to have one
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handy
tart with a photo of your subject in a nice/neutral pose with all four feet visible (so not
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like me).
reehand copy it. Try not to stylize, focusing instead of matching proportions and pose.
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Don't get too detailed!
itherlasso + distortor redraw a copy of your firstsketch with your reference behind it
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(scaled to match the main body of your sketch).
ut the original and modified sketches together and compare the differences. Write it
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down if you want. This shows you where your eyes saw things the wrong size, so you
can correct for that next time.
I t's ok if your art looks terrible and has broken legs. I've drawn LOTS of deer so I have a
leg up. Everyone's art sucks in their own eyes and here's where mine went wrong:Video
After learning about both deer and yourself, try freehand copying again.
Marvel at your newfound knowledge and skill!
But there's always room for improvement…
ou can stop here and move on to your real drawing, Or do another
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freehand-fix-compare cycle. I actually overcorrected my "draws heads too big" and
veered into "heads too small."
nother note on tracing: Learning HOW to trace is more important than anything you
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could learn By tracing. Draw the Anatomy, not the outline. In real life, things don't have
outlines, they have bones.
hese are from the same shoot which is extra useful for consistency. The lines are
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minimal and follow where the animal's joints are, and only important parts are drawn.
ou won't know whatImportant Partsmeans right offthe bat, which is where in-depth
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study comes in. You need to do this over and over, to learn the hard parts, to do the
easy parts right.
How to study Bones and Muscles
" Study the anatomy” “Study the anatomy" but they never tell you HOW. It's not "read a
book," It's more like flailing around wildly and crashing your browser from too many
tabs.
his is all about How tomakea bones and muscle chart.Because even if your art sucks,
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you learn so much more by doing than by seeing, finding skeletal and muscle anatomy
references online. Get set up. Get photos, like below, but it doesn't have to be the same
photos. And now...gather and organize references.
References I gathered:XXXXXXXX
e'll start with bones. Search up "[animal] skeleton" and get photos or super scientific
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illustrations. Add in things like "top view" to spice it up.
ext, search "[animal] skeleton sketchfab." This pulls up 3D models that you can rotate
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in your browser. Remember that these are art and the anatomy is only as good as the
artist, so pick a good one.
Time for bone!
he spine is the most important, and in a lot of animals it will surprise you. Draw it in
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over your photo and then add spikes because skeletons are punk. These are not
scientific and I didn't count them because their number doesn't matter to art. So you
better be referencing scientists and not me!
he rest of the bones and some notes. These are my notes tomyselfabout things I want
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to remember. My personal discoveries in anatomy that made my art better. You can
make the same notes but also make sure you have your own thoughts on there as well.
That's how you help yourself the best. Be as detailed or vague as you want.
ame deal with muscle. Here are my personal notes to myself. Label stuff that is
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important to you. I actually grouped a bunch of muscles together based on what is
visible from the outside. Muscles are way more complicated than this, but Baby's First
Anatomy Chart gets to be simple.
his is good enough for me because I have intimate knowledge of the other muscles
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working under and over these ones. Feel free to add as many or as few muscles as you
like. You chart your own course.
his is very VERY much not an anatomical chart. I'm sure there's nerds out there pulling
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their hair out looking at this. But listen, it works for art!
And you know the wildest part about this?
I don't need to look at it to use it. The act of making your own anatomy chart puts that
knowledge in your brain. Like how you can make "cheat sheets" even for tests that don't
allow them - the act of making the sheet helps you remember what you struggle with
most.
nd after all that complexity? Your simplification will be based on Real Knowledge and
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you'll put those random circles in the right spots.
Look at all this hard work you've done. Eventually this will be second nature to you.
nd you can apply this TO ALL HUMAN AND ANIMAL ANATOMY - your skill levels will
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advance VERY quickly the more you do these types of breakdowns and analysis.
Research various things you lack knowledge in, and draw them over and over:
Capes, Cloaks, Hoods
Eyelashes
Wings
hese are just examples. Practice through repetition, find and discover new techniques,
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various styles and different methods to draw different aspects of the design spectrum.
Think about what areas of drawing you are weakest at or most fearful of doing, and
research these areas and make yourself sketch them over and over.
Pitching
reating, developing, and presenting your own properties and ideas for an animated
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series or film is a very big and extensive realm to dive into. Character Design is only one
spect of this grand venture. To successfully develop, pitch and sell your own concept is
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truly the final frontier and the golden ticket of the entire animation industry for any
artist/creator. There’s many books and sites out there that can offer lots of advice on the
subject. However, you must be ready for the big reality that you’ll not only need to
develop the visuals (or find someone to help you do so) but you must also explore the
story development andscriptwritingaspect as well.Storyboardingis something to be
familiar with as well, at the very least try it, and learn about how they are made.
Especially in animation, storyboards are sort of the second half of the writing process.
There’s lots to learn when it comes to creating worlds, creating characters, and writing
for film or episodic television. Here’s some links with a wealth of information to get you
started…
TV Animation Writing Resources
→
→Character Development Resources
→Creating Animated Cartoons: A Guide To Developingand Producing
→Secret Guide: Developing Kids Animated Comedy Series
→Animation Development From Pitch to Production
→How To Pitch & Sell An Animated Series
→Samples of Pitch Packages
How to Start World Building
→
→World Building Tips
→World Building and Storytelling
→World Building Advice
→Character Motivations
→Writing an Outline
→Writing a Pilot
→Writing for Animation
→Writing with Authenticity and Honesty
→The Secret to Character Arcs
→Dan Harmon’s Story Circle
→Robert Mckee’s Principles of Screenwriting
→Creating Character Arcs
→Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat: A Guide to Screenwriting
→Animation Writing and Development
→StoryBeats and Why to Use Them
→Samples of Storyboards for Animated Series
→Sample Scripts and Various Materials on Structure,Formatting, Pitching,
and Creating Writing Guides
Pixar in a Box, has all these chapters containing short videos with story
→
artists going through theories and lessons on visual language, story
structure, and character development.
Brandon McNulty has a growing list of video essays that covers themes,
→
conflict, scene structure, advice on dialogue, creating dynamic & memorable
characters, and many more topics onhis channel.
Olan Rogers has comprehensive and unique guides for how to develop
→
your own animated series with entertaining insight and strategies onhis
channel.
ere's some advice from Aaron Ehasz, the head writer ofAvatar The Last Airbenderfor
H
all aspiring writers and character creators:
Epilogue
hat’s it!
T
If you had fun doing these assignments, in the sense that it felt creative, liberating, and
not a chore to do, then this might be your calling. Keep pursuing this, keep pushing
yourself, keep practicing, keep applying to animation or video game studios (even if they
don’t have job postings), and you’ll soon find yourself earning a living doing this work.
You can now create characters of your own, in your own style and show the stages of
progression in your online portfolio. Stay focused on your tasks and the growth of your
kills. Stay committed to the work, and devoted to the production you will be in. Your
s
efforts will pay off. The value of your expertise will rise the more you dedicate yourself
to the craft!
epetition is the master of all skill. Compete only with yourself, never with others.
R
Always seek out ways to better yourself, because you’re only in competition with
your own self - slow, steady, consistent progress is the secret.
Never say:“How did they do that?” --Always ask:“How do I do that?”
I f you would like MORE character design projects to practice various styles with, simply
go back toAssignments 5,7,8,9,10,11,12and choosea different property from the
lists that you haven’t tried yet. In this document there’s 28 styles in all, but feel free to
search out other old or modern character designs from all the various series & films out
there. Delve into as many as you can, and practice drawing other styles, there are
hundreds more to choose from.
laces likeArt of Animation - Production Design Archiveand theCharacter Design
P
Visual Library&Living Lines Libraryhave countlessdesign work from other
properties to use as reference for more practice, simply create your OWN
assignments to expand your portfolio.
I mprove quickly bycopying & tracing & breaking downall the model sheets, concept
art, illustrations, production design images and character poses you can find. It’s the
ne true way to accelerate your learning and improve your draftsmanship. Don’t claim
o
these trace-offs as your own creations, of course, but use them for practice and
self-improvement. Your brain will inherently know and learn the patterns of shapes,
contours, and forms you do to create these images, and it will instinctively benefit your
art skills greatly.
“People want to find their passion.
But you don’t find it, you create it.
And you create it by getting good at something.
And to get good at stuff, you start by doing something you suck at.
Then, you get good.
Then, you like it.
Then, people ask you how you found your passion.
Answer: By starting when you sucked and not giving up.”
— Alex Hormozi
nd finally, here is a document about how to prevent repetitive stress disorder and other
A
injuries that can happen from drawing for too many hours, or from working at a
computer for long periods of time, along with some advice on exercising, nutrition, sleep
guides, and how to manage burn-out:Health & Wellness
Good luck!
eel free to report dead links, revise me on proper artists’ credits, submit to me
F
your assignments for feedback, and send me requests or any questions about
these exercises:[email protected]
Donations
o keep these sites alive, updated, and available to all, donations of any sorts are
T
welcome and greatly appreciated:
Donorbox
Paypal
Ko-fi
Buy Me a Coffee
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