Here he talks to us through his career and shares his tips for getting started as a character designer. Now is the time to put the details we studied into our research. Look back at what we discovered about the character before we start designing.
This video below kimby arting demonstrates this miniature trick along with a few others. In addition to shapes, character designers must be intentional and strategic with their use of color. Many character designers will start their project with a sketch. And most designers agree that this is often where the essence of the character is captured.
So of course, everyone’s opinion about what is attractive will be different. That said, there are things that can help make your design more appealing than other designs, at least for the character design in your portfolio. Be prepared to create more than one or two drafts of your character.
You can draw freely and let your character change shape and still have it structured. You can draw your character quickly and loosely, but you still have to think about the character’s boundaries and the structure underneath. You can crush a torso to show compression, but it depends on what you set as your character’s boundaries. A more realistic character may not crush as much as a real cartoonish character. I know the reason I wanted to get into animation was because I liked drawing characters. I wasn’t good with backgrounds and design (it’s not yet!), color and paint, I didn’t really know what storyboards were, but I drew characters all the time.
Watch the video below to learn more about the language of shapes and how they contribute to great character design. When studying the movement and shape of the body and also its gestures, it is called “Study of Figures” or “Drawing of Gestures”. Through this exercise, the artist can train his brain in understanding how certain parts of the subject move with their relationship to the rest of it.
Exaggerating the defining characteristics of a character design will help make it seem bigger than life. Exaggerated characteristics will also help the audience identify the main qualities of the character. Exaggeration is the key to cartoons and helps to highlight certain personality traits. If your character how to make character concept art is strong, don’t just give them bulging, full-size arms, but soup them to make them five times larger. Creating a miniature is the first time a character designer has put their ideas on paper. This is a safe space where artists experiment and make loose sketches to get an idea of which direction to take.