From the beginning to end, Character design is a process of developing general ideas into a concrete character. This uses all of an artist available knowledge about the real world, along with their unique approach of applying their knowledge to create their own unique designs.
Character design artists use the real world for both inspiration and source material in their designs. Examples of this include using the real actors and actresses for reference in developing characters facial characteristics, using people you know for inspiration, information on the setting the character is in, clothing design, and even in developing tics and quirks about the character giving them that extra bit of believability. A thorough graphic knowledge of all these elements from the real world is indispensable to develop characters.
The face is usually one of the most important parts of a character since we automatically look to it for cues as to a person’s nature and current disposition. When developing this vital portion of the character, it should come as no surprise that Steve Gordon prefers to, “find a person or an actor that I think fits the type of personality that I envision for the new design.” The use of actual facial characteristics adds that extra bit of believability to the Steve’s designs.
Pulling your ideas from the people who surround you can help tremendously in creating believable character designs. Robin Joseph said he takes his cue from Miyazaki, “Miyazaki talks a lot about how each and every character in his film is based off some one he knows.” Robin says this helps in that, “When you design characters from life. you get that certain sense of appeal and dimension which just breathes an altogether new life into things and makes it a lot more interesting to watch.” Push believability by injecting elements from your friends and family into your characters.
The real world serves as a vital source of information for developing the environment for your character. Calum Alexander Watt said, “Information and reference that may be relevant to the time period, setting or character role is essential. Even characters that may inhabit fantasy worlds can benefit from some real world influence though this may be in an abstracted form.” Characters need an environment to react to. Using real world reference helps in developing the characters reaction to their environment.
A large amount of information about your character can be conveyed by their clothing and accessories. Even fantastical outfits need a root in the real world. Ben Balistreri said, “If I'm drawing a trench-coat on a character I'll look up images of actual coats so I can caricature the coat my own way as opposed to falling back on what cartoonists before me have already done.” Originality comes from creating your own twist on the real world, not from mimicking what others have already done.
Everyone has little quirks which make them unique. Tics, the way the stand, even how they hold their shoulders all convey information about them to the world. Characters you design are no different. Enrique Fernadez says, “You can use the reference of people you know, actors or animals to understand the actions and behaviors (and/or tics) of each characters, and then you can give the difference on your design.”
The real world is an indispensable source of inspiration and raw material. The deeper you mine this vein, the richer your results will be in the form of original, believable, and interesting characters.
While Character design all use the real world as inspiration and source material, they vary more widely in the way they approach the design process. Their methods vary from, writing to flesh out their ideas, working with abstract shapes, using scribbles to let their imagination create the characters in an application of the gestalt principal, or focusing on the silhouette of their design. Each of these techniques use the source material in differing ways as the artists use different methods to develop their ideas and also have different ways they include their real world research into their final design.
Perhaps one of the more surprising methods of developing a character from the source material mentioned by a character designer was writing. James Robertson said, “At the beginning, I write as much as I draw.” Writing helps James think through his characters, thus relating them to his real world knowledge in a more intimate way. Through writing out the ideas, he can really come to know the character as a person before even touching pen to paper.
The use of abstract shapes was a common theme among Character design artists. Abstract shapes aid in developing the overall design of the character without becoming mired in the details to early in the design process. I noticed much of the art done by artists who said they used abstract shapes to develop their ideas had a very graphic two dimensional presence. James Robertson said, “I tend to start really simply, just thinking broad terms about over all shapes and how to get the personality communicated in graphic terms.” Artists using this approach focus on using their character research to make design decisions on an abstract communication level before even getting into the details of the character. This entire design approach was summed up best by Robh Ruppel when he said, “First and foremost is SHAPE. I look for an interesting abstract shape. I also work from the broad to specific. Meaning I start off looking at the larger shapes and proportions and move on to more detailed aspects of the design making sure they are in harmony with the larger rhythms I've established already”
Another interesting method of developing character designs was mentioned by Patrick Morgan. This method relies on the gestalt principal, essentially how our brains work in creating meaningful shapes out of random patterns. Patrick said he will, “fill up pages with scribbles that no one gets to see, just searching for proportions, gestures and shapes.” This is a good way to push through a mental block on creativity as it really engages the right side of your brain in the process of developing the character.
Some character designers prefer to focus on the silhouette when developing their designs from their source material. Stephen Silver said, “I pay close attention to construction and make sure I have a strong silhouette.” This focus on readability is vital in developing visually distinct characters for animation.
However they choose to develop their ideas, the artists draw on their real world research and the source material from their character brief to create their unique designs. There are many potential ways to approach the process of developing the character from the source material, and each artist brings their own approach which makes their designs unique.
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