ANIMATION
CHARACTER DESIGN
SHAPE LANGUAGE
As a character designer, your first job is to communicate a character’s purpose to the audience. In order to do that effectively, it’s important to be deliberate in the decisions we make as artists. Being able to communicate a particular idea can be tricky and requires more effort than most people might expect.
What is shape language? Simply put, shape language is using shape to communicate meaning. Different shapes provoke different reactions within us, causing us to associate the things we see with certain feelings or meanings.
Color has its own language, as does line, texture, value, etc but more on that later.
There are three primary shapes, just as there are three primary colors. The primary shapes are the square, circle, and triangle. Each of these shapes has strong associations psychologically with certain meanings. The most important ones are these:
CIRCLE: The circle evokes thoughts of peace, kindness, softness, safety, and wholeness: things that we generally associate with femininity. It can also represent things like emptiness, loneliness, magic, and mystery.
SQUARE: The square represents physicality. It represents things like stability, dependability, discipline, strength, and reliability. It’s the more masculine of the primary shapes. It also represents things like boredom, stationariness, and stupidity.
TRIANGLE: The triangle is neither masculine nor feminine. It represents movement or deviation, and sharpness. The more extreme the angle, the greater the effect. For example, villains are commonly designed with severe angles because those angles make the character feel far separated from masculine, feminine, or heroic traits; a deviation from an ideal or comfortable personality. In contrast to blocky or circular shapes, triangular shapes can make a character feel severe, unstable, and dangerous.
CONTRASTING SHAPES
Here, notice how using blocky, angular shapes in the male character and circular shapes in the female character emphasize the contrast in their idealized masculine and feminine traits.
Here are three variations on a design, each using one of the primary shapes as the base for the choices made. Notice the way that the feel of the character changes, despite the fact that the proportions, pose, and expression are the same.
COMPLEX CHARACTER SHAPES
As with primary colours, the primary shapes can be altered and combined in myriad ways. These combinations help communicate more complex meanings. An absolutely square character is going to communicate something very specific to your audience. That character is likely to feel masculine, set in his or her ways, and not terribly bright. Most characters in a good story will have more complexity to them than one type of shape can adequately capture. By adding some complexity to the shape language, you add complexity to the character.
SHAPES IN A LINEUP
Any project that involves more than one character is going to require a continuity of shape language throughout a character lineup. Each character needs to look like it comes from the same world.
When someone speaks in an accent that isn’t local, it calls attention to the person.
In a similar way, if the overall shape language of any given character in a lineup isn’t consistent with the rest, he or she is going to seem out of place.
Most animated feature films use shape language that is very circular, making the overall aesthetic of the film feel safe and appropriate for children.
Many comics and graphic novels have a blocky, angular aesthetic, emphasizing the physicality and edginess of the content to appeal to an older audience.
Learning to understand how to work with a specific “accent” when designing characters is vital when creating a lineup. Shape is only one of the many art languages that we can use as a tool to communicate. The more we learn about the different ways that visual media can communicate to audiences, the more effective we’ll be as designers.
SHAPE LANGUAGE ACTIVITY
STEP 1 – DRAW CHARACTERS USING THE THREE PRIMARY SHAPES
CIRCLE – Draw at least one character that is composed of circles.
SQUARE – This time focus on drawing characters using square shapes.
TRIANGLE – Next draw characters that are made with triangles.
STEP 2 – PICK YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTER FROM STEP 1
Redraw the same character using the other two shape languages. When finished you should have three variations of the same character, one representing each primary shape. (Similar to the chef characters above)
STEP 3 – DRAWING MORE COMPLEX CHARACTER SHAPES
So far you have drawn characters featuring a single primary shape, but this time choose a favourite character from the group, or draw a new character that uses more than one shape language. How does a more complex shape language alter the look and message a character communicates to your audience?
STEP 4 – CHARACTER CHALLENGE
Choose your favourite shape language combination or “accent” and design a character lineup.
Grade 11 - You need 2 additional characters.
Grade 12 - You need 3 additional characters.
Make sure the characters have continuity and look like they belong in the same world
THE BOAR - 8 Step DESIGN PROCESS EXAMPLE
STEP 1 - Concept and Initial Design "THE BOAR"
A boar has some interesting depictions in Greek art. By exaggerating certain features you can turn it into a real monster. It was spawned by Artemis, so I it should look and feel almost supernatural. It should look huge and powerful. If the boar looks small and weak, the danger is not believable and it will not fulfill the role properly.
STEP 2 - EARLY THUMBNAILS
Thumbnailing is the stage where anything goes, a time of pure experimentation. It is also a stage where it can be difficult to get the process started. To avoid this, I find that drawing anything, no matter how bad it is, can kick-start the process!
STEP 3 - DEVELOPING THUMBNAILS
At this stage I experiment with the drawings that have the most potential by lining them up and sketching over them. Developing ideas as I go, I end with a foundation for the next stage, a basic idea for each character.
THE BOAR is solid and large reflecting the size of the metaphorical obstacle at hand. He has spiky erratic triangles to symbolize a dangerous and unpredictable nature. Maybe his fur fas the potential to becoming flame-like and ethereal. Regardless the design needs to scream “danger.”
STEP 4 - EXPANDING CONCEPTS
Once you think your design is going in the right direction it's time to start thinking about stylizing further to align with other characters. The boar needs a little extra flare, perhaps glowing evil eyes?
STEP 5 - REFINING CHARACTERS
Explore your character and start experimenting with colour. Filter through my ideas, cutting and pasting to form a revised lineup. Remember to contemplate your colour choices and what they mean.
STEP 6 - CHARACTER POSES
Identify the poses that might work best for full colour character rendering.
THE BOAR - Grounded but dynamic. You can feel the boar’s energy, a “ready-to-fight” pose.
STEP 7 - FINAL STYLE EXPLORATION
At this point the basic characters are decided, their shape language and design elements, such as costume and facial features are also complete.
You should also have a pretty good idea of the final design aesthetic. Straight vs. curved lines, but the curves should be subtle or angular in form. Create a nice balance between stylization and realism. These choices could suit the story while creating a modern and edgy style if that's what you are going for.
You need to decide on the final design styles. By this I mean, will there be outlines or no outlines? Flat colours only or a suggestion of shadow?
Note that typically final art style will be dependent on things such as background designs and any technical limitations of the chosen medium.
STEP 8 - FINAL DESIGNS
By this final step you have landed on your designs, poses, costumes, hairstyles, weapons, and other bits and pieces. You should also be happy with your choice on the final design style. It is now time to lock in a final design!
From the previous stages choose a pose for your character as the basis for the final character design. When choosing the pose, make sure it best suits the character and their role in the story. You will complete this design in full colour.
THE BOAR—The chosen pose is full-battle mode, ready to pounce, maim, and destroy.
Character & Accesories
THE TURNAROUND
What are turnarounds?
In short, a turnaround is a visual reference for a design from at least three angles (front, side, and back). It allows you to quickly view features in a design, like small details and proportions, while they are still on the model. Turnarounds are instrumental to character designers, not only to help an artist better understand their own design, but to more effectively communicate how a character looks to a client.
To understand the value of creating a turnaround, you need to consider how a design will be used in production. For example, a character designed for a video game travels down a pipeline to other artists who use it to create a 3D model. Providing these artists with multiple views removes a lot of guesswork, allowing them a much smoother creation process.
In the comic industry, turnarounds can be used to help artists keep characters visually consistent from panel to panel as angles and poses change. The animation industry is very similar, where turnarounds help to ensure characters remain accurate frame to frame and scene to scene.
It’s important to note that turnarounds aren’t exclusively for characters. The same process can be used to reference anything from multiple angles.
A turnaround gives you views of a character from at least three angles from the three-point turnaround to the four-point turnaround, and then to the standard five-point turnaround (front, back, side, front 3/4, and back 3/4).
When setting up a turnaround, you want to start with the ground plane. This is where your character’s feet will be planted. A vertical line will indicate the center of your character and serve as the axis of rotation for the design. Horizontal guide lines are used to keep the shapes of your character properly aligned across the different angles—the sign of a successful turnaround.
FINAL CHARACTER DESIGNS
Introduction to coloUr
BUILDING ON YOUR CHARACTER DESIGN
As a character designer, one of the main priorities is to work fast and generate ideas quickly. To do that, we leave the finer details until the very end of a workflow. This is an efficient way of working—saves a lot of time and keeps us from overthinking or getting stuck on the details. When creating a character designs for a client, it’s important for the character to look appealing, interesting, and memorable. One of the main tools for achieving this is through colour.
An appealing and expressive colour scheme is crucial for an interesting character.
Colour science is where artists and scientists explore hue, saturation, and value to create stunning visuals. Diving into the perception of colour you can learn how light wavelengths affect our eyes, and uncover the role colour plays in storytelling.
Our eyes perceive colours through specialized receptors called cones, which respond to specific light wavelengths. The brain blends signals from red, green, and blue cones to represent any color. Digital screens use this same concept to create a wide range of colours by illuminating red, green, and blue regions in pixels.
Hue, saturation, and light (HSL) is another color selection model Pixar artists use. The color wheel helps to choose hue and saturation, and lightness can be adjusted with a slider. Compare HSL to the RGB color model and learn how it simplifies color selection for a more user-friendly experience.
Perception plays a role in the colours we 'think' we see. Colour perception is influenced by surrounding colours and brightness levels, making things appear different than they truly are. Our brains are wired to notice contrasting colours, which is crucial in movies like Pixar's Inside Out and Toy Story 3. **
RESEARCH - The Snow Queen
Example character—in this case, the Snow Queen. The original story focuses on two young children, Kai and Gerda, who become separated because Kai is drawn to the Snow Queen and is taken to her palace. The Snow Queen makes him forget his beloved Gerda and forces him to spend his days solving puzzles on an icy lake. She is an interesting villain; she likes doing her own thing—living in an icy palace and commanding her snow bees. She becomes a threat only when you decide to approach her, after which it becomes difficult to escape. After reading the story, I reflect on the aspects of the character that are most interesting to me. The Snow Queen is comfortable in the freezing cold, and even thrives in it, which in itself is a fairly creepy personality trait—the opposite of a relatable human being who shivers in the cold. Because Kai feels drawn to her, I feel like she needs a seductive quality to her, something hypnotizing and beautiful. She is powerful and her natural habitat is the cold snow, so her pose and color scheme need to reflect that. I also think about the moment in the story where this character appears for the first time. She’s standing in the snow where the snowflakes gather, surrounded by her snow bees. I keep this moment in mind when creating my initial sketches.
STEP 1 – ROUGHS
As soon as you get a sense of the character, jump right into the drawing process. Try not to waste too much time overthinking or overanalyzing before setting down the first lines. Start on the initial sketches, just to get first ideas out. At this point, you aren't thinking about the details—I want you to focus on the overall shapes of her design and the gesture and energy in her pose.
STEP 2 – SKETCH DEVELOPMENT
Once you feel that your sketch is working out take it to a new canvas and develop it further to create a full-body pose. At this point think about where you want the highest density of detail and where you want fewer details. It’s good to have a balance of both for a strong character design.
To finish this step, work on some of the finer details in the higher-detailed areas, just enough to figure out where the colours need to go in the next step.
ROUGH COLOUR
Once you have the general shapes and pose complete, it’s time to do some rough colour explorations. Take a good look at the silhouette of your character. Is their pose still readable? Is the energy of the character showing in the silhouette? If it’s working well then it is time to explore some colour combinations.
ONE COLOUR AT A TIME
Adding colour is to start with one base colour then gradually add colours from there. If you start by adding all of the colours right away, it’s really difficult to make them work together. If you take it one step at a time, starting from one simple base colour, they feel more unified. In this case, starting with a colour for the character, then search for the right fur and snow colours to match.
Try This
Once you have a base colour, start adding more colour variation. Use a Gradient tool, to gently layer new colours on top of the base, and create colour gradations which lead the eye around the image.
CHANGE THE LINE COLOUR *photoshop
Set the line layer to Multiply and change the colour of the sketch lines. This is a crucial step in the process. Black line-work can really kill the vibrancy of the colours. Changing the line colour to something more intense, like blue or pink, can have an enormous impact on the colour scheme.
It also interacts in an interesting way with the base colours below, creating new colours that you can later use to blend and detail.
Evolving Your Character
1. Character Conceptualization (1-2 paragraphs):
Develop a brief description of your character. Include details such as their name, age, background, personality traits, and any special abilities or unique features they possess. Consider their role in a potential story or setting.
2. Final Character Design:
Choose your primary Character and refine it into a finalized character design. Adding as many details as you can, colour, texture, accents, lighting, refinement etc.
*Grade 12 - You need to include one posed character completely refined also.
Pay attention to proportions, details, costume design, and any accessories or props that enhance your character's personality. This will be full in full colour and detailed.
*Please read through this to expand your character ideas- CREATING STRONG GESTURES