Character Design

Character is who we’ll follow during the story and whatever the duration of the short/film/series is. If we make a bad choice, this can compromise the success of the piece, because if the audience doesn’t identify with the characters, they won’t be able to establish an emotional bond with the story. This is why it’s important to take enough time to explore the possibilities and trust the decision that feels right.

INITIAL RESEARCH

Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion.

A character designer(or character artist) creates the entire concept, style, and artwork of a character from scratch. This often includes a deep look into the character’s personality to develop a visual idea of the character’s physical features.Creating an entire character from scratch(human or otherwise) takes a lot of creative energy.That’s why the process of character design is very complex and is often one of the most sought-after careers for aspiring entertainment artists.Every artist has their own creative process so there is no “right way” to create a character.But typically the character design process starts with a briefing of the character. The character could be a mutant turtle with ninja-like abilities, or just some person who lives a simple workaday lifestyle.

With this briefing there’s often a series of suggested traits be they physical or emotional, and the character designer uses those notes to start thumbnailing ideas. Rough thumbnails help to flesh out the many directions that the designer could take.Once the artist chooses one(or a couple) thumbnail styles they’ll often paint more details and bring those thumbnails to life. This can include trying different clothes, different hair styles, facial styles, and maybe different weapons or props if applicable.Then a final design is chosen and once the character is signed off the artist will create many different views of the character as reference materials. In animation this often turns into a model sheet for other artists to reference in their drawings.The idea of character design is to go on a creative dive into the unknown, and from that abyss pull out the best design that matches the character description.

INITIAL SKETCHES