Basics

Cast

First, let's discuss what a cast actually is, according to Merriam Webster:

Definition of cast of characters

—sometimes used to refer to a group of people who have important roles in a book, story, or event

The cast of characters includes President Johnson and his top advisers during the Vietnam War.

Some important definitions:

Cohesion = The action or fact of forming a united whole.

Consistency = Marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity : free from variation or contradiction

Now of course we all know that, but what I want to highlight in this tutorial is aimed more at the aesthetics used in desiging a cast, the different techniques used in visually binding characters together.

Over the years, artists have found ways to create a sense of cohesion in their cast designs by sticking to fundamental principles, I like to separate these principles into two groups, visual and narrative.

Visual:

Design patterns.

Artstyle.

Color palettes.

Color coding.

Shape language.

Etc.

Narrative:

Theming.

Character archetypes.

Personalities.

Iconography.

Fashion.

Etc.

Some of these principles, like iconography, fashion and theming could be placed in either group, since the visual themes should always reflect the narrative themes and the fashion is dictated by the narrative etc.

Don't focus too much on looking at the differences between them, but try to find ways in which you can make them interact with each other and support each other, that is the key to cohesive cast design.

Example:

A good example you'll see of this is in group uniforms. If you have a part of your cast that belongs to the same group or cause, an easy way to show this is through their uniform. A uniform in character design is an interaction between the principles: fashion, iconography, theming, design patterns and color coding.

The main cast of Sailor Moon is super cohesive, in that they all wear the same uniform with a simple palette swap, they're also very consistent....almost to a boring degree. Apart from the color of the outfit and the shape of the hair there's almost nothing differentiating one girl from the other, which is why I feel this cast design could have benefitted from some diversity.

It can be hard to introduce diversity into a consistent cast, but things like slight variations in the uniform design could help a lot. Sailor Mercury for example, controls the element of water, which you can see because she's wearing blue, but she is also very into science and computers, which you can't really see in her base design.

There is a version of her uniform where she wears a sort of visor, which is a huge help in making her look more unique, while not breaking cohesiveness with the others, but she almost never wears it. In my opinion, every character in the cast should have had one unique detail like this in their uniform. This would have introduced a small amount of diversity into the cast while not disrupting the cohesion between them.

My point: Consistency is a great way of creating a cohesive cast, but never straying from consistency will ultimately weaken your cast design through erasure of personality and individuality.

Here is a video that makes some more interesting points about this subject: https://youtu.be/KTNlWbzZras (How To Design Uniforms that Aren’t So Uniform for Character Design)

Technique examples:

Here I want to highlight some techniques often used for cohesion and consistency in designing a cast, that you might use as inspiration later on in this tutorial when working on your own cast. I will be separating these into visual and narrative as well.

I'm using a part of the cast of Steven Universe as an example, because I think it is one of the most cohesive cast designs out there, while still feauturing a lot of diversity. The show centers around a conflict between The Crystal Gems (earth), and the gem homeworld. They are part of the same species, but through iconography and color coding it's easy to see what side each gem belongs to.

Visual:

Patterns:

Visual patterns, like a symbol or repeating shape are often used to bind a group of characters together, be that a gang, a corporation or a guild.

The Crystal Gems use a star motif in their design, some more subtle than others. The Homeworld gems use a diamond motif.

Another pattern is that almost all gems are coded to look feminine, but technically have no gender (with the exception of Steven), and they all have a gem imbedded in their body somewhere.

Color coding:

Color coding in Steven Universe is used all over the place.

The Crystal Gems still largely use their assigned gem colors from real life, Pearl is very pale, Amethyst uses cold shades of purple and Garnet is a combination of red and blue. Additionaly, they introduce new colors that stray from the base color of their gems, like pink blue and yellow for Pearl, white for Amethyst and pink for Garnet, which fits with their rebel status and their opposition to conformity.

The Homeworld gems are way more monochromatic, Jasper uses only warm oranges, Peridot uses only shades of green and Lapis is just cold blues. This works to distinguish them from the Crystal Gems, but also tells you about the strict caste system on Homeworld, and the color of the diamond on their uniform tells you which diamond they belong to.

Shape language:

The base of all gem designs in the show lies in low poly models, particularly inspired by Pilotwings 64. Every character is built out of very simple shapes. This is especially noticable in the main 3 gems, Garnet (left), Amethyst (middle) and Pearl (right).

This theme of building a character out of simple shapes is basic character design knowledge, but here it functions more as a pattern to keep the entire species of gems itself consistent.

Visual theming:

Since the gems are basically immortal, the idea of time plays a big part in their designs. Their costumes were designed with the concept of past, present and future in mind. Pearl represents the past, Amethyst represents the present and Garnet represents the future.

Narrative:

Theming:

The gems in the show are a race of aliens based on real life gems. The show takes the real life traits of gemstones and translates them into the characters in different ways. Amethysts for example are quite common in the real world and not particularly valuable as you can buy them for cheap. In the show amethysts are a mass produced class of warrior gems, cheap and expendable. Diamonds however, are rare and extremely valuable and strong. The show translates this in the way that there are only 4 diamonds, who are the god-like leaders of homeworld and the gems.

Basing the gems of off real life gemstones gives the show a nice rigid framework to stick to, that a lot of people are already familiar with, creating a sense of cohesion between the show and the real world.

Character archetypes:

Since the homeworld gems live in a strict caste system, they are assigned roles based on their abilities. This is a perfect way to highlight different character archetypes. Pearls are supposed to be decorative servants, which is why they're elegant and spindly, whereas Jaspers are a warrior class, so they look big and strong. If you have clearly defined roles like these in your world, it makes it easier for your audience, when a new character gets introduced, to apply this logic and guess what their place in the world might be, strengthening the cohesion.

Now of course there are many more factors at play here, but these are the most obvious and observable ones.

The rules that Steven Universe adheres to are so clear and visually apparent in their cast design, that it's easy for fans of the show to design their own gem characters.

All you really need to do is decide on a real life gem to base the design off, pick which faction they belong to and apply the design principles the show uses.

I designed an aquamarine, of which only one is prominently featured in the show, but the design clues I got from her were enough, combined with the narrative context of the show, to design a character that would have no problem fitting into the cast.

It's clear that she's an aquamarine, from the aquamarine gem on her shoulder, her blue color scheme and round shape language. It's clear that she's a Homeworld gem since she still sports the blue diamond iconography on her chest, and it's clear that she feels like she's above everyone and above physical labor, like the aquamarines in the show.

Aside from her narrative place in the world, I stuck with the rule that the gem designs are based on low poly n64 models, so I used big simple shapes in her design. A cone with a flat top for her hair and skirt, big cylinders for arms and legs and a sphere for her head. All these things combined make for a character that is cohesive with she cast of the show, and that is what this tutorial is about.

I hope that this page gives you a good idea of what we'll be handling in the rest of the tutorial. On the next page we'll take the first steps towards building a document in Milanote that will act as a skeleton for our Cohesion Guide throughout the tutorial.

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