Character Design 

Character Design refers to the overall physical look, expression, gestures, poses and mannerisms of a figure that combine to create a distinct character with a specific personality. Character Design is a vital part of storytelling in numerous types of media from print to animated film. Typically, an artist will go through hundreds of preliminary sketches in order to find the character they are designing through trial and error. 

There are a number of factors that will influence your character design:
  1. Research and References: Animators and Illustrators will look at real life examples of what they are drawing in order to capture authenticity in their designs. Disney animators always bring in actual models (lions for lion king, female models for princesses) in order to make sure they are really capturing what they want. 
  2. Visual Interest: Your character needs to be unique in some way. Make it stand out from the crowd!
  3. Exaggeration: Your character will be exaggerated in some way. Be it large eyes, huge mouth, big expression. We are stylizing here!
  4. Color: Incredibly important! The color palette of your character is key. This will convey a certain meaning and feeling for your character. Disney usually uses lime green and purple to indicate evil...
  5. Personality: We should be able to look at your character and know their personality. This is achieved through pose and expression. 
  6. Detail: pay attention to everything! Even the smallest line drawn can effect your entire character. 
Follow these links to watch Disney animators during their designing and sketching phases!
Assignment # 1

Choose a fictional character. It can be from a comic, cartoon, anime,  live action movie etc. Copy and paste an image of your chosen character into a new slide in your google portfolios. 

Answer the following questions about that character:
  1. Who is this character?
  2. What fictional universe do they belong to? Describe it. 
  3. Describe the way the character looks from head to toe. 
  4. Tell me what about this character's design makes they unique and memorable. 
  5. Tell me what about this character's design that makes them appear like they belong in the fictional world they come from.

Assignment # 2
  1. Create a collage in Adobe Photoshop as your "sketching" phase for your character.  (Find an an image of a person that best matches your character, add in additional elements until you have a good base.)
  2. Put the collage into a slide in your google presentations. This will be graded. 
  3. Bring that collage into Adobe Illustrator and using the pencil tool, trace your character. 

Tutorial Below:
fantasycharacter.pdf
File Size: 12863 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Assignment # 3- Finish the character

You are to create your own ORIGINAL fantasy character. It can be any genre you wish. It can be a full figure or just a portrait. It must include the following:
  1. An ORIGINAL design. This isn't a fan art project. (Not that fan art is bad! I love a good fan art piece but not for this assignment)
  2. A clear personality is evident in the expression, pose, gesture etc of your character.
  3. A clear genre is evident. (It could be almost anything! Medieval, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Steampunk, Dystopian, etc etc etc! Get creative!)
  4. Line variety and quality. I will be looking for various point sizes and stroke styles to add visual interest to your design. 
  5. Evidence of understanding of the digital painting process. 
  6. A background that makes sense and supports your character. 
  7. Evidence of good work ethic and EFFORT. 
Assignment # 4

Answer the following questions IN PARAGRAPH FORM about your character in your google slides. 
  1. What is the name of your character?
  2. What universe/world does your character come from?
  3. What is their back story?
  4. Describe them visually. 
  5. What kind of personality does this character have?
  6. What makes them unique and different from other characters?
For this project you should have in your google portfolios for grading: 
  1. Assignment # 1: Character Design Questions 
  2. Assignment # 2: Character Collage (what you created/ used to draw from)
  3. Assignment # 3: Character Design- in color
  4. Assignment # 4: Paragraph describing that character in your google portfolios next to the finished character, 
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