Chapter 5: Designing the Physical Look of Your Character | Digital Character Design and Painting: The Photoshop CS Edition (Graphics Series) (Charles River Media Graphics)

By this point in the design process, you probably have a pretty good idea of what your character is going to look like. This chapter gives you some questions to ask yourself as you are refining your mental image of the character. For the most part, you can use this chapter as an outline of things to consider when you begin drawing the character. For these exercises, you just need some paper and a few sharp pencils.

Describing the Character

So what does your character look like? By this time, you probably have a vague mental image of what your character will look like, but can you describe the look to the audience? This section will help you develop that mental image into a specific look for your character.

The Character's General Physical Characteristics

Here are some general aspects of the character to consider:

What is the character's general physiology and body makeup ?
If the character has legs, how many are there? Is your character a biped or a quadruped, or does the character have more than four legs?
Is your character animal like? What kind of animal does it resemble? Is it like a mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, insect, some lower form of life, or something else entirely that is alive only in your mind?
How many appendages besides legs does the character have?
How many heads are there? Does one dominate, or do all of them think and react alike?
How many arms are there, and where are they positioned?
Does your character have wings? If so, what kind? Are they like those of a bat, bird, or insect? Are they fin-like?
Does your character have a tail? Does it have more than one, and where are the tails located?
Is anything extra attached to the character?
How and what does the character eat? Is the character a carnivore and kind of scary, or a mild-mannered and gentle herbivore? Is the character an omnivore or insectivore?

The Character's Body Type

You need to decide if the character will have one of the three kinds of body types, or if the character is something else entirely. The three body types are as follows :

Ectomorph. Those with this body type have the following characteristics:

Are thin
Have small bones
Have a flat chest
Are delicately built
Are young and youthful in appearance
Are tall
Are lightly muscled
Have stooped shoulders
Have a large brain
Have difficulty gaining weight
Take longer to grow muscles
Have a short upper body
Have long arms and legs
Have long and narrow feet and hands
Have very little body fat
Have a narrow chest and narrow shoulders as well as long, thin muscles
Have a high metabolism

Endomorph. Those with this body type have the following characteristics:

Have a soft body
Have large bones
Have a slow metabolism
Have underdeveloped muscles as well as a small amount of muscle mass and small muscles
Have a round-shaped body
Have an overdeveloped digestive system
Have trouble losing weight
Generally find it easy to build muscle
Have short musculature
Have a round face
Have a short neck
Have wide hips
Have a high body fat percentage

Mesomorph. Those with this body type have the following characteristics:

Have a hard, muscular body
Have medium- sized to large bones
Have a medium to high metabolism
Have an overly mature appearance
Have a rectangular-shaped body
Have thick skin
Have a low to medium body fat percentage
Have a large amount of muscle mass and large muscles
Have an upright posture
Gain or lose weight easily
Grow muscle quickly
Have a large chest
Have a long torso
Are very strong

Within the body types, there are other things to consider, such as the body style. Is the character fat, skinny, buff, or a combination of different body styles?

The Character's Proportions

Here are some things to consider about the character's proportions:

Is the character built like a superhero, an ordinary guy, or a 98- pound weakling?
How does the environment affect the character's proportions? A character from a high-gravity environment, for example, will be very different from a character from a low-gravity environment. You also need to think about the effect of temperature extremes on the character's proportions.

The Character's Makeup

You need to consider what the character is made of. Your character could be made of any of the following or a combination thereof:

Flesh and bones
Plants
Metal
Plastic
Stones or minerals

Or perhaps the character is ethereal, like a ghost or a flame.

The Character's Gender

There are various characteristics to consider here:

Is the character male, female , a hermaphrodite, or something else entirely?
What are the primary physical differences of the genders?
What are the secondary physical differences of the genders?

The Character's Surface

The following are what you need to consider about the character's surface covering:

Does the character have skin? If so, what are the color , texture, and hairiness, and are there variations from body part to body part?
Does the character have fur? If so, what are the color, texture, and thickness , and are there variations from body part to body part? If the character has fur, does the character shed?
Does the character have scales ? If so, what are the color, texture, and thickness, and are there variations from body part to body part?
Does the character have feathers? If so, what are the color, texture, and thickness, and are there variations from body part to body part?
Does the character have a shell, slime, cilia, or something else entirely?

The Character's Color

What range of colors is the character? How does the character's color affect the audience's perception of the character? Is the character able to change colors like a chameleon? Are differing parts of the character different colors? Are the character's colors used for camouflage or warning?

The Character's Facial Structure

You need to consider the following regarding the character's face:

What is your character's facial structure, and what are the character's facial features?
How many faces and features are there?
How many eyes are there? How expressive are the character's eyes?
Does the character have breathing parts or some other breathing structure?
Does the character have mouth parts?
Will the character be capable of speech?
Does the character have antennae or something else entirely?
Where are the features placed in relation to each other?

The Character's Movement

Here are some things to consider as far as how the character moves:

What is the character's method of motion? Does the character fly, swim, crawl, burrow, walk upright or on all fours, squirm , or hop? Is it jet propelled like an octopus , or does it travel around on wheels?
How does your character move when in motion?
When the character begins to move, which body part moves first, and which moves last?
How does the character carry its weight when in motion, and how does the character stand?
How does the character move when idle or when nervous? What about when angry or frightened?
Is there a particular stance or pose that defines the character's attitude about life?

Other Considerations

If you answer the questions posed throughout this chapter, you will have a pretty concrete idea of what your character look like. Here are a few miscellaneous but important things to keep in mind when designing a character:

Using stereotypes. ‚ ‚ To add a degree of familiarity to your character, you can carefully use stereotypes when appropriate and not offensive. After all, we do typically associate certain characteristics with different character types. Barbarians, for example, are not generally skinny, 98-pound weaklings.

Fooling the audience. ‚ ‚ Don't try to do this. Make bad guys look like bad guys. Make the monsters threatening , for example. The audience expects a certain personality for different looks. Do not stray too far from the expected or you will confuse the audience.

Being sensitive. ‚ ‚ Always remember to be sensitive and careful when you are dealing with and using cultural and symbolic elements in your creations.

Providing scale. ‚ ‚ Remember to give a clue as to the scale of your character. If you create a giant, you must place something near him to give a sense of scale. Without anything to identify the scale of a character, the audience will have no idea of its size . The same character could be perceived as a giant or a midget depending on how you outfit your character and its surroundings.

Connecting the character to reality. ‚ ‚ Make sure that there is some connection to reality. Your character needs to have a point of reference. If you create something that is unrecognizable, your audience will not relate to the character. It is no accident that most monsters walk and act generally like we do. We recognize the look of creatures that resemble ourselves and have expectations for how a character will generally behave.

Being original. ‚ ‚ Try to balance between using kitsch and being totally original. Kitsch is something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality. Use kitsch items sparingly when designing your character. Kitsch can add a subtle sense of humor, but if it's overdone it will look silly. Unless you have a good reason, generally try to avoid fads. They will date the character immediately. Not much is truly original anymore, but do make it a point to not blatantly copy another's works and ideas.

The Visual Issues of Character Design and How to Communicate Your Ideas

One of the easiest ways to communicate your character ideas is by using comparison. If the character is soft and delicate, make the character round without many angles. If the character is rough and ready, the design should be made of angular shapes .

Here are some other tips:

Working from the general to the specific. ‚ ‚ Doing this when designing is always well founded. If your character is understandable early on, the greater the chances of him being understandable as you move along with your design.

Simplify when possible. ‚ ‚ As in just about everything in life, the simplest statements are generally the easiest to understand. You have no idea how sophisticated your audience may be, but aim for a simple design that will work with all levels of understanding

Do not use too many little bits and pieces. ‚ ‚ You will only confuse your audience. Remember that the devil is in the details. Don't overdo it. You recognize your friends by their general look and not by how many freckles they have on their nose.

Build characters out of basic shapes. ‚ ‚ Just about everything we see in the world around us can be built out of a few basic shapes: cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders . Try to base your character on these basic shapes.

Test the silhouettes of your character. ‚ ‚ If the silhouette visually stands on its own, the character design will be stronger.

Maintain consistency in the character's environment. ‚ ‚ Variety is the spice of life, but when you are designing characters for the same environment, they should have a similar look and feel.

Avoid repeating the same formula over and over again when designing. ‚ ‚ For example, do not put a beard on every character.