Design

We are now at the final stage, designyou are now ready to begin drawing. Although the first two stages of research and preparation may seem like a lot of work, believe meit is worth it. Without the proper preparation, you could end up stumbling ahead blindly, but having help at hand early on will keep you from falling later. It's trite, but true: "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail!"

Let's have a look at some of the key points to consider when fleshing out the design of your character.

• A Good, Fresh Style A strong visual style is important and must remain consistent throughout the whole design. Coming up with an original style can be difficult; don't be surprised if, whatever your character looks like, someone in the approval list will comment on how "it looks like such-and-such." Try not to directly copy an existing style, and instead use a mixture of different influences to come up with something original.

• Contrast Among Characters When designing a series of characters, it is important to have contrast among them. Try not to make any two characters too much alike. A good way to check the success of your concept in terms of contrast is to line up your characters and switch off the lights so the characters are only visible in silhouette. Can you tell who is who?

• Asymmetry To make your design more interesting, make sure the character is not completely symmetrical. Variation is the key, just as it is in the real people all around you. No one's features are completely symmetrical.

• Appeal Your character has to be appealing to its target audience. If the game is aimed at young children, reflect this in your design by including bright colors and outrageous proportions. Make the characters fun to look at as well as play with.

• Color The colors of your character can say a lot about them. Darker colors tend to represent evil or a rebellious nature; brighter colors are usually associated with a good, pure person.

• Proportions The size and scale of your character can add greatly to the desired style. As a rule of thumb, a realistic humanoid character tends to be around eight heads high. Looking at the comparison in Figure 1.2, you can see the proportions of a more heroic, stylized male character. He would have a slightly smaller head but much larger shoulders than the average figure. The legs would be longer, but in contrast his torso would be shortened and his waist smaller.

  Figure 1.2. Male character style comparison

  

  
  

  Figure 1.3 illustrates the difference between a realistic and stylized female. The more stylized version has longer legs, a smaller waist, andyep, you guessed it, a larger chest. In the face she has more pronounced cheekbones, larger eyes and eyelashes, plus more voluptuous lips than the realistic version.

  Figure 1.3. Female character style comparison

  

  
  

  With cartoon characters, you can play around with the numbers, changing them drastically to achieve exaggerated proportions. But a good starting point is to have the overall size of your character around three heads high. This will give them a larger head in proportion to the body, so add to this contrast by increasing the size of the hands and feet (Figure 1.4). If they are meant to be cute, you can give them large eyes, too.

  Figure 1.4. Example of cartoon character proportions

  

  
  

• Anatomy A good knowledge of anatomy is essential when creating characters. Understanding the basics of muscle and bone structure will help you shape your figures, making them more realistic and correctly proportioned. Having a good selection of anatomy books to refer to is always a good idea.

Your Early Sketches

Using your style sheets, you can now begin to roughly sketch out some ideas. Take your time if you have it, and spend a few days playing around with ideas. Figure 1.5 shows a few early sketches I produced for Kila; you can probably see the progression of her design and the deep contrast between the first idea and her eventual look.

Figure 1 5. Brainstorm sheet for Kila

While designing Kila, I tried to make her look normal but with subtle differences. Early on, I gave her wild hair and extravagant clothing, but this all looked over the top. I also tried to tone down the amount of symmetry she originally had. Notice that her hair is now longer on one side, and across her waist the belt and sash cross from opposite directions.

Figure 1.6 shows the sketches I produced while creating the concept for Grae. My initial idea was to have Kila visible inside his chest, with all the tendrils wrapped around her. I eventually dropped this idea, first because of polygon restrictions, and secondly because it could have caused problems when animating.

Figure 1.6. Brainstorm sheet for Grae

Once you feel confident and comfortable with an idea, you can create a cleaner piece, which you then show to your lead artist and game designer. Again, this should be a quick image to give an idea of the design. It's likely your collaborators will want it revised; you can pretty much be sure your first idea will not be the one they like.

If you have the time and are given the freedom to do so, why not render some nice color pieces like the ones in Figures 1.7 and 1.8. Some companies encourage this step. They also like you to present the characters in a well-arranged sheet showing the final render along with a few sketches. These summary sheets look professional and impressive, and at the end of the day you will end up with a nice piece of artwork to go in your portfolio.

Figure 1.7. Kila renders

Figure 1.8. A complete render for Grae

Creating the Model Sheets

Great! They love your idea and give you the go ahead! But before you or someone else starts to model, you need to create a few model sheets to work from. These sheets show the character in many different ways; they are the blueprints for building the character.

Imagine someone else is going to be building Kila, and plan out everything for that person.

First of all, you should produce a turnaround view (Figure 1.9). The basic images included in this are a front view, side view, and rear view. You can also include a three-quarter view if you have time. If there are any design areas about which you can already be specific, or if you feel something needs more explanation, include these specifics in this turnaround sheet.

Figure 1.9. Kila model sheet, turnaround view

Notice that the silhouettes for the front and back views are the same. You may be able to make out faint lines across the image; these are important because you need the proportions to be the same for each angle.

To help the person who is going to model your character, you can produce a head sheet like the one in Figure 1.10. This is like the turnaround view sheet but focuses on the head's front and side views along with any additional information needed.

Figure 1.10. Kila head sheet

Whew! With concepting complete, you should have a well thought out and great looking character to work with. So put your crayons away and boot up your computerit's time to build your creation in glorious 3D.