Effective Character Design - ImagineFX - Francis Tsai

8/3/2019 Effective Character Design - ImagineFX - Francis Tsai

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uccessfully designing a

character means utilising

and combining a whole

range of skills, as well as

having some basic knowledge.

Put another way, a successful design

comes out of a process that is one half

design and the other half visual

communication. The design aspectrelies heavily on analysing a situation,

formulating a design problem, and then

S

2 PATTERNRECOGNITIONHuman beings are verygood at pattern recognition.

This is a trait that designersshould take advantage of,and its also the basis fordesigning with a silhouettein mind. Related to this isthe idea of teams itssometimes helpful to definegroups based on colour,shape, or line. Associatingcertain groups with certainshapes or silhouettes helps

the viewer to quicklydetermine if character X ispart of the Evil Empire orone of the Good Guys.

devising an interesting and elegant

solution. The visual communication

component depends heavily on basic

skills of anatomy, composition, colour

theory, and the ability to communicate

the ideas that come out of the design

process. With that strategy in mind,

Ill work through some examples

showing different ways in which ideasare communicated in different

character design case studies.

Workshops

February 200780

EFFECTIVECHARACTER DESIGNCharacter design involves many different skills, from analysis and problem

solving, to anatomy and colour. Francis Tsai shares his design tips

Artist insight

Francis TsaiCOUNTRY: US

CLIENTS: Playboy,

Mattel, Motion Theory,

Privateer Press

Francis works

as a

conceptual

designer and

illustrator in

the entertainment

industry. He studied

physical chemistry and

architecture and worked

in the latter for several

years before leaving to

pursue his current career,

in TV, comics and film.

www.teamgt.com

1 INITIAL THUMBNAIL SKETCHESThis is usually the first step towards acharacter design. The main goal with thisstep is simply to generate as many ideasas possible, without worrying aboutediting anything out. There will be someinteresting ideas, and most likely some

unusable ideas. Thats okay. Almosteverything from this stage onwardsinvolves paring down and editing, so fornow its good to push the boundaries andget as much out on the table as possible.

3 SILHOUETTEEXPLORATIONOne of the primary ways in which we

recognise a character is through its

silhouette. This is the main graphic

read of a character, over and above

details, textures and to a certain extent

even colour. From a distance, textures

and details are obscured, and lightingconditions can affect how the

characters colour is perceived. Rarely

will a characters silhouette be altered

by environmental conditions.

4 THE ITERATIVE PROCESSOnce weve had the chance to

generate a lot of thumbnail sketches,

we have many ideas available to sort

through. This is the point in the process

where we start refining, combiningdifferent elements and keeping the

ideas that work and discarding the

ones that are not clear or dont work.

5 SHAREDVOCABULARY:OVERT REFERENCESSometimes its useful to relyon visual cues and ideas withwhich people are already

familiar and have certainassociations. One exampleIve provided here shows a

super-cyborg soldier typewith a design that borrowsequally from Nazi andbondage visual cues.

This was intended tocreate a fearful anddisturbing aura,

and relies on

ideas peoplealready haveregardingcertain kindsof imagery.


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Artist insightEffective character design

Borrowing from real-worldcultures and religions for iconicimagery has the benefit of usingshared vocabulary, but thisusage shouldnt be arbitrary

6 SHARED VOCABULARY:SUBTLE REFERENCESIn the previous example the borrowed

visual cues were obvious, and very

specific. Its also possible to hint at,

rather than loudly state your

references. In this sketch Im

referencing religious, priest-like figures

by using cues, such as long robes,sacred writings and ceremonial garb

but Im not directly referring to any

particular religious figure.

7 ALTERED PROPORTIONSWith human and human-based

characters in particular, altering the

proportions of the body is another

useful tool in communicating a

character concept. Creating a

character with a large head andsmall body evokes a different

emotional response than a character

with a small head and large body.

9 SCALEAn issue thats related to the area of body

proportions is scale. A piece of concept artshowing a lone character (unless its obviouslya human character) is often not effective incommunicating thatcharacters size relative tosomething the viewer is familiar with. Its usuallyhelpful to add a human figure for scale.

11 CULTURE SALADThe term actually refers to something

you should avoid doing. Borrowing

from real-world cultures and religionsfor iconic imagery has some of the

benefits of using shared vocabulary as

described above, but this kind of usage

shouldnt be arbitrary. If cultural

references are used in an appropriate

manner, and combined with other

influences that they are not normally

associated with, the results can be

interesting and unique.

12 THE TWISTPutting a twist on a familiarcharacter or idea is anotherway to generate interestingcharacter designs.Depending on how stronglythe original idea showsthrough, its not quite asuseful a technique forcharacter designs that are

very specific; however, it canbe a useful exercise at timesto explore visual cues youmight not otherwise use.

8 SHOW PERSONALITYTHROUGH EXPRESSIONAnother aspect of character design

thats often story-based is the

characters personality. One way to

show some sense of that is to portray

your character with some sort of facial

expression that reveals an importantaspect of that characters personality.

Its not usually a critical design element,

but it does contribute to the visual

communication part of the job.

10 PERSONALITYTHROUGH POSE

OR ACTIONThis one is a technique that is probablybetter used once the basic character

design is mostly completed. Showing

a character in some sort of character-

specific action is part of the visual

communication tool set that tells the

viewer a little more about the character.


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Workshops

February 2007

16 ATTENTION, VISUAL

COMMUNICATIONOnce your design is more or less finalised,there are many visual communicationtechniques available to help youcommunicate the important aspects of it.For instance, using lighting to focus a viewersattention on the key elements such aslogos, facial tattoos, costume graphics andso on and enabling less important areasof a character design to fall into shadowreinforces the important parts of the design.

17 KEY GRAPHICOR COLOUROne way to create a strong identity for

a character design is to focus attention

on one key graphic or colour element.

Many classic comic book superhero

designs rely on this strategy a simple,

clear logo on the chest, which often

serves as a design motif for their

equipment as well.

18 USING COLOURAND PATTERNIn addition to literal logosand symbols, colour andpattern can be used in amore abstract manner tosubtly imply particularideas or motifs. Usingcomplementary or

contrasting colours for skinand costume can providean opportunity to creategraphic shapes that canbecome a unique identifier.

19 FOCUS ATTENTION,BE DETAIL ORIENTEDToo much detail can kill your design;

its a common mistake to equate lots

of detail with lots of interest. Similar

to the way in which the comic book

heroes mentioned above benefit from

a single, memorable logo, details in a

character design should be used with

restraint. The more areas of high detailyou include, the less memorable each

detail becomes.

20 SYMMETRYHuman standards of beauty usually

depend on faces and bodies exhibiting

left-right symmetry. This is a useful

note to remember, even if in real life

people rarely exhibit perfect

symmetry. In the field of entertainment

design, we are portraying ideals andextremes. Part of the task of visual

communication is emphasising the

message you want to communicate,

and playing down what you dont.

15 OTHER PROPSWeapons are just one possibility, of course;you can provide insight into a character andcreate an interesting design statement byshowing him or her with a particular vehicle,

animal companion, or mystical equipment.These items communicate an aspect of thecharacter by providing information such aswhat the character does, and how they do it.

If a weapon isprominent or oddenough, it forms asignificant aspectof the characterssilhouette

14 UNIFYING DESIGN ELEMENTSRelating one or more characters as part of a team can also occur at a second read

level, where secondary details such as graphics, logos, costume colour treatments,

and so on can indicate to the viewer that two or more characters are related.

13 PROPS: WEAPONSCertain characters derive much of

their identity from the equipmentthey carry for example, many sci-

fi characters are identified by their

weapons and armour. If a weapon

is unusual or prominent enough, it

forms a significant aspect of the

silhouette. Stylised, oversized guns

and swords are the most typical

examples, but with a bit of thought

and research, this strategy can yield

some interesting design statements.


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25 THE ACTION SHOT: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHEROne very effective way of communicating a character design is by creating

a more narrative style of illustration. Obviously, this kind of image should becreated once the character design has been fairly well developed. By showingthe character engaged in some major conflict or story point, we are gettingmore information than we would from a simple character design sketch.

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Artist insightEffective character design

21 ASYMMETRYIf, on the other hand, you are including

asymmetry as part of your designstatement, its better to be definite

about it. The main thing to remember

here is that making something very

subtly asymmetrical just looks like

you made a mistake; if youre going

for an asymmetrical design element,

make it obvious. This is again a visual

communication matter your message

has to be clear to be effective.

22 SEX SELLSThis is an advertising adagethat has been proven timeand time again. However, Idont think sexy can be themain concept for a characterdesign, at least not for onethat needs to have any sortof staying power. A sexytwist on something thatsnot traditionally considered

sexy is more interesting thesexy nurse archetype is agreat example of this idea.

23 THE SUBTLE,CREEPY TWISTA phenomenon thats been discussed

a lot lately in the games industry, called

The Uncanny Valley, refers to thecreepy effect that an almost

completely human-looking character

has on a viewer. Because the character

is so convincing except for one or two

little things, the viewer perceives

something wrong about the character.

This is usually considered to

be negative, but this effect

can also be used

intentionally to create a

subtly creepy character.

24 THETURNAROUNDNormally a character

designer is also required to

provide a turnaround, or

orthographic drawings of the

character that show front, side

and back views. The process of

making sure details line up across

all the drawings will often revealproblems in the design. On

paper, its difficult to anticipate

every design issue, so doing the

turnarounds is a good way to be

rigorous about your design

working in three dimensions.

A sexy twist onsomething thatsnot traditionallyconsidered sexy isinteresting the sexy

nurse archetype is agreat example of this

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Effective Character Design - ImagineFX - Francis Tsai