Character Design 101

Character Design 101

Whenever you watch a movie, read a book, or start a new show, what's the part of the story that sticks with you? Spoiler alert, it’s the characters! Character design is an essential part of any artist's toolkit. In this article, I will walk you through what makes a compelling character design that aids in your storytelling.

Let's start with a simple question: what makes a great character? The answer to that question is…complicated. There is no “right” way to design a character. However, there are formulas and tools to help lead you into creating a compelling design that speaks to yourself as well as your audience!

Before we jump straight into designing characters, we need to have a basic understanding of what most characters are: people! The first step in creating compelling characters is knowing how to draw the human form properly. This can be a daunting task when getting started, but learning the basics is easier than you think!

This article is about design, though, not anatomy. So I highly recommend checking out this video on drawing the human body.

Now, let’s break down all the important factors of design.

The characters we remember are the ones who we recognize even when completely blacked out. Batman's silhouette stands tall and intimidating. He is sleek and sharp, reflecting how he stalks through the night—a man not to be messed with. Mario and Mickey Mouse are the exact opposite of Batman, and we know this right away thanks to how clear their silhouettes are. They are both round and soft, creating a happy, friendly feeling. Mickey tucks his hands behind his back and has a foot sticking out, his body language can be clearly read and tells you right away he's helpful and cheerful. Mario, on the other hand, is still soft, but his walking pose reflects his personality in-game—always on the go, jumping, running, and saving Princess Peach. A major part of why these characters are so easy to recognize is their clear silhouettes.

The great thing about finding a strong silhouette is that when someone sees your character, they will recognize who they are, how they act, and what kind of personality they will have. So, when making character designs, simple is often the best answer.

Shape language can help elevate designs based on character personality. Before, when talking about silhouette, I mentioned how Batman was sharp and Mickey was round. This is because shapes heavily impact the audience's initial read of a character. Animated movies use this philosophy all the time, especially older Disney Movies. Look at any Disney movie, and you can tell who the villain is and who the hero is. Villains are sharp and pointed, built out of triangles. Good guys are soft and round with circles and ovals. 

Squares are seen as strong and dependable, while circles are bubbly and curious. I love this example from Up, where the shape language in the design is reflected not only in their bodies but in their chairs as well.

Designers will also use this subconscious knowledge of shape language to subvert your expectations as well. This is seen with the villains in the Zootopia movies. Assistant Mayor Bellweather is soft, fluffy, and cute—this softness makes it all the more shocking when she’s revealed as a villain.

Story is a critical part of character design, as it informs all of your decisions when designing.

Take Moana, for example.

Moana is an adventurous girl from an island village, which is reflected in her hair, clothes, and accessories. Her hair isn't tied up in a tight bun; it's loose and flowing in the wind. Her clothes are comfortable and easy to move in, complementing how she adventures through both land and sea. The main major detail in her design is her necklace, the Heart of Tifiti, which plays an essential role in the film. The design showcases the most important parts of her personality and story while remaining simple and iconic. But a character is more than the clothes they wear. Looking at the above sketches by Jin Kim, he was able to capture Moana not just through her costuming, but in her posing and facial expressions. Through posing, the character’s personality can be communicated to the audience. When designing Moana, they drew her in sketches looking brave and determined, but also as a wistful dreamer. These drawings can create a nature, temperament, and attitude for Moana, and we can understand the essence of who she is without even watching the film.

An important note to make is that research is incredibly important when creating characters. When I write and design characters, I am often drawing from my own life experiences, but that doesn't mean you can't draw inspiration from other people and their lives. But when you are designing a character and world that you are not a part of, it's vital that you research and understand that culture to properly reflect it in your characters. For example, Moana is Polynesian. The movie is built on Polynesian culture and mythology, so in order to properly design Moana for her story, she must be designed with lots of research, respect, and care.

Contrast Moana with Wreck-It-Ralph. His design is one big square, exaggerating his role as a scary “villain.” But while he is large and square, he isn't sharp. His edges are soft, which helps him relate to the audience as the misunderstood protagonist.

You can also see how many design variations the artists went through as they tried to capture who he is above.

From the same movie, look at the above concept art for The Sergeant. She is from a dark, gritty, and dangerous video game world. In contrast, Ralph's soft corners and bright colors are perfect for his cute, cartoony video game.

If the character designers didn't think about what world The Sergeant was from, she would have looked too soft and not combat-ready. Maybe she would have looked too similar to the characters from Ralph's world, but through her sharp design, the viewer is immediately informed of who she is and what kind of world she’s from.

Another essential part of connecting your character with your audience is expression. Whoever is looking at your character design will have a much harder time being invested in their story if they can't see human emotions on their face. Those Jin Kim sketches of Moana would be super boring if her face were flat and emotionless, because that's not who Moana is. Some of my personal favorites are the expression sheets of the characters Nimona and Balistar by BJ Crawford.

Nimona is rebellious and loves to create some chaos. We can see in her expressions that she doesn't smile like the calm and gentle Balistar. Balister's smile is subdued and soft, while Nimona is loud, with sharp teeth that scream, “I’m trouble.” Each character feels emotion differently. The audience can get a great idea of who the character is and how they act based on whether they hide their face when they cry versus bawling their eyes out for all to see. These may seem like details that wouldn't matter, but all these expressions, poses, clothing, and hair will come together to create a crystal clear image of who your character is.

Knowing these aspects of your character, where they are from, their occupation, their living conditions—it all impacts the design. Of course, you don't have to know every little detail about a character before designing either. Part of the fun of figuring out a character is finding who they are through sketches. Sometimes you make decisions you wouldn't expect through quickly sketching out a bunch of ideas. So don't be afraid to make "ugly" or unpolished drawings. When designing, every terrible little sketch is a part of the overall journey to that final character. When the artists started off drawing Moana, they definitely went through so many variations and ideas before they got to her final look.

Above is an example from my own work: all of my character designs start with sketch pages like this. You can see notes and messy sketches as I experimented and tried to figure out my idea.

The best character designers sketch out lots of different designs for the same character, then decide which one is the strongest. Take these drawings from Wreck-It-Ralph again.

There are multiple different designs for Ralph throughout production. I can guarantee you that there are a million messy sketches of him on scrap pieces of paper as they were figuring him out. As I mentioned before, it's really important not to have perfect sketches of your characters; you've got to get all the ideas out, even if they aren't as visually pleasing to look at.

These are some super quick sketches for a character idea.

Below, I’ll show you the process of character design from start to finish. This is my character, Georgie, alongside the design process when I was designing her.

Above are my first ideas and sketches. For this character, I had the idea for a mail courier combined with a cowboy and a witch. During my first sketches, I tried to figure out what my protagonist would look like. I did some writing and brainstorming in my head, as well as on a Google Doc, so I knew going in I wanted her to be a young protagonist who was learning how to be a mail courier. I was also looking at tons of reference images as I was sketching. This included cowboy hats, western outfits, fantasy worlds, and other characters I found inspiring. Please do not shy away from using references when you work, it always informs your drawings and makes them visually stronger!

This character was going to have two designs for the two different worlds she visits in her story. In her Fantasy World design, I wanted her to have all the elements of her inspiration, so I gave her a witch’s hat, a mailbag, and a cowgirl-esque outfit. It was here that I realized I would want her to be unconfident and shy, so I started exploring that idea.

For her human world design, I wanted to make sure she was timid, sweet, and smart. So I explored a few different versions of what she could look like.

For the final design, I combined my favorite elements from the sketches into something that felt fun, iconic, and fitting for the western-like world I was going to put her in. I also explored some stylistic choices, like the bigger boots. Usually, I draw feet and shoes very small and pointy. This is because I feel it's easier when trying to draw characters in poses. But since that is my default, I wanted to try something different with this character. Since she is a cowboy and her boots are important to her look, I intentionally designed them bigger than I usually would. This allowed me to challenge myself and improve my design. Additionally, this stylistic choice is cute and almost resembles horse hooves. Color was also extremely important for the feeling I wanted, so I made a few different versions to find the right vibe. Color is something I tend to struggle with, so finding the right color scheme was a lot of trial and error. I settled on the teal outfit with yellow accents because the values did not bleed into each other. The teal contrasted nicely with her skin tone and created a strong read at a glance. If you want a more in-depth look at color design, please check out this article.

Above is the final design. Her human-world design shows her timid shyness, while her fantasy-world design conveys her shift in confidence as she becomes a mail courier. I also had fun exploring her personality more in the character sketches I added to her final layout page. But of course, this is just one character. Each character you design will be different. Some characters will take you one sketch to get right, but for others, it might take you 50. I hope seeing my full process was helpful!

Style will also influence how you design characters. If you want to design realistic characters that you would see in live-action films, the characters you create will look very different from the characters you see in animated DreamWorks films. Game, animation, and live action film all have varying levels of detail that are put into characters. So, if you draw in a simple cartoony style, experiment with exaggerated shapes and iconic silhouettes. If you want to design characters for The Last of Us, play around with realistic and practical designs.

Above is Ellie from The Last of Us. See how her painting is more realistic and design practical to match the post-apocalyptic world she lives in? The artist here has a great understanding of realistic proportions and painting, complementing the character design.

Above is the character Sigma from the game Overwatch designed by Qui Fang. Qui Fang creates an iconic silhouette with those big armored shoulders. The armor’s color is also focused on the shoulders, drawing more of your attention towards them alongside the character's face. The painting style is also smooth and satisfying. Game art styles, just like visual development, vary widely.

Keep in mind, however, that this is general advice. The most important thing is to just have fun experimenting with what kinds of characters are the most appealing to you. Don't put yourself in a box, make sure to experiment with all kinds of styles & levels of detail in your designs. Style is something we all think about, but honestly is not as important as we all think. Your style is like your handwriting: it's in your unique quirks and imperfections that create style. Prioritize learning first,  but make sure to find and follow artists whose styles and work inspire you. Then, try to learn from those artists and study their techniques!

Character line-ups are great for creating varied designs for the same project.

Look at Inside Out, for example. If all the characters had the same physical characteristics (for example, height, weight, or age), they’d be less interesting to the viewer. When making your characters, especially if you have multiple characters for the same story, put them next to each other! If they look too similar, try pushing and pulling at them with proportions and size to make them more unique and easy to distinguish from each other. It's great to have a variety of different looks and personalities in a world of characters; it helps show off who each person is. 

To be honest, the first character you design will probably not be the most amazing character in the world, but that's okay! The best way to create amazing characters is through lots of practice. In my personal experience, the best way to practice is to make all the characters you want and have fun while keeping in mind the things you have learned.

My first character design was a girl in a typical hoodie and ponytail. But now, I can create any character I can dream of due to lots of dedication and practice. So, to help you start, here are a few exercises that will be super helpful in pushing your skills!

This exercise is an opportunity to stretch your design skills and see how you can make people from the same job widely different in shape, to pose, to personality. Below is an example from Christina Zhang: she designed a lineup of different people in the military. She did a brilliant job in showcasing how people from the same kind of job can be very different from one another.

Another fun example is Nicholas Kole’s fun and energetic Clowns concept pictured above. While I recommend starting off with an occupation, a general concept like a line-up of fun clown creatures also works! Make sure to make a lineup with a concept you find engaging and creative!

For your exercise, pick fun careers like firefighters, postmen, or a gang of bikers. Push, push, push! Make them as different as you can!

Choose a fairytale, a musical you like, or a book you enjoyed. Then take the characters from that piece of media and make a lineup with your vision for the characters!

I did this exercise after I saw Cats the Musical at my local theater. I designed each of the major characters, making sure each was unique and the lineup varied.

Many successful character designers showcase this exercise as part of their portfolios as well! Celine Kim created a visual development project bringing Phantom of the Opera to life in her style, creating a great lineup of characters.

Another example is George Park’s extremely charming reimagining of the Secret Garden. 

At the end of the day, character design has no “right answer”; it's all about exploration and finding a voice for your character that feels right to you. While we can go on and on about different formulas and techniques, the most important thing, especially as you learn and grow as an artist, is having fun. What will keep up your momentum and passion to learn is enjoying the process of creating art. So, get out there and have fun designing some amazing characters!