character design for dummies 101

badly made tutorial for school. maybe you'll find it helpful. at the very least I hope you find it entertaining.

0:00-1:31 intro
1:31-3:36 balance
3:36-4:52 shape language
4:52-6:49 misc
6:49-8:28 character review
8:28-15:55 redesigning
15:55-15:58 final result

[ZedKingsley]

Great video! Got me inspired to redesign my OCs!

[mysryuza]

I would like to add with using a notable part of the design. What is something that the character known for? Where on the design do you want the viewers to focus on? This can help with you character’s silhouette, alongside making poses. Check out iconic characters for their poses. My MHA OC, Oyumi has a long braid and a neck ruffle to draw attention to her face. Another, Zazaki is the wings of her hair and/or the shark teeth or her eyes having tiny pupils for the same purpose. It can be an object like an accessory that hints what the character does for a living or likes to do.
Color balance is another important thing. Like before, you gotta figure out or learn where the colors work and where you want the viewers to be drawn to, no pun intended. I highly recommend watching Digi Valentine’s “Who Dat” series for character design, even though it’s opinionated. His series helped so much in my learning of designing my future characters.
I had a Beyblade OC that had multiple redesigns and still couldn’t stick because I was too attached to the Ryuga clone idea. Making a huge overhaul of a rebooted design and story was the hardest I’ve ever done for a character, especially for one I’ve grown so attached to for years, but it was the best thing I’ve done.

[mangoiguess]

Hi, person who has been studying character design for a couple years here!
This video was very well for beginners and people struggling with character design in general, but I wanna add one little thing. If you are someone who is fairly good at character design, making highly detailed designs that follow 'rule of cool' can also work very well. You have to be of higher skill to pull it off, and you do have to be motivated enough to draw the design over and over again. But a lot of highly detailed 'rule of cool' designs can look amazing if done right. One of the best examples of this is the designs from the game Genshin Impact, the designs are highly detailed and unrealistic but work extremely well for the world and show off their character!
(However if you are starting out I'd recommend sticking with more balanced designs like the video said)

[Withaxle]

Girl same! I am also guilty of scrolling on Pinterest for inspiration it is a very helpful tool to get your ideas running, like I’ve literally made an entire board that is literally named art reference! Because for some reason I can’t draw arms anatomically correct ☹️

[Starkite]

I've always liked scarves and capes. I don't know why, but it shows a sense of bravery and self value to me. Could also imply mystery or being lost in the world.

Whenever I think about the cloth, I always think about when it blows in the wind on a lonely night. The distant mysterious figure, who you can't recognize. Because you can't recognize them, they're normally left unnoticed. But once noticed, their impact is grand and could be good or bad. It's unpredictable and highly anticipated.

[kingiune]

reminder that shape language is MEANT to be broken, is taught to people so that they can break it, formulate a character who goes against those rules of each shape, it truly creates an even more intresting character in media if you are breaking those rules, which is why characters like Kyubey, Pearl, Eda, etc are all cool characters, they break the typical rules of "soft" for circles and "villainous" for triangles

[cawsomeaolin]

Y’know, just as long as they’re recognizable as a silhouette.

[lucasnanami]

Adding onto the silhouette: it's also helpful to mess around with the pose. Poses can really tell the viewer who the character is and most definitely help with the silhouette!

[inhuman_human]

I think God just keeps bringing me back to the idea of balance. Have balanced designs is huge. Not too many details and not too simple. Simple is boring. Too man details is overwhelming for both the artist and the viewers. Thanks for the video. Stay safe.

[RTheRat]

Ok, so the super strength thing got me thinking. If a character has said super strength then it wouldn't make sense for them to be muscular, because for their entire life they wouldn't really be able to build the muscle because it would be easy to lift up things and stuff. So what I'm trying to say is that it would just be impossible to get that muscular with super strength, if that makes sense.

[Alchemyyyyyy]

4:27 I love how you showed pearl, personally for me pearl is a anti hero, implying how sometimes she was rude and arrogant but sweet in moments.

[jellifygirl]

This definitely works as a kick-off point for thinking more about some character design concepts (or I guess, , yeah what the title says hdjsks), though it fatally misses a lot of huge and really important topics, such as really thinking about the overall theme of the world and narrative (if any) when you make character designs, and the appropriate use of motifs. I'm kinda getting the vibe of, like, how to make a cool group of OCs, which is for sure character design, but just a real specific scope of it that doesn't look at a lot outside the One assumed context you're gonna have.

[HappySaly]

This is amazing. I do wish there were more videos by you but these type of videos are worth waiting a longer.

[davilisboalopesjardim]

I kinda like the first design you had for the girl one. I just think someone bringing a jumpsuit and literal kitchen knives to fight crime is a really adorable concept. She seems to be the "a little confused, but she got the spirit" kinda character.

[Zanyzane]

This is one of the best videos I've seen on character design THANK U
(also I would love to rant all day about TMNT (2018) or the other iterations for that matter BHSHQH

[nylacrews]

This is actually such a good video not only did it get me VERY motivated it also made so much sense to me. Usually people explaining character design, anatomy, or anything else like that never makes sense to me but this actually made sense. The points in this video actually made me realized that I haven't been thinking of where the character is from or what type of world the character is in. Thank you so much for this video and I will deff use this when drawing.

[Marieside]

Great video! and great tips! for OC designs

made me realize my OC for a story I have been planning to work on was too plain and not unique in any way so definitely going to redesign them

[DatMeYep]

Im someone who keeps and keeps at redesigning ocs a lot- currently in a phase to do so, but this video ended up giving me lots of hope on what I can do with my basicness and elaborate more into the world I imagine them in! This is an amazing first video by the way- it is very well constructed!!

[Junii_purr]

This video is lowkey so good. I genuinely learned something from it and now I'm inspired to redesign one of my more recent characters because she's pretty bland ngl lmao. Great job! I'd love to see more from you :)

[mochijuice]

SO HAPPY TO SEE RISE OF TMNT THERE
It’s such a good use of shape language for characters