HUMAN Vs NON-HUMAN Character Design: Which Works Best?

We tried out something a little different for this video. Let us know what you think in the comments!

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✧✧✧ SUBJECTIVELY ✧✧✧
We’re a group of friends and artists with a lot of opinions about our favorite media and character design. Now, we want to share our friendly, roundtable-style discussions and artistic misadventures with YOU.

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All content and characters discussed belong to their respective owners. Our content is covered by Fair Use for the purposes of polite criticism, artistic education, and/or satirical purposes. We want to share our enthusiasm for the media we cover, and also engage more people to be interested in the value of art direction and character design.
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[edwardy]

Why I like the crocodile: he stands out in a group of human characters, the way you pose him makes him look rambunctious/cheerful which contrasts to how crocs are normally depicted, and he's got cute as overalls on! Foureyes or the knight dude would be my second pick (the knight because I love those sorts of designs, and foureyes because she is fashionable and confident)

[MightyMyna]

I quite like both human and non human characters, it really depends on the design, personality, what the character is portraying.

[somerandomguy]

I believe that the majority votes of lockjaw might also represent the interest of the subjectively community better because of its focus on non-human designs(pokemon, smaugust, mermay). I myself grew up drawing human designs and only now started making more animal designs because of this channel and maybe that's why I voted for Shrapnel, I wonder how different the results would be if the same pole was posted on a channel that focuses more on human characters

[SnakesAnimations]

Personally, I voted Lockjaw because he's a lot different than his design would suggest. On the surface he appears like a strong, tanky croc, but in reality he's highly intelligent and wise. The contrast between character and design makes him quite appealing :]

[Trepppy]

I think four eyes and magic man are just like, the two that are hardest to interprete their vibe by just looking at them, while the other three are more easy to read.
It's not that their designes are bad but they are the more average looking ones when compared to the rest of the team, like I'd need to interact more with them to know what they are about.

[Jaide_]

What you said about why people voted for Lockjaw, I think it's because his expressions can be stretched and displayed in a fun way, although my favorite character of yours is Sasha Shrapnal, because as an introvert I find her to be more relatable with her whole face being hidden.

[EtamirTheDemiDeer]

As much as I love humans, I love the different kind of expression non human designs offer.
This probably isn’t what was meant, but it’s one of the reason I really love object heads. Like, you’ve got human body language and then something that doesn’t even have a face in order to communicate. One I’ve seen is a deck of cards that fans out when they’re angry and shuffles itself when they think.

The first iteration of my sona has a… I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s like a floating sphere that’s half full of liquid galaxy. It changes color depending on its mood, but it boils when it’s angry, fizzes when excited or happy, fogs up when it’s unsure, and ripples when it thinks. It goes dim and still when it’s upset
My latest iteration added these glowing thought balls that orbit it like planets. Normally it tries to keep its thoughts in order, but when it gets to be too much, the orbits themselves start rotating like some janked up bohr atomic model or the eye wheels of a biblically accurate angel. If it gets bad enough, the whole system falls apart and it’s left with just the body until it can collect its thoughts

[MCCullen]

What I like about non-humanoid characters is that it helps me become more immersed in whatever they're in. For example, in most of my D&D campaigns, I have chosen more animal/monstrous races because it helps me become more in character if I know that my character both mentally and physically is different from myself.

[bumberquest]

From what I've seen of Lockjaw, he is designed in a way where he looks anatomically appropriate for a croc while also having a lot of human personality in his design. Kinda proves that you can turn a cold-blooded, emotional apex predator into a lovable looking character. Gallant is probably my second favorite, simply becauseI always love big characters but I hate when their proportions are too unbalanced, like their musculature being overexagerated or their heads being way too small. He fits a nice balance for me.

[librastellium]

Here's a few of my subjective thoughts about what I think about The Freelancers.

1.) MagicMan
- He's kinda like the default guy, which is like The First Character you get from every video game i.e. Jake from Subway Surfers. He's like The Classic Caped Superhero, The Rifle Wielding Soldier from every First Person Shooter Game, and Every Sword Wielding Adventurer from every fantasy game ever— Design wise that is, compared tor the other team members.

This isn't bad of course, it just lends to him being not as bright as the other stars in the team.

However, The thing that makes him standout to me as a Character is his Body Type. He's skinny but not in a femboy and Jack Frost kinda way, but he's actually Thin. I love it. I also find the contrast he has with Four-eyes to be very interesting which I will get into when I talk about her.

2.) Four-Eyes.

I personally love this character. I also find Short haired Girls and Visors to be really rad and really cool. I love her spunk and attitude, but I ultimately think that the her being lancer to MagicMan is not really that obvious to me. The seem more like a Pair rather than Foils. They have more like a Jessie and James feel to them, rather than a Sonic and Tails one.

I do also love how Yes, they are Twins but they don't have that disgusting hive mind copy cat thing going on. They're clearly meant to be different characters and I was actually really surprised when I heard that they were actually Twins — which, yeah, cause not all twins are identical. LOL. Silly me.

But they still feel like one of those "Are you a Boy or are you a Girl?" Pokemon Question thing. Which kinda makes them suffer to have their own identities unlike Sasha, Gallant, and Lockjaw who distinctly have diverse design Identities.

3.) Gallant

I got not much to say about him honestly. Which isn't reflective on how much a value him. I genuinely love his composed nature and gallant features (Hehe), and yeah, that's just it. He certainly standouts with the kilt and armour he's wearing which I definitely love and yeah, no sht. This guy's design slaps and he slaps even harder literally.

4.) Lockjaw

The Fan Favorite. He's got that Tahm Kench kinda vibe to him, Yanno? People can see the charm of this fella and how he could sweet talk his wise words into people and project a lot more stuff about him being just an overall chill and relax character.

Lockjaw opens the door to what is possible in the team cause for the most part, everyone's a human and him being an Anthropomorphic Crocodile opens the door to make people think that "With a design that's as wicked and unique as this, what more can we have that has charm to its wit?"

5.) Sasha

My Personal Favorite. Best Girl. I love her strangeness and alien-ness with a the weird ways she poses but I think I kinda prefer her having that more Androgynous looking look from when she had a Blue Theme Color going on, but overall, She is the one I picked in the poll.

[ryanwillingham]

I think I gravitate more to non-human designs precisely because I can't relate as much, and thus it almost forces me to escape my own world and go to a much cooler one - a world where crocs can and do wear visors. It's also easier to directly reflect themes and personality in non-humans, because their shape is often directly inspired by it. Like Gallant from Jack's own cast, who you can immediately tell is not one for hugs or soft things just by the fact that he's a cold, stoic set of armor. For my confused, developing brain, having an exit wrapped in something easily digestible (not to mention cool, like, c'mon) is so much more appealing.

[artist]

If I could explain in a simple way why Lockjaw has 50% of votes.
It would be because "The Freelancers" is more like a comic book group, in a world where most superheroes are human, seeing a crocodile with abilities makes it more interesting (e.g. Dinosaurus from Invincible) and seeing a cold-blooded beast like a wise-tech makes it more interesting.
4 Eyes and Magik man maybe they are not so loved because we don't know their abilities, powers or personalities, just by design they are simpler than the rest, maybe if it was a comic where we see how they relate they could be more interesting.

[diamondjub]

For the longest time I refused to draw humans for my world because I was sure I'd mess it up, then I added one who admittedly, didn't show their face and wore bulky clothes, but after that human and humanoid designs just started sliding into existence and some of them I really like

[Anglerfishart]

I had chills when you mentioned wanting to not be human to feel comfortable, I actually voted for Lockjaw because I empathize more with animal characters (animal and alien, etc). I'm so glad I watched this video today, I've been feeling terrible these days and having that little part of me understood by another artist just put glow in my eyes TuT Great video as always

[kaihuntrr]

When it comes to picking a human or a non-human design, I tend to just go with whatever suits the character best! I will say that I’m in the middle, having designs that are human-like but not directly non human. Traits like adding fins, furs, horns, tails and the like while changing the anatomy of the human body is what I do the most to have a good split between what they represent and their empathy.

That’s just my personal take on that tho, I’m interested in how other people prefer or tackle the topic!

[eju]

20:06 you kinda hit the nail on the mark at least with me. I really really hate common tropes with anthropomorphize reptile characters. They’re usually portrayed as dumb stupid lugging animals. I really like how you made him more cocky yet wise at the same time. If I’m being completely honest he reminds me a lot of Toby from Thomas the tank engine, not just any Thomas the Tank Engine but specifically the original railway series books. You know the thing that Thomas was based off of. I genuinely could see Lockjaw and Toby having a great conversation.

To be clear, the reason why I specifically say Toby is because Toby has the kind of wisdom where he knows how to get candy out of the machine if you kick it a certain way. I just get the same vibes from Lockjaw. He’s obviously old smart and wise but he is a true chaotic neutral character.

Also Crocotaco

[yoshyxl]

It took me a while but this is as short as I can make it:
I created a dragon inspired mainly by crocodile and dolphin characteristics, which allowed me to combine the head shape of a croc but soften it with cetacean atributes like having its teeth hidden when it closes its mouth and leaving the skin smooth with no scales. When I showed a drawing of it smiling with its mouth open to my cousin they said that the dragon looked very friendly and nice, but it having it show its sharp teeth also made it give an aura of "you shouldn't mess with him".
I get that same sensation from Lockjaw.
Lastly, aside from crocs being cool, the idea of an animal typically represented as a cold eating machine turned instead into a wise and reliable figure makes for a very interesting character.

[GlobalSingeing]

He good big boy that's all there is to it
I think people like the croc most because in general I've noticed people are empathetic toward animals universally, as they're seen as more "pure" in that even if they're violent it's seen as just how they are. But people can be harder to empathize by default, because if they suck it's intentional. So at least me personally, having liked so many celebrities that turn out to be weirdo ass clowns or being wronged by people, it's hard to just inherently like a human character until they PROVE their worthiness, where as animals are just good boys by default.

[Jaaziar]

Lockjaw is a contrast to the 4 humans. So he stands out and is therefore a favourite character

[ColdDaveball]

My two cents about your Freelancer characters that are my (and seemingly most people's) least favourite:
Fore Eyes and Mr Magik Man don't really feel visually distinct enough from each other for either one to stand out.
And there also aren't enough character-defining and complementing visual contrasts within a cohesive unity for them to be read as an expression of duality/ two sides of the same coin.