Character Design Process
Throughout my time at university, I've slowly but surely picked up tidbits of information that have accumulated in a design process that I am fond of and always try to stick by.
Summary of Process
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Prepare - conduct research, flesh out your knowledge and develop your skills.
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Take and look for inspiration - be inspired by the work of others, use their art as reference to better yourself.
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Create written prompts and briefs - write down what you expect a design to be in as much or as little detail as necessary.
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References and moodboards - collect and collate references, compile them into resources you can constantly dip into for inspiration and accuracy.
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Thumbnails and silhouettes - create instinctive and rapid sketches capturing no more than general shapes and gestures.
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Refinement and experimentation - begin to play around with the design once you have a stronger foundation, add and subtract elements, play with colour etc.
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Finalise your design - once different avenues have been considered and a design idea is settled, finalise it and flesh it out as thoroughly as needed.
Preparation
Every single time I complete a piece of artwork, I have to use it as a point of reference for my own development. We as artists will pick up on every single tiny flaw of our own art down to the last pixel, so I often attempt to reframe this into a means of self-reflection and self betterment. If I spot an issue with a piece I've created and it bothers me, I try to take it on board and conduct research into how I can go about doing it better.
This concept also holds true outside of the realm of visual creation - it also applies to the written side of character design too. I often times find myself doing lots of research into specific things related to a character design idea I have. For example, when designing The Hero, I made sure to carry out some research into teddy bears to help flesh out my understanding and to provide a bounce pad for a more informed and well-constructed design. This research allowed the idea of a teddy bear knight to slowly blossom in my mind, leading me onto how I could convey traits like bravery, loyalty and courageousness in my design. In turn, this lead me to conduct visual research into knights, and how other artists create effective poses for knight characters. All of this culminates in a much stronger design than I could create if I did not go out of my way to inform myself.
Take Inspiration
No matter how much we practice, we will always have difficulties in some regards. Because of this, we should always seek to take inspiration from people who succeed in the things we might struggle with. For example, I recently came across a piece of artwork created by concept artist RJ Palmer.
The original piece is incredible and extremely inspiring as it is - but it was the progress shots he posted that really inspired me. RJ's processes involve developing extremely informed anatomical bases for his art, right down to creating a skeleton for the Pokemon Koraidon, in a realistic and heavily informed way.
This piece was inspirational to me in the development of Amalgam's prototype artbook art. I was given motivation and a better understanding of how to approach scales and, even though my rendition of scales falls quite short and there are a fair few errors, I am miles ahead of where I was before trying it. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and it is always good to try and capitalise on it!
After I had got to a satisfactory point of Amalgam's artwork, I was even inspired to continue pushing more technically fleshed out, detailed artwork for The Hero. In conjunction with Noemi's guest-talk, these helped to convince me to embrace the challenge of starting an art book for my project.
Prompts and Briefs
Prompts and briefs are, in my opinion, a necessity for developing an effective methodology. Briefs allow us to remain consistent in our design goals. I personally find briefs very useful, as I am very likely to go off on tangents and to be attracted to a new shinier concept and leave the original behind. Briefs help me stay grounded and stay true to the design intentions.
Briefs also serve as a fantastic point of reference not just for the artist, but for a team. Every person on a team can evaluate and critique art based on the brief and judge, not whether the artwork is good, but whether it is fit for purpose, which are two very different concepts. Without a brief, it can harder to begin critiquing and moving forward in the design process, as there is no written point of reference from which design criteria can be met. I usually create initial briefs to quickly get across an idea before I conduct research, then I flesh out the brief after researching everything I need to.
References and Moodboards
Designers should always look to the art of other designers for inspiration and should always look for inspiration from the real world.
I typically create moodboards for each major character element in which I compile relevant references. In the case of The Hero, I developed moodboards for teddy bears, knights, and different swordsman poses. The amount of moodboards can vary depending on how many elements need to be executed. From this, I can better gauge how I should go about utilising my inspirations to inform my designs.
Another means of referencing I do is to create 3D models in Blender - this is only when I have a better idea of what the character design is. In the case of Amalgam, I developed a 3D model, rigged it, and posed it to try and create some poses.
Thumbnailing and Silhouettes
Thumbnails and silhouettes never used to be a part of my design process - that was until I read through Arkane's 'The Art of Prey', which is a brilliant showcase of the different design stages for many of Prey's components. I was heavily inspired by their use of thumbnailing as a component in designing different enemies, namely the Typhon.
Silhouettes of a Weaver
Silhouette of the Apex Typhon
Silhouettes are a component of building thumbnails. They are incredibly gestural, instinctive pieces that are generated quickly in order to begin developing shapes, poses and expressions. There are no rules or limits to how you can go about this, you simply put pen to paper to generate guttural and instinctive designs and get them out of your head. Note the lack of definitive structure or polish to the silhouettes that Arkane have produced - despite the overwhelming amount of technical ability of Arkane's art department, they do not focus even remotely on the technical side here.
To showcase this further, I demonstrated this silhouette concept in my design of The Hero. I jotted down seven small, rapid sketches with the sole purpose of arranging shapes and trialling poses. The bottom right sketch is the one I settled on, and spiralled all the way through into the final design.
Refinement and Experimentation
Thumbnails and silhouettes should not possess lots of detail or texture - that's what refinement is for. At this stage, I like to take the shapes and poses I've settled on and I like to experiment with them. I use this stage to trial things like texture, colour, composition, different clothes or expressions.
It isn't the best example, but this screenshot of a design I was making for Glass Gardens in year 2 showcases how I would take the base form of a design and manipulate it, add or take away elements simply with the intention of establishing a better path for the design in accordance to the brief. The differentiations in each trial should differ to a good extent so you can better understand what works and what doesn't.
Finalise Your Design
With a variety of design considerations made and a solid foundation to build upon, you should have made enough developments to finalise a design.
One thing I like to consider is a good reference sheet. It's important to know that finalising a design doesn't necessarily mean making a pristine, technically perfect illustration to show the character off in all its glory. In my case as a concept artist for Glass Gardens in year 2, it was important that I made a reference sheet that details all the major elements and anatomy about the design. This is so that other creatives (such as 3D modellers, illustrators etc) can reference your work and realise the design properly within their specific contexts.
Annotation is always important to include, as it allows there to be a clear line of communication about the different design elements.
Feedback
The last major thing to be considerate of in my process is that of feedback. It goes without saying how important it is that we get second opinions and general feedback on our designs, especially if there is any room for interpretation in a written brief. Our peers can help to inspire us and direct us down more effective paths, regardless of their background or skillset - it all counts.