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1. Chinese students who have just arrived in the UK and have not yet adapted to life in the UK

2. Chinese students who have been living in the UK for some time

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1. Introverted, afraid to communicate with foreign students

2. Like to explore interesting places

*need to add more detail

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Collect reference images

Know the audience

Define the characters' non-visual characteristics

At least one positive or redeeming characteristic

A fundamental flaw

My character motivation (or their “why”)

Conceptualization

Choose a color palette

Begin drawing

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In film and games, a well-designed character compels their audience to feel invested in the unfolding story. These are often memorable characters who are instantly recognizable by their clothing, how they enter a room, and their subtle quirks and idiosyncrasies. Character design can include everything from how a character looks and dresses to how they move and the emotions they exhibit.

Here's what you need to know about the creative world of character design.

What is character design?

Character design in film and games is a form of concept art and involves visually defining a character's physical appearance, personality, behavior, and aesthetic. It's more than just a drawing. Characters play an essential role in telling a story or conveying a message, and as a character designer, you will bring characters to life with attributes that align with the story and creative direction of the film or game.

Character design is used as a reference point throughout many stages of a project's development.

Witch character design by CGS Advanced Concept Art Course student Polina Scherba

What is good character design?

Good character design starts with a character's personality, which may come from a writer or creative director in the form of a brief or script. As a character designer, you're responsible for visualizing the description or idea of a character, often for the first time.

Good character design is about clarity and includes the following:

Style/Tone: Does your character match the style of the production? For example, if it's a Disney character, you wouldn't draw them in an Anime style.

Costume: Does the character dress in a way that is authentic with their characteristics and story? Does it work with their environment?

Posture: Is how they hold themselves in alignment with their personality and demeanor?

Story: What role does the character play in the storyline or scene?

Silhouette: When all details have been removed, does the character's silhouette still quickly identify them? (As an example, think about Mickey Mouse's simple but highly recognizable silhouette.)

Here are some examples of aligning your character design authentically:

If you're developing a game where the character is expected to scale steep mountain cliffs, you're not likely to design them with a walking cane or high-heeled shoes.

If the protagonist's character traits include a lack of confidence and self-esteem, your character design will likely include a slouching, inward posture.

If a game takes place in Outerspace, you'll need to consider appropriate attire such as a helmet, oxygen supply, and a spacesuit.

Spacewoman character design by Ana Margarida Roxo Neves as part of the Advanced Digital Illustration Course at CG Spectrum

A good character will not only be realistic (or believable) but one that has something unique about them, whether it be part of their personality, movement, or in their physical appearance.

3 examples of good character design

Here are three examples of good character design in characters you've likely seen in film and games:

GroguGrogu has become a popular character in the
Star Wars universe-a sign of good character design. Grogu's baby-like features and slow, awkward movements make us want to love and nurture him. As he resembles another beloved Star Wars character (Master Yoda), we resonate with him better than if the character designer conceived a brand new alien species for his role.

Pikachu
Pokémon's Pikachu is an iconic character beloved by generations. Part of Pikachu's clever character design is that his color matches his skill (lighting and yellow), making him easier to remember, and his cuteness, reflected in his voice and facial expressions, makes him extremely likable.

GlaDOS (Portal)
If you've ever played Portal, you will be familiar with GlaDOS and her extreme measures to keep you in the research facility, resorting to lies and deception. Players are put on edge by her black and white mechanical design and one simple lighted watchful "eye," which helps to make her character design memorable and evocative.

How to create a character design

Here's the process to start conceptualizing and designing your character based on a client brief, or similar:

Step 1: Research

Become an expert in the world of the characters you're creating. Do your research before you put pen to paper (or stylus to tablet!). A well-known example is the 1994 animated feature The Lion King. Character designers and animators studied real-life African savanna animals to better understand how they looked, their movements, and their demeanor to ensure the iconic characters they designed were true to form.

Step 2: Collect reference images

As part of your research, collecting reference images for inspiration is essential, even if your character is based on fantasy. If you're designing a character who lives in a forest, for example, collect imagery of rainforest scenes and animals to help set the right tone. Or, say your character is a sports car enthusiast, collect photos of hotrods and racing circuits. You may find elements (colors, patterns, textures) from these reference images that you can incorporate into your character's design.

Step 3: Know your audience

Everyone views the world through their unique lens. Knowing what lens your target audience might be looking through can help you better design a character that will resonate with them. When you design a character, your audience will often be included in your brief.

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Step 4: Define the characters' non-visual characteristics

Based on information from your character design brief, develop a personality and background story for the character. Perhaps they got in a bar fight last year and now have a large scar across their face. Go as deep as you need to develop a character with layers, both physical and emotional. Characters with multiple layers are more believable and indelible.

Also, delve into a character's background and ancestry. If your character grew up in the Wild West, you could include elements common to those living in that era (like a cowboy hat and chaps). If your character has Norse ancestry, you can build their aesthetics with Norse-like features (like paler hair and eyes) while being careful not to fall into stereotypes.

Some other aspects to include in your character design include:

At least one positive or redeeming characteristic

A fundamental flaw

Your character motivation (or their "why")

Step 5: Conceptualization

When you have enough information about the character, start doing some rough concept sketches. Focus on key areas regarding physical features (like posture or unique attributes the character will have).

Learn more about becoming a professional conceptual artist.

Step 6: Choose a color palette

Include one primary color and a palette of supporting colors for the character. For most characters, simpler color palettes are best (like our Pikachu example above). Here's a great video explaining color theory that you can apply to your character designs:

Step 7: Begin drawing

Once you have the approval to move forward, begin creating more detailed sketches of your character in the style they'll appear in the final production, perhaps even working with some key actions/poses and dialog. You'll need to draw them from multiple angles and often include relevant props and costumes.

How character design is used in film and games

In film and games, the depiction and articulations of a character drawn by a character artist will first be used in the 3D modeling process, then later during the animation stage. In a 2D animation, character design will be used as reference points from which to animate, and storyboard artists will refer to character design to express the story.

Character design in 3D modeling
3D modelers digitally build, sculpt, and detail 3D characters based on a brief and the art created by a character designer. Because character design is usually executed as a "flat" 2D digital painting (although concept artists can also work in the 3D space, creating 3D maquettes of their characters), a 3D modeler has the ability to take the character design even further, adding more detail, personality, realism, and emotion.

The look and functionality of a 3D-modelled character will then inform how an animator (or video game player) can and will animate them, impacting how they move.

Battle Chasers Alumon character design by Joe Madureira (left) and 3d character model by CGS alum Benjamin Oman (right)

Character design in animation
Animators manipulate characters to move through and interact with their 2D, 3D (digital), or live-action environment according to the actions laid out in a script and/or storyboard. They will use the character design concept to inform their animation.

Because character design is static, animators can breathe additional life into a character by producing their motions, gestures, and expressions.

Want to see your character designs brought to life in films and games?

Build up your skills as a character designer by studying CG Spectrum's expert-led concept art courses. Gain hands-on experience creating character art from scratch, working from a client brief, and gain a solid understanding of how physical attributes affect design choices by learning perspective drawing and anatomy.

Becoming a concept artist-specializing in character design-is a great way to use your diverse artistic skills to help visualize and bring to life characters for movies and games that people will remember for generations to come!
STUDY CONCEPT ART

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What is character design? | Good character design for film & games

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In film and games, a well-designed character compels their audience to feel invested in the unfolding story. These are often memorable characters who are instantly recognizable by their clothing, how they enter a room, and their subtle quirks and idiosyncrasies.

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This summer, before movie audiences sink their teeth into one of the biggest sequels of the year, Pixar's Incredibles 2, they will be treated to a hilarious and poignant short film from one of the animation studio's up-and-comers, 28-year-old Domee Shi.

Bao tells the story of a Chinese empty-nester mom who gets a surprise one day when one of her dumplings turns into an adorable baby boy. The story includes several amusing moments with the mom and her new sidekick, as well as some unexpectedly moving scenes that address the pain of seeing your children grow up and turn their attention outside the house. It's quite an emotional journey for an eight-minute short about an anthropomorphized dumpling, and according to Shi - who wrote and directed Bao - the film has roots in a very real relationship, one that many audience members will surely relate to.

"The story was loosely inspired by my own life growing up as an only child to my two Chinese parents," Shi tells Eater. "I found that they always treated me like this precious little dumpling, always making sure I was safe and never wandered too far. And when it was time for me to leave the nest, it was hard for them to let go. I wanted to kind of explore that in an allegorical, modern-day-fairytale way with this short."

In terms of visual inspiration, Shi says that the mom is "kind of how I caricature myself when I'm doing silly drawings of myself, and I send them to my friends." But in terms of attitude, the filmmaker thinks there's "bits of my mom in there, but also bits of every strong Chinese woman in my life."

Shi, who is the first woman to direct a Pixar short in the company's 32-year history, started at the studio as an intern seven years ago, and was quickly hired as a storyboard artist working on Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur. "I have a very visual sense of storytelling, and I wrote this short by drawing it, basically," she explains. Once the storyboard version of Bao got the thumbs-up from Pixar's top brass, Becky Neiman-Cobb, a veteran of Ratatouille and Wall-E, was brought on to produce. Pixar legend Pete Docter, who has story credits on six of the studio's top titles, also worked alongside Shi as an executive producer. Shi says that Docter was like a "mentor" to her on this project who "was great about just encouraging me to stick to my guns, and trust that I don't have to like, spell everything out for the audience."

Although Pixar's shorts have developed a cult following over the years, the features are really the studio's bread and butter, and so with the production of Bao, Shi and Neiman-Cobb had to work on the film whenever there were breaks between the main movies and talent was available. "We're sort of like the indie wing of Pixar," the producer remarks. "We have smaller budgets, and we're scrappy, and we strategize our production to work within the windows between the big feature productions going on at the studio." The overall production took about a year and a half, although Neiman-Cobb notes that it might've taken nine months - "how long it takes to make a baby" - if they had worked on it consecutively.

One of the challenges of making this short movie, according to the filmmakers, was bringing the art of dumpling-making into the Pixar universe. The more realistic the dumpling, the more surprising the moment would be when it comes to life as a baby. "Computers are great at making non-organic and symmetrical, hard-shiny surfaces look realistic," Neiman-Cobb notes. "It's not as easy for computers to make things that look organic, and things where the shape changes. And so that was one of the major visual-effects hurdles for us, but it was also equally as important that we get those looking right, because that's sort of the physical manifestation of mom's love in this short."

For authenticity's sake, Shi decided to bring her mom, Ningsha Zhong, into the Pixar offices on two occasions to make some dumplings for her team. The director says that it was "really important for the animators and effects artists and everyone on the crew to kind of see every single step that it took for her to make those dumplings, so we could record her actions and replicate them on the big screen as accurately as possible." Shi also remarks that in the opening shots of the film, when the mom starts rolling and stuffing the dough, audiences will be seeing "basically my mom's hands." Zhong was invited to the premiere of Bao, and she's getting a "cultural consultant credit" on the short film.

Bao and Incredibles 2 will be released in theaters everywhere on June 15. For anyone who wants an early taste of the short film, here's Domee's family recipe for dumplings, drawn by the director herself:

* Watch an Adorable Clip From 'Bao,' Pixar's Upcoming Short Film [E]
* Pixar's New Short Film Is About Dumplings [E]

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Here's the Dumpling Recipe From Pixar's 'Bao'

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Director Domee Shi on her adorable short, and the dumpling recipe that inspired it running before 'Incredibles 2' this summer

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Press:
It's Nice That
Directors Notes
Short of The Week
Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere
Creative Boom
Cartoon Brew
Colossal

Awards:
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN A STUDENT FILM, European Animation Awards, 2018
Lottie Reininger Award, Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, 2018
Vimeo Award - Best of the Year, Comedy, 2019
Audience Award for Best Student Film, Anima Mundi, 2018
Best Student Film, Anifilm, 2018
Audience Award, Fantoche, 2018
Best International Fiction Short Film, Beijing Intl. Short Film Festival, 2018
Audience award for the weirdest & most wonderful film, 34th International Short Film Festival interfilm Berlin, 2018
Audience Award, Best British Showcase, London International Animation Festival, 2018
Grand Prize, Student Film Category, Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival, 2019
Audience Choice Award, GIRAF, 2018
Best Student Film, Northwest Animation Festival, 2018
Grand Prize - Best Student Film, SICAF, 2018
Best European short film, City Council of Gandia, Cortoons, 2018
Grad Prix - Best Student Film, Animakom, 2018
Best Movie (Animation Film), Cinemí Cinemá, 2018
Audience Award, Best Seconds, 2018
Audience Award, Extremely Shorts, 2018
Best Animation, Tres Court International Film Festival, 2019
Canal+ Award, Tres Court International Film Festival, 2019
Silver Prize, 3 Minutes 3 Days Festival, 2018
Audience Animation Award, Mecal Barcelona, 2018
Best Animation Short film, FIAfest, 2018
Best Animated Film, Star Film Fest, 2018
Best Direction, Great Message International Film Festival, 2018
Best Stop Motion Comedy, Palm Springs Intl. Animation Festival, 2018
Silver Bundle Award, O!PLA - Oh! People Love Animation, 2019
The Best Animated Short Film, Silver prize, AninetFest, 2019
Third Prize (Animation Category), Mecal Barcelona, 2018
Special Mention, Anibar, 2018
Special Mention, Imaginaria, 2018
Honourable Mention, Concious Cartoons, 2018
Honourable Mention, Anima competition, Etiuda&Anima 2018

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Press: It's Nice That Directors Notes Short of The Week Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere Creative Boom Cartoon Brew Colossal Awards:BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN A STUDENT FILM, European Animation Awards, 2018Lottie Reininger Award, Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, 2018Vimeo Award - Best of the Year, Comedy, 2019Audience Award for Best Student Film, Anima Mundi, 2018Best Student Film, Anifilm, 2018Audience Award, Fantoche, 2018Best International Fiction Short Film, Beijing Intl.