CHARACTER DESIGN

Week 1-Week 14

Christopher Jayson Tan/ 0378500

Advanced Typography / Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Character Design

---

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INSTRUCTIONS

2. LECTURES

3. TASK

4. FEEDBACK

5. REFLECTION

---

INSTRUCTIONS

---

LECTURES

LECTURE 1: World Creation 

When creating a world you need to think abt the elements inside it. 

 

Process of world building 

The inside out method: 

When you already have a story  about the character, and start to build around it 

 

The outside in method: 

When you already have a world you want to build, create specific details for your world. Once the world Is complete, they then introduce the character. 

 

Key Elements in World Building: 

1.Location: In this planet, this dimension, countries, village, can be limited to where your character lives. 

2.Water: sources of water in your story world. (Lake, sea, etc.) 

Landscapes: Mountains, rivers, lake, planes, cliffs, etc.  

3.Climate: Winter, summer, depending on the environment you want. 

4.Characters: Who are your world’s main inhabitants? Human? Mythical? Mix? How do they interact with each other?  But for now just stick to one character which is your character in the project. 

5.Governance: What is your world’s governing system? Who rules the world? Politics, Power struggles.  

6.Social Classes: What social difference exists between people? Are some groups more feared than others?  

7.History: How has history shaped your world? E.g war, buildings broken etc. Traumatic events. 

8.Technology: Does the world have electricity? IF no, how do they have light, etc.  

 

 

LECTURE 2:  Character Design Development

Identify key visual ideas 

From the compiled references, identify the more unique and interesting visuals the best resembles your theme. List out your character key traits like gender, age species, and physical build. Understand who your character is.  

 

Thumbnail sketch 

Associate shapes to the characteristic traits listed.  

 

 

LECTURE 3: Genres & Target Audience

Characters are emotional anchor: they carry story, tone, and message 

Greate characters 

Genre and audience shape appearance, personality, and motivation. Incoprate elements that attracts that age group: 

 Children (6-12): Clear goals, bright colors, moral clarity (Pokemon, adventure time) 

 Teens (13-18): Conflict, Identity, rebellion. (Spiderman, Attack on titan) 

 Adults (18+): Complexity, realism, subversion (Breaking bad, The Witcher 

 

Core Principles of Character Design 

1. Clarity : Characters must have a an easily understood goal or core desire that drives their actions. Without clarity, audience disconnects. 

 

Ex: Monkey D.Luffy 

Motivation: Freedom and becoming pirate king 

Every decision reinforces that simple, pure drive. 

Clarity makes him a consistent emotional center in a huge cast. 

 

2. Contrast: makes the characters visually, or ideologically distinct and has a distinct behavior- especially from others in the same world. 

 

Ex: Light Yagami 

Polar Opposites 

Their contrasting ideals drive the plot, one seeks control through power, the other through truth. 

Their Visual Contrast (sharp vs slouched posture, neat vs messy) deepens that conflict. 

 

3. Consistency 

Actions, dialogue, and decisions should all reflect their traits and world. 

 

4. Change: Dynamic characters evolve- emotionally, morally, or physically. Change is what makes them memorable. 

 

Have an emotional hook: 

-Admiration 

-Empathy 

-Nostalgia 

-Fear 

-Intrigue

LECTURE 4: 

The class was conducted online and Mr. Fitri showed us a variety of videos to help us understand on what makes a good costume design. There is a lot of key aspects and we can put in lots of detail depending on the context of the character :

-Wet parts (such as the armpits)

-Wear & tear

-Sharp and clean look

-Dirt & blood

---

TASK

Task 1

So we were task on creating an original character from an existing IP where the character needs to have it's own story, background, etc, and so I decided to create a character from the God of War universe, specifically from the Norse Arc. I was quite confused at first because the characters inside the God of War 2018 and Ragnarok, has an insane amount of details and so i have to choose carefully. I also have limited options because most of the norse creatures/characters have already been adapted.

In the end I decided to create a troll character. Trolls already exist in the God of War games but they are adapted as these huge creatures that rely on brute strength as their main tool. They have low intelligence and are really aggressive and so I decided to create a new troll from a completely different race. These new race of trolls are less aggressive (wont attack everything blindly), has basic knowledge of magic and are able to create and utilize tools as well as other items (clothing, armor, etc). 

After some ideation I got working on finding some more references and ideas. I mainly used Pinterest for this part as they have some great resources for this step.

Fig 3.1 References

After that I started sketching inside my sketch book so that I can get a rough idea on what the troll will look like. I started with the face because trolls have varying facial appearances and I felt satisfied with the bottom and so I proceeded with that one.

Figure 3.2 Facial appearance sketch

I sketch out the characters full body as the next step with the chosen facial appearance and focus on making the design as grounded as possible to see how it will appear and to see if it fits inside the world of God of War 2018/Ragnarok. I tried not to stray away from basic leather and straps as it gives them the rugged "cavemen" look and after finishing this step I moved on to the digitalization process to further elevate the character design.

Figure 3.3 Fullbody sketch

I tried to developed different attires for the troll to see which one fits best, another thing I did is that i discarded some of the features that are previously present which is the large pointy ears, the weird looking feet, the hair around the body and making the legs thicker. Most of these reasons is because i think it makes the troll look weird, like the pointy ears making it look like an elf and the weird looking feet making it look less balance, and making the feet thicker so that it can support the weight as well as removing most of the hairs so that it looks less feral.

I also made the design more complex by introducing more components like armor, shoulder pads, bones and more tools/weapons. I made sure that each of the variants have their own "personalities" or "distinct' feature. The first troll is more of a aggressive hunter troll where it doesn't have a hammer but it has a knife, the second is a worker troll, the third is a regular/standard troll, and the final one is like a "craftsman" troll. I decided to proceed with the hunter troll because I'm satisfied with the design/purpose and Mr. Fitri also recommended that one.

Figure 3.4 Character variants

Next, I picked a name for the troll which is Varn. At first i thought of naming it Hroln but it doesn't really mean anything in Norse so I just picked Varn from the word Varr to give the character more life and I also named this characters race as the Huldur. I also wrote a backstory for it, the characteristics, and the weapons/tools that the character has. To elevate the character further, I applied some of the feedback from Mr. Fitri where the runes are placed on a rope and the tools use steel/metal instead of stones and so I wove that into the lore as well where the character has relations with the Asgardians.

Figure 3.5 Progressive changes

After that I proceeded to the final step which is creating the character turn around. I really struggled with this step because the character that I came up with is very detailed and so I worked my way through it slowly. But after this is done, I am finished with Task 1

Figure 3.6 Final turn around without guides

Figure 3.7 Final turn around with guides

REFERENCES :

https://www.canva.com/design/DAG0c2nfHJE/wviWkQFD-_2aB4f-wiEC3A/edit?utm_content=DAG0c2nfHJE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

PRESENTATION SLIDES :

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGtsSgtjyM/L5WaBrq2UzCCzj-4nz0oaw/edit?utm_content=DAGtsSgtjyM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

---

FEEDBACK

Week 1 : -

Week 2 : The design is already in the correct direction, just need more exploration

Week 3 : Solid progress, just need to create more variety of the character, you can add more elements such as a metal slab on the hand being tied with a rope

Week 4 : Good progress, just add in a little bit more feature like the runes being tied to a rope and changing the weapons and tools to metal instead of stones.

Week 5 : -

Week 6 : -

Week 7 : 

---

REFLECTION