The Silver Way by Stephen Silver

What is Character Design?

Character + Design

Character

A personality, a simplified/exaggerated representation of a person as presented for a story

Design

the organization of visual elements for a desired effect

therefore

Character Design

generating a personality with feeling through the organization of shapes

The character is the core of the story, their design is the basis for IPs (the legally protected identity of that story)

Getting to Know Your Character

Collect info about the character

• Name
• Sex/Gender if applicable
• Age
• Any specific appearance required
• Role or occupation
• Where do they live
• What time period/genre
• Personality
• Attitude
• etc. Anything to get you an understanding of what sort of character they are at the point they are being designed for.
• Display format - the medium or show style determines how detailed is appropriate.

The Ingredients That Make or Break a Design

• Design Elements
• Design Principles
• Shape Language
• Caricature

Sharpening Your Observation Skills

Observing for design will help build your library for actual design work.

Nature is Character Design

The book says design is everywhere, but what's implied by the pictures and examples is - what stands out to you in the field of view is a cue to what works as good design.

Designing With Wood Chips

Scatter and rearrange various shapes of craft wood shapes, to look for combinations that are appealing, to have a random starting point for design

Everyday Sketching Techniques

Passion, Practice, Persistence, and Patience

Draw every day, what you see or what you dream.

Sketchbook is a journal, a place to experiment. Take your time to really explore ideas. Train for your intent, build a portfolio that is really you.

Drawing Exercises

Random Unconscious Doodling

Whatever comes to mind with no goal, have fun!

TV Drawing Nights

Watch shows or streams, recall or draw the main thing, no need to pause unless you want to study something specific

Throwing up on the page

Sketch freely without erasing, let the mistakes and random shapes inspire new ideas, brainstorming - esp for clients!

Memory Sketching

Draw someone you saw without referring back - even after a few minutes to relocate to another space

Zone-Out Method

Don't even focus your eyes, sketch loosely along the idea, just scribble with your hand on the page. Then cleanup the sketches you get

Blind feeling method

blind contour, but focus on the feeling/movement/exaggeration not the actual contours. Maybe the same subject starting different places

Caricature Fun

1. Identify the head's shape.
2. Assess the four quadrants
   • forehead
   • bridge and nose
   • upper lip
   • lower lip & chin
3. determine contrasting features

Flip-It Tip

Flipping horizontally helps identify balance/construction flaws, but you can use it to see how to push it better - so flip and redraw!

Bring Inanimate Objects to Life

Use the forms of various household objects as the base of a character or characters

Generate Dummies for Practice

NOT for portfolio, but take an existing character and apply their shapes to a new character as a test dummy. Using someone else's basis helps you discover new forms to use in yours.

Change Mediums

Different mediusm/brushes etc. to get you out of existing habits.

The Five Phases of the Silver Way

Story

Learn as much about your character and their story and world as possible - what motivates them, what impression you want. Character design IS first impression!

Gesture

Create a gesture or feeling that tells a story, gives a sense of character's attitude. Implication of movement.

Design

Develop the right ingredients- arranging 2D shapes for ideal organization, character's clothing/hair/accessories

Form

Realize design in 3D/volumes/depth/perspective

Details

Clean lines, color, textures, any additional elements

Story: Initial Premise

May be given as little as a one-liner from a script. Look for the role in the script, how the audience should feel about the character, then come up with more democraphics/backstory.

Gesture: The Thumbnail Process

Thumbnails that capture who the character is in possible shapes. Quickly block in ideas, goal of clarity and variation of three main parts: head, torso, legs (limbs?)

Keep It Loose.

Design: Rough Representations

Adding details, rough representation, faces, outfits, hair. How would this character dress and take care of themselves?

Apply design elements here.

Concepts, not style.

Rough Character Lineup

Play around with various addon detail concepts (hair, costume, etc) on the lineup.

NUMBER the drawings so others can refer to them for what's liked, to frankenstein parts together.

Establishing Proportions

General height/width in heads, for head, body, legs.

Posing Tips

Use original gesture as a shape mass reference for additional poses.

Costume Changes and Special Poses

Create new costumes on a new layer over the gesture.

Form: Model-Construction Breakdown

Volume, depth, perspective. Draw through, render the forms even if the final style is flat.

Turnarounds

Most essential pose is 3/4 view - use that to draw the other angles.

Keep It Loose - while figuring out masses for other angles

Each angle not always required to have the same pose.

5 point turnaround is standard: Front, 3 quarters, side, hind quarters, back.

3 point turnaround: 3Q, side, HQ

May JUST do 3Q sometimes for incidentals!

Developing Expressions

Draw through (volumes), looking for squash and stretch expressions.

Also do mouth shape charts here!

Details: Cleanup and Color

Final ink, color, finishing, etc.

How Animated Stories Get Made

Types of Character Designers:

Freelance character designer 

revision process with clients, from description, to rogughs, to final designs. Often brand mascots less than animation design!

In-house TV character designer

Design new characters from script, 4-5 point turnarounds, cleanup line (sometimes), special callout poses for specific scenes, mouth charts

In-house Film character designer

Variety of concepts from the script - all the design starts roughly the same time. Final line not as important - esp on CG films,. More time to design and revise.

It's All In The Gesture

"You're not supposed animate drawings, you're supposed to animate feelings." -- Ollie Johnston

Gesture is action - either an action in progress, the anticipation for an action, or the result of an action.

vertical

stable/solid

horizontal

grounded/calm

diagonal

action, unbalance, movement

straights

strong unimpeded force

curves

weaker/interplaying forces.

Observation is Key

Body language can convey range of emotions.

See also Laban Movement Analysis

Simple brush strokes for energy, Line of Action

Shoulder line and head position carry a lot of character - how much energy for standing they have.

How gravity affects real bodies - e.g. whether the character is thin enough to cross their legs.

Observation from Life is a Key Ingredient to Your End Result

flexibility, how much do they have to fight their body?

Pushing the idea

Try multiple variations, don't settle on your first pass (even if you like it, how can you strengthen it?)

Observe where clothes hang or bunch, the simplest gesture to determine pose, main tilts.

Face direction with box shape

Draw on photo reference to see what shapes occur iRL.

Age and the collor of a shirt

Be Loose and Clear

Image should read as quickly/clearly as possible.

Shrink the image, draw it as a stick figure, does it still read?

Try to push the pose to or past an inverted triangle on the center of gravity.

Straights against curves, in action becomes arc against pinch/fold.

1. Draw loosely the feeling of the pose
2. Add design/forms while keeping space in mind
3. Clean and exaggerate

each of these are additional drawings, NOT layers!

Thumbnail to save time/frustration, prevent yourself from getting caught up in getting a big drawing looking good until the gesture works.

Style should never outweigh concern for clarity, which is defined by shape.

Sitting positions in a "D" shape - a line for support, with the rest of the body leaning against it.

Hands: block in varied, asymmetric, negative spacing to make them read well!

Avoid Roadmapping

Roadmapping

lines with no intended design or shape.

Verbadjectivity

1. What is the scenario? (Nouns)
2. What is the action? (Verbs)
3. What is the emotion? (Adjective)
4. What is the outcome or goal? (Tension)

Character occupying angular space > more "alive" image.

Avoid the Ladder

If you drew lines through the pose, would you wind up with a "ladder" like construct - parallel or symmetric rungs and side rails?

Add angles, asymmetry, twists, contrapposto, curves, detours, etc.

Multi-character shots, contrast and compose their angles.

How to Strike a Balance

Equal distribution

even weight/qty on both sides of the character

Equal visual weight

Large shape balanced with grouping of small elements

Balance by proximity

balance by how they're grouped

Balance affects the perceived center of weight - whether the character will fall over or not, as well as the visual focus.

Ways to achieve balance:

Circle

diagram the forms in various circle sizes to more easily see what you're working with

Oval

Ground the character using an oval (circle in perspective) for the plane they're on.

3D Box

Guidelines in 3D space to understand balance and relations of distant parts.

Triangle

On a base for support, tilted on a point for imbalance

Hexagram + vertical line

axis through the hips, points of the hexagram (stretched to match the action) where limbs may go to

Rectangle + vertical line

Silhouette balance guide, helps read shapes

Vertical lines

Where the center of mass, support limbs, and center of gravity line up. Is the COM supported?

Box + Line of Action

Ground plane with a line of action. Center of mass (not necessarily gravity!) will often wind up over the halfway point.

Mastering the Art of Construction

Most common flaw in designer portfolios is too much focus on detail and not enough on construction.

While vital, construction should be based on the feeling/gesture, not vice versa.

Getting Down To Basics

Before construction, breakdown basic parts/proportions.

Whole body divisions: neck-up, trunk, legs

Permutations of small/medium/large

Head

head, neck

Trunk

ribcage, hips

Arms

arm, forearm, hand

Legs

thighs, calves, feet

Even binary variation - think like morse code.

Let the mind wander - play!

Blocky exclamation point as pelvis and ribcage

Push shapes: exaggerate more

Any defined (named, not a random blob) shape can be a basis for a body shape.

Tall, short, wide, narrow - four basic ingredients in contrasts for a lineup of characters.

Unity: keep your character consistent, not 5 different styles in one drawing.

Unifying elements: establish the style of a show. Shapes of common body features or parts, line treatment, complex part shorthands, etc.

The Golden Ratio

Probably better than "thirds", or what the rule of thirds approximates. 1.618:1, or 1:0.618

Small medium large = 0.618, 1, 1.618 proportions, for example

Look for Rhythm

variation of shapes/spacing/height creating a pattern for the eye to explore, to create (eye) movement in the drawing!

Rhythmic variations recur, e.g. wide/narrow/wide/narrow, or any other contrast.

Flow and rhythm lead the eye.

Rhythm in lineups on height, with heels on floor line.

Head sizes should be roughly the same in a cast, esp if the same age, unless the characters are specifically defined to be a large or small type relative to the rest.

Maintaining Volumes

Pay attention to widths! They need to be consistent, use perspective and foreshortening.

Using form paintings as a diagram, or sketching in a 3D box, can help with keeping track of volumes.

About Face - And Head

Construction is key - the features and proportions can be distorted/caricatured as long as the construction is there.

The Dos and Don'ts

Don't get caught up in the details initially

start by brainstorming shapes

Do aim for clarity

shapes that define a form, not amorphous squiggles

Caricature zones:

• bone mask (cheekbones and skull)
• cartilage (chin, nose, ears)
• cheekbone rim (the actual muzzle area)
• muzzle (just the orbicularis oris)
• cheek sack (cheeks and underchin)

Proportion alignments:

• top of ear with top of eye
• bottom of ear with bottom of nose
• inner eye corners with nostril sides
• outer mouth corner with center of eye
• one eye width between eyes
• ear on centerline in profile

Keep aspect of face and volumes in mind to keep character on model.

Do play with facial features to explore possibilities

placement matters to convey a type of person.

Where do you want the eyes to go? Apply design contrast to focus

Play, but keep structure in mind.

Eyeline height suggests maturity/density/strength when high, innocence/fragility/intelligence when low

Vary size of facial features to play up appeal and energy.

Do avoid ladder and bowling ball

use a figure eight around cranium and jaw to separate parts, don't have everything evenly sized and spaced and aligned. Use contrast!

Do apply the golden ratio

1.618 or 1:0.618, to break things up and keep them comfortably contrasted

Don't ignore negative space

nice contrast in the gaps in the general shape around the actual outline, as well as between features

Do push your shapes and angles

exaggerate and play with proportions, distort and reshape the grid, play around with the t-area of the face. Convex/concave from profile

Do embrace rhythm

ins and outs, lines of action

Do pay attention to how heads move in real life

how the proportions and arcs change as a real face tilts, and how people move (or don't!)

Do be aware of tangents

Tangents obscure and unify shapes - they should be deliberate if you have them!

Do aim for harmony

line treatments, how lines are simplified to straights or curves, angles or bends, line weight, between features

Do sweat the small stuff

keep some asymmetry, glasses should be in a plane to help define the head angle, hair is based on hairline and comes in all shapes and volumes.

Facial Expressions

See also Facial Expressions

1. keep eyeballs the same distance if not in a take (and even then)
2. tilts mostly affect the forehead and chin length
3. bony areas (skull, jawbone) don't squash and stretch as much as the cheeks/muscle/fat
4. ears/nose/chin tend to keep the same volume through squash and stretch, mouth can change volume.

Make counterreactions to facial muscle moves - other parts of the face move, or the pose shifts.

Facial expressions are perceived through mimicry, they are always refined because you won't feel whether it's right until you've already drawn it.

Cultural Features

people who have lived in one place for a long time without a lot of mixing tend to accumulate common features - reference real people from regions to identify which.

The Attractive Face

Ugh, ok, the original title is The Female Face but let's not call it that.

There have been very few female characters throughout the book, and this chapter serves to make them all largely look the same.

Stephen, and other character designers who write books invariably have this section, and I think the reason is twofold:

1. biases in producing companies and marketing will still tend to ask you to draw "pretty girls" and you have to be able to quickly do what the client asks
2. There is no other section detailing creating an attractive face.

In the introduction, Stephen almost apologizes for the section, referencing the first point.

The latter point is more important, and relevant to design. It's also applicable to any face you want to make appear attractive.

This aspect should be considered if you're trying to create an "everyone" protagonist, like a human cartoon movie hero, or create someone whose character hinges on attractiveness, like Gaston.

The Kite Approach

A rhombus (symmetrical - all rhombuses are kites, not all kites are rhombuses) between the chin, hairline, and extending slightly outside the cheekbones

Halfway down the bottom is the base of the nose

Vertical eye centerlines define the width and vertical position of the mouth based on where they intersect the rhombus

Eyes follow conventional spacing - one eye width apart, one eye width from the corner of the rhombus (but half an eye width from the temple/cheekbone)

Eyes sit on the horizontal axis of the rhombus

From Cleanup to Color

Cleanup may be done by cleanup department on a big show, but more likely done by the designer.

Closed lines and consistent line weights, unless otherwise specified.

Cleanup Tips

Never just sketch, there's always improvements to be made.

1. Rough sketch, draw through shapes (see next section)
2. Reduce rough opacity, draw clean lines on a new layer, past where they stop at intersections
3. Remove the overlaps

Some styles:

• consistent thin line (only now possible with HD displays)
• single width line (mechanical pencil, cartoonists ink pen, Flash pencil tool)
• thick-thin line (calligraphic style/ink pen, digital brush tool, lines frequently have a line weight rule, e.g. thicker on the bottom, thicker at intersections)
• thick line - a solid black or colored line that will show up on SD displays, and often a thicker outline than internal lines

Drawing Through

The opposite of a tangent - rhythm and flow created when forms appear to connect behind other parts - whether or not they do.

Also drawing forms past where they are covered by other parts, so you are not concerned with stopping them at the overlap. If they continue into view again, keep going!

Shape blocking is a related concept - draw the shape that a jagged or sparse form extends to, so that the negative spaces around its form consistently meet that shape.

For example - the cap of a hat that sits on the head may often be a continuation of the head. Even if not, there is a continuation of form behind the hat's brim, between the head and the hat that sits on it.

rhythm and flow of lines of action and merging shapes together - as well as drawing the seams and continuing contours where they don't merge smoothly

Turnaround Tips

Establish a ground plane

5 point turnaround: front, front 3/4 (3Q), side, back 3/4 (HQ, this is my joke), back

OUT OF BOOK note: Don Bluth, in his early online tutorials, demonstrated that in feature films, turnarounds were NOT constructed side by side, but rather animated in place, then the pages separated. This makes for a much more consistent turnaround! The rest of these principles apply regardless, however. This history also explains how the feet should be aligned - not in perspective relative to each other, but as if each drawing is its own.

Horizontal guidelines: guidelines and axis may be useful to help coordinate between views. Even in an animated turn, put guidelines on a separate layer to guide the layout.

3Q view can provide you guides for both front and side, which is why this is usually the one designs start in!

An overlay of the major masses at their widest shape can help keep the character consistent (e.g. a rectangle or circle that the head or torso stay within throughout their turn).

Let There Be Color

Coloring character helps make the design appear "real".

Layers:

• Rough image (listed in the book but not usually visible in the final drawing, though I've seen cleaned sketches with it still showing!)
• Cleaned line (color or black)
• color
• shadow color (optional)
• texture or gradient overlay (optional)
• background (to maintain/improve contrast of the character so it doesn't disappear in its own silhouette)

You can also block color & shadow under a sketch for something quick to show a client!

No color in a portfolio, unless you are also strong in color.

Color affects contrast!