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.