Level Up.pdf

84 LEVEL 5 The Three Cs, Part 1—Character
to design a character visually1 , so I won ’ t go into great detail about this, but
let me pass on some of the high level things to keep in mind.
As you are creating your character, you want to think about his or her
personality. What are the three personality traits that you would use to
describe your hero?
Mario: courageous, bouncy, happy
Sonic: fast, cool, edgy
Kratos: brutal, vicious, selfish
Apply these traits to your character ’ s physical appearance. Animators have
known for decades that the shapes you use for your character ’ s design will
help communicate their personality. Circles are used to make a character
feel friendly. Squares are often used for strong or dumb characters,
depending on just how big your square is. Triangles are interesting, a
point- down triangle is often used to give a heroic character a powerful
frame. However, use that same point- down triangle for a character ’ s head
and they seem sinister. Try rotating, mixing, and matching shapes to create
compelling characters.
Another old trick that all professional character designers and animators use
is the silhouette. A strong, clear silhouette of a character is important for
many reasons:
• Tells us the character ’ s personality at a glance.
• Helps distinguish one character from another.
• Identifi es “ friendly ” or “ enemy ” characters.
• Helps the character stand out against background and world elements.
1 Some of my personal favorites include: Disney Animation: the Illusion of Life by Thomas &
Johnston (Abbeville Press, 1984), The Art of Star Wars (Episodes I – VI) series (Del Rey,
1976 – 2007), and Ben Caldwell ’ s cartooning series ( Fantasy! Cartooning and Action
Cartooning ) (Sterling Publishing, 2005).