Well, personally, I got a lot of my inspirations by playing a buttload of video games in my spare time. Preferably fantasy rpgs/mmorpgs.

Also, I watch a lot of movies too ^^. Outdated movies ^^; heehee.

Hyena H_ll
Word.

Gah! Whyyyyy do I reeeeeead that strip?!?

I don't know. It's an addiction. Half the time I find myself looking at it in some horribly self-abusive attempt to predict where the heck he's going with it.

re questionable content: I can't commit to a +1000 page archive unless it's full of porn

The most important things about creating a group of characters for me is to fill a need. Okay, so I've got a bunch of serious action-ey characters. Now I need some comic relief.

Once that is decided, i need a personality. Social cliques are a good start-up. But keeping that in mind, i also like to mess with those norms a little. A nerd who dresses cool? A Brainiac who writes poetry? Things like that.

Then we have the daunting task of appearance. Social cliques can honestly only get you so far with this one. On one hand, you want a familiar image that people will relate to. On the other, you want to wow people with something they've never seen before. I try to find a balance. Not too much of one or the other.

That's basically how i do it.


Some of my favorite designs are of course Rorschach, Green arrow,(the new one) and spawn. (A guilty pleasure, i must admit.)

zaymac
Ok, this is gonna be a broad topic. I thought of it as I was sketching out designs for some new characters.

Questions are:

How does everyone go about designing and creating new characters?

What makes a really good character design?

What are some of your favorite character designs in either print comics, web comics, or other design media? And why?

I know it's a broad topic, just curious to everyone's opinions on this.

It's a very interesting topic set, zaymac, and I thank you for presenting it to us.
:)

I create or design characters three different ways. If it's a human -- and realistic rather than cartoony -- then I simply try to include some facial feature that is a little bit different such as a larger than normal nose or wide or narrow jawline and -- unless the story material demands a certain body type, I will try to make each character with a unique body type.

I design robots by thinking of a barrel and then elongating or squashing it and then giving it a few human like features and then arms that can be human like or simple rubbery pipes.

I design alien creatures by looking at stains on walls or sidewalks and squinting until I can SEE a shape in it. Some of those can come across as being very wild.


Favorite character designs would be the old Bloom County characters and the ones from Calvin and Hobbes, although I don't try to copy those designs . . . not unless I am doing something very cartoony in looks.

I also quite like the cartoon style of the Schlock Mercenary characters as far as humanity is concerned. For fantastic looking aliens that still look somewhat cartoony it would be very hard to beat the ancient Buck Godot strips.


========================
Whoops! I forgot to explain how I come up with pure cartoony characters. I study the photograph of an interesting looking person with features that I want to incorporate and then I exaggerate those traits until I have a character that I want to keep.

The thing about it is that no matter what method one uses you have to be able to reproduce the correct look of that character no matter the new pose. Some people are good at that and some people are not. Even when I use a model sheet of preset posses I'm not very good at that most of the time. So it goes.

Characters that have their entire face covered by a mask are so stupid.
Like Spiderman. You wonder how that design ever worked.
But I think it's due to his abundance of personality.

Villains can have masks that cover the entire face, because they're not meant to be personable.

Peter Parkers entire point was concealing his identity so his friends/family would not get hurt, so not having his entire face covered would be stupid. Plus you can tell with skilled artists who work him what his emotions are through his hands and body language.

By contrast Superman was lucky everyone he knew had a damaged brain, because his disguise was literally thick nerdy glasses.

lba

Hyena H_ll
Word.

Gah! Whyyyyy do I reeeeeead that strip?!?

I don't know. It's an addiction. Half the time I find myself looking at it in some horribly self-abusive attempt to predict where the heck he's going with it.

Man, I remember a thread a whiles back to the effect of "What comic would you like to control for a week?" It'd be that one. I'd elaborate, but I don't wanna get any more off topic. ;)

I am terrible at character design because I always get lazy on the preplanning. I tend to dive straight for it and draw the characters as I draw my comic. Sometimes it works out nicely sometimes it doesn't.

Maybe I am just lazy but I kinda question the process of pre-designing and planning characters. Sometimes I think nothing makes you design and think about your characters like dropping them into the story they are suppose to be in. Some of my my favorite character designs of mine are results of diving straight into the story. For me pre-designing is only helpful when I am having trouble visualising the character.

threeeyeswurm
Maybe I am just lazy but I kinda question the process of pre-designing and planning characters. Sometimes I think nothing makes you design and think about your characters like dropping them into the story they are suppose to be in. Some of my my favorite character designs of mine are results of diving straight into the story. For me pre-designing is only helpful when I am having trouble visualising the character.

We all have different art backgrounds and training, and so we each approach the process in a way that best suits our temperament and skills set. For myself I am generally satisfied if there is enough of a visual difference between my characters so that the name is a handy aid rather than a vital necessity. If Ralph and Chavez and Droude the Death Lord all look the same then I have definitely screwed up. That aside I generally don't care that much about facial features . . . but then that's just me. Other people very definitely do care and they expend a great deal of time and effort getting their character's looks just so because that's what works for them.

It's interesting to hear about how differently people go on about this. It seems to me like we've mostly had examples of pretty human-looking characters, so this'll be a bit different, considering pretty much all my guys and girls aren't that human looking.

Honestly, I'm not much of a planner. Most of my creatures start out as sketches and random drawings and pretty much grow a personality all by themselves. Bob started out pretty much as he is now because I needed a character for a few random strips and i just thought "cute skeleton!" and went from there. I generally just design them based on what I like to draw, a thing that sometimes come back and haut me, like in the example of Jonathan. Here's a link if you want to know what I'm talking about:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Assorted_moments/index.php?p=161573

Way way back in time I really liked drawing "hands" like that, so I thought making a gryphon with really weird mutated wings would be awesome. His design was pretty popular and I liked it enough to keep drawing him and give him a personality (that went wrom EVIL to... pretty much the opposite). The extra hands were fun in the beginnng, but it's not unknown to hear me complaining about them now. At least they still look kinda cool.
As for the rest of his design. Hm. Well, I grew up among a lot of fantasy-artists out here on the web, so I've practically always drawn weird fantasy critters. The basic gryphon mix of bird and some sort of mammal-ish creature was pretty normal to me. The colors and stripes were stolen from an earlier design of a totally different critter because I liked the look of it. I mostly steal ideas from myself and nature.

And what makes a good design? I think most of the others here have narrowed it down pretty well. I don't really hae anything to add. a good, simple design can be hard to come up with, but it really is effective.

I haven't really thought about what character designs I like purely based on the visual side. Miyazaki generally has some interesting ones especially among the minor characters, but that may just be me.

I like people who act they way they do based on how they have lived their lives so far. So as an end product, each character I ever made (and ever will make) has a detailed backstory, so I know everything from the circumstances of their birth to traumatic moments/ experiences/ events to secret wishes and aspirations to visceral fears. That way, I know what 'makes them tick' and so how they will react comes very natural to me. (Maybe that's the shrink in me showing, too)

But when I begin designing, I may begin with something silly, or a particular element I want to explore. It could be anything from fear of heights to blindness to a dedication to wearing hair in pigtails to an aversion (or attraction) to violence. :p This is my base. From then on, I begin building, finding ways a person could yield the behavior or characteristic or personality or trait I want, and from there unfurls their entire backstory and design.

I have a penchant for constrast and clashing elements in a character. So I may make a small, petite girl be a hurricane in close-quarters combat and I may make a tall austere and breathtakingly powerful male character have a weakness to cultivating flowers and petting kittens- without the cop-out of making him gay, either. XD

I also like stereotype thrashing, so I will take stereotypical elements and mesh them with the stark opposite of whatever it is they are. I do that everywhere, from Wolf to my professional work in my novels.


What makes a good design?

I think it's the design that does the work you want it to for your plot, and remains insteresting to both you and your audience- that's what is a good design, whether within 'rules' for the design or out of them.

Well, I used to write short stories and was in correspondence with a professional novelist. She gave me some great tips for developing characters, which was something I was struggling with at the time.

A lot of those tips are already in the thread here, so I'll offer this instead: don't let your characters let things just happen to them. This means that they need to either make things happen or react to what's happening around them, or both.

It's also important to keep their clothing choices in mind. That's one of the easiest ways to reflect their personality, after all. If you're working with characters who dress like people on the street, I'd recommend people-watching (actually, this is a good habit for anyone wanting to write realistic dialogue, too.)

I have just one unique way of designing a character that most people won't touch. Since many of my characters are already quite dead (but walking and talking and thinking), I go into the forensics behind their death and decomposition. Since I don't do murder mysteries, their manner of death and disposal is really only of importance in terms of its affect on their personality and appearance. I'm not going to go into gross decomposition details here (this simply isn't the place for it), but I do try to incorporate those biology facts into my undead characters.

There are rare occassions where characters just pop into the increasingly crowded and ever-growing world of fiction in my brain unannounced and fully developed (one such character will be used as one half of a duo in a comic I'm planning to unveil in a week or two).

One last tip is to study the appearance of your favourite characters from other people's works, and try to figure just what about their appearance appeals to you, and how that trait reflects the character's personality.

How does everyone go about designing and creating new characters?

First I think of the story plot and the general cast of people that I need. then I do some basic world building. then I create the characters personality and baised on their social status and what they like I create their physical looks and style.


What makes a really good character design?

Individuality and being able to tell the difference from both the look of the character and personality

What are some of your favorite character designs in either print comics, web comics, or other design media? And why?

so far its mostly fantasy/scifi mmos and older rpgs that i like. Maggie's Harem is nice. Reason being that it has a theme and a lot more details then one needs for a comic

CharleyHorse
I design alien creatures by looking at stains on walls or sidewalks and squinting until I can SEE a shape in it. Some of those can come across as being very wild.

That sounds like something fun to do.

I don't know... I don't really go through a "process" in character design; I guess it kinda varies from character from character. Most of the time, I imagine what a character's personality is like, especially when I have different story ideas moving around in my head. It usually isn't until I actually have to draw the character until I finally think of what they look like. Sometimes it's easier to do this than others. Again, it depends on the character itself.

Of course, that's the complete opposite of what most people do, like in voice-acting; the actors look at the design of the character and base their voice off of it. (Usually.)

Someone
How does everyone go about designing and creating new characters?

While I'm outlining the story I come up with the characters as needed. Often they pop into my head fully developed or I'll brainstorm them based on their role in the tale. Sometimes I go for a specific look, other times completely functional asking myself how someone in that position would dress. I like the history of costume and how and what people wore so I go from that.

Someone
What makes a really good character design?

Believabilty. You see a character and you can smell his sweat or feel the rustle of her petticoats. That and the coolness factor.

Someone
What are some of your favorite character designs in either print comics, web comics, or other design media? And why?

I have books on the history of costume and flip through them. Lots of movies. The Brothers Hildebrandt Tolkien paintings, Ralph MacQuarrie and so many other illustrators that I just can't remember. It goes into my head rolls around for a long time and then comes out.

And then there is what I have available in my stash of costumes and accessories. ;)

All of my characters have been created purely by chance. All the main 5 characters in my gag comic were random jokes or scribbles that were used once, made me laugh, and then somehow managed to last 3 damn years.

One set of characters were designed for the comic I assist on, so I was just randomly doodling and thought "That looks cool" or "they could do with that" and then I'd have this character design I adored, and enede up having a whole story based around them.

I seem to work the other way around in designing, in that I make a character first which then dictates the tone, setting and content of the story. For most of the time, anyway.

confusedsoul, I know your comic Foxfire has incredibly cool looking characters....now they just need a comic to go in!
(haha! your rival strikes again! *escapes in a puff of smoke*)

Did someone say Wolverine is a good character design? You mean the costumed Wolverine??

By god, the Wolverine costume is AWFUL. It looks stupid and it does not reflect the character one bit. Wolverine looks much better in old jeans and his striped bomber jacket. That's Wolverine.

I truly hate most superhero costumes. The movie was right; who the hell wears yellow spandex? Certainly not a character like Logan.

mlai
Did someone say Wolverine is a good character design? You mean the costumed Wolverine??

By god, the Wolverine costume is AWFUL. It looks stupid and it does not reflect the character one bit. Wolverine looks much better in old jeans and his striped bomber jacket. That's Wolverine.

I truly hate most superhero costumes. The movie was right; who the hell wears yellow spandex? Certainly not a character like Logan.

Um... I do.
Sexy is what sexy does! ;)

________________

When it comes to character design it depends on the character and story.
Some characters start with just a name.
Some start with a concept.
Some just start as just a drawing from a concept.
It all varies.

With Bloodhound, it all started with name then the concept of a man melting into a pool of blood and emerging transformed into a wolf-like creature. The actual design has changed several times to the current emanation.

With the other characters they came from concepts from the Asian Zodiac, taking each of the animals and twisting them to fit my sick fantasies, i.e. Zodiac sign: Horse... turns into a female centaur bound in leather with a gimp mask and whip named Bareback.

Not to be different for being different but the personality for me comes after the concept and image. Of course main character and basic story skeleton is outlined first but as some others said the other characters are created as needed.

In my comic I have a whole Retro-twist on it so I incorporate that into it. But I also make a lot of my concept sketches when I am not focusing on it. In school, I draw people and listen at the same time, and I come up with really cool stuff, but then if I think "Really cool concept" I don't come up with that great character designs. It's weird but that happens with me for some reason.

oi =_= I have a diploma in animation and we had an entire term just on character design.

You basically sketch lots and lots and LOTS of pictures. My teacher always said "don't settle with the first design you come up with" Play with the features, the poses, what kind of personality does your character have? Is s/he shy? confident? condescending? all those will play in with how your character likes to stand, to walk. The eyes, the hair, the expression... what kind of eyes does s/he have? big? sharp? round? slanted? are the eyebrows suprised? straight? gently curved? thick?

when I create a character I will make pages and pages and pages of just certain features and in the end I'll circle the ones I like and draw them all together. Then I"ll make more pages of my semi-final design to see if it really works. If it works then I'll draw more and more and more drafts... scenes, poses etc. I could fill an entire sketchbook like that!

My teacher says to give yourself at least 2 weeks to come up with a solid design.

I just draw and create from the top of my head. I try and copy from other characters but i just end up making up on own stuff.Check my profile I put some stuff up I created off the top of my head. It pretty sick stuff I may say. But again everyone is diff. Also try not to think of boundaries,it will limit you

Someone Said:
How does everyone go about designing and creating new characters?


The way I come up with characters is usually one of two ways I listen to music and then a person starts forming from the tune, and the second way I make a character is by reading a comic or playing a video game and think "WOW, he/she was cool now what would maked them cooler?"


Someone Said:
What are some of your favorite character designs in either print comics, web comics, or other design media? And why?


Their personality. You need to have a character you can have your reader go "Damn, he is so INSERT ADJECTIVE" The reader needs to fall in love or just totally loathe the charcter. A good way to do this is to try to make their beleifs into an extremeist thing whether it's extreme good or evil or hell, even extreme nuetral.

PPPchairman
Their personality. You need to have a character you can have your reader go "Damn, he is so INSERT ADJECTIVE" The reader needs to fall in love or just totally loathe the character. A good way to do this is to try to make their beleifs into an extremeist thing whether it's extreme good or evil or hell, even extreme neutral.

I really agree about the "INSERT ADJECTIVE" part-- to a certain extent. People will often just write themselves, and so all the characters come out the same. It's better to begin with something like, 'rude', 'gentle', (lame examples, but you know..) and while you're developing the character, keep in mind that the character is "rude" so she would never help him up, or "gentle" so she would never slap the chairman. However, some of the worst character-writing has come about from this kind of attitude-- characters who are merely their original "INSERT ADJECTIVE".

I personally think that in the best stories, the author allows readers to sympathize with any character. Convoluted hero/enemy guidelines are always interesting.


additional question:

What are personality traits of your favorite chars and why?

for me, when i'm desiging characters (outside of Powerjeff) for other stories, or for video games, or what have you; i think about that character's role in the world they live in and that character's overall personality. and then i start sketching. and sketching. and doodling. changing the clothes, the hair, the eyes, the posture. adding jackets, changing the boots. just drawing the character over and over again, until i find a look i like. then i draw that character at different angles with different expressions to see if they fit the character in my head. if they don't....back to square one, or start tweaking those designs.

with Powerjeff, i try to think of really simple, cartoony designs that would apply to the character, but reflect his -or sometimes her- personality. is he extra nerdy? pens in his collared shirt pocket. he likes soccer, then he wears soccer jerseys. he's a reanimated mutant, then he's an oozing ball of goo. there's not a lot of thought that goes into the designs....just something that is easy to draw, and makes each character recognizable to the readers.

my all time favorite character designer is larry hama. that guy created some of the most recognizable and memorable G.I.Joe figures/characters of all time. he's always been one of my inspirations for character design....not only in how the character looks and acts, but also what that character's peers would describe them as.

Someone

I personally think that in the best stories, the author allows readers to sympathize with any character. Convoluted hero/enemy guidelines are always interesting.

You should really be careful with that line of thinking in story telling. Granted you should know why the character is doing one thing or another but you should also know that some characters (especially main villians) should be villians just because they're evil (or somesuch thing).
If you have ever seen "The Slayers Try" you'll know what I'm talking about. At the end of the show they revealed that the main villian and the evil ball of negative energy were really just misunderstood hereos who were hurt in the past and just want to fix the world. It was kind of a jerk move being strung along for +40 episodes just to find out that every one is just misunderstood.

PPPchairman

Someone

I personally think that in the best stories, the author allows readers to sympathize with any character. Convoluted hero/enemy guidelines are always interesting.

You should really be careful with that line of thinking in story telling. Granted you should know why the character is doing one thing or another but you should also know that some characters (especially main villians) should be villians just because they're evil (or somesuch thing).
If you have ever seen "The Slayers Try" you'll know what I'm talking about. At the end of the show they revealed that the main villian and the evil ball of negative energy were really just misunderstood hereos who were hurt in the past and just want to fix the world. It was kind of a jerk move being strung along for +40 episodes just to find out that every one is just misunderstood.

very true. that certainly left a bad taste in my mouth...
often times, good story telling has a villian that you just love to hate. if you just want to have all the characters be likeable or relatable, it defeats the purpose of "drama" in the classic sense. of course this doesn't relate to ALL comic types. but if you pull a Lucas, and try to make one of the scariest villians of all time into a misunderstood, confused, and scarred emo-kid, it makes all the ass kicking he does up until he dies pretty useless.

How do you go about designing and creating new characters?

I think about the story they're meant to fit into, and how they fit into it. I then usually get at least a rough image of them in my head, and then I draw it, and keep working on it until I think they're right.

What makes a really good character design?

I don't really know lol. I guess the character has to be believable, and stay consistant personality wise. Also, I think each character needs there own little flair, for example maybe they are always wearing goggles, or they're always worrying about their hair.

What are some of your favorite character designs in either print comics, web comics, or other design media? And why?

I love all the mice in Mouse Guard, and I adore Nestor from World Of Quest :)