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Culturegasm: Artists! Give us an education in ORIGINAL CHARACTER DESIGN.

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  1.  (7274.21)
    Dude. @Adam Rosenlund. Fucking blowing my mind over here.

    Really astonishingly good stuff.
    • CommentAuthorKen Miller
    • CommentTimeNov 25th 2009
     (7274.22)
    @emsie - It's interesting to see how you factor in what a character does (leaps around a lot, etc) when you come up with character costume details.

    @Paul Sizer - Yikes! Tons & tons of prelim sketches & notes. Lush!

    @Adam Rosenlund - It's interesting that you don't do any conceptual work before creating your wonderfully finished, detailed stuff (especially Dumpster Dive) - but as this thread is about original character design I guess it's the prelim/notes/scamps/finished work comparison stuff that folks are going to want to see here.
    •  
      CommentAuthorTF
    • CommentTimeNov 25th 2009
     (7274.23)
    @ Adam and Ethan

    Fantastic work. You can take my money when you want it. Please keep us updated.
    •  
      CommentAuthorPaul Sizer
    • CommentTimeNov 25th 2009
     (7274.24)
    @Adam and Ethan
    STELLAR work, really nice to see all the aspects of how the two of you work solo come together so well in your collaborative work. I love the clean lines of your work, Adam, and the nice design sense in your costuming. I also like the very clean rendering and volume of your backgrounds; very immersive and inviting to the eye.

    Thanks so much for sharing; this thread keeps getting better and better.
  5.  (7274.25)
    While I've got several that fit this thread, I'm opting to go with this one first, due to the content and that it's currently Wednesday.

    "Boobie Wednesday" (or #boobiewed and the lesser used #boobiewednesday, which are the Twitter hashtags) is a theme started by two women on Twitter who wanted to do something to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. Every Wednesday, there's an increasing number of people who change their Twitter icon to something breast/cleavage-related for the day. Additionally, a number of them submit photos for the blog, in support of cause.

    You can find their blog and site-affiliated Twitter here:

    http://boobiewednesday.blogspot.com/
    http://twitter.com/boobiewed

    FYI: While my picture below is safe for work, some images/photos that go onto the blog are NSFW, as they may contain nipples. So, if you work in a strict environment, you might want to look at the site at home.

    I wanted to find a way to contribute (after all, who doesn't like breasts?), and decided to do a piece of artwork in support of it the week of Halloween, gratis. The idea came into play that Tuesday, and I bounced it off of one of the two women who started Boobie Wednesday. She told me to go for it. In turn, I opted to do the whole of it on Wednesday.

    As I'd just started playing with Manga Studio, I thought this would be a good exercise in learning the software a bit more. So, I did the initial render, up through colors under the linework, and exported it to a Photoshop format. As I'd saved it that way, I didn't bother with saving it in the default Manga Studio format, and closed out the program. Little did I know that it was not a .PSD format, which would bite me in the ass in short order. I opened up Photoshop, and looked for the .PSD file, only to not see it. So I looked for all formats, and found that it had saved as a bitmap. While a minor nuisance, it wasn't a huge deal, right? Wrong. I opened it up, and descended immediately into gratuitious use of the word fuck. What happened?

    The image had saved with all of the layers merged. In monochrome. Or, to put it more bluntly-- all I had to show for that first 1.5 hours of work was a black silhouette on a white background. What lesson was hammered into my head? Make sure you have a viable copy of the file saved before you close the program out. Yeah, I won't be doing that again anytime soon.

    I walked away from the computer (so as to not give into the urge to punch a hole in the monitor). Came back. Started over from scratch in Manga Studio again.


    (Click for larger version.)

    So I recreated the original image to the best of my ability.

    1) On the base layer, I used the pen tool to rough in the image with the default (I'm assuming non-photo) blue color for said layer.

    2) Once I got to that point, I created a new layer, using the same pen tool, but with black, and did the inked linework.

    I found the "export to another application" option or some such, and copied it to the clipboard. Opened PS, created a new document, and pasted the image into it. Only then did I go back to MS, save it to the default format, and close the program out. Having discovered that it saved as an opaque B&W layer (I've yet to figure out how to copy a layer just as linework, or for that matter, a multi-layered file), I used the magic wand tool, clicked on one of the black line segments, and then picked similar on the selection menu. This selected all of the linework. I then inverted the selection, and deleted everything else (the white).

    3) Save the image, ported it to ArtRage, and painted in the underlayer of color. Did tweaks, played with layers, etc., until I got to the point that I was good with the image for details, textures, and such in PS.

    4) Heavy layer creation/manipulation, filtering, opacity work. Integrated rough necklace idea. Addition of texturing via both photo and brush usage. Brought in a couple of photo overlay components on both subtle (skin/face/hair) and not-so-subtle (necklace/corset texture and clasps). More filtering and opacity work. Added more depth to the form via filters and erasing.

    5) It was almost midnight, and I was pushing time, so I took a shortcut with the background. Found brick photo I liked. Altered it. Did a few layers of filtering with it. Then I did the shadows and lighting for all of it.



    For what was ultimately 8ish hours of time from start to finish, I was happy with it.

    What am I not happy with? I'm an artist, I'm my own worst critic, so I'm not happy with a lot of things. ;) I'd have liked the sleeves to have been more in line with the rest. I missed fixing a couple filter-related errors with the light and shadow on the face. While the brick wall works with the picture, I don't like that I took such an overt shortcut to put it in there, but at the same time, it's far better than a blank white background with this piece.

    I've given them consent to utilize the image in any capacity, so long as it's for the purpose of promoting Breast Cancer Awareness (this includes promotion of the blog and Twitter themes, as they were created for the same purpose). As such, they're using it on a T-shirt, all the profits of which will go toward the cause.

    For those interested, or simply curious, you can order it here, courtesy of the girls who founded Boobie Wednesday.

    All proceeds go toward National Breast Cancer Foundation (it's my understanding that there are other options for printing, for those who may wish a v-neck style shirt instead).

    As a bonus, I'm posting the linework and giving permission for anyone to color said line work.

    Thanks for reading. I hope this was informative.

    X-Posted to the Artists Thread
    •  
      CommentAuthoremsie
    • CommentTimeNov 25th 2009
     (7274.26)
    @Ken Miller - I'm glad it was helpful! It's terribly superficial, I know, haha! ^_^ But I see it a bit like real life: we consider our outfits partly depending on what we're going to do wearing them - so why shouldn't our characters? :)

    @Adam - interesting! I confess I have jumped into projects without design work before....it's true that characters often come to life once they're thrown into a scene! :)
    •  
      CommentAuthorlexmachine
    • CommentTimeNov 25th 2009
     (7274.27)
    @emsie agreed, I think it's interesting that you design for action and activity, it's probably loads of fun to work with the characters that way. And the way you approached those Shakespeare redesigns was a very interesting read indeed.

    @Paul Sizer The sketchpages are always my favorite "extra" in comics, I always read them completely. Which is partially where this thread originated. Thanks for chiming in an sharing your stuff, I'm a huge fan.

    @Adam Rosenlund So much detail, and again a totally different process. I think you might be insane, but in one of those really good ways. Really, thanks so much for taking the time.

    @Ethan Ede And thanks for telling us a bit about the process from your perspective! I really probably should have asked specifically for the input of writers and co-creators too in the original post, because seriously, this shit is fascinating.

    @Seantaclaus And another new process and application, woot! When I initially scrolled past, I genuinely thought for a minute that you had illustrated that from a photo. I love seeing the steps and progress.
    Also, hooray for boobies. Thanks for the info and linkage, I will definitely be checking out that site.

    Keep em coming! I know some of these replies can probably be lengthy to get down, but I love you guys for this.
  8.  (7274.28)
    Didn't see anyone note these in their responses so:

    http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/
    (artist interviews)

    &

    http://www.animationarchive.org/
    (more character art w/notes)
  9.  (7274.29)
    I meant to tackle some of these with the previous post, but I overshot the character count for the post by a bit with it. Now I've done it again with the new post (next), so I'm posting this separately. ;)

    @Audley Strange - It's always interesting to see how our style and skills evolve over time as we work on something.

    @Brendan McGinley - That's a really solid presentation of group effort done well. Thank you for sharing that.

    @Willian George - Do you think the constant character design retooling has delayed publication of the comic longer than you'd have preferred, in retrospect?

    @Ken Miller - That must have been really cool, being able to see something you designed make it into 3d form like that.

    @chris g -
    Sometimes I want sooo bad for my stuff to look slick and clean like Mike Allred/Darwyne Cooke, but the truth takes over and what you see it what you get: the bastard child of Saturday morning cartoons, and Templesmith comics. I'm very comfortable with my style, but I am constantly hungry to present my style in different ways, kind of like Becky Cloonan did on DEMO. Space Shark is pretty much my arena to do what I want.

    I think you hit the nail on the head here. Rarely does what appears in your head make it to the page, but often what makes it to the page is every bit as good in it's own way.

    @emsie - Nicely done. Are you coloring that with Illustrator, or something else?

    @Paul Sizer - I love seeing the progression from the raw elements to something more refined.

    @Adam Rosenlund & Ethan Ede - Really stellar work. It's impressive that you two take the time to think out why something works the way it does, rather than just putting it there and only addressing it later if you have to.

    @lexmachine - No worries. I've been experimenting heavily with filter usage of late, as well as playing with some photo textures. Between that, and the lighting/shadow that I do, I've recently realized that a number of people were under that impression before I started posting detailed process on some of the pieces.
  10.  (7274.30)
    Here's a character design for a different situation entirely. All pieces were rendered strictly digitally from start to finish, using Corel Painter X, with no utilization of photos for textures or any other aspect in their development. Also, as rough concept art pieces, these aren't really supposed to represent finished works on any level.

    During 2007-2008, I was doing various conceptual design work on and off for Red Juggernaut. One of the things I was involved with behind the scenes was fleshing out bits and pieces of their world setting. In this case they wanted a different take on a dwarven race, under the auspice of being evolved from the Australopithecus robustus. Or, as they were referred to in their setting of Terris, "Thulean Dwarves". Short, hairy, and not nearly as much facial diversity as a human would have. Initially it was suggested that they have a touch of similarity to the orcs from LotR, but that was scrapped.

    First, I sketched up some basic options for body type, hair coverage, and head shape:


    The preferred versions of each were picked, giving me a rough guideline of where to start.

    The description of them puts them as a race living in the cold north, sharing some similarities to viking culture, that's resorted to scavenging to to having fallen on desperate times. While seemingly savage to many outsiders, they're actually fairly civilized. Here's the initial 5-10 minute rough speedpaint that sent off, just to have somewhere ot start:

    (This image is low res all around, so I've opted not to post the full sized version. If you really want to see it, click on the RJ Concept Art page link below.)

    After the initial bit of feedback, I opted to experiment, and created a digital "paper doll" version, much like the ones that kids would have various different clothing options they could slap on. With this, I had the core template for the stance and body shape of the Thulean Dwarf, with extra detail put into the face, but the rest left open to be detailed with each iteration. This is the result:


    Once we established that I was on the right track, I started slapping some different clothing items on them, working on maintaining a balance between being scavengers in a harsh, cold environment, and being showing some glimmer of civilization. My first shot at that was a bit too much on the basic side:


    The next iteration was more along the lines of what they were looking for, but not quite there yet. On the one hand, it reflected more of the brutal northman scavenger look, it was still lacking some degree of the civilized aspect they wanted to show as well. So, while not directly on their concept art page, I've included it as a bonus piece for those curious to the process (and to be honest, there are some aspects of it that I was quite pleased with for what was basically a fast and loose speedpainting type of concept art):


    After one more round of feedback, we came up with a "final" version, which gave the best feel for the race, and incorporated some aspects to reflect an alliance between them and the another world race that was more Roman-based. For concept art that's not intended to be a "finished" piece, I was pretty pleased with how this came out, as was Red Juggernaut:


    For those interested, here's the direct link to their concept art page for the Thulean Dwarves. There you can find two other concept pieces for the race done by another artist (I'd guess they were the initial concepts before I worked on them-- it was the first I'd seen them, and they weren't presented to me for reference).

    X-posted to the The Artists Thread
  11.  (7274.31)
    @Seantaclaus - For some reason, looking at your dwarves made me think "Ape shall not kill ape"

    @Willian George - Do you think the constant character design retooling has delayed publication of the comic longer than you'd have preferred, in retrospect?


    Well, the beauty of not wanting to make comics my job is that it gives me the freedom to sit back and tinker with the comic to get it the way I want.

    In webcomics (and print as well, now that I think of it), the goal is almost always to make a career out of it. There are a number of things you must do in order to reach that goal, including posting up not-ready-for-prime-time work on a regular basis in order to feed the bottomless pit of free entertainment seekers.

    So for me now, this comic is more about studying and practicing The Craft than it is about producing a work others may enjoy.

    I'm not saying that I won't try to make a comic others will enjoy. To me, making a comic that is both accessible and enjoyable to everyone is just as much mastering the craft as is drawing hands well.

    If any of that makes sense.
    • CommentAuthorDarkest
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2009
     (7274.32)
    The project:
    - What was the character designed for? A comic? video game? role playing game? novel? webcomic? children's book? product packaging?
    In other words, what did/do you design and for what purpose?

    Characters for a "sort of" post apocalytic type thing of a friend. it's only sort of because digital technology has ceased to function.

    The process:
    - How was the character information communicated to you? Email? phone calls? twitter messages? singing telegrams?
    - How much information were you given at each step? Did you recieve a general character description? have to read an excerpt from a story? a whole novel? drunken notes on cocktail napkins?

    Various discussions, e-mails and the like. Details given were along the lines of what was practical, and most important of all the personality of the characters involved. In addition we decided on what the characters would wear consistently which helped in establising a sense of personal style and aesthetic.

    Examples:
    This is where, provided you have the proper permissions, you give us some examples of the descriptions, excerpts, whatever, and then examples of your designs and sketches from beginning to final design. Basically show off/promote yourself here.
    - Did you nail it on try one?

    I very nearly did to an extent the basics were hammered out in a couple of meetings and some rough sketches to make sure it fitted the art style and then to cut superflous details out so that it fitted with what we were tying to accomplish.

    - Did you spend six weeks going through tiny changes and improvements?

    Longer than that, I think I'm still doing varitations now, since the characters are people and therfore wear more than one outfit. Adding some small details on jackets and adding pin badges to things mostly.

    - Did you have notes for a character lying around somewhere for two years?
    Give us the meat of it, man.
    And again, for the sake of legality, ONLY POST DESCRIPTIONS, NOTES, SKETCHES ETC WHICH YOU HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO. Otherwise, describe these things generally to the best of your ability for us.

    Not at this very moment because I'm in someone else's house at this time.

    Turnaround timetable:
    - How long did this process take?
    - How long does it typically take, for the type of work you do?
    - Do you have a design that took two minutes that you love and another that took six months that is less than stellar?

    About half an hour or perhaps a couple of hours leafing through magazines and the like until I fins something that resonates then it's usually a couple of minutes with a pencil or biro, this is the advantage of drawing desighns for someone else to put into a digital image.

    Your general opinions and whatnot:
    - Do you enjoy the process of designing characters?
    - What kinds of projects are your favorite?
    - Do you hate drawing vikings?
    - Do you love working for a particular type of client?
    - Do you have a lot or a little experience in this sort of thing?
    Give us some random inside information about you, your process for this particular challenge, and how you feel about it.
    Feel free to add anything you feel I've forgotten to ask.

    I love drawing people and ideas for stuff, it's the best since I'm essentially an inveterate world builder at the best of times. I also like the challenge of bringing someone's ideas to life on the page.

    I like the more action type stuff becasue soemtimes you really need to draw something fanciful because I wathed a lot of Ghost in the Shell growing up. Don't spend much time doing vikings but getting the proportions right on buildings and vehicles is a pain. I'm a total amatuer when it comes to this sort of thing aside from enjoying putting pen to paper and I always seem to be the one my friends come to for ideas, or used to anyway.


    And just because I feel like I might need to clarify, we're talking about original designs here, so even though some of the same concepts apply, please leave the Remake/Remodel characters in the R/R thread.
    Thanks. Very much looking forward to your responses.

    I don't have access to my stuff right now but if I remember I'll see if I can find the sketchpad with my concepts for a story involving Fantasy Pirates. Also some non specific stuff but this all relies on the scanner complying to my wishes.
  13.  (7274.33)
    @William George -
    For some reason, looking at your dwarves made me think "Ape shall not kill ape"

    Heh. When I was told there wasn't as much diversity in facial characteristics, I tried to show a bit of that elsewhere among the various iterations, and there was certainly some influence from ape diversity brought into the mix.
    If any of that makes sense.

    It makes perfect sense.
  14.  (7274.34)
    •  
      CommentAuthorlexmachine
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2009
     (7274.35)
    @Hokus Krokus & @Brendan Thanks for the links!

    @Seantaclaus It's funny, I couldn't figure out what it was I liked about seeing your process, but I think, especially after seeing the dwarf process, that it's because it's what you might call digital impressionist. And I'm frequently drawn to impressionist paintings.

    @Darkest I am dying to see some of this stuff. Take some camera phone pictures or something if you have to, but please give us some visuals.
    •  
      CommentAuthorPupato
    • CommentTimeJan 1st 2010 edited
     (7274.36)
    it´s amazing having access to the creation process from such a fantastic designers & writers : ) thanks

    Since i´m not a pro in comics, my characters design work had been always intuitive & chaotic: not even knew how i used to do it, so, thanks to this thread i´ve investigated my own research method.

    The project is a comic about real violence & how the people get it through the media.

    Being a personal work (my first), the character information was comunicated to me by "the voices", in this case through TV. The idea came from a bloody events program (this kind of programs are evolution of the ancient "crime newspapers" like "the case" & before that there used to exist blind people singing crime stories through the villages: ballads from the blind).
    Years ago, the journalists used to pay the police to get photographs of the crime scene while the blood was still fresh.
    Now, for a lot of reasons, its an impossible task for the media to put the bloody images on air. So, they tell us the crime story with images of the village, the streets, some spots that seems like blood at the dead´s door, etc... & don´t forget the neighbors opinions...
    This is the story of two children killing another boy from there own school, during a game. With this comic i wanted to tell that same crime story puting the bloody images on.

    The process: put together information from reality. Thats the most important part, & then develope & synthesize all that information into a comic character. In this particular case i´ve drawn a lot of children from the street & media (animated films & comics):




    in this panel there are children from the Otomo´s manga "Nightmares" (spanish title) & from Carlos Giménez´s Civil Spanish War orphans stories "Paracuellos" & sketches from the beach & the park.


    Then, the characters developed themselves through the story-board.


    The killers are these brothers: two children who killed a smaller one, a class-mate from the same school (now i remember, it happened in England, & there were on the TV some security cam images with the two brothers kidnapping the victim), & in this step they have already born at the story-board sketchbook. The first appearance, at the page on the left.

    Here you have the last sketch-book page & some final drawings:


    At this point, the look is too Japanese because of the inspiration fonts (manga) & because of hair design. In this kind of history, the clothes are not so important realy. The hard work was dedicated to the expressions & the body lenguaje between the brothers (the victim was just a puppet)
    Something very important, the environment can be vital for the characters, because it gives us behaviour patterns, & this is how we learn important things about the characters: going through the Story.

    Some finished pages:


    edited for the net:


    Even having a lot of preliminar sketches (so necessary for me), i think the vital work on developing a character is cooked into the comic, starting with the script, growing & evolving with every day work & getting inmortal or dying in the reader´s head.

    Here, as an example, you can see the evolution of the Lieutenant Blueberry character during 40 years, by the hands of Charlier & Giraud:

    http://tangenciasuno.blogspot.com/2009/12/blueberry.html
  17.  (7274.37)
    I wish my connection were kinder, as it seems to be having trouble loading so many images, but what I have seen, and everything I've read, has been really good stuff.
  18.  (7274.38)
    @ Ken Miller

    I remember the dino toppers, had some of those on my pencils in primary school. God that makes me feel young. Its really cool to see how a relic of my childhood was created, cheers.

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