EMPLOYABILITY ROAD MAP

Character Design
When it comes to job roles in the animation industry, I’ve always been drawn towards the
path of character design. I feel like this is because in my free time I always tend to draw
different characters instead of scenery, environments, etc.
What does a Character Designer do?
The job of a character designer is to create the look and aesthetic of an individual character.
They do this by working off of given descriptions of how the character should look. This
description includes notes on a character’s personality, interests and physical traits.
Character designers usually have to follow the art style set by the art director.
Once a design has been chosen, the character designer is tasked with creating model sheets
for the character. These sheets depict the character drawn from a variety of angles. In 3D
animation model sheets are used to help modellers make sure that they model the
character quickly. Alternatively, in 2D animation model sheets are used to help animators
make sure the character remains “on model” during the scene.
What skills does a Character Designer need?
Due to the nature of the job, character designers need to have a very high level of drawing
skill. This is because they will have to create drawings in a verity of styles with a high
attention to detail. They also need to be very imaginative, being able to innovate on already
created designs, creating work that should help to tell a story (the audience should be able
to infer character traits form their design). They also need a good understanding of how the
production pipeline works, along with being mindful of the animator’s capabilities. They also
need to make sure that the design is appropriate for the medium.
When it comes to qualifications, character designers are expected to have A-Levels or BTECs
in fine art, art/graphic design or any related course however it’s not strictly necessary as a
portfolio is what’s usually focused on.
What tools do Character Designers use?
Character designers are often expected to have an understanding of industry standard
software. Because I’m mainly interested in the 2D side of animation I should make an effort
to get to grips with software such as Adobe Animate, Adobe Photoshop, TVPaint, ToonBoom
Harmony and CelAction. Character designers are also expected to use traditional art
materials such as pencil, paper, paint, ink, etc.
How can I ready myself for this job role?
If I want to prepare myself for this job there are a few things I need to work on.
The first is that I need to improve on my drawing skill. The reason why I say this is because I
struggle with drawing characters in dynamic and interesting poses as they always tend to
look a little stiff. Along with this, I can’t draw many hair styles outside of like… 2, maybe 3. A
way I can work on this over semester 1 is to take a few classes on character drawing/figure
drawing. Now this is something I can easily do as last year I enrolled onto an online drawing
course which teachers character drawing, so this is something I can definitely work on
during my free time.

Something else I have to work on is learning industry standard software. I have been lucky
enough to learn Adobe Flash/Animate quite early, however it seems that the industry is
 EMPLOYABILITY ROAD MAP

moving more towards using ToonBoom. The problem with this is that I’m not a big fan of
ToonBoom. Although this is probably because I’m not super familiar with the software yet
so during semester 1 I’m going to have to push myself to learn ToonBoom.
One more thing I could do with learning is anatomy for things other than people. As a
character designer it will be important for me to be able to draw a verity of different
creatures with different body structures. So, I will have to practice with drawing different
animals and body shapes, then maybe creating my own character with non-humanoid
anatomy.

Hopefully by the end of semester 1 I will have been able to successfully complete each of
these tasks and will have greatly improved my drawing ability/technical knowledge.

Dead Space Lmao