Whe󰈸󰈩 󰇶󰈢

c󰈊a󰈹󰈀c󰉃󰇵󰈹s 󰇹o󰈛󰈩
f󰈸o󰈛?
AKA how I create characters
 Big 󰈜󰈊󰈹󰈩󰇵
(fo󰈸 󰉄h󰈎󰈻 󰈼p󰇵󰇹ifi󰇸 p󰈸󰈩󰈼󰇵n󰉃a󰉄󰈎󰈢n)

Dre󰈀󰈚󰈼 Ot󰈊e󰈹 P󰈩󰈢p󰈗e Yo󰉉!

They’re complicated You are also
They’re creative and
and weird complicated, and
weird
probably weird
Dre󰈀󰈚󰈼
● Helps if you dream often
○ I have dreams every single night, multiple too
○ Many opportunities for stories and characters
● Only works if you remember anything
○ Sometimes I don’t, sometimes I wake up with an
entire character and backstory
● Sometimes, I am the character in the dream
○ Innate feeling/understanding of backstory, world,
ingrained knowledge
■ Weird dream mechanics
Dre󰈀󰈚󰈼 p2
● Other times, it’s someone I interact with in a dream
○ Most often, there are blanks to fill in and customize
■ Can dream outline of a character and add your
own traits or create a backstory
● Dreams mostly help with physical appearance and basic
personality
○ Deeper information is up to your waking self
● Stories can also come from dreams
○ Often weird, potentially hard to follow, but can
create in depth worlds
Dre󰈀󰈚󰈼 p3
● Dreams set like a movie provide great character potential
○ Naturally gives them roles in the world
■ Also provides a world for them to fit in
○ Can iron out a story with a basis from the dream and
the companions in it
● Good for weird/unique creature designs as well
● Probably subconsciously taking traits from other people
anyway
○ Which leads to the next place of inspiration
(after some random examples…)
Cha󰈸󰈀󰇸t󰇵󰈸󰈼 f󰈸o󰈛 Dr󰈩󰇽󰈚󰈼
(With old character creation app ones)

<<< first doodles of

characters we’ll see later
(besides the icarus one)
Pe󰈡p󰈗󰇵
● Want realistic characters? Base them off real people
○ The best part about a good character is how real they
feel - creating relatability and appeal
● People are unique, and weird, and inspiring
● Observe your surroundings
○ Take mental note of interesting people you see
○ What is eye-catching about them? Cool shirt or jacket?
Accessories? Hair? Unique piece of clothing?
○ Observation can lead to finding physical traits or outfits
you like for characters
Pe󰈡p󰈗󰇵 󰈦2
● Sketch (something I need to do more)
○ Carry a sketchbook, sit down sometimes, just chill
drawing
○ Be loose, be quick
■ Work based on instinct and quick looks
○ Start more accurate, exaggerate when comfortable
○ Break them down into most basic shapes
■ Observing real people can give basis for
character shapes
■ Remember shape theory
 Sha󰈥󰈩 󰈜󰈋󰇵or󰉘 B󰈀󰈼󰈏c󰈻

Square Circle Triangle

● Solid, stable ● Gentle, soft ● Chaotic, dynamic
● Orderly ● Organic ● Duality - stable shape
● Trusting ● Fun or bouncy or unstable energy
● Strong characters ● Welcoming, kind ● Can be villainous,
characters sharp, dangerous
 Ske󰉃󰇸h󰈩󰈻 󰇿r󰈢󰈚 Be󰈀󰇸h 󰈜󰈸󰈏󰈦

People are very shape. Lots of boxy heads which is interesting as heads are usually viewed as ovals
Pe󰈡p󰈗󰇵 󰈦3
● Personality
○ Sometimes strangers have strong personalities
■ Can immediately pull a basis for creating a
character from a short interaction
■ Just need one personality trait to work off of or
a general vibe from them
○ Friends are a good place to pull from and combine
personality traits
■ Both positive and negative traits are needed for
a believable character
 Cha󰈸󰈀󰇸t󰇵󰈸󰈼 wi󰉃󰈋 r󰈩󰇽󰈗 󰈦e󰈡p󰈗󰇵 󰇻as󰈎󰈻

Random best buy worker with Characters from dream with added real
good vibes ^^^ person inspiration/traits ^^^
Yo󰉉
● Best for personality building rather than physicality
○ Doesn’t result in much variation for physical design
● Mix and match your own personality traits
○ Focus on one or two main traits
○ Add your own flaws to your characters
● Helps describe character and determine how they act
○ You know your personality best and how those parts
of you react to situations
○ Performance for animation - acting is reacting
○ Builds depth and realism
Cha󰈸󰈀󰇸t󰇵󰈸󰈼 wi󰉃󰈋 p󰈀󰈸󰉄s 󰈢󰇾 󰈼el󰇾
 Ove󰈸󰉐󰈎󰇵w
● Dreams vary greatly and with that, comes an infinite supply of
weird characters, and worlds or stories to put them in
○ Get the basics, fill the rest out later if there’s potential
● Realism is important to character design
○ Adds relatability, a reason to care, dimension
● Get this realism from parts of real people you observe/meet/know
● Add flaws - your perceived own or others
○ Using your own adds a special knowledge in how that flaw
or insecurity impacts the character
● Mix and match personality traits that work together
● Add a little bit of you in the character to understand them more