5 Reasons Your Character Designs AREN'T Cute (And How to Fix It) 

Technically cute and visually innofensive is what gave us boss baby.

I think animal crossing is a great example of how greatly character design affects likeability. The villagers only have one of 8 personalities, but players often treat two of the same very differently.

I don't know why I assumed that the horrible characters painted on daycares walls only were a thing in my country. All humanity shares that trauma and that's beautiful.

The one dislike is from a knock-off Mickey Mouse painted on the side of a daycare.

Baby Yoda is genius because they combined the cuteness of babies and elderly people successfully

If big head and big eyes were enough to make a character cute, the colossal squid would be the cutest animal out there, objectively.

I will not stand for this anti Pietro propaganda smh

You talking about forced, saccharine cuteness instantly brought Gideon from gravity falls into my mind. A cute and inoffensive character design on its own, but accompanied by that nasty, obsessive and deceptive personality he becomes a very interesting character despite being intentionally very dislikeable. It's cool how these character design tips work both ways!

This reminds me when Jazza tried to make this cutest character and failed because in his words "You can't have cuteness in a vaccum".

Your point about kids who try to be cute vs. kids who are cute organically is so spot-on. There's a cynicism behind artificial cuteness, and that's what makes it ugly. When it comes to character design, I call this the Littlest Pet Shop Effect. That's also why I'm not 100% on board with the conventional wisdom on Them Big Ol' Eyes. First off, dot eyes are almost always cuter IMO. There's a reason you can get dozens of Pokémon plushies with Ditto faces. And of course, Kirby. But when I think of cute big-eyed characters, their eyes tend to be mostly pupil, or at least rather dark. Baby Yoda of course, but also Baby Groot, the Eevee family, movie!Pikachu, Stitch, Lucas the Spider... of course, this has to do with the fact that a larger pupil-to-sclera ratio is typically what we see in other mammals. Cats are a notable exception, but the contrast between a wary cat's slit pupils and a happy cat's dilated pupils just adds to the charm. This is used to great effect with the dragons in HTTYD, as a shift in the pupil size signals to us immediately when they're menacing vs. when they're happy. But then, there are wide-eyed characters with smaller pupils that still appear cute to most people. That said, I think this design type tends to be more used for comic effect, and in tandem with a more distinctive personality. To go back to Pokémon, Slowpoke, Psyduck, and Magikarp all have big eyes with tiny dot pupils, which immediately communicates vacancy. They're not necessarily that cute in a vacuum, but the way their eyes emphasize their dopey haplessness makes them very endearing. I guess this circles back to your point on purpose and appeal: characters whose cuteness is a result of multiple organic elements will always be more appealing than characters who are made to be cute to sell themselves.

LOL Surprise dolls fall into the uncanny valley for me, usually I like chibis but those things look like they're about to eat a part of my soul.

Cute characters are, well, cute definitely. But too much cuteness can really sway me away from it, even to the point of disliking. Moe girls for example; way too many of them nowadays, BUT some works like Lucky Star.

8:38 So true. I was wondering why everyone looses their minds over "cute" pop figures while for me, they looks boring, not cute

This video reminds me why I love the Ugly Cute trope: a character may have sharp teeth, huge eyes and look overall like a gremlin, but if you embue them with personality, this character becomes incredibly appealing despite not looking conventially cute. It is indeed the reason, like you said, why Baby Yoda and Stitch work so well. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, as a series, was able to create a lot of adorable characters that had unique traits to them that aren't inherently cute, but were deeply tied to their personalities.

The reason Disney babies have never been cute to me.

I'm so invested in the character development in Brookes' Cardigan Arc

I don’t even have this issue but I’m watching it in case I ever need it.

The “cute” kid in the thumbnail looks like one of the body snatchers from Spongebob that hated mayonnaise

To me characters can only be cute if their NOT trying to hard to be cute.

"Lack of interest" *zooms in to baby Yoda* Baby yoda: •^•

Biko is such a charming character; he's got this kind of floppy eared bull dog look to him that makes him appeal to cuteness in the same way a dog would, so his design actually gives that endearing feeling without having to lean on the "cute aesthetic." Like you said with baby Yoda; it's a more genuine cute because it reminds us of something we already love!

I see kirbo in the background and it's cute

Yes! A huge difference in cuteness between funkos and nendoroids.. nendoroids are the best! (But much more expensive lol)

I miss when the villagers weren't always so docile. I miss when they said things that were actually memorable or villagers that warmed up to me. Apollo's and Whitney are my favs, but they basically bullied me in wild world until I earned their acknowledgement. I was so proud of myself that the "mature" villagers liked me. They are still my two favs, but mostly for nostalgia, my new horizon favs are Zelle and Kids. Really, the smug persona is just amazing. even though they also sing your praises from day one. At least they are trendy.

A character I feel written cute in the wrong way perfectly is Lil Gideon from Gravity Falls as he uses all these archetypes of a character being self aware rather than genuine, which complements the fact that he’s a liar and manipulator as shown through out the series and is a part of why Lil Gideon is one of my favorite villains ever.

When I saw the title I immediately thought of a game I once played: Yonder. I specifically remember that there were those rabbit creatures that are supposed to be the “cutest” animal in game. They had huge heads, big eyes and small feets and all I thought was “they are not cute at all” For me the cutest animal in the game were those fox ferrets creatures. They had a long body were the head seamlessly connects into it, short legs and small dot like eyes. And they were so adorable! Way more adorable than the supposed “cute” rabbits XD

In the past few months I've been absolutely *obsessed* with non-cute-looking characters having unbearably cute personalities. Like, imagine a huge, intimidating, bear looking guy who loves flowers and wants to open a flower shop? I love it. (Yes, I'm referencing an actual webtoon I am OBSESSED with.)

I think cuteness is something that's accidental. When people try to hard to make them cute, they aren't. Sometimes i find things not necessarily "cute" but pleasant to just look at, like that character you mentioned you made who was a grumpy looking character. Even the grumpy version was "cute" to me

i feel like i have the literal opposite problem, I try to make a horror character but it somehow always ends up kinda cute (usually in a weird way) ._. Edit: thanks for the art advice lol, this was kinda just a joke xD (but i still can draw non-cute things)

I don’t have the creativity to make characters, I like to make fan art more, but I love your videos and tips so I’m here watching it anyway =]

I loved Stitch as a kid, definitely a cute design. Yes, I think contrast helps to make a design interesting, since the fact that he also has an "edge" to him makes him even cuter in a way.

I have the opposite problem where a lot of my characters are cute and it's not really intentional? Oh except for when I end up drawing something creepy, but its easy when most of the serious monsters I have are kind of body horrorish...

8:35 I've been saying this for years! I don't know why people collect these ugly things. Collect Nendoroids instead.

I disagree about the hamster villagers. I understand how Rodney may look ugly and even a bit creepy to some people, but I have him on my island and I find him adorable. I consider him to be more ugly-cute, and I personally think this makes him a more interesting as it kind of gives more personality to his design. He and Katt (another ugly-cute villager) are my two favorites.

The issue I have isn’t that the characters aren’t cute instead THEY ARE ALL CUTE!! I probably just make my characters too simple, I need to learn more complex design

Sometimes its also funny to take something wierd or even creepy, like a deep sea creature or something like that and try to make a cute version lol.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that finds Funko pops to be unappealing and soulless. For the life of me I can't figure out how they've become so popular. Are people just so desperate for any kind of merchandise that is styled after some video game or TV show that they're fine with the designs being so lifeless?

When you talked about character that is “knowingly cute” I thought about the blue haired girl from saiki k 💀

Great video! One of the design trends I hate the most is the fact that nearly all female main characters and/or romantic interests in big animated movies all look like the same Disney princess in a different wig and costume, because when everyone has the same heart-shaped face with huge eyes and tiny nose and mouth, it looks cute, but doesn't convey anything besides cuteness, and there's nothing to make their faces memorable, and so much emotion is conveyed through the face. Even when the filmmakers want to make a point that this girl is different from the old-school princesses, and she's not just another generic pretty face, they still make her look like one, and that just makes it so much harder to connect to the character as her own person. I've remember seeing concept art for an animated series where I legit could not tell how many female characters there were because I couldn't tell if most of the images showed different female characters or one girl with a costume swap.

A good example of a cute child character is Greg from Over the Garden Wall.

I feel really called out with this. I recently wanted to treat myself by drawing a page full of cute kittens. Half of them looked like fresh from lovecraft...

This makes me admire Amy from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Amy’s interactions and faith in Gamma was always so honest, genuine, and sweet.

i've discovered that making characters that are similar to animals tend to give you an upper hand in the "cuteness" level automatically, not always but in most cases, something in which creating a human like character doesn't happen often. this may be me but honestly it's more appealing to look at something that's like "animal" in a cartoon than something that's a "human".

There's this one person in my friend group who has this child character who she constantly draws with eyes literally taking up 2/3rds of her face, with huge anime eyes, completely void of pupils. And while she's always gushing about how cute she made that character, it awakens a very primal fear in me every time I see them. I don't know how to tell her that her character looks like she'll eat my face, and tbh, I probably never will. Also the little girl is supposed to be 6, but is drawn with straight up baby proportions in a way that makes me think the artist has never seen a 6 year old in the wild before.

So that's why the Minions are so annoying after prolonged exposure

Brookes Eggleston: *Discusses the cuteness of animated characters* Kirby in the background: *Watching intensly*

Whenever I think of unconventionally cute character design, I can't help but immediately think of post season 1 Ed, Edd n Eddy. You have characters like Eddy who looks both greasy and smarmy, yet he's also short, fat, hyperactive, and brightly colored. Ed who looks inbred but is also endearingly innocent and ditzy. Even characters like Jimmy who are meant to be "the cute one" have not so cute elements added in like the sickeningly white skin, huge retainer, and Charlie Brown patterned baldness

We all have that one villager we have an Irrational Hatred of... (I'm looking at you Hippeaux)

Your timing is uncanny... This was posted RIGHT when I needed it. Also, how do I avoid lack of interest? In my story the character in question is a minor character, but in almost every episode. I don't want her to be a forgettable character, but at the same time I have no idea how to give her more personality because she's literally a baby.

I see a Kirby plushie.

brookes: *ranting about baby yoda* the baby yoda plushie in the background: 😔

I took pause at the idea of Stitch being cute... But you are correct, he is a good combination of scary and cuddly- The Child, absolutely perfect!! Well rounded video with clear direction! Thank you Brookes!

8:33 Finaly someone agrees with me about the funko pop's

I love seeing things that shouldn't be cute be cute. I mean, Mitty from Made in Abyss is perfect in my eyes. It's why my child character is horrifically deformed.

A few years ago one of my followers on a now very dead tumblr asked me why I liked giving my cutesy characters fangs so often. At the time I had no idea how to articulate to them why it made them much more endearing. Well, here we are!

An example of a character that actively tries to be cute and funny and ends up looking artificial is Gideon from Gravity Falls. But it's the goal, he's supposed to be repelling, since he's the villain. You can use artificial cuteness to make someone annoying

"The human sculpt " shows sonic

I have this character I made at the beginning of this year, and I've been working on his character design ever since then. Before I never really realized how important it is to work on the character design first before figuring out the story. Before I thought I could just wing it and get it right on the first try. Your videos have really helped my improve in my process of character design!

Would trying to make a character seem dwarfed relative to their challenges be a good reason to skew toward cuteness?

took me years to develop a cute character I wanted to use as some sort of mascot for myself, it's not easy work

For some reason, I think The Owl House managed this quite well when the Owlbeast shrinks down, it probably seemed cuter seeing as it had been portrayed as a monster for the rest of the show.

Can we just appreciate that this video is exactly 10 minutes long?

Well explained. If you look at characters like, Stitch, owl house Demon, Veigar, bunny from holy grail and many more you will see that being cute is only one aspect of their personality and sometimes the characters themselves don't want to aknowledge that side of themselves everyone else labeled them as cute. The contrast between their personalities intentions and look is what makes them cute and interesting characters.

One of the cutest characters I’ve ever seen is Captain Amelia from *Treasure Planet* . She has an interesting design which largely resembles a cat. She even shows some cat mannerism and behavior. This alone made her incredibly appealing. Meanwhile, crew member Scroop from the same film is a terrifying arthropod. Captain contrasts with him and other crew members because she’s one of the very few people who looks like a mammal and appears to move effortlessly, without her body appearing to be heavy, sticky or cold. So, despite being a dominant, strict person she seems charming and endearing. The contrast between her harsh personality and kitty appearance contributes too.

when feeling lost--draw something "ugly-cute!" I always find those drawings the cutest, lol.

The spoon of sugar analogy made me cringe but you're so right

While watching this I decided to try to create the cutest character I could despite the weird way my brain works and I think I've done it! The character is a curious little line moving around a 2D world.

Me: *designs a half-orc for D&D and gives him strong, stern features* Other folks: Aww! He looks like a sweetheart! I bet he gives great hugs! Me: ... Not what I'm going for, but okay!

I've just discovered your channel and it's great . Can I just say I love how you sound cuz for once i dont zone out while watching this cute character design tip , tutorial thing. I've watched a billion vids on art stuff , tutorials and what not and boy do I zone out so thanks for not sounding Boring as hell .

UPDATE: Biko, who I mentioned in this video, the main character of my animated series, is available to give you healing as a plush, only until 11/6/22! Grab it to directly support the development of my animated series Stormfellers! www.makeship.com/products/biko-plush

I really love this kind of videos where people talk about the technical side of the things & more generally aspects about a concept

Yes, please tell us more about the art of cuteness! I found this really interesting.

Anime cliches: Allow us to introduce ourselves

ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO, I LOVE THAT AWKWARD PAUSE AT THE START WHERE IT NEEMS LIKE YOU WHER GOING TO JUST SAY STREIGHT UP "NO!" BUT ENDED UP SAYING "LETS TALK ABOUT IT.", IT MAKES ME LAUGH EVERY TIME.

I know pikmin isn't the most popular thing, but you do have a olimar plush in the background soooo Pikmin does cuteness in a very interesting way. A lot of enemies are cute, but still just alien/weird enough for you to recognise they are dangerous. They also take care in making sure all pikmin are cute in their own way so that you feel the most pain possible when you let the poor things die. And Olimar himself! They took a balding, middle aged man and made him cute as well. He's also proof you don't need to follow all of the "rules" to cute characters, as he manages to be cute without the big round eyes (though he does still have many other baby/chibi proportions...) There could be ways to further break these down but I think my point is clear. Pikmin uses it's cuteness in interesting and effective ways and I just adore it to bits.

I love everything that was said in this video, and I think it can also be taken for things that aren't necessarily cute but also in general character design, when making emotions, how you should not over-complicate things or oversimplify. You should have enough language to communicate to viewers the emotion while not going into the uncanny valley where something seems off about a certain detail. I used to have problems with doing this, but as of late: after studying a lot more with animation, and also looking through good designs, and their concepts I've learned past this! Sackboy from Little Big Planet also had a time where his design looked creepy, but afterward, with the same relatability you stated, it made his final design cute! Since he doesn't talk in the games, more emphasis was is put on the head and hands, wide mouth small eyes, Almost reminds me of a little emoticon!

One of my cutest characters is all triangle and square shapes. I dont think he has a n y circles. Even has big square 3d glasses where you can't see his eyes.

I actually recently used this video to help with a character design. The character/fursona that you can see as my icon (Sen) isn’t necessarily cute. I wanted a more devious, mildly sinister, yet still almost welcoming design. But I made a later piece of Sen looking cute, almost chibi-like, in a cardboard box like a cat. What I’m getting at is that you can make any design cute with some tweaking.

Why does youtube only recommend your old videos to me!! I'm subscribed but I just found this video by chance!! Also, wonderful video and super super good advice! I'm feeling inspired...

I think my biggest issue is lack of purpose since I draw all the time, but don't actually post or do anything with them. I want to do things with them, just not sure what or where yet.

Omygod! THANK YOU! I do not understand how funko pop figures became so popular when they are neither cute nor appealing in their shape language or design!

Fantastic video! :D

Great video, thanks a lot! I'm just working on a cute on the outside but internally complex character like Rocket the Raccoon (since there's such a hype out there right now, but that's just getting in the way), but NOT like him, and it's so hard to get out of my own head and come up with something fundamentally new, but at the same time similar. The best I've come up with is kind of a ninja cat, but I should think more :D

Funny enough, I made a character not intending to be cute, but I shared it online and everyone thought it was cute

I believe that a character to that is an example of good Cute Character design is Hat Kid from A Hat in Time as she is very expressive without being overdone she is greedy and a bit self centered and likes to joke around.

I love you UNIVERSE! I needed this without knowing haha, this was pretty good! Thanks for the tips! I started using them, and I'm improoving at darwing the character, slowly... But correctly! Thanks man :D ✨

thank you for making videos with really unique suggestions!

I think The Knight from Hollow Knight is a good example too. Many people who played the game (and some who haven't) find the little vessel adorable. On one hand, it has several things you'd expect of a cute baby-like character. Big eyes, big head, a tiny simplistic body and the lack of a voice, expressing only through simple movements. Yet it has other things that work against what you'd expect and makes the character more interesting. The Knight is quick and clean, it's not clumsy. It has horns, wears a cloak and carries a nail. Why would your standard cute character carry a weapon? That's what makes a good cute character

It’s so funny because I am constantly telling my child to stop trying to be funny That she’s funny when she’s herself but when she tries... it’s just not.

This video is amazing, and it honestly reminded me to that meap character in phineas and ferb, they tried way too hard to make the cutests being ever and it ends up being annoying to look at and honestly not even cute at all. Its like just because they tried to make it extremely cute following all the rules step by step they really messed it up.

May be one of the smaller channel but its one of the biggest most helpful channel out there

This reminds me of a character from a show called Aggretsuko her name was Tsunoda she was suppose to look cute where she was fake even characters mention it how she use her cuteness to use her boss to get out of work

I feel like people who adore baby yoda also like sphynx kittens (whixh are cute)

4:55 ooh, I like him though. He seems like a good friend

I'm so happy that you brought up Limberg from Animal Crossing as an odd 'uncute' character. He's one of my favorites precisely because he's not a typical cutesy sweet character in the series. I have a fondness for the grouchy grandpa or uncle kind of characters.

The example about kids being genuinely cute vs purposefully cute is great to me as a daycare teacher, because most kids do both! My toddlers all like to smile and bat their eyes when they're misbehaving, but they're much more cute when they do something unassuming like give a crying classmate a forehead kiss

There are many characters that have that forced cuteness in them. Most of them are those talking animals that are the main protagonist's sidekicks.

4:30 I know it's literally the point, but OH MY GOD. HE'S SO ADORABLE. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I simply NEED to see more of this adorable green boi

This is why I like to make use of the 'ugly-cute' trope. Characters who have all the traits that would be considered ugly, but applied in a way that makes them look kinda cute. One such character I've designed has the appearance of a little girl, short smol proportions, skirt and stockings combo, big soulful eyes, pigtails, little nose, big smile, etc. But she's also a goblin, so she's got the odd skin and hair colour, webbed fingers and toes, pointed teeth, tacky baggy sweater, flat serpentine nose, crests under the eyes and massive ears that stick out to the sides. But the combination of features, at least as far as the feedback I've received implies, is that it is a pretty well balanced combo of ugly and cute.

Could you do one on how to make characters creepy? :3