@@Josie-2011-Magic honestly, i dunno why ppl want to use online or web based programs. I hate them. For making notes I am only using Joplin and it is everything I need, eventually pureref. And it's free, lightweight, and will never sell mine documents for AI scrappers.
"Even the worst-dressed character in this world still looks cool to us" hit me like a ton of bricks. I've been struggling with this idea in my designs for years. How do I make an interesting character design out of a character that has a resigned personality? It's all about the aesthetic and tone of the world itself, what a great insight! Thank you for this!
Darkest Dungeon is a great example of the complete _opposite_ philosophy. Even the most badass and well-off characters in that world look _miserable_ to us. And the ones that are meant to look awful are downright depressing or terrifying.
That makes me think of Pseudo from Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. And i guess by extent Zenozoik and Zeno Clash at large. The setting is a bizarre world of sapient monsters and freaks with elements from Medieval paintings (like Hieronymus Bosch's) and prehistory, which partially shows in how the Zenos dress. They take all manner of knick-knacks, fabrics and accessories that they seem to like the look of, and slap it onto themselves. However silly the clothing and paintjobs may look, the Zenos look all the more interesting for it. There's characters that seem to wear shirts made out of woven-together rags, a top or bra made out of two antler-looking bone pieces mixed with trousers that have one tight leg and one baggy leg, belt accessories with a painted angry red face or a metal goofy-faced brass plate over the groin, a strange metal belt consisting of three iron structures that looks like a fidget spinner, a top decorated with spine pieces, and in the case of a cow-headed character, a hood made out of a human's face skin. The character Pseudo stands out for just how *little* he wears. Baggy trousers, long leather strips holding up his trousers connected to his upper arms, and leather footwear that looks to be somewhere between sandals and thigh-length socks. The only other form of style he wears are two areas of facepaint, in a traffic gridding or chess board pattern. Of course, the rest of his design helps in being striking. He's fuppin' bizarre.
I never did. My thing was always dragons because I am a mythology guy. I have a lot of dragon OCs. Mostly eastern ones because they feel more mystical.
I'm not an artist and have the artistic sensibility of a 7 year old, but I've always found it fascinating how artists go through the process of making such amazing character designs.
This may sound like complete Bs. But even if you can't draw you can come up with amazing character designs. You just need to capture the thought and translate it.
i'm surprised jack didn't talk more about color! then again, i am definitely what i would call a "color nerd". i noticed that sasha uses the 3 primary colors in her design. these are strong, bold colors that make every other color possible. in this instance, because they're equally spaced on the color wheel, they make me think of someone who's pulled in every direction. maybe i'm reaching too much, but it makes me think of sasha's chaotic, inconsistent nature that prevents her from blending these colors into new, more analogous ones. or maybe i'm totally wrong. either way, cool video!
Realizing how much I avoid clothing/ baggy clothes when designing characters. Took the videos run length to look at the concept/ and such. Long story short. Thank you for the advice! As someone who does not work digitally; and is more pen to paper, is copying the image the only other option if I do not like the colors I picked when coloring the character the first time… I don’t have a Ctrl Z button.
Something you could do if you’re working traditionally is to create a “coloring book”. Do a clean line drawing of your character, scan it, and print out several copies of your lineart. Then you can experiment with a bunch of different colors until you find a palette you like. You can also make color maps like the one I made on a separate piece of paper, without the context of character.
I used to look at the Bad Character Design Tumblr blog a lot. I get that it was about being funny first and foremost, but it bothered me that they'd call character designs "bad" without explaining why.
I’ve had so many ideas over the years and a vivid imagination and a mind and body that just won’t sit still. Your videos were a huge part of keeping me inspired, watching them everyday after school, discussing topics I have always enjoyed loved. Tickling my niche as a whole, from Pokémon, to creature design, to prowling predators and in perceivable monstrosities toed arcane ancient power. I also love your guys’art styles. I feel it’s all come full circle as I’ve started to try again, you’ve released this video and I am able to learn from the opinion of one I hold i high esteem. Ahhh so excited.
As someone who's commissioned artwork before for characters, the moodboard is something a friend suggested to help organise concepts and references for when getting a new sheet done up.
Oh dang! I unironicly was struggling with designing a character for a couple of days already. Thanks for this vid, it might give me some ideas on what i can do!
I’ve been a fan of your channel for years I’ve enjoyed your specific approach towards art and design as well as your unique style and the genuine joy and passion that seems to go into each of your designs. Whether it’s League, Pokémon, dinos, or creature designs/ Lovecraftian or incomprehensible lore. I would watch your videos after school and be excited every single upload. So many of you guys’ interests and design philosophies seemed to align with what I someday hoped to achieve. I was really into drawing when I was younger but for many reason I started to feel the pressure. Like something I once enjoyed was a commodity and that I just wasn’t good at it despite what anyone said. Years later I’ve decided to pick it back up out of pure passion, I’ve known for a while that we all are on our own journeys and that you should do something like that out of passion. I’ve had so many ideas over the years and a vivid imagination and a mind and body that just won’t sit still. Your videos were a huge part of keeping me inspired and always decked into topics I loved. Almost full circle as I’ve started to try again, you’ve released this video and I am able to learn from the opinion of one I hold i high esteem. Ahhh so excited.
Remember that other people do not know your character as much as you do, you have to SHOW them who the character is, the first impression needs to show your idea somehow! (of course, by their design)
I appreciate all your advice. Character design is what got me into art and for a while, I thought my designs weren’t good. But over time with many videos like this one, I finally feel like the designs are much more refined ❤
Funny how I was watching your dinosaur video yesterday, and then thought "damn, if only he had a full character design video cause I have to make one for college" and then you bring this out later that day. Thank you!
Man i love those The first character design video was what brought me to this channel, when i wanted to become an artist Please do more like them! Love to see the whole process you go through each piece of art
One thing that helps me Is friending some random stranger and telling them about the lore of your oc when you haven’t decided I was trying to figure the story of Aan Na and Meng Yao but I couldn’t I wanted to seem confident so I flexed about it on discord and someone wanted to know the story So I had to quickly come up with a story with my jumbled ideas So as I was quickly putting together the story I came up with a story I liked And cleaned up some plot holes And the story became better!
honestly i want to make outlandish designs so much bc it seems very fun, but my stories are usually very much set in the real world with little fantasy so the best i can do is through their fashion styles and exaggerated mannerisms lol
I watch these character design videos, proceeded to only map out a character in my head and not write it down, and then complain about forgetting stuff. Great video though!!!
I’ve been updating the designs on the main trio for my story recently, and for the last two days I was STRUGGLING on the third MC 😭 Watching this video not only helped me finish his design, it also really boosted my confidence in it! This is why I love Subjectively vids 😭💯
I love this format of video: ones that tie on education with your (Jack) personal interests. I’m also just really interested in The Freelancers project
Thanks for making this video! It helped me a lot with what I should keep in mind when designing a character for a story of mine! Also, your art looks fantastic :D
Thanks for sharing your process. As an artist I love seeing how other artists approach character design. It always gives me insight and a desire to tweak my process a little.
I really appreciate that you wanted to make it useful for even people who click away, give them something to take away, too!! Shows you are a youtuber whos intent is truly to help ^^
yeah putting lots of thought into your characters is cool and all but what if they whisper to you in odd hours of the night and you have to put their cursed knowledge into a form you can understand before it breaks your mind entirely?? i can't find a tutorial for that :/
i think your goal of leaving something meaningful in even the first 30 seconds of the video did wonders, even for me whos been studying character design for years. creative intent focus is such a huge issue for me at times, i gotta remember it more.
This video was seriously helpful, creating a mood board is really fun and now I don't have to hope that I remember parts of my character. I'm using this to create a short one shot manga around a character I made a while ago, whos design I loved, but didn't do much with. Now I'm breathing some new life into them and have some high hopes for this redesign and story I'm making.
Gotta say, your work is both encouraging and... discouraging at the same time. I want to make a game one day. A creature collecting game. I have the initial concept, a direction I want to go, all kinds of things. But I know that the success of the project will ultimately come down to how well realized and designed the monsters are. You give amazing advice, but I see an artist like you and get intimidated. I'll never be half the artist you are, but if I only have to nail monster designs, if I just revisit and revise these over and over again, maybe they'll be great. Anyways, your art and advise are awesome.
It depends! Some clients will have things like mood boards already when they commission you, other times it will be up to you to come up with those ideas. Creating a mood board for your client and showing it to them before you start sketching will help you both get on the same page about what the client wants and what you can give them.
Made a “shark puppy” that has the traits of a shark, dog, and bat. One of my favorite designs that is relatively simple. The snout and ears were pulled from a bat (as well as the webbing on the back of all 4 legs), the anatomy was pulled from a lean dog, and the skin, gills, and tail were pulled from a shark. Specifically a Thresher shark.
my guess is it's easier on the eyes after long hours of staring at a screen, seeing as the white is a lot more bright. also, it can help colors pop more as the neutrality helps you see the color values
I don’t always tone the sheet grey, but I often do with character sheets like this one for the reason @el1xer mentioned. Using a neutral tone in the background helps you get a better perception of value in your character design.
If I'm planning on eventually drawing a background, I've started putting in the main color of the background in first so that I can visualize how to contrast the character against the background in color and tone. It also could hypothetically remind me of what color I need to shade or highlight with but I usually forget this.
I love designing characters but I know I have a lot to learn as I have a lot I struggle with. I’m still proud of the designs I have made but I’m also thankful for this video
As someone that wants to work as a concept artist, these types of videos are extremely educational. 😁 They help me a lot, and I truly appreciate them! Thank you so much Jack 🥹
When making a color palette for a character, how much of a variety do you pick? Sometimes I feel like I choose too many, and have some that are to close together in color.
It all comes back to that magic word: intent. What are you doing with your character? Is it a vampire queen set in a dark, gothic setting? In that case, perhaps a limited palette of dark, desaturated colors would work well for you. Are you designing a fae warrior riding a magic axolotl? Maybe in that case you’ll want a much wider range of colors that are saturated and vibrant
Great process! I was pleasantly surprised to find out how my process is both similar and can still learn from this video. I'm definitely coming back to this in the future!
I have just started the video, but I have already one question. why didn't you call your channel "subjacktively" if your name is Jack. it sounds a wasted opportunity to make a pun. I am sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful. I felt the need to write this and couldn't stop myself.
no i was thinking it thoses are some seriously good lookin feet the whole design is really nice and am really happy to find a video about the process of charater design and super helpful when am appying what ive learned to my own art esspically when a redesigning things
Good video. Hadn't thought of writing down characteristics of a character before I start. Most of the time mine just pop out, sometimes with a complete backstory. But, I'll give your methodology a whirl.
In two weeks my 100 day challenge will be complete and this updated process might come in handy when I’m doing the sketch I plan to do this Saturday morning since it’s a redesign of a character I made a couple years ago and I’ve evolved since then and Xe fit the criteria of the prompt for that day’s sketch I figured might as well use Xim and incase it wasn’t obvious this character is non binary
I would fw the freelancers💜💜, So I wish u the very best on to achieve ur dream pet project, u probs get this a lot but I’m going to say it anyways bc I need to, u got an epic art style alone so I do hope ur artwork turns out great in the end, I’m heavily inspired by ur lesson here, I am a beginner artist with My own character projects mapped out and noted, I just struggle to get their art out, but your a huge inspiration to me rn so thx a lot for ur work here bud, stay epic 💜💜👍👍👍
So as someone who studied art at university, I'm curious as to know Subjectively's opinion on turn arounds. Ik that most studios prefer 4-5 profiles of a character for animators to reference. Do you think it's necessary to have 4-5 angles or just two like Sasha Shrapnel?
Nothing is “necessary”, only what is needed for the job. If you’re designing a character for an animation, you’ll need as many different angles of the character as the animators would need to draw the character in. If you’re designing a character for a single, one-off illustration, you may not need to do a turnaround at all. I like doing two point turnaround as a way to help me get a better understanding of my character’s three dimensional form. That way I can pose the character in multiple different ways and have an informed perspective of what certain parts of the character would look like from certain angles. I don’t really need more than a front and back to do that.
I’ve been struggling to make a character that hits as hard as my fav one to draw for so long. And even this character feels underdeveloped bc I haven’t improved the way they look in a very long time apart from general art style (which in of itself has changed their appearance a shit ton, in a very good way tho) I really need to revisit them bc I know they have too much empty space and the balance is off quite a bit. Pretty dated character but I love her.
