DESIGNING A CHARACTER (My Process and things to keep in mind) 

I know the mask /bullet helmet is supposed to be intimidating but with the addition of that oversized jacket, all I could see while looking at him is a friendly creature from another planet who just wants to hang out and give you life advice while being goofy playing video games on a Sunday morning

me: just chilling on pinterest, half drawing "Listening to this in the background while doing something else?" Me: *guiltily switches tabs to look at him*

Xul's first design looks more like a character in a more desert apocalyptic environment

I'll be honest. that original design looked very dark steampunk for a high fantasy

I get what you were going for with the oversized jacket, but... It just misses the mark for me. Instead of 'serious thief at war with self and outward image', I got 'dorky comic relief that never grew up past the 90's'. Were I to design it, I'd've incorporated some tech aspects to aid in his 'bulking up', rather than just puff-jacketing him. Jackets or cloaks can hang loose/long to improve the silhouette, giving him a more intimidating presence from the shadows. The jacket makes him look top-heavy and (as a result) easier to overtake. If someone isn't actually good at fighting or intimidating, appearance is how you compensate. If you're physically weak, you want an appearance that makes you seem stronger or heavier. Puffy jackets make you look like a marshmallow on a stick. Perhaps wide pants that don't quite cover the ankles, so the skinny ankles are visible to the keen-eyed? That said, interpretation is everything. A still, unmoving, plainly-posed character rarely tells a full story. By all means, the characters in that world may interpret silhouettes differently. Maybe puffy jackets are feared in that universe because 'who knows what he's got stuffed in there' or something, idk. That's my take on it. I find cloaks and broad shoulders far more intimidating than bulky torsos.

Idk why, but I really really reaaaaaaally LOVED! The first design!

6:50 "Your ideas deserve this time and energy." I love that advice. Often times I find myself not drawing something just simply because I don't think it's worth it. And that's simply not true. Like you said, you might create something amazing based of a sketch that was initially horrible. You never know if you don't try

2:47 - *step one* identifying theme’s 3:12 - *step two* deciding a setting 4:15 - *step three* applying theme’s and setting to visual’s 8:09 - *step four* final rendering

I understand where you're coming from with adding the more industrial colors of the outfit for better sneaking in the dark, but you also mentioned how this would pop out more against the mainly white, utopian city that xul resides in. If he is truly trying to put up a facade, and respesenting the theme of changing yourself for the perceived interest of others, then I feel his design could feel better integrated into the daytime of the world, rather than simply the night and shadowy parts; of course, he could simply live in a more rundown part of the city, but you didn't specifically state that, so I assume that isn't accurate. I love the aspect of integrating the white in his design to show him scavenging together parts of his disguise, showing him as resourceful, but u feel you could push this more for the sake of the theme and allowing him the chance to blend in even more, being just another face in the crowd; either that or have him have an alternative outfit for day life. Love the design, Jack, and this story and character seem very intriguing, gives me some V for Vendetta vibes. Amazing work!

I liked the idea of him looking kinda kiddish, not in the sense of innocence, but more like, manipulable; his world makes him take on a role he doesn't want to fill, and maybe that he isn't even good at, just like kids get pushed into talents they don't really care about, maybe the government on your world could represent an strict family, someone that really has the best intent in mind but ends up hurting what they were trying to cultivate, maybe he is someone with a bigger role than what is shown to us in the begging, maybe he represents the tragedy of a golden child.

I like the design. He doesn't seem evil or intimidating though. He seems like a character that helps you throughout that you eventually grow to like, only for him to be killed

That first character sketch with the triangular sword and rounded mask WAS IT! That was such a good design! He would totally fit in a clockwork SciFi world.

Imma start off by saying that I don't have a lot of experience drawing. But if you want your character to fit into a creepily perfect utopia that forces him to be someone he isn't I think he would need a palette swap. Make him the same colours and tones as the city. To show his individuality you could let the light he is emanating be slightly off colour from the colours of the city or have it be exact opposite (reds and darker tones as opposed to blues and whites). This would allow you to see the true colours of your character at night when it's dark and there is nobody else around thus showing your ''true colours''.

To add onto the character that you created Jack I would also design something underneath the coat as well; I really like the robotic aspect of this design as well so I’d probably focus more on the mechanics of how this character was made, maybe make him more robotic than human in a mixed-race setting? Love the idea!

Fat izanagi isn't real, and he can't hurt you. Fat izanagi:

The art you made called “also not my art” was amazing

I mainly follow hirohiko araki's (the creator of jojo) process for creating and designing characters, its really interesting how he does it

SUPER INSPIRED TO WORK ON CHARACTER IDEAS! Now to figure out the drawing thing more...

I've been working on designs for elemental creatures: Angels that represent order and rigidity relating to the element of earth, Faeries that represent balance and fluidity relating to water, and Demons of chaos and entropy related to air. These tips help a lot!

"this is xul" i already love him, i'm sorry but i can't critique to save my life

4:35 Finally some one who shares my love for that type of aesthetic!

This video was really cool to watch even as someone who isn't an artist? I'm a writer with basically no art skills, so it's sometimes a little hard to design character when all I have to go off of is what I picture in my head and then trying to put that into words, but I think your whole process of working with theme, setting, exploring ideas, and then the final design is still helpful even to someone like me. as for Xul I kinda adore the design you did? There seems to be a lot of versatility to it and it really brings across his character like you said. I think I'd be interested to see how his design works with expressing emotion tho? It didn't look like he had anything equivalent to eyes or something about his mask that he could use to otherwise express emotion(like Zer0 or Wrench with their silly emoji masks?). So I guess i'd be curious to see how he expresses emotions.

Maybe the jacket should've been placed in a manner that implies a skinnier almost non human body underneath it. By implicating a body type that doesn't match the clothing on it, you create a memorable feature for people to latch onto, AND prevent the character from looking too "comfortable" which in this case is bad. Additionally, it seems that the motion of the human eye is kind of shooting you in the foot. Consider setting the highest saturation to the third most common color, and place it almost exclusively above the waist, and decrease saturation in stages the farther a body part is from the "most important" feature.

"Listening to this in the background while doing something else" I feel called out.

Try to put as little detail as possible, as in, keep the character simple enough for you to draw in different positions. It sucks trying to remember how a certain headpiece looks or how many scars to add and its more remmberable to an audience.

The way his coat is rounded and huge almost reminds me of a turtle shell! I can imagine him curling up gloomily inside it. My process is way more scattershot and disorganized than yours, lmao. I've refined it a bit lately--I generally try to start with a few key images/an aesthetic or specific idea in mind, then set up a color palette and build from there until i get a look that feels distinct and fitting. Sometimes the personality and history I imagine for them influences the development of their visual design, sometimes vice versa--sometimes I slap on a prosthetic/scar/tattoo/etc. simply because it looks interesting or cool before i fully decide how/why they have it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The very fist concept of Xul was so sick I don't even think he needed to change, he looked mysterious enough.

This is really helpful! I love the character design as well! Thank you for creating this video 🙏🙏 I feel inspired to resurrect my old characters and improve them!

honestly, my favorite thing in the world are characters with biiig upper bodies (like with coats or hoodies) and long skinny legs. Perfection.

i usually focus on getting a unique silhouette then refining it.

"Forced utopia, a city so perfect it was almost creepy"... Google City!

that pokemon music hit me right in the heart

Okay so first of all I love the overall aesthetic and the helmet is dope. My only issue is that while he seems, in concept, to be a more actiony character, a la Miles Morales or even Faith from Mirror's Edge, the oversized coat makes him seem bulky and ill-suited to action. You may only see it in more dynamic shots, but I think it would work well to see a separation between the coat trying to keep up with him and an indication of his smaller actual frame. The trailing of the coat would add dynamism and the smaller frame may change the overall shape language from sturdy and square to more dynamic and triangular, as for example his helmet demonstrates. Not that I know what I'm talking about, just some thoughts.

wow,this helps a lot ,since I am starting as a concept artist.

Thank you for these steps. It's literally the base for a story and I find character design so so hard. But breaking it down to this process really helps

I took some inspiration from the way you start with the body frame sketch and it really helps. My drawings are actually looking how i want them to now!

Is Is that a funky electric guitar cover of Kirby’s Gourmet Race in the background I’m in love

When you mentioned that not every personal artwork has to be rendered the same way, i realized that most of my renderings depend on my mood and how much time i want to spend on polishing :D

aw man, thank you! I was feeing super overwhelmed about my characters designs and I didnt wanna mess it up cause I care a lot, but this helped me feel a lot better. I like being able to break it down into steps and chunks like you did, rock on

I've been struggling with character design for a while and almost baled on a personal project of mine, but this really gave me a boost of understanding! Thanks for the video! I hope to see more great videos from you soon :)

The one thing that leaves me think is that the final design to me looks like he is a robot, because of the mask that does not let any humanity show, and also the glowing parts and the fact that the rest of his body fully covered in something that could look like plastic metal or rubber. This would probably be a good thing if in the story the thing he is trying to hide was his humanity though

I'm going to draw characters in different styles from now on. I think being stuck in one style really holds back on creativity. Thanks for the tip!

I absolutely love this video! I always have thousands of ideas for characters swarming around in my head, unfortunately, having so many ideas make it sometimes difficult to really know what kind of character I actually want to make. Basically, your video really helped me focus and remember to slow down, use the different steps and let it take it’s time, thank you.

Hella cool art as always plus some good help with designing characters. This is something I struggle with but this vid has really helped :)

This video legitimately made me tinker with the way my character looks and now she looks a lot different than my og design, man I need to draw lol

this video made me want to remake all my characters but following this steps

I've been listening to other people and how they say to create an aesthetic board and a reference board but that theme trick blew my mind. Trying to come up with one word that describes or is close to describing my OC's life/description really helps alot!

I think that you did this very well! The character very much emulates the feel you can get from a character specifically in a sci-fi dystopian sort of setting, and the colors contrast very nicely with the setting in a concept of not looking exactly like the color themes around it. I’m not really an experienced artist to say, but I still do very much like the over design, story, and creativeness that goes behind this character and many others that you have! It’s very inspiring to be completely honest, and I personally would love more tip videos on how to create character designs and such.

When he asked if I was listening to this in the background while I was going something else I looked to my phone and just went: H E K N O W S I'm doing laundry man I gotta listen to something.

2:03 listening to this on the background while designing a creature after coming from your creature design video 😂

I love the finally design and I think your message is very clear

I’ve realized I have absolutely no process to how I design characters really. The only examples of good character design I have is some cartoon villains and an old group of kinda fantasy oc’s. All my story’s now are just people in the same brining human outfits, they don’t have any real rhyme or reason to what they wear, just tshirts, hoodies, jackets, and tank tops. And it’s mostly that the men look like recolored versions of each other. They all have different eyes but their hair is just a softener swoop or two. I hope I can make all my characters feel very unique eventually and convey who they are as people. This was a good video and it helped give some insight thank you! (Damn this was longer than I thought)

I'm like "Oh I want a undead dragon" and then I design it xD. I based his character and story on the design. Or sometimes the other way around it really depends. My newest project I am doing the character based off sims 4 creation to kinda forced me out of my comfort zone and then redraw them with changes. It's really fun and something different! (I also suck at drawing clothes so yeah this helpstoo)

Real talk for a sec, is that a jazz version of Kirby's theme playing in the background???

Thank you so much! This makes things so much clearer for me. The first time I can say I finally broke free from the frustrating art block. I just need a clear process!

Thank you! Designing character is a process that I look forward to and this is very helpful. Thank you so much!

Thanks....I'll try more sketches from now on...it'll save me the trouble of constantly redesigning...which I'm already doing. 😂😂😂 Your art style is amazing...I'm still experimenting with my style...

That Hearthome City background music tho 👌🏼

Bro your anatomy proportions are really good 👍 keep up the awesome work

I can feel my brain soaking up so much artistic information and techniques when I watch your videos, and i am so grateful for that. I've never benefited so much in just one video before I found yall 👍

"Listening to this in the background while you're doing something else" *HAS LEAGUE OF LEGENDS OPEN* Me: You don't know me.

A character created from a dream and soon turned into a story... Thats how i made almost all my stories i have in my head!

That video was soo great! You really helped me doing something original and giving me convidence

This is just what I needed! Thank you! You just got a new subscriber :D

honestly i just randomly clicked on this and started scribbling an existing character in to a robot. thanks man, it ended up looking pretty alright xD

My process for making an oc is draw eyes then everything just falls in afterwards

I've been struggling with designing characters for a long time, but this helped a lot!! Thanks!

Yeaay I'm not the only one who takes ideas for art from my dreams!😄🙈 the video appeared very useful for me. Thank you for sharing it!

I realize that meaning is important for character design in order to be more "recognized". I sometimes give a meaning before creating a character and i come with some pretty good stuff, but sometimes i also just randomly create a character and i also have a good design , but yet, it doesn´t mean that it can be meaningless and be better that the other ones, even, a character with a meaning is usually "stronger" that any other that doesn´t (stronger = more likeable for others, more outstanding, etc). Also, for Xul, the concept is perfect and really cool, but the over-sized jacket, killed it. the mask and the thin legs had fit perfectly in the character, and the bullet head design is great and unique, but the jacket makes it look more silly and derpy, it fits more for a second character that is the typical protagonist silly friend, but not as the character you tried to represent. in your place, i would just grab and make the legs look more like a extension and not a protesis, and make the character little (Peridot from steven universe has come to my mind while writing this so, it's an example). so it looks serious with the mask and taller, but when it removes both, the extensions and the mask, it looks funnier that with them.

I kind of feel like his arms are a little bit short 🤔 looks amazing though

Thanks for this! I am designing my first ever oc (all I've ever drawn is fanart) and got really stuck with the clothes, I now realize I need to look into developing/ jotting down my characters traits, environment, and more, more in detail before I can even start to create an outfit that looks more cohesive.

Thanks for the advice! Great video! I like the designs! My favorite was between design 1 and design 2!

my method of character design: Put a load of graphite on a page and call it gud

A problem I have with one of my characters is that aesthetically; He looks too much like a Spartan from Halo.. As shown in my avatar thumbnail.

Sitting down to solidify character designs for a mini comic, first time watching anything on this channel, and I get called out right at 2:02 lol. I looked up in alarm to see a slow zoom as I was being judged. Then he says "Nice," and I happily go back to what I was doing. Felt good, man.

Nice! You really healped me! Thank you so much!

ive never been this early to a video

"I respect your art, but I didn't get xyz" I love how all these comments look like this.

I've been trying to make a consistent character to perfect and this helps so much!!!

Wow you went from 2k - 24k really fast, your gonna be huge! Keep grinding brother!

May I ask What software you use to create your designs?

My favourite design was honestly the first, but from what you described the final one fits in way better with the story and setting. The skinny legs look kinda laughable tho

I love the style! The final design really reminds me of Dr. Doppler's spacesuit from treasure planet.

I always come back to this video to see your process. I really appreciate it. For me all my ideas for characters and world's and stories comes from songs. When I listen to a song I automatically think of a fake trailer on the spot with characters and ideas.

The characters pose isnt very strong... Im just saying that I'd understand why you wouldn't do this cause it would take hella long but I like to draw my characters in a pose I think best represents their personality... I'm gonna update my profile pic later...

UNPOPULAR opinion Never make a character wear hoodie and make it an edgy killer its just so overused

0:01 to 0:13 your intro alone got me to sub, very curt and short and to the point, while also energetic- enthusiastic- and polite! Please keep up the great work.

love this and how much thought was put into it

When thinking of character designs I really like, I always remember there's a specific component or part of the visual design that draws my eye, or tells me more about the character, or really encapsulates the world. For an example I'll use nightcrawler, Aang, and (spoiler warning for Trollhunters) Troll Jim. All of these characters have specific things or aspects of them I remember and can point to as a means of further explaining who they are or the world they live in. Nightcrawler is demonlike and blue. But he's just a mutant, and his appearance is a part of his personality, in that his entire behavior and how he acts is built around how people have treated him; in that, he's used to being called a monster and has becoming amazingly kind to prove them wrong. Aang is the only character we see in the present day wearing clothes of his color scheme, that is bald, or has airbending tattoos. While the tattoos, wardrobe, bald head and color scheme set his theme as an airbender, it also sets him apart playing into the theme of 'the last airbender' As for troll Jim, his form is partly humanoid and partly troll, making him stand out as not troll but not human. His other characterizing feautures (horns, teeth, ears, blue hair/skin) are all commonly seen among the other trolls so we don't think too much of it. But seeing these features on a human form points out how much he's changed from being human.

this is great man, thanks for sharing it!

the borderlands background music with a Loader looking character, amazing! Thanks for the tips

Shape language in character design creates much more clarity to what mood you want coming from your character, if you want him to look a little more intimidating, you might want to exchange the circular round jacket with a much more defined triangular jacket, but you can still make the jacket big if you want😊

I like this process you showed, it's quite compelling. The way I tend to create my characters is to consider their world (which isn't that hard for me after years of doing it, thankfully), think of a character representing an aspect of the theme of said world (like the aspect of mutiny in a world of pirates or something), and go from there, thinking about their actual past experiences, from birth, as much as possible, leading up to the point where they're at now. Those aspects, starting on the genetic level, usually at random (assuming it's humans or some creatures with genetic features), seeing how that'd play out a little bit and see if it fits the theme. If not, I try again. Then I mentally play out their lives in my head to realistically lead to the point of becoming the aspect I'm imagining they'll be, which implies I can create a design based around their past experiences reflected onto their personage, mixed with whatever genetic features I initially drafted them with having. I don't often feel like I have to redesign a character (although I do from time to time) because this process generally gives me a clear enough idea of what the character will look like before I even draw them. Sometimes I fit the backstory to the design, but that's much rarer.

Had this video known to me by my animation teacher in one of my classes back then. Good vid

i loved it ...keep going and i know you will get far in this field ..fighting ... :)

I love the technique you use on coloring your character! It's AMAZING!!! Wish u can make a video about it?

This is such a cool video to just stumble upon. I like when a character’s personality fits into their design, and it seems Xul is suited well. If I were to design him, I would make his coat longer, but keep the angular edges of his design. Either way, it looks fantastic. Keep it up!

Holy...cow...i came here looking for tips because im making a ligh novel and want to insert some art here and there especially for the covers of each volume...but man this dude opened my eyes to thing that id never thought about while trying to do my character designs...thanks so much. This is going to help ALOT.

Great video ! Actually this is basically how i create my characters but for me i first gave theme storys, like they are like that on point A and finish like this on point B and why and What is theyre goal in life and how it could change, then i look at my inspirations ( it can be some pirates story, some concept art, different shapes, animals.... ) and melt it together my own way

Amazing as always 😍