Character design

Some initial sketches of a character

The character designing process takes some of the ideas produced in the visual development stage and begins to finalise them. The artists create full, 3 dimensional images of the characters and sometimes even models to ensure that when they are created in the computer there is no doubt about each detail of the character. It is also important to look at the different expressions and emotions that the character may require for later reference. Whilst there have already been sketches and ideas produced in the previous stage, and maybe even before that, it is importnat to allow ideas to flow by sketching different character ideas, maybe showing different expressions or poses. Once these ideas are down on paper they can be culminated to produce the final character. Now we have this character it's vital to draw/model them from every angle, showing different expressions, pulling different poses, maybe wearing different clothes, some may even be without clothes, every faset of this character must be got down on paper so that when they come to be modelled there can be no doubt as to what they look like. The modeller shouldn't have to make up any details of this character, for everything should be there for them, it is a simple matter of taking something from paper and putting it into the computer.

An example of a character from different viewpoints