Character design for Aliens

[TheBryceKrispy]

How would I go about designing a alien character? Should I base it off of a Greys, Reptilians, Nordics, Xenomorphs, Lovecraftian aliens (like the Cthulhu) or do something completely original? A common critique about he design of aliens is that they almost always are humanoid. How should I go about that? I'm pretty sure that the humanoid-ness makes the character easier to relate too, right?

[DiegoPalacios]

It depends of what kind of alien you want to do and how you want the species to be.

An alien specie could be cute, creepy, funny, weird, beautifull, or a mix of those atribbutes or traits not mentioned here.

An alien could be sentient, be guided by animalistic instincts, or have a superior degree of sentience than a human.

They could have humanoid shapes, animalistic shapes, a mix between species too. Maybe their biology could be plant based or even be something like rock or energy beings. Maybe they are not even tridimensional! (something like 2d, 4d or whatever you can imagine)

The universe is massive and the possibilities are endless, so there is no rule to make an alien species.

If you can establish what makes them different from earth species, you can have a recognizable and even memorable alien.

[JonRoydon]

This is how I would do it.

Part 1
First, collect a load of references, depending on what type of alien you want (Like @DiegoPalacios said). Get them all up on screen so you can flick through them. Make notes on certain features of those aliens that you want for yours. Doing a few sketches of those parts will help you build it into your visual memory.

Part 2
Next start playing with shapes - follow the rules of thumb for good character designs - big medium and small shapes, straights against curves, 'the golden mean'. I would focus on getting a good sillhouette of a character, made out of simple shapes. I''d do a ton of them, fill a whole page.

Part 3
Then I'd pick 2 or 3 that I like, and go about developing them by working in the features I drew and wrote down that I like from my references in part 1.

Hope that's useful!

[crayon_witch]

Lindsay Ellis has a good video essay on this— it all comes down to what the design needs to do for the story.

Is the alien supposed to be scary and build suspense like the movie Alien or A Quiet Place? Are we supposed to empathize with them? Generally, the less human looking something is, the harder it is to connect with it. Think about how weird it would be if E.T. was replaced by the aliens from Avengers!

[punkarsenic]

Should I base it off of a Greys, Reptilians, Nordics, Xenomorphs, Lovecraftian aliens (like the Cthulhu) or do something completely original?

up to you!!! what do you like most?

A common critique about he design of aliens is that they almost always are humanoid.

i hear this, its always fun seeing aliens who look really un-human

I'm pretty sure that the humanoid-ness makes the character easier to relate too, right?

yeeeees! the ~zone of recognition is smth to keep in mind for alien design. afaik it goes humans > mammals > reptiles > fish > insects. people want aliens to to appear otherworldly, so they usually go for reptiles to insects - closer to reptiles if you want them to be relatable, closer to insects if they dont.

also, big baby eyes. no matter how far from the zone of recognition you pull a design, if you want it to resonate give it big baby eyes

a really cool example in alien design and zone of recognition is district 9; the aliens are sympathetic characters, but theyre insect-based with a strange alien language translated in subtitles, forcing the viewer to do the work to root for the characters, tying into the films themes of alienation and xenophobia. but still, the aliens have Big Baby Eyes.

[DiegoPalacios]

How would I go about designing a alien character?

What kind of alien works better will depend of what do you need for your story.

If you don`t have a story yet, just have fun inventing stuff. One trick to make a character "alien" is by changing the way things work for them.

For example, their biological needs, or they social dynamics may work differently. If they can regenerate one minute after dying, for them murder may not be considered a serious crime.

They may lack some human concepts, like romance, (maybe they reproduce through mitosis)

They may need other conditions to live. Maybe they are more sensitive to cold, so they need a hotter planet, so for them global warming may be a good thing and be confused why humans are concerned with that.

Even their fashion may be diferent. Masculine clothes may be considered feminine for them or the other way around. Even they may not wear clothes at all

They may be a one sex species, or one that relies on more than two sexes to reproduce. Or reproduce independently. Even some species may not reproduce.

How is their culture?, do they have a culture at all?

How harsh or favorable are the conditions in their planet?, this may shape their culture.

What are their values?, do they have different values than human beings?,

Some of these questions may help you, some don`t. It will depends of the focus of your story and what you want to do with them.

[HGohwell]

@DiegoPalacios is the closest to what I do. If you have a planet they're from, the planet defines the aliens. If not, you can go crazy.

When I created my (admittedly humanoid) I ended up thinking about the worlds they were on and how they were effected by them. And you can do that just by looking at our nature and seeing how they work. For example, those on the hot scorched planet closest to the sun had evolved longer limbs for heat management and reddish tones for camouflage, while those on the jungle planet with the thick atmosphere were paler, bio-luminescent and generally shorts and stronger to cope with the pressure. And their culture, because truly powerful abilities are an inherited and a female only trait, it's a heavily matricidal society, and inter-kingdom conflicts are conducted between a few powerful individuals, often queens. But due to the wars against monster are happening in areas where abilities don't work, the armies are mostly men.

So really, pick a starting point and start working out from that point. Say you want green skin, try to research what makes things green in nature? Chlorophyll, for one. So your aliens might use photosynthesis, so you could have a sunny world with a heavily oxygen rich atmosphere, which would then could lead to giant insect species as we once had. You see how easy it is to simply pick one trait you want to have an expand it into worlds? That's how I go about it.

[solhawthorne]

I think you'll first want to decide if your alien serves a story purpose, because some science fiction use aliens as almost a moral device rather than as a character. These aliens are designed with the intent of assisting the story, rather than just for coolness factor.

Solaris (which has a book and a movie, book is superior imo) is about a sentient planet. The whole planet is the alien! Not like a hive mind but like a massive organism where its ocean is some kind of sophisticated organ that copies things and creates sculptures. The author, Stanislaw Lem, wanted to make a point about a truly alien alien, one with whom we could never hope to communicate or understand.

Arrival (movie) also has the bizarre Heptapods, which look like 2-story tall squids with 7 legs. They communicate with circular inkblots. The story included a linguist who sought to actually teach them English and also learn their language. The aliens were designed to avoid having any human-like form of communication since this "circular inkblot" language was plot important.

And I think the original Alien was also a "purposeful" alien - it needed to look SCARY! The uncanny valley features really upped the unnerving factor.

If there's no particular purpose that the alien needs to fit to help the story, then everybody above gave great advice already! However, in my opinion, I think really great scifi tries to utilize the fantastical as a means to an end rather than just for worldbuilding or coolness factor. I think that's one of the things that distinguishes science fiction from regular fantasy (and fantasy in space).

[OttoGruenwald]

Don't think of look first, thing of what they do first. What is their theme? You decide on that and everything else will follow.

I got a couple of alien races in my webcomic:

The Power of Stardust | Tapas

Like the Chromians are all about control. How they look isn't as important as how their influence looks. The fact they have giant fish ships that swallow solar systems and observe their operations through viewing glasses that look like aquariums is more important than any look I could give them.

The angels of Lor are about taking the idea of lofty angels in the clouds and making them children of the earth. They are apart of the world they fly over, and this is represented by them dressing in skins and wearing wooden masks and letting birds nest on their metal wings.

And the super wizards are simple, geometric designs to represent the simple and orderly rules that govern their world.

Remember, theme first, then appearance.