I've got 4 words for you that will totally change your idea of good character design for the better.
It's simple:
Spiky
Anime
Protagonist
Hair
Remember that males and females have the exact same face type! just add long eyelashes and BAM! It's a girl. You're welcome.
- Your character used to be morally upstanding and good, but now they've gone evil? Better trade in that fancy goody-two-shoes outfit for skintight leather and fishnet stockings! Everyone knows that skimpy clothes barely disguise an evil heart!
- Is your character an Asian girl in a cast full of white people? Give her an edgy haircut and make sure to dye some part of it with a streak of bright colour, like blue or purple of green. This will surely make her unique and memorable, and not at ALL like the literally hundreds of other Asian female characters in multiple franchises.
- Everyone knows that fat people exist only for one reason; to be laughed at. Your main character can only be fat if she gets bullied for it, and works hard to get rid of that weight, just so she can knock the socks off her former bullies by being pretty. Additionally, it's okay if a character is fat and stays fat, as long as you make sure to signal to your audience that they are a.) mean and evil, or b.) pathetic.
- All female characters who aren't your lead girl in a romantic story have to be either a.) less beautiful than your lead girl, or if they ARE as beautiful they must b.) be your lead girl's bitchy, personality-less rival in love.
its a fantastic idea to put tits and hair and makeup on anthropomorphic female (species etc)s if the males dont have any defining characteristic like that (like.....think kids movies with animals as the protagonists that do stuff like this like happy feet where they gave the female penguins a huge chest bump. or that one screenshot of the worm with boobs). sausage party? love those bun titties
if you have a female character in a sci fi setting who wears armor you always have to include at least one (1) spot completely uncovered to reveal her Sexy Skin to appeal to the viewers. definitely not an exposed weak spot where she could get shot and killed! better yet? give her a bikini just do it you hunk of garbage.
female characters only exist for love interests if they don't get in a relationship by the next scene theyre in or show that theyre In Love with youre male character she's only good for background material. ninjago was absolutely brilliant with this. if shes a villain or Independent her motivation should be from a male partner dumping her or cheating on her (good job with that strange magic! (ugh))
black to (any color, usually red or purple) gradient hair colors are all the rage nowadays! (it's still the 90's right??)
In order to keep your readers from getting confused make sure that all your villains wear black. You may use a bit of red for contrast, especially if your villains are from the military. Nothing says evil like red and black, right? If you want to be reaaally subtle, then add some skulls somewhere. Perfect.
A capable woman can battle in the highest heels and shortest skirts, so don't forget those. Double points if she has long hair that's flowing freely even in the middle of intense action.
Wondering how to make sure all your readers know who the hero is? Worry no more, just give them a really big weapon! The bigger the weapon, the greater the hero.
Are you writing a BL comic and feel stuck about how your male lead will end up realizing that it's a man they want and not a woman? The solution is simply: Make sure all women are horrible and evil! That will certainly drive your romantic male leads together. (Exception to the rule is mothers. Mother are always loving and kind. Or dead.)
If your character is bisexual, then they must be promiscuous. Also constantly flirting with everyone.
- Characters never can do things that go against their character. In real life people aren't hypocritical or spontaneous, it's jarring to see someone break their own stereotype.
- Have body parts larger than the rest of their body.
- Never talks except for one time per story arc.
- Do droll things like rolling around or staring at walls.
- Talking heads.
- Be extremely simplistic, it's a good thing if your character is confused for Finn the Human or Steven Universe.
- TaLk iN uNuSuAl AnD aNnOyInG wAyS tHaT'S hArD tO rEaD sOmEtImeS
- Is always playing video games
- Talking penis.
One thing I'm noticing is that a lot of things mentioned on here aren't bad character design, but either overused stereotypes, or just things that wouldn't work in certain genres.
Like catchphrases would work in a cheesy action comic or a silly cartoon, but if you're doing an epic drama... like that bird won't fly.
That and like, I think talking heads is the stupidest thing, but people do like that. So it might just be that, there is no good or bad, just what you like and dislike.
I would like to see someone make a talking penis a beloved character though. Like that's nobel peace prize material right there. GG no RE.
Have a BL? Save yourself some time and just make everyone look the same! No one will notice, they just wanna see some frick-frack anyway. But if you want to spice things up, give a different color palette to one of the guys and make them some non-descript poc!
Legit advice I got, "You should make the evil character black. Like...black skin, black clothes, black hair, any weapons or anything black. Black is a great color for an antagonist. OH! And to REALLY push it home, you should give them red eyes."
This sort of reminds me of how sometimes with POC, the bad POC characters will have darker skin than the good POC characters.
Add to that that beautiful black women (in films) tend to be biracial. Black women with darker skin tend to be comedic sidekicks.
Here's a better idea, make all the black women in your story angry and/or intimidating. Then make any black men below average intelligence and then kill them all off and get on with the REAL story because the darker your skin the more disposable you are but don't worry the white characters will cry over you and mention you sometimes.
I love thinking of even more horrendous ideas, so:
- Make all your good characters really smart and pretty! Do the opposite for for all the villains! Villains are only pretty if they're secretly good!
- Colour code everything! One character only wears neon pink, and another only bright blue! Your MC, being so special, wears RAINBOW.
- The Villain must wear all black, maybe some red if you're feeling particularly cr8t1ve.
- All villainous henchmen look the same. No exceptions. They're just clones of each other. Also, give them really terrible armor/weapons because they have to be incompetent for the heroes to look c00l.
- Villains musT SCREAM ALL THE TIME and give long, dramatic speeches in their dark, mysterious voices.
Ooh ooh! I got some good advice to give!
Need a badass mofo type character and want to drive home the fact he/she is TOUGH and EDGY? Take a page out of Rob Liefeld's art style and give your one man army every conceivable weapon under the sun and then some. Make sure to also include lots of pouches everywhere on their body. After all, you never know when daddy's little terrorist might need an extra 1,000 ammo clips or a steak knife to help carve up the remains of Bambi's mom to roast over an open flame.
Struggling to draw anything besides basic male and female bodies? Forget that! The only characters people pay attention to in mainstream comics/manga and cartoons/anime are the beautiful people! There's nothing inspiring about a 90 pound scrawny geek or a 400 pound tub of lard who needs to lay off the cheesy poofs or even a vanilla plain jane girl who may be more attractive than the airbrushed busty babe who constantly flaunts what her momma gave her every other minute per episode! After all, there's a reason why comic books and manga sell and it sure isn't because averageness sells!
- Give them a super speshul familiar/bond animal that will always tell
them how awesome and pure they are and how it will always stay by
their side. - Bonus points for it to be a dragon or a unicorn or an eagle, at
least, a wolf or a raven. Who bonded with protagonist because
they are so speshul. Also all good dragons have colours of precious metals. Or precious
metals AND primari colours. If they aren't it's obvious that they are
evil. Black dragons? Totally evil. Albino one(s)? Even more evil.They are a warrior woman? Great give them barely there chain-mail
pink fur bikini! And rainbow hair with pink locks here and
there. And pink eyes too.- Bonus points if eyes change colour according to their
mood. High heels ala pumps are a must. Square heel? Nah,
forget it. - She absolutely must be a virgin! So that your audience would know
that she must wear white. - Background? Screw that! Just throw in some feathers or flowers or bubbles or sakura petals! So you still want some background?
Just grab some gradients in photoshop
.
- Always keep atleast one tsundere in a story. People love tsunderes.
- Keep your character in one costume, characters don't need to change
clothes. If it gets ruined make sure to replace it with the same one. - Deep friendships between girls and boys doesn't exist, make them fall
inlove with one another (bonus: insert a disposable rival to make
them realize their love) - If a character have glasses, make sure to remove it when it's their time to shine
- Make your female character look strong by slapstick comedy
If you decide to create a loli, make sure you give her as skimpy outfit as possible. Preferably booty shorts and a bikini top on her flat chest.
Also, she should be able to wield a weapon twice her size even without any muscle mass on her thin arms. Bonus points if she can wield it with only one arm. Btw, her love interest should be a plain guy that can't take care of himself.
Trust me, I know what I say.