Why did your design your character that way?

SirGutsalot 2016-06-29 07:22:24 UTC #35

In my comic Galaxy Guts: https://tapastic.com/series/Galaxy-Guts one of my main character is an immortal alien creature who lives outside of the universe. So the design couldn't be anything quite natural but on the contrary it had to be weird and quirky. It was also important for the design to be incredibly simple without losing any sense of individuality for the character. But at the end of the day I didn't put a whole lot of thought into him.
So, here's Xenith!

Ambat 2016-06-29 08:00:31 UTC #36

I designed my two leads out of preference and for wanting to do something a little different--the lead female is kind of masculine whereas the lead male is more flamboyant and effeminate. Switching roles/expectations like this is something I've always been interested in--I also love having lead characters that are polar opposites haha!

Also, I wanted to show a little love for chubby girls,, so designing the lead girl as a bit chunkier was a fun thing to do!

jessiepolfliet 2016-06-29 11:14:27 UTC #37

For Skipper I just really wanted a bat like creature.
Why? Because most people think they are these blood sucking creatures, and there is so much more to them.
(And a metaphor to people in general?)
I always liked black hair, but it had to be messy to fit his messy character.
Clothes had to be cheap due to his home situation.
The two tails, I actually don't know what I was thinking but it is a unique feature to my creatures

otterchild 2016-06-29 13:12:43 UTC #38

Oooh I love this thread! Thanks for putting it up.

My comic is Parmeshen, and a TON of character design was carefully thought out along sociological and evolutionary lines. As part of a trio of characters, I love spitballing ideas from science for our story, as in 'hey guys, what if vampires evolved in a place like Australia's deep Outback? That'd be why they drink blood, it's fast energy and water all in one, and of COURSE they'd evolve to hunt at night because EVERYTHING that lives in that oven is nocturnal.' That's the kind of thinking that goes into Parmeshen.

My two main characters are Baxtana Parmeshengro (people call her Baxt) and Arik Bijo, and a lot of thought went into them both.

*Baxt
Baxtana's people, the Bothare, are based on research on the Romani ( I don't call them Gypsies, that's actually a racial slur) and the Tuareg. This is fantasy, so one of the adaptations I've added is that the Bothare have bright yellow or green eyes. There's a twofold reason for this: the Bothare culture lived for a very long time in a high light environment, and their eyes evolved a coating of lutein over the cornea. Lutein is what protects all mammalian eyes from UV damage. In people with blue eyes it's quite thin, and blue eyes are easily damaged. In brown eyes it's very thick, and the pigmentation for brown is another layer of protection. Without the brown pigment (a separate adaptation) black eyed people would actually have yellow eyes. (the green eyes happen when there's an extra bit of pigment in the cornea over the lutein layer.)
I also gave the people the same ability to see energy that birds have, giving them some very interesting tricks up their sleeve.

*Arik
Arik Bijo is based on a cuttlefish, but we took the shape shifting ability of a cuttlefish and ran a LONG way with it. In his natural state he's a gelatinous, silvery blob that looks like living mercury, but he can form himself into ANY shape, provided he focuses and keeps part of his mind on retaining all the details. Psychologically he's really focused on patterns and things falling into 'proper' shape, a requirement for any creature who has to study and mimic patterns at all times. We've had a lot of fun with that rigid pattern based psychology running up against the real world: sometimes he can actually get stuck in a mental loop of 'but this is wrong it's wrong it's WRONG!' that in a human would be pathological. Fittingly enough, he's a law enforcement officer

69Michi 2016-06-29 14:29:57 UTC #39

Uuu it's great to find out what people have in mind while desgigning their characters hnnnn

Compare to a lot of people, I don't think I spent even that much time designing my characters for :Rebirth... In fact I already had some character concept for the story laying around in my folder collecting dust from a long time ago.

Noah was purposely designed to be young-looking despite his actual age that is close to 30. I wanted to portray a "clumsy" and "inexperienced" father... that doesn't really fulfill well the role of a "father". "Frail" and "Weak" was something I had in mind while designing him because he has health and heart problem ever since he was born. This also explains why I went and gave him a paler skintone compare to the others. He usually looks extremely calm because he is used to keeping himself calm due to his heart problem. If he panics or feeling strong emotion, his heartbeat might get out of control. Noah's choker is probably something that people would remember him by, a very eye-catching choker with a heartbeat monitor that will serve a big purpose in foreshadowing so many thing about Noah later in the story.

Then my other main character: Neo, Noah's son, on the other hand was designed with "independent", "resentful" and "anti-social" in mind. (Or my readers like to call him an emo kid) His look is based off Noah's appearance down to the very eyes color, he is sorta like a mini version of him, but even more quiet. Some people might ask why the airmask? Beside the fact it makes him look even more like an "outcast", he does have a reason for wearing it and it's spoiler so I can't talk about it LMFAO Neo's personality is very mature, sometimes even more mature than Noah, and despite his age, people shouldn't take him for a simple 13 years old either. His action and line of thinking is questionable for a kid, but I assure you all that is on purpose because he is... Neo.

For the gender, because I want to portrait a father-son relationship and the awkwardness between the 2 characters that doesn't really look like they fit the father-son category look and personality wise. Compare to a usually more "motherly" mother, Noah as a father that doesn't understand his son one bit would fit the bill better for me. For the race... I don't really bother myself with race when I draw my character. I'm a minority when it comes to race too but I don't really care what race a character I like is nor would I scream for diversity in a story. People can design whatever kind of character that appeal to them. It can be all Asian, all white, all black for all I care.

Noah is 29 at current time while Neo is 13, I didn't want Noah to be too old nor Neo to be too young so they are what they are LMFAO

Noah ignored Neo for the longest time because- S-S-S-S-SPOILER. 😂

KSlinger 2016-06-29 15:44:30 UTC #40

I like simplicity and economy in character design as well as repeated patterns and shapes for certain characters. As for clothing choice, accessories, hair styles, size and shape, there are reasons for them all and they largely revolve around the lifestyles and preferences of the characters themselves. That's all there is to it for me.

Characters like Morris (shaved head, small and slight with buck teeth) and Serge (tall, slender, strong with long blonde hair) were improvised on the page but formed from a knowledge of what they were like as children, whether their parents loved them, what they ate, where they slept, what their favorite colours are, etc.

Likewise Jed is athletic and broad-shouldered because he is a hunter and a sailor. He's a tough old stick, been through the mill a few times, but still a child at heart. How do you put that across in character design? By giving him long hair and a beard his mother would have hated, a bunch of bandages and his dad's old coat. Boom.

Inspector_Spinda 2016-06-29 15:50:53 UTC #41

Pretty self explanatory here. She's a martial arts mercenary so she has traditional chinese themed clothes (except the middle one which is casual wear). the story is a fantasy world she she has no "race", but she's meant to be half white- half chinese.

indagold 2016-06-29 15:52:03 UTC #42

I kid you not I designed a character under the pretense of "I want to make a spiral person" and then somehow I managed to flesh it out to more than that.
As for my my two comics everything is based off dreams so they all came from dreams.

sarrowsmith10 2016-06-29 16:04:00 UTC #43

weird, quirky, and easily recognizable. I think you nailed this design!

you know, we just don't see enough of this in the comics world. Rock it!

I like your thinking. So does this mean your vampires are their own species and not the undead?

It sounds like your character is very well thought out. Perhaps it didn't take you long to create the character and the look, but you did think about what you doing, who your character is and why he looks the way he does. It think this is great!

I sometimes find this challenging. I'm presented with a character who has very specific story to tell based on their appearance. It's hard to get the point across sometimes, and I marvel at the folks who do this well.

aswling 2016-06-29 17:23:19 UTC #44

OOOOOH so much yes to this question!!!

i think for my comic, living cliche, since the premise is a gal who's trying to avoid being the heroine, i wanted her to look generic (she's the character farthest to the left). when i think of MCs, i usually imagine the protagonist to look either outlandish or completely plain, but since she's supposed to "fit" any kind of heroine, i figured she'd best look as the latter. basically i went for a very boring-looking heroine, haha.
as for the other characters, i guess i wanted to poke fun at the cliche high school narrative, so everyone was designed to fit a certain trope (e.g. BFF, jock). however, since i found those stories often lack diversity, i wanted to diversify the cast as well (so the MC and most of the cast is poc). regarding the censored/obscured eyes, that's just in tune with the comic's theme, but that'll be elaborated in the story.
tl;dr i wanted to design characters that look generic, but distinct LMAO

demthorshie 2016-06-29 17:29:29 UTC #45

I designed and created Roxy the way I did because I knew I wanted a more Earth/Gaia based character for the story, considering it takes place primarily on an island. Since Cosmos Song is fantasy with magical elements, I also wanted to give her a slight otherworldly appearance as well. Also, her bright and colorful appearance was intended to mesh with her vibrant personality. I also knew I wanted her hair to be extremely big and curly, it's just so fun to draw all the coils in her hair xD! All of the characters in my story are human, but I consider them alternate humans.

Roxy's a tropical character, her ethnicity sort of reflects that she's an islander I guess. Her story is actually much older than what is seen in this comic and there is a lot of back story and behind why she and the leading male in the story are 19 in this comic!

She doesn't have a mother or a father but she does have a grandmother, adopted sister and several cousins in the story.

sarrowsmith10 2016-06-29 17:42:03 UTC #46

I love her colors!!! She's so bright! And fits perfectly with the theme. I dig this design!

mariusthered 2016-06-29 18:39:05 UTC #47

@demthorshie love that second picture.

mariusthered 2016-06-29 18:52:50 UTC #48

crimson mask. the woman with two mothers (but you will have to read the comic to find out why)

i wanted her to have a costume that could easily blend in with a crowd and be practical. her hair is the same color as her genetic half sister (although they were not born from the same woman) this was a bit of a clue that she was related to Jane Jones but i don't think anyone picked up on it. at first i gave her a gun but decided to get rid of the gun after a while because she has no real use for it , she has super human speed and strength and so a weapon in herself.

The Swipe city Guardian

ok i will fess up i designed his suit first because as a kid I wanted a super hero with the first initial of my name on his chest ( Aron is my second name) . his belt contains an anit-grav device to stop him falling rapidly when he jumps off buildings and the cuff have a magnetic field to repel bullets . I wanted a hero with faults so hes fast and strong but he can be hurt and he also has a built in fail safe that makes him loose his powers if his body burns too much energy and risks his health. ( the fail safe is a big weakness) also he's basically a self centered teen brat who has just been given powers so he is always in trouble. (but his big wake up call is on the cards)

R.n.P 2016-06-29 19:03:56 UTC #49

I based my character designs on things I thought in my mind would make them seem cooler or make them different from others

For example my main character Zack Wandaz, I decided to make him half blind so he doesn't possess eyeballs and he also has transparent white hair so he is one of my characters I always draw his eyes through his hair
THE LAST SAMURAI

NickRowler 2016-06-29 19:12:00 UTC #50

OK, this is sort of obvious. His name is Crow and I designed his outfit to look like a black bird (crows don't have orange beaks or feet, but they do appear like that in cartoons).

MissMagicGirl 2016-06-29 19:40:16 UTC #51

Why is the character the gender or race you choose for them? Why are they the age they are?

My main character is based on me and the way I look. She has longer hair then me and a different clothing style. But her face, glasses are me exactly. Her personality has a lot of me in it as well. ^^ https://tapastic.com/episode/373496

I have always loved red hair and has it myself So yeah. ^^

CaptainUfo 2016-06-29 20:05:42 UTC #52

There's ascually a funny story behind Captain Ufo's look.
When I created the character, he was a bit bossy, arrogant and full of himself. A kind of Zapp Brannigan from Futurama. The original design had Ufo tall with large shoulders and prominent chin. When I started toying with the idea of turning the project into a webcomic, I decided that I would need a writer, so I asked a friend of mine. He started to jokingly call the character Gufo, which might require a bit of explanation: the acronym U.F.O. in Italian is pronounced oofo (that is, oo like c**oo**l, f like far, o like c**o**ld). Gufo means "owl". That made me think; I started doodling and I tried to give the character an owlish look: big head, small triangular body, big round eyes and big bushy eyebrows pointing up. The result is this

which, as I kept drawing it, became this (very first page of the comic)

and finally this

Fun fact: I put an easter egg that references this story in the second page of season one: in that page we see Captain Ufo "acquiring" his ship from another captain of the same alien species. that captain has Ufo's original design. Even if I didn't write that page, I thought it was funny to have the new Captain Ufo killing the old one and stealing his ship

Even funnier (to me, at least), the writer of season two, ignoring this backstory, decided to bring back the old captain as the avatar of the new ship's computer:

otterchild 2016-06-30 00:27:57 UTC #53

Yep, in Parmeshen the vampires are a species unto themselves, and people have called them things like 'the dead' and 'the death bringers' as insults. In our work we like exploring how the truth gets bent by people's perceptions and retellings of it.

J.MORK 2016-06-30 01:15:15 UTC #54

i wont get into anything super specific, but when i design characters i have two major goals, one being that the design should overall be fairly simple, my other goal is that no character should ever look too similar to any other character, even if they are the same race or same species or siblings.

WHY? for one, from a design standpoint having simplified designs makes the characters easier to remember, which makes for faster drawing.
for two, having unique characters makes for easier reading because you know who is who, and more fun reading because more variety is always fun to look at 8) i can't tell you how many comics i have skimmed over because i had trouble telling some of the characters apart. 8(

making the background characters more generic so your main characters seem more interesting never has to be a problem, either. you can always use color, composition, and dialogue to indicate who is in what role! it's so cool!

i think in these examples it is pretty easy to tell who the main characters are despite the background characters being in the foreground... i hope i didn't go too off topic, this is just the kind of stuff i could talk about all day !! :o)