Fundamental questions about character design/ I hit a brick wall

[linvdmk]

Hello! Here is an older line up I created as a personal project to practice character design and making them fit into a line up.

I already know, that the presentation is horrible here and I already learned a lot about that and would like to incorporate the knew knowledge into the rework of this line up.

I primarily need help with the character designs in themselves.
I have learned about shape language and silhouette, balance between complexity and simplicity, colors. I did write a lot about the character's personalities, chose the colors accordingly and I designed the body shapes with shape language in mind following the personality traits I have chosen for them. I really thought my decisions through and did not leave any decision up to chance or something like that. But the designs still don't work and I feel very lost as to why these don't work.

I am not saying that I think all the decisions I have made were good and that I am so awesome, I just wanted to underline what I took into consideration and I know that I failed, but I can't see where I failed exactly.

Where all my decisions bad? Or just some?

Was my idea bad? (Giving the backstory would make this post a novel and I see that this post is already way longer than people are going to be willing to read through, so the fact that my idea might not be very evident through the design already hints at the quality of the idea)

How can I apply shape language on a non-cartoon character in an effective way? (balance between designing the body shape and the clothing, do I have to bury them in clothing to make characters interesting?)

I am incredibly lost, and I see so many artists doing it in so many different ways and I already got lost at the question whether or not the pose and expression of the character is part of the design and silhouette of that character.

I look at this line up and I just don't even know how to even PLAN the rework of these characters.

I would be very grateful for any kind of help, and I am aware that I am asking for a lot of time here.

[PeterH]

The most important question to ask to begin with is what is this lineup for, what media is the project? Are you focused just on design or are you going for an illustration style lineup?

Design wise, I can see that you have a sports theme going on, which works out fine except for the woman in the cloak, it seems forced on that one and it breaks the theme quite hard. Perhaps redo her to fit better, perhaps a gymnastics sort of feel with big billowy pants for movement?

Hope that helps, let me know where you are headed with the final product and I can recommend aspects of rendering/perspective that need work or can just be ignored.

[linvdmk]

Hey thanks so much!

This line up was just a personal project, but I intended it for a game and even an animated series, with a simple rendering and a friendly design.

So I kind of imagined as if I was pitching this team to colleagues with simple, clear cut concept art with a line up shot with poses to suggest their dynamics as a combat focused team and also two panels to show the characters interacting with each other. I also made some art for the weapons and so on. No illustration or anything, just the characterdesings and personalities.

And as for the character with the cloak: I totally understand that critique, I actually had reasoning behind that decision, but just because I could justify it wouldn't make the design decision better.

I would be very grateful for further feedback!

[PeterH]

Cool, if you are just flat out pitching design you can remove the posing in the first image and focus completely on simple A poses with something like height lines to show the characters relational sizes.

Aiming at video games you can certainly punch up the proportions to ridiculous points, especially if its for an action game. The silhouettes in Team Fortress 2 are common examples of an excellent design that really tells you from a distance who you are dealing with. Maybe try pushing the proportions until they are too extreme and then back them up just a little bit.

This last recommendation isn't as important, but it really does make an image look much better if you make sure to apply perspective to the lineup properly. All of the characters heads are tilted down, and so are the feet, but there is no foreshortening that indicates a shot from above. Just make sure to pick a vanishing point and block out what parts you see the top and the bottom of.

Design wise, there really isn't much of an issue outside of what I first mentioned, the "normal" guy on the right is the only "boring" one, but its very common to put a "normal" character in a design. If you are looking to change the designs in some way maybe think about the world that they live in and include some signs of what that world is in the design.

I hope some of this helps, good luck!

[linvdmk]

Thanks a lot! I started reworking the first character, I will certainly apply your advice!

[linvdmk]

Hey! I am back, it took me a while, I would appreciate if you gave me your thoughts on my redesigns, for now, If I have improved them in any way and so on.
I paid attention to the silhouettes and exaggerated the proportions and found opportunities to add big forms to the designs.
I intend to redo the others as well, but I am not very fast with the iterative approach yet.

[PeterH]

Those will make for much more dramatic silhouettes and character designs, great improvements all around. I can clearly see the design purpose behind the characters with the bits you exaggerated while still seeing that you kept the initial inspiration intact. Really very well done.

As you continue forward with these designs in mind for video games you will want to make sure that you very clearly describe all of the small intricate parts of the character that a modeler will want to see with call out images.

So with the bottom girl you will want to draw a close up of her head gear, arms, shoes, the ports along the side of her legs, and that harness at the very least. Her design is very intricate and you will want to make sure that the modeler knows exactly what shape in 3d all of those pieces take. The top girl will require less of course, but you will want to show how those balls attach to her hair, and probably her shoes.

It is also a a good idea to think of the perspective that you would see the model in the game in mind, like if its a moba make sure to draw them in that top down 3/4 perspective for an image. Since this is your personal project just think of what kind of game you like most and go for it.

Again, looking great and massive improvements all around. Well done.

[linvdmk]

thank you so much!
Your feedback really helped me to get this rework started! And this check-in is also very helpful, thanks for taking the time!
I will work on those call outs :))
And the in game perspective

[linvdmk]

Hello! I am back, took me another while!
I have been working on all those characters the past few months, don\t have everything done yet, but I rendered one character, I wanted to make her presentable because I have something coming up where I want to show some artwork of mine. All outs are also in progress and so on. I just wanted to give an update and maybe get some more feedback

[moirae]

This is a definite improvement on the first posts. I would say that there's a clashing mix of themes in this character. She's got a goth rocker look going on, but then she has flowers painted on her hair flail weapons, and scifi Tron neons on top of that.

I'd focus on one theme, ie, big, gnarly medieval rusty iron mace heads would suit the goth theme, or at least make the flowers on them dark roses and thorns.

[PeterH]

Oh hell yes, glad to see you back at it. And I really hope you looked back at those first images from may and pat yourself on the back.

Without seeing the other characters in progress I can just flat out say this is a very fun design and that the rendering looks like its at a solid point to show it off.

Anything more I might add at this point will be purely aesthetic choice.

The only thing that seems out of place to me is the blue gems. I assume that you were going for a contrasting color to create some visual focus, and I agree with that idea, but the blue just conflicts with the rest of the design a bit too much. Maybe try without the gems, or perhaps with the same orange glow used elsewhere. Perhaps something more steel like the chains around the waist, like a little skull, or an iron rose. And given the punch of the orange at the extremities, simplicity near the torso and face might be enough of a contrast without a secondary light. Just some thoughts.

Perhaps include the flower design in the skirt along the bottom edge.

Maybe change the socks to fishnets similar to the sleeves.

But like I said, its a fun design and I am just making some possible aesthetic tweeks. Its looking great. And keep on hitting that reply button so I get notified and can see the designs, I am really enjoying your progress.

[linvdmk]

Thank you so much for looking at my work!
I see that there is a lot going on, I will keep working on this of course and thanks for your recommendation, it gave me some ideas!

[linvdmk]

Thank you so much!
It's really great to hear that I am improving and that you have been looking at this project for such a long time now!
Your advice really helped me to start this project in the first place and I appreciate that!
And thanks for your ideas, I really like them and will work that stuff in when I loop back around after I have worked out the other characters!

And you know what, I can actually post the other character now and work out some issues a little earlier hehe.

I also changed his concept like I did with the cheerleader. I saw that there was nothing interesting about him so he got the same treatment. He is the red haired guy with the sniper rifle in the older line up.