Ooo this is a really good thread.
Here we go, this is gonna be long, just fair warning lol
Tried to make spoilers to help deal with the long answers but the code didn't wanna work :/
Apologies for some walls of text.
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What initially inspires a new character? Many things, really. I'm not a black and white person - everything in life is gray to me, so most answers I give to anything will be "It depends."
In relevance to this question, inspiration can come from TV shows and movies, music and artwork or themes, food and nature. I like using a site called Colour Lovers, which is a place for finding color palettes; type in a keyword, like a theme you want, and you get colors. I don't really ever use the palettes themselves but I take inspiration from them sometimes. I remember one of my old projects, I made a husky character inspired by Danny Phantom; just a silvery husky who happened to be a ghost with missing memories from his living life.
It all depends on the situation and many times I've grown out of characters, such as the one I mentioned (I will always love DP though).
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What goals do you have in mind for your characters? A full story? Casual interactions?Also depends, specifically on the character itself. Phantom, the husky, had a story that I never finished cuz it hit a wall, really. Other characters are solely for fun, but have some type of backstory info to give them life. Others, further, like my personas, are a mix. I currently have one 'sona that is me in every aspect of my living personality, and one that is meant to be more serious and spiritual.
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What makes a good character to you? Do you judge other characters harshly or are you pretty lenient?Before I write anything else, let me just say I don't judge people harshly, because we're all different and have different ideas, but I am going to explain the things I have learned over the years. Now, this is an interesting question because I have a unique response: I'm actually a senior in college and I majored in Media Arts, which includes things like storytelling, animation, concept art, design, 3D, etc. (everyone has specialties). Of course, a major part of this is character design and development.
What makes a good character can be divided into visuals and story.
For visuals, it has to follow some rules of anatomy; you can have a totally made up creature, but it needs to follow nature to some degree. For example, a creature with more than one pair of wings (such as 4-winged angels, etc) would physically be incapable of flight entirely due to how the movement would conflict. Realism must be an aspect, even in a made-up creature. Now, I say "must" but everyone CAN do as they please, I don't make the rules lol. I just find it easier to explain things in terms of how and what I was taught, so I apologize if I sound arrogant, because it's not intended, I promise I'm not a mean person lol.
Further, color theory is a definite must. Whether you have a desaturated, naturally colored character, or a sparkledog, color theory actually is totally necessary. Color theory is a sect of psychology that explains the effect colors have on humans. You could have a super bright character, but if the colors don't match, it's gonna be awkwardly received. Color theory goes into detail of saturation and hue; complimentary colors (those on opposite sides of the color wheel that match), such as red+green, orange+blue, yellow+purple (complimentary colors are actually what creates brown); analogous colors (three colors next to each other on the color wheel that blend), such as red+orange+yellow, green+blue+purple, or blue+purple+red; and finally, the actual effect color creates.
For example: Notice how nearly all fast food restaurants use colors like red and yellow? The reason for this is that these strong colors are passionate and evoking, and when used in that context, subconsciously make a person hungry, so, they pull you in. However, because warm colors are so intense, it makes people uncomfortable after a while, forcing you out eventually..and that's how fast food companies make money - pull people in, and get em out fast to make room for more people.
So, when colors work well, characters work well. Using every color of the rainbow, pure 255 white, or pure 0 black, really isn't something that works, and that's not my opinion, it's just how color theory works. It's all psychological. In fact, in art, it is known that using pure black for linework actually flattens a drawing, which is why some artists use thin, colored lines to match the color of the subject, or go lineless.
Next, is story.
You can have the most beautiful, aesthetically pleasing character in the world, but if there's nothing behind them, they have no purpose. In my storytelling class, we learned that what truly separates a good character from a bad one, is realism and how relatable they are; this is why Mary Sues/Gary Stus are called such - characters that are "perfect" in some manner and have little to no flaws are not realistic, and not relatable. This makes a character hard if not impossible to connect to.
For people to respond and connect to characters, there has to be some form of realism, such as flaws, because no one in real life is perfect. And that's not to say you can't have a super powerful deity character - you can. What would make the difference is whether he/she/it is written as perfect in every aspect, or if their character is written as having, I don't know, greed, or arrogance, for example. The more realistic a character is, the more a reader or watcher can relate to them, and the more the reader/watcher is engrossed in the story. Think of you favorite TV shows or movies. Think about your favorite characters, and why you like them. You'll start to see the exact reason they're successful is because they have some kind of relatable trait(s).
Further, and even more important, is motivation. What is the character doing, and why? If the character has no goal, there is no story to be had. Plots are created on the basis of an action and motivation for that action. Harry Potter's motivation was to go through Hogwarts and stop Voldemort. If he had no motivation, he'd just be a random kid and we'd have no reason to care about him. We have to care about characters for them to be successful, and that goes for ones we hate, too. I always say, "If I hate this character, it's a well-written character." because well-written antagonists will evoke emotion of some form. If a character does not evoke emotion from you, it could be just your preferences of what you enjoy, or the character could just be poorly fleshed out.
I do apologize for the wall of text answer here, but I hope those who read it are actually intrigued by it and don't hate me or think I'm pretenious or anything - I'm simply answering this thread with information I've gathered from observation, experience, and teachings from people who have been in the entertainment industry for 15+ years. I am sorry if anything I said comes off as rude in any form <3
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What do you like in physical design elements? Do you pay more attention to color or form? Do you make a character in the creator before having a story in mind or the other way around?I vary in my own preferences. Sometimes I want tall, awe-inspiring characters, other times, small, cute ones. Sometimes I want adorable fat or fluffy characters, other times I want cool, lanky characters.
I actually do sometimes use games' character creators to test design ideas, and color palettes. Normally I draw my own stuff but hey, I have days where I'm lazy or just too tired, you feel?
And like with the inspiration question, sometimes I make a character based on a specific thing I want. Whether or not I have a legit story made by then depends, but sometimes, yes, I have the idea before the visuals.
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Aaaand, yeah..That's it lol.
Again,
I am super sorry for the long walls of text, and even more sorry if anything I've said came off as rude, arrogant, or anything of the sort. I hope my answers were a good contribution to this thread.
Ima go hide now.
