Animation NC II

1
[Character Designing]

Module 3: Character Designing

Course Learning Outcomes:
1. Understand the basic of character designing
2. Identify how to construct a character
3. Learn to make character emotions more expressive.

INTRODUCTION TO CHARACTER DESIGN

An important step in the project creation is the character, prop and location
design. This determines the style and models to follow for the entire project.

The design can be created on paper and scanned in or it can be created

digitally. You can draw and even create the colours entirely on paper, while
others like to design on paper and scan the drawings to create the colour
model in a software program. The most popular method is to design digi-
tally.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
2
[Character Designing]

To save paper and time and avoid having to recreate colour palettes, Har-
mony gives you the ability to design all elements directly in the application.
This keeps all your work within the same software, avoids using a lot of pa-
per and losing time scanning in elements and importing them.

BASIC STEPS

These are the basic steps in character design:

Research
As part of your research, seek out pictures and references that will help you
figure out how your character will look, based on the characteristics you
have compiled.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
3
[Character Designing]

Sketching
A sketch is a rough version of your design. When you sketch a rough draw-
ing, you can produce whatever you imagine without being concerned about
the final look of your lines. Making a rough version of your character helps
you build a solid shape base and come up with new design ideas. You
should probably sketch many different designs and variations. You can eas-
ily go up to 80 sketches before getting your final character!

Construction
The construction is the very basis of your character. It will ensure that the
proportions and shape are strong!

Course Module
 Animation NC II
4
[Character Designing]

Tracing
Once you have sketched a rough version of your design, the next step is to
trace it. Tracing lets you determine the final look and line style of your draw-
ing, as well as refine its features.

CHARACTER PROPORTIONS
When designing a character, make sure that you keep the following con-
cepts in mind:
Consider the nature of your character and think about how his or her char-
acteristics will be made visible in their shape. Think about outstanding char-
acters in animation and how their physical form (Popeye's big forearms, Su-
perman's big chest and strong jaw) played a role in the development of their
character.
A character's size is usually recorded in units of "heads". Use these guide-
lines to keep the character in proportion:
• A standard character is six heads high.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
5
[Character Designing]

• A short or cartoony character is often three heads high due to a short

body or very large head.

Be mindful of using proportion correctly. You can bend rules of proportion

only when you understand the basics of proportion correctly.

FACIAL EXPRESSION

Creating natural and credible emotions is necessary to create believable an-

imation. Well animated emotion can add a great deal of drama to the scene
and create an interest in the people watching the animated film.
Emotions are the key to demonstrate the cartoon character’s personality. It
is important to convey that our character is unique and he has a history and
attitude of his own.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
6
[Character Designing]

Course Module
 Animation NC II
7
[Character Designing]

One of the ways to communicate emotion in animation is by making sure we

are creating a thinking character. It is important to pass on the idea that the
thoughts of the animated character urge his farther actions and movements.
The anticipation principle of classical cartoon animation can be used to cre-
ate believable and emotional animation in 2D as well as in a 3D environ-
ment.
It is important to create eye and head movement preparations before creat-
ing the body movement itself. The eyes should move first since they are re-
sponsible for the upcoming movement of the body and are the window to
character’s soul, thoughts and emotions. Next is the head movement. If this
principle of animation is not carried out and the body moves before the head
and the eyes, the action will not look like it was initiated by the character but
by some other force and is opposed to the character’s initial thoughts. Cre-
ating a thinking character is the first step to giving life to the personage.
Facial expressions are the most effective way to convey specific emotions.
Our face contains 43 muscles and can actually make more than 10,000 ex-
pressions. The parts of the face which are mainly involved in the expression
of emotions are eyes, eyebrows, eyelids, and mouth.

Eyes
The size and shape of pupils
Studies show pupils size is affected by our emotion. There are actually re-
searches that examine the change in pupil diameter to be a signal for an ac-
curate emotion recognition by human-computer interaction systems. That
makes pupils an amazing tool for animators to express or emphasize the
emotion of their characters. The change in the size of the character’s pupils
helps express many different emotions. They change in consonance with
light, pain, focus, touch and of course feelings.
Enlarged pupils communicate excitement and engagement. Smaller pupils,
on the other hand, will help show the character is experiencing a negative
emotion or being emotionally distanced from the situation.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
8
[Character Designing]

We can also change the shape of the pupils during our animation. Giving
the pupils slightly elliptic shapes can help with showing where the character
is looking. That can turn especially useful for characters which do not have
eyelids or eyeballs.
The direction the character is looking at can completely redefine the com-
municated emotion. The eyes can complete the emotion translated by our
body gestures or actually do an opposite and by that show the contradiction
between the emotional and physical state of the character.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
9
[Character Designing]

Eyelids
Pupils are usually positioned in a way that they touch the eyelids. Surround-
ing the pupils with white all around is a way to convey a very strong emotion
such as being shocked, scared, surprised or maybe going crazy.

Eyelids are used for blinking. The way we blink can communicate different
emotions. The speed we open and close our eyes will change depending on
if we are currently waking up, being sleepy, feeling in love, having trouble
understanding something or actually trying to get the attention of someone.
To create more realistic and living eyes it is important to remember that their
surface is always moist and reflect light and it is important to deliver that in
the material of the eye surface or the drawing of the eyes.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
10
[Character Designing]

Eyebrows
Eyebrows also play an important role in communication and emotional ex-
pression. Eyebrows can express anger, sadness, fear and a wide range of
other emotions.

Raised eyebrows often symbolize surprise and astonishment as well as un-

certainty and confusion.
If only one eyebrow is raised it usually a sign of skepticism.
Lowered eyebrows symbolize deception or annoyance.
Eyebrows up and down movement happen when we notice someone or
something.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
11
[Character Designing]

Mouth
Mouth area has a highly important role in communicating emotion. When it
comes to core emotions, it is especially imperative in expressing happiness
and disgust. (Eye area has more weight in expressing anger, fear, sadness,
and surprise).

Neutral

Course Module
 Animation NC II
12
[Character Designing]

Grin

Pursed Lips

Course Module
 Animation NC II
13
[Character Designing]

Smile

Smirk

Course Module
 Animation NC II
14
[Character Designing]

Sneer

Clenched Jaw

Course Module
 Animation NC II
15
[Character Designing]

Frown

Dropped Jaw

Course Module
 Animation NC II
16
[Character Designing]

Tongue Out

Slack Jaw

Course Module
 Animation NC II
17
[Character Designing]

Scream

Kiss

Course Module
 Animation NC II
18
[Character Designing]

Pout

Course Module
 Animation NC II
19
[Character Designing]

BODY LANGUAGE
Emotion lies not only in the facial expression of the cartoon character but
also in the body language and movement. Hands, arms, shoulders, legs,
torso and head gestures can help reveal the emotional state of our charac-
ter. Velocity, acceleration, and jerk can also serve as indicators for what our
character may be feeling.
Knowing the right gestures to communicate certain emotions can fasten the
process of character animation.
Head Gestures
Head nods are known to be signs of agreement. That is true for slow nodes.
But changing the intensity and the speed of the nod may actually make it
mean different things. Animating a character with fast nodes will make the
character look inpatient. Small nodes every now and then maybe signs of
bonding.
Head tilt to one of the sides may signify the character is feeling comfortable
in the situation or trying to think about something from a different angle.
Pushing character’s head forward is often a way to emphasize he is angry
and ready to attack. But it may also be a sign of interest.
If we want to show that our character is afraid and uncomfortable in the situ-
ation we can retreat his head backward.
It is important to make sure that all body gestures together with face expres-
sions work together to communicate our message. Take the head tilt up for
example. Just this gesture on its own can’t tell us anything about the emo-
tional state of the character.
Tilting the head up while looking down can express overconfidence.
But tilting the head up while looking up expresses a completely different
emotion. That will usually stand for a character trying to solve a problem or
maybe daydreaming.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
20
[Character Designing]

Shoulder Gestures

Lifting the shoulders is a way of the body to hide the head in order to protect
it.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
21
[Character Designing]

Shoulder down is a way to express sadness.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
22
[Character Designing]

Hand Gestures
Open hands communicate trust and honesty.
Rubbing the hands fast communicates excitement. Slow hand rubbing is a
sign of character having something to gain.
Chest Gestures
Bringing the chest forward can express confidence, power and often even
aggression. Hiding the chest will convey low self-esteem and often even
fear.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
23
[Character Designing]

Bringing the chest forward can express confidence, power and often even
aggression.

Hiding the chest will convey low self-esteem and often even fear.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
24
[Character Designing]

Line of Action
It is important to make sure the gestures we make follow a clear line of ac-
tion. That will help create more expressive poses. For the animation to feel
more dynamic it is best to build our poses on curved lines of action as op-
posed to straight lines which usually feel stiffer.

A great example of how the line of action on its own can express emotion is
a work of Chech photographer Vlad Artazov. He has played with the shapes
of simple nails and made them tell a real story just by curving them and
staging.

Course Module
 Animation NC II
25
[Character Designing]

Clear Silhouette
Making sure the silhouette of our character is clear is another way to com-
municate more emotion. It is easy to test the silhouette by turning our pose
into a shadow ( just fill it with black color) and seeing if the body language
of our pose is still recognizable.

Emotions can also dictate the time that is taking for every action to take
place. A happy character will perform every movement and action faster
than a sad personage.

Staging and Emotion

Changing the type of shot as well as the position and size of the character in
the scene affects how the audience perceives him. That is called staging,
and it is one of the 12 main animation principles.
Vertical compositions can suggest strength, while horizontal compositions
are more peaceful. Diagonal compositions tend to be more dynamic.
Course Module
 Animation NC II
26
[Character Designing]

It makes a difference whether the character is placed in top, bottom or mid-

dle of the scene. Positioning the character in the bottom can make him feel
powerless, placing in the top can be translated as a sign of authority.

References and Supplementary Materials

Links
1. https://learn.toonboom.com/modules/character-
design/topic/introduction-to-character-design
2. https://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/sketchbook/shtml/char1.htm#top
3. https://www.animationguides.com/character-emotions-animation/

Course Module