How to design a character for an animated video

Your task is to create an animated video that includes characters. There is a sketch of the plot, the purpose of creating the video and ... Nothing else. Frequent story. If everything starts with a clean slate, then the animator begins the torment of the search. What kind of characters should they be, how will they move, interact?

All chances to waste a lot of time. Alternatively, you can use a few tricks and preliminary steps to get things going faster. Let's talk about what it is about.

Create a story for your character

Suppose you have a set of functions and actions that the main and secondary characters perform in the plot of the video. These are not ready-made characters, but ready-made functions - remember that. Try to bring the stories of the characters to life in your head, describe in detail their physical parameters, biographies, habits and interests. Build a small world outside the frame. When you do this, it will be easier to introduce the character.

Understand who the video is for and who will perceive the characters

That is, define your target audience. An educational video for children? Bright, expressive forms. A challenge in the B2B sector? Restraint and informativeness, less emphasized cartoon animations in the first place. It is also worth paying attention to what the customer says in order to build a design based on his wishes and expectations.

Personal experience

Try to relate the character's looks and actions to personal experience. Perhaps you have met people, acquaintances about whom you want to talk about? You know such a person in detail, have observed and communicated enough time - why not transfer his image to the video? This is an easy way to get a response from the audience. The best examples of art are said to be based on personal experience and observation. People will believe the truth - show it.

Don't complicate from the start

It is better to start with general lines and try to implement the idea with fewer resources. If necessary, the image can be complicated and the details can be increased by the fact that there is a ready-made "basic" character that you like and which can be organically added to the video already in this form. But this does not mean that you have to sacrifice the volume, dynamics and overall quality of the character.

Think about the color component

Each character in the video can have a personal color scheme. For example, white, blue, pink, or yellow are more likely to indicate purity of intentions, while black, gray, and purple are associated with negative intentions. If you can't imagine the design features right away, try to “see” the hero as a set of colors and shades that correspond to the available source data about him. From this you can try to make the first sketches.

Start with details, from specific to general

Think of the character's elements of the image - perhaps an unusual hairstyle, movement, style of clothing, or some object in his hands with which he will interact with the environment. Often times, character ideas come from little things like that.

Character emotions

It's not just a character's function and story that matters, but also their emotions. The perception of the video(Best Motion Graphics company in California, USA) changes a lot if the emotional component of the character (especially the main one) looks muffled, explosive, emphatically exaggerated, and so on. Play around with facial expressions, step back from symmetry, and show live versions for yourself. Build a drawing from what you saw.

Not just the face

Or leave the character faceless to begin with - work on the appearance of the arms, legs, body, any other limbs. Imagine one thing separately and let that body part tell a story. You will definitely see what needs to be drawn from a new angle.

All of the above is a small set of abstract ideas that we hope will help you get started on your characters. There are many more tricks that help achieve this. What would you recommend?