Moments, not Mannequins: Designing with Life
There's been a trend in Wedding photography over the past decade or so: people are moving away from staged pics and wanting more candid, natural, 'caught-in-a-moment' pictures. Moments of life ensnared, if you're feeling poetic.
Recently I've been developing some characters and noticed an alarming trend.
A) I seem to draw endless heads and
B) I'm designing fashion looks, not characters.
Now it's important to think about what a character wears, sure. But not more importantly than how they think, or act.
Compare these 2 drawings. I've desaturated the 2nd one to give a fairer comparison.
Now which one -- regardless of 'polish' -- is more useful?
The second. The first tells me age, and clothing...but the second tells me that PLUS attitude. Character. Action.
Obviously, James! Of course it does!
Well then why do I so often forget?
When you design a character you're designing a person: with an outlook, an ability and a mind.
I found this in my notes recently -- and something I should really be applying more:
What's their idle animation?
When they get dressed what do they put on first? Last?
How do they introduce themselves?
In a troupe of identically dressed peers, how/would they stand out? (I like this one)
What part of their appearance do they care about most?
Even in the most basic of sketches we should try and think of these things. Draw the character doing something -- even if that's holding their breath, or rubbing their nose. It doesn't have to be mid-battle.
One of my favs is actually one of my brother's pics:
Now this is a MOMENT. We know a lot about the girl in the pic from this, and we get a STORY not just a design.
(You can see more of Adam's stuff HERE.)
It works in game screens too: what's a 'moment' that shows elements in concert and in action?
So essentially, as I brutally peruse my back catalogue:
Now obviously there comes a point where we have to do a clear turnaround for the modelling department or general reference -- but in the exploratory design phase of CHARACTER, I encourage you to think in terms of attitude and action and STORY.
People are rarely wholly defined by what they wear or how they look.
I've more to say, but the reason I pulled the trigger today was this short film Tiny Nomad, by Tonika Pantoja: HERE.
It's beautiful. You can feel the emotion and attitude from a very simply designed character through their behaviour and action and attitude: not dialogue and not by what they wear.
In games you are never designing a static object: everything performs. It all has a function. That performance and function may be to remain still and be a background tree, but even that is carefully chosen, never a default.
Don't design your characters in static isolation but as an action figure: a person with purpose and utility and hopefully, life.
