#oc tips

[ninaiscrying]

my ultimate template for back when i was creating oc’s for my book ♥︎

the points i crossed out are not universal - as in they were specific things i needed to define for the setting/envoirment all my characters were in (a psychiatric ward)

i stopped writing but this was veeery helpful and fun so i thought i might share <3

[moardin-arcanis]

Character Design Tips - Knives

This is equally an art and writing exercise. Everyone in their life will, at some point, use a knife. Whether it be on a hunting trip, opening mail, or cooking. Or perhaps in a more fantastical setting...fighting. Knives have been with humans since the beginning, one of the first tools we made. Like us, they evolved…there’s many different knives humans have created over time. Let the

Purpose - Knives are shaped and balanced differently depending on their purpose. A cleaver is heavy, a chef’s knife is balanced for use on a board, and a dagger is best for combat. In addition, the kind of knife says a lot about the character wielding it. If a person isn’t expecting a fight, they may have to pick up a chef’s knife to protect themselves. Or maybe a soldier struggles to prepare a dish with their sword?

Material - The material a knife is made of can relate to purpose, or even economic class. A knife made of gold is practically useless, far too soft to cut anything remotely hard. It may be able to slice soft meats, but it’s unlikely to withstand bone. Meanwhile, iron is a good material…that varies greatly. Low quality and high quality iron differ so greatly that it can dictate a person’s status. Other materials, like silver or even wood can represent other ideas! Silver is often seen as good for killing monsters, and wood can be a training tool. But…you can also get creative! Do something unusual…just make sure you have a good reason!

Wear & Tear - A rusted knife shows neglect. A dull one shows age. A heavily used knife may mean it’s a character’s favorite, or maybe it means that they inherited it. A dull combat knife may mean the character isn’t skilled, or doesn’t like to kill.

Technology & Magic - Make it fun! Magic swords are cool and all…but imagine a knife that perfectly cooks whatever it cuts. Or maybe a reverse knife that seals instead of cuts? Get crazy. Get wild. Be fun with it!

However you decide to make it, the tools at one’s disposal can say a lot about the person using it. This is your world, your story, make it however you want.

[alpheiamoth]

want your oc's design down somewhere but can't draw?

picrews picrews picrews!!!!

use a gacha app, or similar app

them them in an online dnd minifigure maker! (less options for clothes are hairstyles, but it is 3D)

make photobashes of them! bonus points if you draw over the photobash as art practice!

Once you've done one or more of these, you can:

pay for a commission of your oc

find someone with open rqs and ask them to draw your oc!

do a trade, make a photobash or gacha character of someone's oc in exchange for art of yours!

practice drawing them! If you struggle with something, use style to avoid it until you can practice more! (ex: I struggle with arms and shoes/feet, so I might make an oc with floating hands, or make their feet offscreen so I don't have to draw them) Using body bases is okay too ofc!

ship them with a character and find someone on tumblr who's addicted to drawing yumeship art and ask to be mututals and then over time they will get invested in your ocxcanon ship and draw it for you as a gift probably

[endomentendo]

Anyone got tips in oc making?

[narcpocalypse]

TBH the best way to flesh out a character (which works for me) is to put them in two interview settings. One where they have to tell the truth no matter what and one where they can say whatever they're comfortable with. One will show their depth and the other will show how they want to be perceived

EDIT: OMG YALL TY FOR BLOWING THIS UP???? Here's a template for this idea with 3 interview settings!

Character Interview Template (OC Meme)

Before anything else, select “file” and then select “make a copy!” This is so you can freely interact with and edit the document. The purpo

[cookiekitkat84]

if youre making ocs i cannot emphasise how fantastic the enneagram typing system is. the whole concept is it outlines how different people respond to trauma based on their core fear/desire which is incredibly useful for figuring out solid character motivations and how that affects their actions.

example, lets say theres a character who constantly feels the need to be "top dog". do they control others because theyre scared of being controlled themselves (8)? do they need to be better than everyone because theyre scared of being worthless (3)? do they need validation and security so theyre scared to become an outcast (6)?

example 2, lets say theres a different character whos an avoidant escapist. do they jump between things they find exciting because theyre scared to face pain (7)? do they crave a sense of identity so they withdraw into fantasy and wallow in their feelings (4)? do they block out the world to avoid change and confrontation in an attempt at stability (9)?

for both these examples, despite sharing a main "trait" each type has a different reasoning and in turn different presentation of the same behaviours.

the site i linked is fantastic in that not only does it give genuinely insightful descriptions but also breaks down how each fear/desire manifests at different levels of mental health ranging from their best selfTM all the way down past rock bottom, which is again a really useful reference for a redemption/fall from grace/character growth/trying to keep a consistent characterisation across different situations. so yeah enneagram cool

[seveninchesfrominsanity]

Someone on HoYoLAB asked me for character design tips for Genshin/HSR OCs. I thought it was a fantastic question, so I thought I'd share my very long answer here as well:

thanks for the interesting question! I'll try to summarise neatly for you, but here are my most important takeaways:

1) recognisable silhouette : if I create multiple characters, I should be able to identify each one by their silhouette alone. This means styling the hair, skirt, and flowy bits in a way that gives them a distinct appearance without relying on colour and detail.

2) colour "blocking": Genshin/HSR shaders being so much simpler than other anime games is a big part of why their designs are complicated and full of tiny visual details. Beautiful texturing work and using colours to break up the outfit into recognisable shapes (bodice, sleeves, shorts, tights) even when viewed from a distance is, in my opinion, a masterclass in making a game visually interesting and performant by playing to the strengths of what you've got. The simpler shader is a big part of why HoYo games are performant on low-end devices, and their art style plays to that strength instead of treating it as a flaw. Essentially, the different pieces of the outfit should break up the character into different clearly-defined solid-colour zones, and no two adjacent zones should be the same colour.

3) everyone's favourite HoYo design quirk: asymmetry! Yes, we all do sometimes find the random thigh straps and tights/pants of different length funny, but it's really good at creating visual interest and is a character design fundamental for a reason. One of the things I noticed that the amount of asymmetry in the design increases from NPC to 4* to 5* in an ascending order, and simply adding more asymmetry can make a character feel like they're of a a higher rarity, whereas the more monochromatic your design, the more they feel like an NPC.

4) Next, on to 3D animation constraints and requirements. This is something of what I specialise in, so I've done this several times before when directing concept art for character animation, but here are quick soundbites everyone can use:

a) long skirts are notoriously difficult to animate. They love to glitch out and clip into themselves, clip into the environment, look odd when climbing or running - and keep in mind, HoYo games prefer performance over fancy solutions like complicated cloth or physics simulations. Hence, you get a lot of high/low skirt design, split skirts (which serve one other purpose I'll explain below) so that the legs have maximum degree of movement and so that animations can be shared more easily across all characters (good animation pipeline decision) b) dangling/flowy scarves/hair/jewellery to create what we call "secondary animation". Essentially, these elements move with the direction of movement, and serve two important purposes:

- a game design purpose where it gives you very clear visual feedback on which way your character is going regardless of how your camera is positioned. - creates more visual interest and allows you to exaggerate the impact of every movement. This comment is very long already, but try looking at animations with and without secondary animation applied, and the difference is night and day. I have some interesting YouTube videos I can point you to if you're interested, but probably not here.

5) repeating patterns/motifs across the whole character - usually a simple geometric shape or curlicue. I picked two shape elements that I used everywhere in this design. Hint: one of them also appears everywhere in Wanderer's character design and in a lot of Sumeru architecture, which is what I was going for given my character's background. Tell me if you can spot them! I'll reply and tell you if you got them right.

This was a long explanation and HoYoLAB's comment length limit forced me to break up my answer into multiple comments, but I hope this was helpful. I'm not a professional character designer/concept artist in the least. I've only dabbled a little in previous gigs and directed a few character design decisions for animation, that's about it. Thanks for the great question! I enjoyed answering it.

the only addendum to my HoYoLAB explanation is that: don't be afraid to reference HoYo's own designs! I used Jeht, Nilou, and Elysia as my main references, and picked out elements from their outfits I really liked. The goal isn't to copy, it's to "steal like an artist" : find the elements that speak to you and try to put them together in different ways until it looks right to you. Have fun!

here's the character concept art I created for reference: