So for anyone who's not an artistic person, can you please advise on different fan things I can create for my OC?
So far I have a playlist and a general idea of how she looks thanks to a character creator, but what else could I be missing? What sort of mediums can help to better describe her character or give a sense of her personality?
Howdy everybody I hope you're having a good day. I would like some help on fleshing out a Sonic Villain oc
The oc idea is a mad scientist Rat woman is who is a comically over-the-top super villain who wants to use her machines and inventions to take over
If I had to give her a threat level compared to other Sonic Villlains she would be on the level of Rough and Tumble from the IDW comics.
The characters she is inspired by:
1. Dr Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb)
2. Zim (Invader Zim)
3. Doctor Ivo Robotnik (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)
The things I mostly need help with fleshing out are bits of her personality, Design (I’ll make/draw it myself), and giving her name since I am not great at naming characters
If more info about the character idea is needed just ask and I’ll answer to the best of my ability
Ah, "villains"... The common obstacle for a hero or general protagonist to face. Sometimes, they're your standard "evil for evil's sake," or they're a bit more complex than a generally sadistic psychopath. However, there's one thing a villain always needs: some manner of "threat" to their appearance, traditional methods and otherwise. Let's go over how exactly, shall we...?
1. Shape Theory
Generally, the basic idea is that some shapes are more likely to elicit a certain feeling than others. Case in point, characters with rounder features are often "cuter" and seem the least threatening; then, characters with lots of points or "triangles" will seem more dangerous when simply touching them seems enough to hurt you.
Example: how does circular Claire make you feel, compared to the pointier Melon (Beastars)?
Even without Melon's gazelle horns, you'll notice his head still has a rather "sharp" look to it, like his cheekbones and muzzle’s end. The sharp shape of his eyes doesn't help make him look any friendlier... As for Claire, you probably would feel more weirded out by her animal-human appearance than you would “threatened”: her big and round ears emit more of a “puppy” feel, her eyes' roundness makes them less piercing...
Triangles/points should be a key component of your villainous design-- if you want the message loud and clear at first sight. Sometimes, circles can actually make for a threatening character design themselves: not a "danger" of obvious harm from simply getting too close, but a "danger" of being able to lure you into being close enough.
Back to Claire, as an example, she may look all "round" and cuddly-- which she is, but she actually has sharp canines for her entire set of teeth and her paw’s dangerous claws are "invisible" during her general docility. In other words, sometimes the best kinds of threats aren't what you can identify at first glance, but capable of creating a false sense of security and manipulatable trust. I mean, are you gonna better trust the big and scary wolf, or the cute and tiny hamster? Bad Guys reference, by the way.
Squares are the third shape in this "theory," often said to symbolize "reliability" and "safety." So, perhaps also ideal if creating a villain meant to have a deceptive appearance.
2. Color Scheme
As psychology has taught us, colors have the ability to elicit certain moods: red makes us feel aggressive, blue makes us feel calmer... However, did you know that our minds also associate darker colors with things more sinister? After all, you'll find people more afraid of the darkness than light because of what may lie within. Therefore, it’s one reason why our brains will think "danger" when spotting a character who can hide in said darkness easier.
For example, tell me which Cadejo here you find as the "evil" one.
Okay, in actual Hispanic mythos, it depends on which region you're in; but if you're being honest, you assumed it was the black Cadejo, right-- despite the white one also having red eyes? That's how darker colors cause our mind to function: they're automatically associated with "danger" and "predation" in our brains' subconscious, therefore an ideal choice when making a menacing appearance for a villain. Of course, you can still do the "deceitful subversion" for a villain and use lighter colors instead.
3. The Eyes and Expression
"Eyes are the window into the soul," the phrase often goes. There is truth to it: you can often realize someone's intentions and general feelings by how the eyes stare at you. An ideally creepy villain will have an unreadable emptiness to them, leaving you uneased by denying you any clue what's currently thought-- like your possible planned death. An ideally scary villain will have eyes that do an evil nature justice: ready to pierce through you and make you swear you're locking eyes with the reaper himself instead.
Of course, the rest of the face is equally important. Do those eyes belong to a constant face of angered contortion, clearly eager to make you suffer-- regardless of what you actually did? Are those eyes sitting above a creepy smile of someone looking in through your bedroom window, possibly planning to have that noticeable bed of yours used for nefarious purposes after breaking in? Of course, some find blank eyes above a constantly calm and expressionless face the scariest of all.
Depending on the personality and nature of your villain, you'll want the proper face for them to wear. Are they the type to instantly inflict wrath and explode over the slightest thing? They should constantly convey this present aggression through clenched teeth and the eyes in a permanent scowl. Are they the type to remain calm, cool, collected and be a puppet master? They should constantly wear a calm frown of inner calculations, with their eyes unreadable yet also clearly in focused thought-- perhaps a little narrowing of those eyes when finding the next target. If you also want them to be smug, don't forget the stretched smile and gleeful eyes of vengeance from your suffering.
Eye color actually isn't all that important. True, there's a reason black and red are such popular choices for those "scarier," and pure white or blue eyes for those "creepier"... However, if you know how to design and portray your villain's face properly, even green or pink eyes can strike as much terror as the standard red color. After all, why do the eyes need to be red themselves, when those eyes convey that your body will supply enough of the color itself?
Why does her stare fill you with dread? Cinderella’s stepmother has light green eyes, not scary red nor creepy blue ones…
4. The "Uncanny Valley"
Ah, the classic term for things that appear like what we recognize, but there's something... wrong, so horribly wrong. It's a perfect addition to any antagonizing monster or human that you wish to make reality: deadly doppelgangers, zombies, aliens… furries and fursuiters (or general mascot costumes). Yes, really, the human similarities but them obviously not being full-on human is one reason they’re disliked. Overall, sometimes it just takes the right amount of “humanness” to trigger the alarm within our minds: “This thing is pretending to be my kind to better trick and harm me, or it’s an old member of my kind and it threatens what may become of myself next…” And that’s what makes the “uncanny valley” so effective at creating unease and terror: perceived “deception” and “visually threatened fates.” However, there can also be the addition of: “If it looks and especially acts like a human, it’s as smart as a human and can counteract my own thinking capabilities-- perhaps surpass them.”
In all honesty, there’s not much else to be said than: “Make them look human enough, but also not a trustable fellow human”... Make the creepy stalker’s grin unnaturally large in anticipation and their eyes enormous in eagerness: they’re more a creature in human skin preparing to rape whoever they’re watching, rather than a fellow human who’s just sick in the head. Give your villain a creepy fursuit/mascot costume: the typically large eyes, the false friendly smile on the muzzle, perhaps with the head even far too small/large for the rest of the costume… What else can really be said?
However, don’t fall back onto the uncanny valley as your sole means of a menacing design… Long fingers, wide eyes and so on will only get you so far. After all, remember the rule of horror: “Not everyone finds the same thing scary.” Some people find big and wide eyes creepy, but I’m not bothered by them. Some people find Courage the Cowardly Dog’s “You’re not perfect…” monster scary (left), but I’m instead terrified of King Ramses (right)!
So, it’s your best bet to also incorporate the other mentioned steps into a villain’s design, than assume that your take on the uncanny valley is “one size fits all.”
Now, let’s see what happens when we take all of these, turning Seve and Alexis here (Corn Kidz 64) into more villainous versions of themselves, as an example...
Then, with all of the points we’ve covered (and covered them) in…
There, despite the different art styles, you can tell who is meant to be evil and who just has a gothic/emo sense of appearance: the ears are pointed upward and they’ve got sharp teeth/claws, they’re darker and only their foreboding red eyes would be visible in pitch blackness… Overall, two clearly prefer eating nachos, while the other two would obviously prefer eating your insides after gutting them out or digging in those teeth.
Now it’s your turn. What sort of nightmarish being will you create?
Does anyone have any tips on how to describe a character’s appearance?? I’m trying to write about one of my OCs for future reference but I don’t even know where to start 😢
@feanoriansappreciation will be able to help with keeping track of canon Elf names and coming up with names in both Sindarin and Quenya! (Asks for both Tolkien and non-Tolkien are open!)
@hellofeanor will be able to help with Names in Sindarin, Quenya and other lesser known dialects! (Asks are open!)
@jaz-the-bard will also be able to help with Elf names! (Asks for both Tolkien and non-Tolkien are open!)
@mavariel knows quite a good bit about Elven naming traditions and will be able to help develop meaningful names for OCs (Asks are open!)
Character Creation Help:
Dwarves
Diversity
Crafts
Elves
Recreation and Music
Occupations (Will be linked in rb when finished)
Working within Tolkien and Worldbuilding (Will be linked in rb when finished)
if the links aren’t working, try the tags; tumblr search doesn’t always work, but I’ve been fairly consistent tagging the titles, so if you click them in-blog, it should take you to posts with that tag.
Talk to me about ur ocs. If there’s anyone that’s gonna want to hear, it’s me. Tell me all about them & Im gonna ask a buncha questions
if u want 2 hear about my ocs, pls ask too! but that’s what this blog is gonna be. I’ll include some of my writing here sometimes, but otherwise, Im gonna make u develop ur ocs & have some fun! I can’t wait to learn all abt ur children :)
