Do you have any tips for making animation-friendly designs? My designs are intentionally accurate to real-life cats, and I love them, but I know they would be super tedious to animate, or even use in a comic! How do you make such simple designs that are still so amazing and beautiful?
Well, it just takes practice and iterations I think! Mostly. But I have a few tips that I fall back on frequently I could share so Here’s my quick hot take on making animation designs:
Simplicity is your friend. I had a professor that used a term “simplexity” to describe the balance needed in order to make a character unique and easily recognizable, but also not hell to render out in a full animation. This is going to mean different things for different productions, for example something on the scale of Disney can have a character like John silver with a multi faceted robot arm whereas if we’re trying to do something low budget (*COUGHforfreeCOUGH*) you’re going to want to minimize the headache people have when drawing your character by leaning into the simple side of this term, so that they don’t want to murder you and will still be your friend after the project is over. (more under the cut!)
So what does this mean exactly? You’ll want to keep the line mileage to a minimum. For cats, this means limit the amount of detail and rendering you give the fur in your linework. I’ve seen Artists who break this rule magnificiently (like Raevi goddaMN GIRL) but for a design it is much easier on artists to streamline down to core body shapes and key character Accents in the fur (like tail shapes, cheek floofs ect). This can be pretty diverse, but I’d minimize it as much as possible (if possible down to three accents, more on this later).
For examples, On lionblazes design (line art only at this point) his Character traits are his tail shape, Mane, and Scribbly eyebrows, all aspects that mean more strokes are being taken and work done, but that are easily recognizable between frames, and artists. I also have brought up Dovewing’s design because it’s more complex in it’s line art, but I could simplify it down even more to just her butt shoulder and ear floofs and still recognize her character silhouette. In fact, paring it down even further would strengthen her recognizability.
The amount of strokes you have people draw in cleanup will drastically change the amount of time it takes to render a character. Between Firestar and Bramblepaw in this shot Bramble easily took twice as long to line (or more!) thanks to his beautiful luscious curls.
Next! Principle I use in simplexity is the rule of three. For whatever reason, the number three is your best friend. It’s not as weirdly symmetrical as two or four, and maintains a unique organic-ness to it without getting carried away by five or seven. Now what am I even talking about? Pretty much everything. This is the secret of markings. This is the secret of character accents. This is the secret of color picking. The Rule of three is your best friend.
Take Brambleclaw for example. I gave him three stripes/markings on his face, and three on his side. It feels nice and natural and organic, without being overwhelming. I also gave him three specific fur accents in his line art, his ear tips/eyebrows, Belly floof, and shoulder puff. I used the rule of three in picking his colors, three main pelt colors, and three accent colors (eyes are always gonna be more complex if desired, people love rendering the shit out of eyes) and even so, three colors for the eyes. I used his lightest pelt color in only three places, and his Pink color in only three places, and his darkest color in only three places (eyebrows, Tail tip, and if I had thought to write it down, his paw pads). Even his forehead marking has three parts to it. You do it enough and it becomes really natural and subconscious. Of course, like all rules, you can still break it if you need to, but It has been one of my best friends.
Alright last thing to think about for now, (see what I did there? There are more things, but it helps people remember better to learn Three at a Time), are Shapes. Specifically using Simple identifiable shapes when constructing the body or face of your character. This is going to sound similar to the line mileage point, because they are related, but they are different. This is focusing on the macro details of a silhouette whereas Accents are about Micro details. This point also has the added benefit of helping characters look and feel related to each other if you use it potently!
Let’s take Hawkfrost and Mothwing for example. Specifically their faces. Hawk I designed first, and I wanted him to feel dangerous, and maybe a little twisted. So I decided to integrate a lot of triangles into his design because, a triangle’s shape language reads as dangerous. They’re pointy, and sharp, like teeth claws, and knives. We can’t in good conscious put an especially triangular object next to a baby because it inherently feels dangerous. They’ll poke their eye out with that tall prism. Other shapes have their meanings as well, Rectangles (cubes) are sturdy, and circular objects are the opposite of triangles, they’re the shape of eggs, fluffy pillowy things, and babies. They’re inherently safe, and soft.
Pull back from digression. Look at hawkfrost and his triangles. They have sharp claw like tips, which are emphasized even with a noticeable downward curving to their points. This motif is repeated multiple times, in his cheeks, his ears, his eyes, his chin, his nose. This becomes unifying, and inherently feels dangerous and curved, or twisted.
Now look at moth. She has triangles too, but I deliberately went through the effort to make them rounder, softer, inverting the angles of her eyes to feel sad and not cruel. Yet she remains similar in enough ways that she feels related. Her nose curves in a similar downward manner, her ears retain the out down curve without the dangerous point to them. The fur accents of her cheeks add to the roundness, making her feel softer while sharing hawks cheekwings.
Let’s take another example, Bluestar and Snowfur. They are proof that similarities do not have to be reserved to face shapes alone to give that strong feeling of relatedness. In some ways I think theirs is the strongest sibling bond I’ve read in the books, and that obviously translated to how I designed them haha! The idea behind their design was ‘curvy sturdy’ which is reflected in their circular based hourglass figures emphasizing Bluestar’s ‘broad shoulders’. I tried to make their heads more of a squashed circular shape, to give it more sturdy strength while feeling soft and maternal. Her ears are very rounded at the tips, and the particular downward turn is easy to identify and reflect in both cats. Lastly, their square “pants” because let’s be honest, both these she cats wore the pants in their families. There are also enough differences that in pure silhouette you would still be able to tell Snowfurs bushy tail apart from Bluestar’s thinning fur, and snows’ cheekfluffs from blues wide round jaws.
Of course I am not perfect at all of these elements, and there are even more things I could say that make designs unique and easily animatable while also identifiable. If you are looking for more or different suggestions, I liked Tenielle Flowers’ Video she released on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO-kNlyHn8A .
This is taking me a while because it’s so detailed. I got bored of doing the decor so now I’ve finished the bases and I’m moving on to the markings! Then it’s finishing the decor and doing the actual background. Keep an eye out for the finished product in the next couple days!
shadedfantasy replied to your post: my throat feels like i ate sand. my eyes hurt...
Are you in the path of the fires???
I'm in washington in summer, so technically.
Im not sure how many runs itd take to head this way, but i know for sure i'm in the path of a shitton of smoke though
You ever try to do a realistic style instead of your normal style? And you just look at your completed drawing and you're like "Man this poor guy has seen some shit"
Drew myself an icon! For my Lioden account, ShadedColors, where I play as Bedengii (pictured above)
I’m honestly so proud of this, and I’m super happy with it. Favorite things: The bi decor. The feathers and the face paint, I’m in love. The background is supposed to be a sunrise but it also looks very bi, which, yanno, no objections here! In general, I’m just happy I managed to fit all his flower decor.
The only thing I wish I could change is the super thick lineart. Lioden requires your avatar to be 150x150 px, so the lineart is at 2px. I tried 1px but it broke up and looks very strange. I’m gonna try and draw an icon for my side account, CurledLight, so I might try out the 1px lineart there. But he has a very complicated crown made of gold feathers, so that’ll take a while!
It’s been taking me longer than I expected to get it done (bc I’ve been having job interviews!!!!) but the markings are going well! I’m so pleased with Uongo’s Cloudburst Mist! I downloaded a whole bunch of new brushes and texture packs to get the cloudy effect and then ended up only using two and one was a default texture lmao. Right now I’m getting ready to do his Blue Dapple and I have absolutely no idea where to begin lmao. The image file looks like Xylax did a solid marking and then erased patches of it, so I’m going to try that. Here’s hoping it goes well! If anyone has any tips I would 110% love to hear them!!
Hey friendos, I’m looking for feedback and critique!
This is a wing design for an old dragon character of mine! I had an old comic about dragons (nine years ago jesus) and I’ve been redsigning the characters and giving them patterns on their wings, to attract mates during mating season
What I’m looking for:
Thoughts on the pink coloring? A different shade of pink maybe? Or a different color entirely?
Color scheme in general
Thoughts on the pattern in general
Suggestions
This boy is sort of cherry red colored, and monochrome aside from his wings. That blue stripe also occurs as a stripe across his eyes, a feature unique to him. He’s a real gruff, angry teenager, but he’s slowly learning to be a protective older brother and a leader instead of a bully. Well-meaning but a bit too hormonal, you know? I’m hoping this pattern goes well with that personality.
This version 2, and the old design is here. If you have no thoughts on it, at least reblog so someone else might see it?
I hated every last second of lining his gem bodywear but it’s all worth it because the metallics are so much fun to color and are turning out SO WELL I’m so proud and so in love
