These days, we have many opportunities to see a wide variety of character designs in anime, cartoons, games, Vtubers, etc., and not a few people express their favorite character as their “oshi (favorite)” and support them.
Have you ever wanted to design an attractive character that could become someone’s favorite?

However, you may be wondering how to reflect your image on a character and design it.
The secret of character design is to “follow the steps and realize your idea in a character gradually”.
By choosing and combining elements that match the character’s image, you can create an original, attractive, and distinctive character design.

Let’s learn about the approach to character design as well as the detailed process, and design your very own original character!

Let’s decide the image and type of the character you want to create

Characters have various settings, from their appearance to their personality, occupation and background.

Let’s get started by putting your ideas together while following the three steps below:

1. Come up with images
2. Decide on the details and settings of the profile
3. Decide on the visual image

You can organize your ideas easily by deciding on the image and type of a character you want to create first.

1. Come up with ideas and get clear images

First, write down as many ideas as you can like a word association game.
Depending on how you combine your ideas, you can create various patterns and expand your imagination.
A structure combined with multiple elements but not a single element is important to display originality.
When you write down words, images and motifs, you can easily come up with ideas and keywords that are not directly related.

From the list of elements that have been identified, you can select the ones that match the image of a character or look interesting when combined, or the necessary elements, both visually and in terms of setting, and then flesh out the character.

Important Points

Even if you think some keyword may not be directly related, do not hesitate to jot it down!
Unexpected words may become hints for character design.

Decide on a detailed profile and get an image of the character

Organize your character’s name, gender, race, occupation, upbringing, personality, and other information about the character.

The character’s clothing, possessions, facial expressions, gestures, etc. will also be determined from the character’s setting, so delve into this information in as much detail as possible.

Once you decide on the character’s personality and upbringing, those will be reflected on the character’s behavior, etc. , and your choice of the character’s occupation will also determine its costume, and others that the character will wear.

Consider the worldview of a story as well, such as whether the character is a human being in a modern society or an outsider living in a fantasy world.

The story can be further expanded if you also define special skills, hobbies, and how the character spends his or her days off.

Decide on the visual image and type of a character according to the character settings.

Based on the profile you set up and the keywords you came up with, you can consider the elements that make up the character’s visuals.

By determining the image and type of visuals that match the personality, you can create a more persuasive character design.

Let’s try to reflect detailed settings on visuals.

Specific examples of the character’s detailed elements.

Consider costumes and designs that fit the character’s personality.

A character with a bouncy personality and full of energy

• Extremely casual outfits such as miniskirts and short pants
• Playful hairstyles

Characters who are afraid to interact with others

• Costumes in subdued colors and of designs that are less noticeable.

• Wearing hoods or masks that hide their faces

It is also a good idea to incorporate elements of work uniforms into the costume design in accordance with the profession.

By using uniforms that match the profession, such as a fireman’s uniform for a firefighter, a white coat for a medical professional, or a chef’s coat for a cook, you can make the character’s setting easier to understand at a glance.

Clothing also reflects the spirit of the times.

Let’s list up ideas that match the detailed setting, such as a medieval style or modern clothing, or costumes made of futuristic materials.

Important Points

If you can’t come up with an idea or don’t know how to express the image in your mind or what elements to include, look up the name of the motif. Gather reference materials and extract the elements that seem characteristic of the motif and incorporate them into your design.

• When the motif is an angel, it has wings and an angel’s halo, and the image colors are white and gold.
• When the motif is a devil, it has bat wings and a tail, and the image colors are black and red.

As described above, you can get a more clear image associated with the character by deciding an image color and a motif.

Let’s create visuals with a face, a hairstyle, a costume, and belongings, etc.

Combine the collected materials and ideas to decide on a visual design.

By combining multiple materials and elements in detail, you can create a truly unique design.

List up for about three ideas, and then choose the design that best fits your image.

Let’s express the character’s personality through facial expressions and features!

Facial features and expressions are important elements that greatly affect the impression of a character.

For the weak character, give them a worried look and half-closed eyes to make an insecure impression.

For the strong-willed character, give them a determined look and eyes with upturned eyelids to make a strong impression.

Combine the parts as described above to convey the character’s personality.

The character’s expression and mood will change depending on the personality you set in the profile　settings.

Let’s create a figure with details that match the character’s settings.

Besides eyes and eyebrows, you can change the image of character’s features by changing the shape of mouth and nose in a more complex way.

Try as many different combinations as you like since there are so many different patters you can create by combining these features.

Even if the character design is on the same base, the impression will change depending on whether or not makeup is used.

If you want to make the character look more matured, try darker eye shadows and lipsticks .

Especially, if the lips are clearly painted, it will make a glamorous impression and provide the character with a matured image.

On the other hand, maintaining the original skin color will give the character a natural, soft impression that leads to childlikeness.

Pay attention to the overall silhouette when designing your hairstyle.

You can emphasize a character’s silhouette by adding a flow and volume to its hair.

Think about hair length such as long, short, medium length and hair styles such as twin tails, pony tails, etc. which meet the image of your character.

Choose the texture of hair, such as straight or wavy along with the style of front hair .

If you feel that the character lacks individuality or certain elements, you can solve this problem by creating a part that symbolizes the character.

If you add a head ornament that reflects the character’s setting, the design will be more complex and original.

Chinese-style arrangement…. By emphasizing knots and ribbons, and adding braids on only one side, we have further differentiated the design from the original.

Parade costume-style arrangement…. The large ribbons and decorative hat, as well as the small ribbons added asymmetrically, make it look like a costume and make it more glamorous.

Distributor-style arrangement… I added rabbit-ear headphones and a microphone, as well as a rabbit-hair elastic band, to give the image of a game set.

Again, try to pay attention to the silhouette of the head, including the decorations.

If you’re creating a fantasy world, you can also make the hair something that would never exist in real life, depending on the nature and information of the fleshed-out character.

You can make the hair burn, or make it out of water, or anything you like.

The hairstyle is a part that shows the personality of the character, so come up with different patterns and decide on the best design!

Let’s decide on the character’s body shape to give a more detailed impression of the character!

The physique of the character should be determined by silhouette, height and physical characteristics.

Soft and Gentle Impression…. Use soft lines and add volume to the lower body and chest.

Stylish impression…. Make the shoulders wider and give the character a slightly bony look. Make the arms and legs thin.

In addition, a small, slender figure gives the impression of youth, while a muscular figure gives the impression of strength and focuses on the physical, so the impression of a character can vary greatly depending on its physique.

Let’s express the character’s profession and worldview through their costume!

In terms of the elements that make up a character, clothing is a large part of the character’s physical appearance.

A character’s clothing and appearance are also important elements that reflect the worldview and historical background of the character’s world.

The character’s personality also affects how he or she dresses, so be sure to consider that as well.

It’s more effective to emphasize the volume of ribbons, skirts, and the hem of jackets, as well as the silhouette of the whole body, just like with hairstyles.

Customize your character with accessories and other items!

By adding small items and belongings, you can express the character’s personality in more detail.

If the character is a fighter, he could hold a weapon, or if he is a student, he could carry a school bag with accessories that match his character’s personality, which will better support the character’s attitude.

By paying attention to small details, the character’s visuals will be easier to understand at a glance!

Choose three colors that match the character’s theme color.

The color scheme is an important element that determines the atmosphere and impression of the final character.

If you include a lot of colors, it becomes difficult to think about how to handle and combine them, so it is easier to start with two to three colors.

Think about the impression colors will make, and first decide on the main color, sub-color, and accent color.

• Main Color: The main color. We recommend a color that best reflects the personality and impression of the character.
• Sub-color: A color that complements the main color and helps make the character more impressive. Choose a color that also harmonizes with the main color.
• Accent color: A color with a hue or saturation that is different from the main color or sub-color and is used to bring the entire design together. This color is used to emphasize certain parts of the character design.

The characters in the above illustration were designed with the theme of angels, using motifs of purity and babies, so the main color scheme is pastel, with an image of a child’s toy.

Angels also have a slightly inorganic image, so the main color is the cold impression of ice blue.

Even if the character design is exactly the same, the impression will be very different if the color scheme is changed.

The 2P color of a game is an easy-to-understand example.

Character with a cool image → Mainly cool colors

Character with a cheerful image → Mainly vitamin colors, etc.

In addition, you can aim for different psychological effects depending on the color scheme combination.

Please see the following for further tips as to color combination.

Finally, we adjust the color by looking at the lightness and darkness of the color and its saturation.

1）We added color to the ends of the hair using a color with a higher brightness than the main color of ice blue, and adjusted it so that the hairstyle, which is inspired by the bird that is a characteristic of the character, would stand out.

２）The halo is differentiated from the yellow used for the hair tie and the striped pattern of the socks by making it slightly darker, and highlights are added to give the impression that it is made of plastic.

３）The dress and loose socks are also differentiated by their brightness, and a line is added to the hem of the dress in a sub-color of yellow.

The eyes are also an important part of the character design that changes the impression.

By using a colorful palette for the face, the impression of the character becomes brighter.

The eyes are accentuated mainly with one of the three chosen colors, and the saturation is increased even more than the heart part of the breast pocket, and the main and sub colors are used a little to make the eyes stand out more, creating a complex color scheme.

Get the hang of design and create a character full of charm!

Even if you want to design a character but don’t know where to start, you can create an original character full of charm by piecing together the elements of a character in a logical way.

Once you’ve designed one character, you’ll want to try to design another character with the same world view.

As the number of characters increases, the story will also expand.

If you still can’t get your ideas together, or if you can come up with a setting but get stuck at the drawing stage, please consider enrolling in a school.
At the Illustration and Manga School egaco, professional instructors will support you from the drawing of characters to the stage of turning your ideas into reality!

Please use these tips on character design to design your own attractive original characters.