Creating your own Original Characters


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phantom king

-chi
Kouhai
Well, i was just going throught the General Art Topic and i find a lot of fan arts >.>, so im thinking 2 things!

1) People here have original art but dont like to show
2 )People here dont have ideas to create original characters

No offence to you guys, i know lots of you are talented Artist ^^. Well, anyway, i have 5 years of Self-thaugh experince XD, and i know i have lots oh ideas. So im gonna give you guys a tip on how to get some ideas on making your own original Characters =P.


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Tutorial/Methods
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You cant really be tolled on how to draw, you can only learn how to draw through various technics, if you know what i mean
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. There are a couple of methods i use, but these are the 2 i mainly use:-

1) Make up as i go along

This one is like a random generator, so i pretty much start by drawing a character Frame, then slowly progress to body type(slim, muscle, overweight,etc) then slowly adding facial details, then start adding hair in in a random style. Thenslowly go into the clothes, and add detail.

These one is kidda hard actually, because if you are not creative enought (like how i use to be) youll end up with a lot of clones or sibling characters.

2) Inspired! Now go make your own!

This method is whenever i look at sometime that look cool! and i thauh, heh, im gonna try making someone similiar! You have be Careful using this method, you can sometimes end up with a rip off.

So im gonna use an example for this part. ok so lets use Mitsurugi(Soul Calibur)

Lets say i love Mitsurugi so much i want to create my own Samurai character, what i would usually do is research on more Samurai characters! Rather then using Mitsurugi as my only Reference or inspiration, im gonna maybe google 'Anime samurai' (not sure what you might find) then look throught other designs, and art of Samurai, expand your creative library!

Then when you have look throught enought(maybe 4-7 i would recommend), try to look at all of them, think what do they share in common, what do they have that are unique or different from each other, what are some charatheristics that make them stand out from each other, what dont all of them have. Branching from these ideas, you can slowly, make up your own character.


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Those are the 2 main methods i use to start creating original characters (mainly the first one) They've help me come a long way. I hope it can help you too! Have fun creating your own characters ^^

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My history
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Just if some of you are intersted on how i got started =P

I started drawing in 2002, when i was 12. I Originally started out by drawing Dragon Ball Z fan art (mostly Goku). DBZ was the first anime i really took an interst in, also when i was watching DZ, i met a couple guys how draw anime stuff too, so i got drawn in.

I stuck to drawing DBZ characters for about half a year i think, i cant really remember, but mostly are terrible, and usually thier just standing still, facing front, terrible anotomy.

Then some day i thaugh about an idea, inspired from a movie, and Marvel heroes, and inu yasha i believe, so i start drawing randomly, adding details, and stuff, and thus my first character was created.

One of my Drawing in 2003
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now in 2008
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This is to tell you that you cant draw perfect Japanese Style Charaters overnight, it will take some time to learn. If you truly want to get into it, then i suggest you get into it now, and never get out of it, for once you get out, itll be hard to get back into it.

Happy Creating ^^

EDIT: I dont seem to be getting anyrespondse, but there are views, if you guys read through the whole tutorial, can you guys give me a feedback on weahter or not this is help please? Maybe i can Add things to make it better? Thanks ^^
 
It's one thing to create a character, but another to breethe life into them. Have you ever tried talking to a novelist vs. a graphic novelist. Well to tell you the truth, there so damn similar it's crazy, but it ussually does not start with your drawing but with your story and how your character is both unique and alive in it, and once you have that, you get a sense of what your character should look like. I just thought maybe instead of just focussing on the art, you should also explain why a character is unique besides just thier design. If any anime character has no (well personal emotional character) then they would just be a face without a name. I inspire to be a mangaka, somone who writes scripts for graphic novels, no drawing, just the writing part.
 
Looks so promising... it'll give me something to aim for over the summer. Maybe, I'll get good enough to like... er... make something spectacular and to make a character for Damien Stryker... lol... a namesake character that I wrote in a fanfiction but didn't breathe life into.
 
QUOTE (EricAnimeFreak @ Jun 14 2008, 04:48 PM)It's one thing to create a character, but another to breethe life into them. Have you ever tried talking to a novelist vs. a graphic novelist. Well to tell you the truth, there so damn similar it's crazy, but it ussually does not start with your drawing but with your story and how your character is both unique and alive in it, and once you have that, you get a sense of what your character should look like. I just thought maybe instead of just focussing on the art, you should also explain why a character is unique besides just thier design. If any anime character has no (well personal emotional character) then they would just be a face without a name. I inspire to be a mangaka, somone who writes scripts for graphic novels, no drawing, just the writing part.

Thats actaully really good! I didnt thought of that! . Ill add that to it :3
 
hi ur such a good animator but sometimes my mom asking me why are u always drawing it cannot help to ur studiying but i know when i grow up my wishes came true to be a good animator and im going to the country where jade ong is
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