Character Design - Silhouettes

[timmi]

i just want to design a few characters for my portfolio but before starting the next steps...i want ask you if these sillouhettes are strong enough to build a character on??? (these are sketches for herotype-like character)

[Hitsu//San]

Yes you can do it but it's going to be a mess. Silhouettes are meant to be completely filled-like with strong edges. You are not doing silhouettes here cause you are trying to create a design, it's like your brain is fighting with your hand and your insecurity is making you doing all that fancy and random strokes that are useless. Try to use a huge brush with a square like shape to do those kind of thing maybe with 90 or maximum 80% of opacity and draw the shape of your hero, not the form, think about the pose maybe but do not refine it. The next step is much more complicated and if you're having an hard time to achieve this first then is going to end really bad with a lot of frustration. Just go with one step at the time

[timmi]

thanks a lot for the great help..i´ll keep that in mind for my next approach :-) and you´re right i try to draw the form too much instead of the shape

[timmi]

is this the right direction???

[Hitsu//San]

I think you've picked the wrong brush but seems more natural like this isn't it?

[Redystra]

Personally I think you're heading in the right direction for silhouettes.

Here's a video tutorial from Feng Zhu about Character Silhouettes, this should help you some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yKxY0KKrak

[timmi]

Yeah it's more natural !thanks again for the great help!the feng zhu video is also great and very helpuf aswell.again all your tips were very helpful!i'll keep up posting my drawings and try to follow your tips...

[timmi]

you were right i took the wrong brush so i changed it...here are some examples with the new brush

[Hitsu//San]

Oh much more cool like this i'm glad you're going right.

[timmi]

thanks!and thank you for the great tips again, they took these drawings a step forward...

[Stelladia]

I really like how look your last silhouettes with the new brush and speacially the creature silhouette. I really would like to see them when you have finished the concept.

[timmi]

thanks a lot hope you like these if not please crtitique...
i convert one of my sillhouettes into linedrawing and gave them a first rendering and colourscheme

[Hitsu//San]

Timmi, if you're not sure about your strokes and you keep guessing putting all those lines randomly to create a shape how would you persuade someone with your design? You're the first who's not sure about that drawing, how can we be sure about it?

When you do this step of linedrawing sketching make a new layer, set the old layer to 20-30% opacity and draw a clean linedrawing design on top of that. After you have the clean design then you can think about colors or whatever.

[timmi]

Timmi, if you're not sure about your strokes and you keep guessing putting all those lines randomly to create a shape how would you persuade someone with your design? You're the first who's not sure about that drawing, how can we be sure about it?

When you do this step of linedrawing sketching make a new layer, set the old layer to 20-30% opacity and draw a clean linedrawing design on top of that. After you have the clean design then you can think about colors or whatever.

i got a question regard to that: i´m not sure of what to choose, because i´ve seen a lot of designs made with brush only so colour painted immediately, no linework at all. Others with clean linedrawing and colour was filled in later...i´m not quiet sure what is the best way to get a great design.

Thanks again for your help!!!

[Hitsu//San]

The best way to get a great design is to do what's the best for you. If you're terrible at designing directly with colors (like me) then you have to design in another way. That's it.

There are differences though, delivering a design for a 3d model made with muddy strokes and confuses line it's completely wrong and a waste of time (your client time and the 3d modeler time) cause if you have to build a model you need to see exactly where things are and how they connect so in this case the best choice is a super tight linedraw (there's one of those of mine in a thread called Reptile Beings here on Ent Design, it's not the best thing obviously but it will give you an idea of what i'm talking about).

In cases when you need to find and explore your drawings to get up to a nice final design then any other technique is fine, just make sure it's clear and readable if you're going to share or submit to anyone cause if it's unreadable or unclear everyone is going to ask you what's going on with that (and they are going to think that's a crap). If it's just for you to help you get to a final result then it's completely fine do to whatever you want and need an maybe you can share that too with the final result to let the others see how you got that last beautiful design.

So the final answer is: it depends but make sure it's clear and readable.

[Davver]

I have to partly agree and disagree with HitsuSan.

Of course there are multiple ways to get a good character design and it totally depends on what you prefer. However, you will not be able to find that way you like or even come up with your own workflow if you don't try out a ton of them.

So first things first: Before you start thumbnailing, think about what you are designing. What type of character is he, what time period is he from, what is his professions,...
You need some sort of direction before you start. And since (i believe) you do not have to do this for a game or movie where somebody else already thought of all that, it is your job to come up with that.

This is a good example of where artists part ways, because unlike HitsuSan I would completely scrap those silhouettes in pure black.
The silhouette is super important when it comes to a character design. However, if you start only with that outline first I find that I come up with a ton of really cool shapes, but i don't really know what those shapes are. So i have to go in and think of actually working things that make up the silhouette. I'm basically doing all the work twice. Another thing is that in the industry you will most likely have to present your progress to at least your art director or even worse someone that doesn't know anything about art and they will have no clue what to do with these silhouettes.
Instead I prefer designing a character with a pretty thick brush and high opacity.
Now I'm not saying do not do thumbnails, in fact, do a ton of them but do them really small and actually think of what you are drawing. Focus on a good silhouette but also think of what the character is wearing, like belts, straps, shoulder plates, hats whatever it is you are designing. Cause the thumbnail phase is where you think the most.

If you prefer to do rough versions and your art director is cool with it, then do it! It will help you get the juices flowing and narrow your design down slowly until you can present a detailed line drawing and rendering.
I'm citing Jon Tucci: "Good design is all about the process. Designers today often forget about its importance."
No one goes from nothing straight to a finished detailed line drawing. (Although sometimes you might get lucky).

But HitsuSan is right, try to make it as clear as possible, especially if this character is going to be modeled, everywhere you cheat or bullshit something is going to cost you time later because you are gonna have an angry modeler and more work since you probably have to fix it.

Cool Silhouettes and I think you have some cool ideas, keep em coming!

[Jason Ross]

When I see that hat with those eyes I immediately think of this.

[Hitsu//San]

@Davver: I've never said to not do thumbnails to research a design in fact that's the first thing we talked about at the beginnings of the topic, we where talking about how to move a design from thumbs into something more elaborate.

[Davver]

@HitsuSan: Oh, sorry man I might've not been clear in that point that wasn't meant to confirm your point of doing thumbnails and not opposing you. I just wanted to emphasize doing thumbnails with details instead of just solid silhouette thumbs.

[timmi]

@hitsuSan&Davver:thank you guys for your GREAT advices and tips!!!(...helps a lot)
I´ll internalize them