Guide:Character Design

On this page you can learn some basics for designing characters that feel appropriate to Weissblatt's style.

Basics

If there is one guiding principle to follow during character design, it's that audience perception is key. Make sure that your characters are unique and intuitively communicate a clear concept (ideally) from their appearance alone. Some helpful tips may include:

• Black out your character to see if they have a unique, recognizable silhouette. Try drawing them in different positions to see if they can retain their uniqueness.
• Keep it simple: Can you draw a crude yet recognizable version of your character within 30 seconds? How about after you haven't looked at them for a day?
• Let your influences inform your character's design: Where does your character come from? Do they prefer functional or extravagant clothing? Are they sloppy? There are many ways to convey character visually. If your intuition fails you, research various ideas and aesthetics until you find what you wanted to do all along.

Animation, expression and posture

Remember that Weissblatt's characters are designed to be animated. You're going to need to draw this character many, many times:

• Get a clear idea for how to break your character down into simple shapes like cubes, cones spheres or tubes and how to maintain consistent proportions.

• Provide guidelines for posture and expressions of your character. Define how they act and not just how they look.

Types of characters

Furries

Furries are planet Weissblatt's equivalent to humans - they are (usually) bipedal and act and talk in a human-like manner. There are no (natural) humans on planet Weissblatt. As the line between human and non-human characters can be blurred within fantasy media, we provided a guide as to what species are generally appropriate for furries:

When deciding on a species for your character, follow their personality and background. This doesn't have to be a canonical reason - it may also be to evoke e.g. historical or mythological ideas. But ask yourself: What does it tell the audience when character X is a Fox/Elephant/Lizard/etc.?

Cross-species transformations are currently undecided:

• Natural/intuitive transformations (such as a worm character turning into a butterfly upon enlightenment) are fine.
• (TBA)

Furry characters follow the rubber hose style. Their torsos are usually constructed from "Disney beans" - bean-like shapes made from two spheres (one for the shoulders and one for the pelvis). An adult furry character's height is usually proportioned as three heads tall for illustrations and two heads tall for toonier depicitions such as in-game sprites and playable 3D models.

WIP notes

- Bipedal rubberhose Characters (ex: Chimera)
-> Species is derived from character (Aesop)
->> Intuition is key. Make their themes readable
-> Body shapes may vary.
->>Keep your characters unique and interesting
- Spirits are feral
- Feral animals allowed.

- Character Carnivores allowed*
-> Cross-species characters: Cannibalism
-> Feral animals: Animal cruelty (, phrenology?)
-> Delfid: Soul of deceased must be honored.

Feral characters

Feral characters are more animal-like - they generally also look and act like animals.

Spirits are (visually speaking) feral characters.

Weissblatt character are