The "Whoa! Your drawing of * kinda looks like **!" issue...

[BadGeometry]

I'm finding it difficult as an character artist to create a unique human character. Something the won't make people go "Whoa! She totally looks like Rikku from FFX!" or "He reminds me of Robin Hood" for instance. For whatever reason, this comment always burns me up, and I know the viewer isn't doing it intentionally. It's sort of a knee-jerk reaction that just happens (I've been guilty of it myself).

I dunno. How do you guys feel about that? Am I wasting my time in worrying if other people will make connections between my characters and already established ones?

[daveneale]

I think that the only way to progress is through learning from others....and if you do that then you’re bound to have some traits that reflect those influences. I think once you've learnt what you can from people, you then go on to develop your style, but there is so much out there that there's inevitably gonna be someone who is similar to you. It's not a bad thing....for example all the old masters have a style that’s (broadly) similar (I'm not gonna pretend I'm hugely knowledgeable on the subject, but when I look at a Michelangelo its pretty similar to a Da Vinci-[I hope I don’t get roasted for saying that:P]), but these guys had they’re own style, they just learnt from each other. The other thing is people tend to lump in stuff with broad strokes. Cartoony-it looks like that comic they read once, gothic-oh its totally Burton, scratchy inks-its Steadman, truth is people like to show they know a bit about what your doing so they'll make the comparison even if its just a broad one.

[Randis]

maybe you intend to create a unique character but yourstyle or idea is to much inspired by other work?
if you were the creater of... let's say Hell boy or Micky Mouse, i think those are very unique.

It is really hard to find unique game characters as most studios never aim to create something really new, they rather stick to working and popular concepts. Giving the hero a red jacked will not make him unique, character creation is more then just clothing.

[Elwell]

if you were the creater of... let's say Hell boy or Micky Mouse, i think those are very unique.

Actually, Mickey was just Oswald the Rabbit with round ears:
203196
And Oswald was Felix the Cat with long ears and clothes:
http://www.everwonder.com/david/felixthecat/gallery/circ1.gif

[kev ferrara]

And Felix the Cat is based on Betrand Russel!

[EruditeBadger]

The mind likes to categorize things. So it lumps things together that it finds shares some characteristic. Just because they say it looks like something doesn't necessarily mean it does, it just means they find something within your character that triggers something in their head that reminds them of past experience.

[Seedling]

And Felix the Cat is based on Betrand Russel!


*roflmao*

[Randis]

Actually, Mickey was just Oswald the Rabbit with round ears:
203196
And Oswald was Felix the Cat with long ears and clothes:
http://www.everwonder.com/david/felixthecat/gallery/circ1.gif

haha my knowledge about micky seems to be very limited

[JL.Alfaro]

dont draw chars based on existing ones. and If you draw manga/anime- your screwed cause they all look the fuknsame

[Infinit]

there is a theorie about that called "post modernism"
which says that everything one can create has already been done and that therefore we can't do anything else but run in circles by recreating everything over and over again

but imo that is BULLSHIT ^____^
keep drawing and your own style will find to you

[DavePalumbo]

After thousands of years of history and visual story telling, I do think it's, at the least, a superhuman task to invent a look or character design which bears no resemblance to anything anybody has ever seen before. Why should it bother you? You can look at the work of any of your favorite artists and trace back influences and similarities (conscious or otherwise) to the work of other artists, cultures or people throughout history, nature, etc. Besides that, any successful character design should make you think of something familiar at least a little bit because it has to convey information on who/what/why and all that for the character. If you look at a character and can't relate him/her to anything, it's going to be difficult to relate to and understand that character.

Think about how many hugely successful characters are just direct copies of previous stories and ideas. Indiana Jones, for example, is completely and intentionally derivative of many pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s, and how cool is Indiana Jones? Or how about costumed heroes? Hell, the entire superhero genre wouldn't even exist without Superman setting the mold.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel here, just build it as well as you can. As the saying goes, art is not created in a vacuum. Outside influences are not only your friend, they're necessary.

[Bowlin]

As the saying goes, art is not created in a vacuum. Outside influences are not only your friend, they're necessary.

Well that just floored me. After discussing in that thread about memory vs reference. Sounds like another way of saying, "it has to relate to be believable".

[kev ferrara]

I think you have to be tuned in to everything to pick up on "what's next". Sometimes what's next is something that could've been thought of a hundred years ago. Sometimes, it never could have been made before today.

Can you imagine Hellboy without Indiana Jones "pulp-ifying" Nazis and popularizing esoteric Nazism? Then again, there's been about forty thousand sci-fi nazi stories. And Hellboy, he's just Lou Grant meets The Devil, right? Did Men In Black come first, or Hellboy? Or is it all based on Cronenberg's Scanners? Or all based on the actual Manhattan Project and the OSS?

There once was no Superman. No Tarzan. No Popeye. Those characters pop out of a whole milieu, they are metaphors for entire waves of thought or History.

All to say, pay attention to more than comics. Read widely, in stuff that you never gave a crap about. Take a thing everybody knows and combine it with something nobody knows. Choose twenty words from the dictionary and randomly pair them up. Read the works of Edward DeBono and his creativity courses. Get random!

kev

[Duq]

One important thing about character design is being able to understand what actually tells the character story. You grew up with certain associations for whats good and bad and that shows through in your designs. For example alot of the standard Disney badguys exist of alot of triangle shapes, have something arabian in them, and they have a weird twitch that looks like they are smelling poo.

In the end it is not all the detailing that make your character, but its the associations that your target audience make based on general shapes and gestures in your design. And although a completely new and original design would be awesome, if your audience cant make associations it will fail.

I personally think that one way to stay fresh is to follow the fashion industry. Those people determine what society's taste could be like in the coming years. By experimenting with next years shapes your design works will still be interesting, everyone will associate with it, but they are not sure why yet.

[StarrTheInsane]

Probably the most challenging thing I've had to deal with lately was over a seemingly simple assignment. "Create a cartoon character that will continue to be used for the duration of the course."

I didn't want to copy standard cookie cutter cartoons. I had plenty of good ideas, but as I read ahead to further assignments I found that my characters couldn't be used for the lessons because they were missing parts. I had this cute little baby yuan-ti/naga that I wanted to develop...but one of the lessons was centered around feet and legs and walking...
I decided "what about that cool little alien that I drew a few years back? He deserves to be the center of my attention for this class." He doesn't have a mouth...one of the assignments coming up revolves around the character's mouth being used in facial expressions... I couldn't justify giving him a mouth just to make him fit the formula. It would change the whole character.

What I eventually decided to do was "Forget the formula! I'm drawing Llamm (that's the alien) and I'm drawing him the way he is. If he's not good enough to be a cartoon character just because he doesn't fit the formula, then there are plenty of popular anti-cartoons out there he can join."

The professor actually liked Llamm and said that it is perfectly fine that he doesn't have a mouth. I can work through the assignments with him and develop his expression in different ways.

I envy Spongebob Squarepants. As far as designing a cartoon based around a creature, how much more obscure could you get without being entirely unknown? Everyone's got mice, ducks, rabbits, cats, dogs....typical stuff. This is the first time porifera had a commercial presence as something besides a cleaning product. I'm fairly certain no one's going to touch that idea again.

[pvrhye]

I'd say it's impossible. With enough time you could show me a photograph of someone and I'd find someone who looks like them. As long as the character's identity isn't overshadowed by the similarity it isn't an issue.

[Darktwin]

After thousands of years of history and visual story telling, I do think it's, at the least, a superhuman task to invent a look or character design which bears no resemblance to anything anybody has ever seen before. Why should it bother you? You can look at the work of any of your favorite artists and trace back influences and similarities (conscious or otherwise) to the work of other artists, cultures or people throughout history, nature, etc. Besides that, any successful character design should make you think of something familiar at least a little bit because it has to convey information on who/what/why and all that for the character. If you look at a character and can't relate him/her to anything, it's going to be difficult to relate to and understand that character.

Think about how many hugely successful characters are just direct copies of previous stories and ideas. Indiana Jones, for example, is completely and intentionally derivative of many pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s, and how cool is Indiana Jones? Or how about costumed heroes? Hell, the entire superhero genre wouldn't even exist without Superman setting the mold.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel here, just build it as well as you can. As the saying goes, art is not created in a vacuum. Outside influences are not only your friend, they're necessary.

couldn't have summed it up better myself, well put Dave ;)

[love Rx]

dont draw chars based on existing ones. and If you draw manga/anime- your screwed cause they all look the fuknsame

no......

[love Rx]

is there a good free tutorial somewhere for creating original character design?

[BadGeometry]

is there a good free tutorial somewhere for creating original character design?

Perhaps maybe on the thought process you should go through when designing a character, but there's no tutorial around here about how to be creative. :P

[Farvus]

Yeah. There is no tutorial for creativity.

Maybe something like this. Those cards might help in brainstorming or thinking outside the box but they are not ready solution.
http://www.core77.com/resources/cards.asp

[ReCreate]

Constructing characters that are truely unique is extremely hard. If your aiming for a completely orginal character that will not spark an unitentional resemblance, then you present yourself with an extremely difficult challenge. There are millions of characters in the world, and most features you construct on your character will most likely already resemle somthing.

As established above, it takes a great deal of creativity to accomplish a unique concept. Good luck ;)