CGMA – Fundamentals Of Character Design
Fundamentals Of Character Design with Ahmed Aldoori : An 8-week course for building foundational skills necessary for the design of appealing characters in film, games, animation, comics, and more
Design your character’s personality
This is a beginning character design course with an emphasis on creating memorable characters with interesting personalities & shapes to tell a story. The goal is to visually communicate our characters from life observations, reference, and our imaginations. As we continue the course, the students will get used to the idea of iteration and refinement in designs, better serving the story and direction. Exploration, getting out of your comfort zone, and visually communicating through drawing will be major components to our class.
COURSE FORMAT: Standard
LECTURE TYPE: Pre-recorded
FEEDBACK: Individual recordings
DURATION: 8 weeks
MATERIALS: Photoshop (or equivalent) and Wacom tablet (or equivalent), sketchbook, pens & pencils, and scanner or camera to scan or photograph homework assignments
SKILLS LEVEL: Intermediate
PREREQUISITES: Dynamic Sketching 1 & 2 and Analytical Figure Drawing, or drawing portfolio review required
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
The more you know, the better.
Week 1 | Creating Volume and a Solid Foundation
Tools for the class: Your Brain, your attitude, and art supplies | Sketchbook as a journal and methodology (look draw) | Brief overview of the keys to drawing with volume. | Foreshortening, placement, shading, surface, size, contour, overlap, density, horizon, shadow, You-nique, Practice, and attitude.
Week 2 | Finding the Character Through Gesture
Character-gesture | What is a gesture, how to go about finding one, and why it’s important to your character.
Week 3 | Design and the Language of Shapes
The idea behind shapes | How shapes define silhouettes | Understanding how the outside shell reflects what’s inside the character.
Week 4 | Balance in Design
Line Weight | Symmetry vs. Asymmetry | Flow of Lines | Busy to Simple | Balance in Contrast | Balance in Color | Actual Balance | Artist Balance
Week 5 | Building Relationships
How design decisions relate to each other. | To story, to self, to shape, to page | Positive negative space, props and cloth, archetypes
Week 6 | Expressive!
Expressing yourself, hands, feet, eyes, and mouth
Week 7 | Tonal Focus
Finding the Values in your Art | When thinking about contrast, visual communication is key | How do you show your design off in the best way possible?
Week 8 | Colors
Color Theory and design decisions for your character | Remaining conscious of your color choices to reflect your characters’ feelings and how you want your audience to react to them | Thinking in Local colors first
