CG Artist Toolkit- Character Design: 'Proportions & Shape PT. 1'

Character Design often means thinking about the proportion of a character... and how to leave these subtle hints to their role, for the view to  unconsciously pick up, when fathoming whether someone is a 'protagonist'... or someone completely different (i.e. a mentor, an ingenue or perhaps the villain). 

Some eye opening things for me was the idea of using shape not as a whole part of the design itself, but rather... something to aspire to for different parts of that character.

You also find with characters, particularly nowadays, they can hardly be considered 'black' or 'white'. 

The exercise of taking an existing character (my choice being Russel, from Pixar's 'UP'), and pushing the design to different forms & shapes, helped show that... although Russel is almost the physical embodiment of a circle.... he also has the spikes in his hair, the triangular ended scarf (though this has been obviously rounded off), the cheekbone (though softened again by the fat), and other aspects of personality that lead to a richer character.  

Russel's design encapsulates vitality. A young child, excited and curious. A part of the story that contrasts greatly with Mr. Fredrickson's own lost sense of youth, having lost the source of that adventure, in Ellie. 

1

For the first few drawings, I'd made that mistake of pushing the designs too much to these extremes.

As stated by Justin, the designs all look like a separate cast of scouts... all different characters, perhaps, even, from the same family.

 Despite this though... I found it a useful way of understanding the character, and how I could go about changing his design. 

My next drawings are too subtle. 

The trick is to keep the character himself, as he was originally portrayed... but hint at a different extension of personality that hadn't been their before, possibly.

It's tricky.

Though certainly fun to do. 

 As shown by Justin, Russel does have a point in his chin, but this is mostly obscured by the fat around his cheeks.
I had, as you'd probably noticed with my first designs, forced him onto the 'Weight Watchers' diet to get the more angular, more squarish features of his face, and design.
However, the point is his face isn't square. The first page had me drawing his with a squashed, stretched face... quite rectangular.
But in actuality his face is still relatively round, with a point where his face lifts into a smile.
In trying to change him, I hadn't kept enough of his design for him to be considered 'Russel', anymore.
This needs more work.
Until I'm happy with the concept, I'll keep working on observing any existing characters I can find.