character design by Escapee Leroy Dias |
Character Design is an eight week evening class taught by industry veteran and Escape Studios' Head of Character Design Steve Sole.
Steve will guide students through the principles of character design, building up to an industry brief.
There is also an eight week period of aftercare at the end of the course, where students are encouraged to continue working on their portfolios, polishing their work to industry standards.
The Art of Character Design
"Mr Bean" artwork by Steve Sole |
Fundamental Principles
Students will learn the basic principles of shape design; how to achieve contrasting characters, how work towards a client brief, and how to put together a "bible" of design information.
Character Design
Character design is one of the most demanding, interesting and competitive parts of the pre-production process. Character designers work closely with the producer and director to determine the look and feel of a project. Design a character for a blockbuster project and your work can have enduring global appeal.
Where and when
Character Design Starts on Monday 21st March 2022 and runs for eight weeks. It takes place online.
Character design is one of the most demanding, interesting and competitive parts of the pre-production process. Character designers work closely with the producer and director to determine the look and feel of a project. Design a character for a blockbuster project and your work can have enduring global appeal.
Where and when
Character Design Starts on Monday 21st March 2022 and runs for eight weeks. It takes place online.
Tutor - Steve Sole
Spirit Fox by Seta Kendir |
Job Opportunities for Character Designers
Character design is one of the most competitive but also one of the most rewarding parts of the pre-production process. Studios are always on the look-out for fresh talent, scouring Tumbler sites for a fresh vision and a new look.
Successful character designers are much in demand and can also often work from anywhere in the world. Entry level positions in the industry tend to focus on more junior roles, such as designing props and sets, and making model packs for the CG modeling department.
How it Works
Designs by Stephanie Jayne-Jackson |
Homework
There is usually one homework exercise, focused on that evening's class.
Course Content
Part 1
Meet and greet, ‘walkthrough’ your main project and the course goals. Introductory exercises. Discussing the importance of research and references in creation of a considered character design.
Week 2: Creating designs with character.
Discussing the role of a character artist within the pipeline of an animated project. The value of simple succinct design, shape language, ‘cognitive bias’ and colour theory as techniques to help you create an informed idea for your designated characters ‘Hero Pose’!
Week 3: The Value of Life Drawing - Anatomy
"Damon" by Sole Westlake |
Week 4: The Value of Gesture Drawing - Acting
Exercises and discussion will help to push the importance of a solid line of action drawn through the pose, as well as highlighting the value of contour lines in the formation of a clean and clear silhouette.
Art by Steve Sole |
colour and tone to best reflect the personality of our characters.
Week 6: Pushing your expressions
Walking through Tips and Tricks like ‘The Mask’ technique, identifying angles of the skull to help place the head in space along with a discussion on EYEBROWS (NOT A MAKE UP LESSON) all to aid the student in putting together a plan for their expression sheet.
Week 7: Contrasting Characters.
Now that we have established a style for one of your characters, it would be great to see how this treatment can be employed in a new character from the same narrative, and place the two together in a situation - employing many of the skills discussed previously in the course.
"Sophia" by Ariel Shalem |
Week 8 : Presentation of Character Packs and Discussing your own Character Based Project.
You will each have 5 - 10 mins to walk us through your character packs which will be followed by a questions and answer section with the group. The second half of this lesson shall focus on your plans for the self directed/online mentoring aspect of the course - what ideas would you like to explore further during this time and how do you plan to tackle the task.
Part 2 Self Directed study and online mentoring.
Online mentoring will continue for a further 8 weeks via the Discord group introduced in week one - Students will utilise techniques taught across the previous lessons in order to explore their own ideas and flesh out their portfolio.
Once the month is over, students pitch their final projects.
Cat Design by Escapee Aimee Schiele |
Skills
We are looking for students with a passion to draw, design and create characters. Character design necessarily includes a certain level of competence as a draughtsman, so we look for drawing skills as a good starting point.
Photoshop
Some basic knowledge of Photoshop is useful, but any digital art software will do. For students who like to work on paper, it helps to have access to a digital scanner, but many students use their phones to take pictures of their work and upload these to the online Classroom.
Cat by Rafaella Colasuonno |
Video taster
To get an idea of what's involved, watch the free video below, a brief introduction to the art and craft of character design. The webinar is about the general principles of character design, and also shines a light on the creation of the characters in Queen's Counsel, the cartoon strip that I have been writing and drawing in The Times newspaper since 1993.
To see more about the character design course, read this post.
Recommended Reading
Steve Sole |
We recommend these books for learning the art of character design:
1. How to Draw and Paint Crazy Cartoon Characters: Create Original Characters with Lots of Personality Paperback – March 1, 2007 - by Vincent Woodcock
2. Creating Characters with Personality: For Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels by Tom Bancroft.
Official Course Page
To see the official course page, follow this link.
Character Design at Escape Studios
To find out more about character design at Escape Studios, follow the links below:
The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link. To apply for our storyboarding evening class, visit this page here. For the next 12 week animation course, click here.
"Coffee Guy" by Natalya Ropova |
To find out more about character design at Escape Studios, follow the links below:
- Four week Intensive Character Design Course with Sam Nassour
- The Art of Considered Character Design with Steve Sole
- Character Design Student Showcase
- "Animation Bibles" Student Showcase
- Character Creation Student Showcase
The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link. To apply for our storyboarding evening class, visit this page here. For the next 12 week animation course, click here.
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