When it comes to developing a character, character design in animation plays a crucial role. Unfortunately, it is often an overlooked aspect of character creation, even by seasoned authors. The problem is people mainly just focus on personality, the journey, narrative, the dynamics of a character with other characters, and things like that. Obviously, those are all very important things but if you are giving little to no attention to character design, you are not doing a good job as a creator, flushing out important visual concepts. Here is why character design is important.
Character design can aid you in giving the audience a clear idea of your character even without having to say anything or relying on the dialogues or their action. It just helps really round out this feeling that you are presenting out, subverting, intentionally confusing, or obscuring a character. You can do the opposite too. You can withhold details or only give pieces of information—and this will have the opposite effect.
Consequences of Poor Character Design
When you are not emphasizing enough on character design, your audience tends to get lost or characters blur together. Multiple characters, especially side characters, are not memorable or distinct enough for the audience. This often happens in many other aspects of an animation as well where people complain about bad setting, poor dressing, forests blending together in a frame, or all the rooms looking the same. We see this a lot in action, superhero-type stories where things that are more focused on the events rather than the characters. There are a lot of different characters but they are almost like if someone hit the randomizer button on or pulled a bunch of attributes out of a bag and slapped them onto one character with random belts, goggles, and weird hairstyles. It almost seems like any collection of traits could have worked just as well on a particular character. It’s not appealing at all and it certainly doesn’t make them more interesting.
How to ensure a Good Character Design
Now, what makes a good character design? Ideally, all the characters should be unique and have their own identity. The visuals should fit them completely and viewers should not feel that a lot of them are out of place. Character designing is a time consuming process and takes a lot of time and patience to create 1 unique character also to establish it among the audience so that they can relate to the character. Nothing should seem like slapped on and attributes, characteristics should not feel like they are afterthoughts. Knowing the fundamentals of character design and using the right techniques are important to make a good character memorable. The viewers should be able to recognize and get a clear idea about what kind of character they are looking at. As an animation expert, you need to be able to feed all of the information to the viewers upfront even if they are not being told. It might be subconscious or something you’re not necessarily focused on. Dealing with a story alongside these elements is where your expertise is tested. When you have these skills, it clicks instantly. Everything lends to the truth of the character and builds on that. It doesn’t seem like something is jarring or grating against viewers’ expectations.
Final Thoughts
Character design is an important aspect of storytelling and character creation that should not be overlooked. It is what separates a good animation professional from an expert who knows the fundamentals very well. If you are looking to outsource character design services, you can consider hiring dedicated animation artists in India who are carrying the necessary skills and experience to offer you the best solutions for your project. When you hire a dedicated animation artist from a well reputed organization, it erases all your worries and help in achieving your business targets also increases the overall productivity.
Why Outsource Animation Work to India
Character design plays a crucial role in animation and storytelling. When you are not focusing on character design, your characters become blur or forgettable. This has become a growing trend and there are a lot of companies in the US, UK, and other countries that are outsourcing their animation work to India. It provides them with a variety of benefits. Outsourcing is the best option available right now when you want good quality work in a tight budget. Nowadays, market is full of various outsourcing service providers providing remote resources but you have to be very careful and find the best outsourcing partner for your organization. In addition to getting access to a large pool of talented individuals offering top-notch services, you can take advantage of competitive pricing.
Character design can aid you in giving the audience a clear idea of your character even without having to say anything or relying on the dialogues or their action.
