Character Design: a new Process and its Application in a Trading Card
Game
Jo
˜
ao Ramos da Silva Filho
∗
Liandro Roger Mem
´
oria Machado
†
Natal Anacleto Chicca Junior
‡
Artur de Oliveira da Rocha Franco
§
Jos
´
e Gilvan Rodrigues Maia
¶
Federal University of Ceará,
Virtual University Institute, Brazil
Figure 1: Stages of the proposed character design process (a). Candidate sketches for exploring variations (b). In this case, the product consists
in a character for a Trading Card Game (c).
ABSTRACT
Creating characters is a practice which origin is closely related to
aspects of human society such as myths and religion. The creation
of characters has become an important process not only for visual
and literary arts but it is undoubtedly an important process for the
entertainment industry. Character Design as utilized in the industry
is a process that occurs alongside with other background processes.
Products developed by adopting these process are bound to many
specifications and different medias. Unfortunately, most develop-
ments on such processes are restricted to companies that typically
display a distant or superficial relationship with the academy. This
usually prevents further analysis and subsequent optimization of
these processes. This work proposes a Character Design process
conceived for a wide range of applications. We applied the pro-
posed process in a case study where the final product is a set of
card illustrations for a Trading Card Game prototype inspired by
Brazilian myths.
Keywords: Character design, concept art, processes, trading card
game.
1 INTRODUCTION
Character Design has been an important part of human society since
ancient times. The advent and dissemination of myths and legends
inspired society throughout centuries with characters that instigated
∗
e-mail: joaofilho[email protected]
†
e-mail: [email protected]
‡
e-mail: [email protected]
§
e-mail: arturoli[email protected]
¶
e-mail: gilv[email protected]
the innermost feelings of people [1]. Through developing a system
of storytelling, people started to create characters as transcenden-
tal beings that personify ideas which inspired and influenced the
upcoming generations of human society in many different ways.
As technology advanced, a multitude of media to demonstrate
and propagate ideas were created as time passed and cultures
evolved. Characters of different cultures have different visual repre-
sentations in different medias and, because of that, creating original
character design might be very difficult [17] [14] [7]
Designing a good game or movie character requires more than
only having an idea nowadays. In order to create a coherent and
consistent character design an artist needs to consider the many re-
strictions and to develop a suitable work method. Accomplishing
this task requires more than only knowing how to represent things
graphically.
Unfortunately, there are few academic books and articles about
Character Design. As this task is an inherent part of the industry,
many artists focus on learning the processes in order to apply them
to a product instead of scrutinizing these processes and spreading
new developments in the academic field [4] [8]. In fact, there is
plenty of informal material about design processes on the Web
1 2
3
while their academic counterpart is scarce or outdated.
Moreover, in the few references we could find in the present in-
vestigation, most works focus on the technique over the process
[16], or solely on the concept behind the design [9], or even revolve
around the product itself [10].
In this paper, we present a new character design process. These
are our main contributions:
• We propose and describe, in detail, a character design process
which unifies technique and concept. This process and the
1
http://www.gamasutra.com/
2
http://www.ign.com/
3
http://www.kotaku.com/
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547
results from experimentation are shown in Figure 1.
• We demonstrate the use of the proposed process in a case
study.
The remaining of this paper is organized as follows. Background
definitions about character design and its underlying production
processes are covered in Section 2. The proposed character design
process is introduced in detailed throughout Section 3 and then it is
assessed through a case study whose development occurred adopt-
ing the proposed process, as described in Section 4. Finally, con-
clusions about this work and its future research opportunities are
discussed in Section 5.
2 BACKGROUND
Historically, the human mind tries to fill the blank spaces of reality
with the fantastic and the supernatural [14] [1]. Therefore, myths
were created with the purpose to explain natural phenomenon or hu-
man condition and the myths ended up becoming a part of society,
creating traditions and festivals. These cultural elements became
stories that were passed from one generation to another, creating
what William J. Thorns, under the pseudonym of Ambrose Merton,
called folk-lore, the knowledge of the people [13].
The influence of the supernatural in the human society modeled
the way people act and live. In no time, monsters and gods that once
were in temples and forests migrated to video games and movies,
which helped to popularize the various legends and mythologies
around the world [7] [14].
2.1 Creating Stories
Pagan stories suffered big losses due to competition with the dom-
inant religions at the time and also ignorance, but arts have en-
countered a way to save some aspects from pagan religions. On
the twentieth century, the entertainment industry rises with great
books, movies and specially games productions and many of those
get mythological context and aesthetics, like the modern game God
of War
R
or the books, movies and games about Middle Earth [6]
[12] [2].
Stories that inspire people, however, are not made without an
element which people can relate to. This element is commonly a
character. According to Bartlett [1], gods and goddesses described
in myths are a representation of feelings and situations that people
can correlate to. Personificating a concept turns the divine under-
standable and close to humanity.
Nowadays, reaching the divine is not the main focus of most
stories, but the fantastical element still resides there. This element
is used to enhance the product attractiveness for a target audience
[12]. Clever usage of archetypes for constructing characters that
are both consistent and coherent also helps to increase the products
appeal for the general public [3].
Although video games were not the sole entertainment form that
contributed to spread myths around the world. In 1993, the first
Trading Card Games (TCGs) appeared, mostly due to the company
The Wizards of the Coast, which was one of the pioneers in the TCG
industry by publishing the iconic title Magic: The Gathering that
became popular worldwide. In 1999, the same company published
Pokemon - Trading Card Game, which consolidate the success of
TCGs on the market [5].
Various mythologies and cultures were spread worldwide
through different games and movies inspired by their stories. How-
ever, some cultures naturally stood out and such highlight ended up
casting a shadow over other cultures. For example, despite being
fulfilled with fascinating myths and legends, the Brazilian culture
is still unknown to most people around the world and even the coun-
try itself.
Attempts to popularize Brazilian legends and myths rarely suc-
ceeded. It is observed that the representations of those cultural traits
are not accurate and, moreover, productions are mostly targeting
children as their audience. This is noticed in the TV Show S
´
ıtio do
Picapau Amarelo, produced in 2001. However, even on successful
attempts to represent and promote Brazilian folklore, the character
design process is clearly far from being fully explored.
Comprehension about the underlying concepts that support the
product and what techniques are used to create the final product
play a key role in understanding what is character design and why
it is important for game development.
2.2 Concept Art
A draft composed by a storyline and an initial concept of how the
product will be are usually created as the first step of the game de-
velopment process. From those early ideas it comes what is known
as Concept Art or Concept Design. It is on this step where a myriad
of possibilities for the final aesthetic aspects of a game are pro-
duced, chosen and tuned [15].
Concept Art is the type of art which main focus is to represent
an idea graphically in order to help the development of a product.
[Concept art is the] art capable of translate or sell an idea, capable
of represent it in a way that a story can be read [19]. Concept Art
involves the creation of characters, environments and stories that
help to demonstrate how that idea could be implemented and in-
tegrated to the final product. Dozens of ideas and rough sketches
are typically made focusing diversity and quantity to obtain a single
satisfactory result, for example. Therefore, it is clear that this task
can benefit from adopting an adequate development process given
the enormous effort necessary to accomplish it.
Figure 2: Concept Art and its four main areas, considering the work
developed by visual artists.
According to Takahashi e Andreo [15], concept art involves dif-
ferent types of development, such as development of characters,
accessories, and environments. Those different types of design in-
serted on concept art can be separated in four main areas: Charac-
ter Design, Creature Design, Environmental Design, and Industrial
Design. These are depicted in Figure 2.
Due to the existence of a handful of other design fields that are
well known, such as Costume Design and Sound Design, this divi-
sion considers the products conceived by visual artists as it is also
commonly observed in a multitude of both job descriptions
4
and
artists blogs and portfolios
5 6 7
.
When designing a product, artists explore different possibilities
in order to make sure that the most effective and efficient choices
are being made. Exploring the possibilities requires knowledge
4
https://www.artstation.com/jobs/gNo
5
http://www.raphael-lacoste.com/
6
http://andrewdoma.blogspot.com.br/
7
http://www.robotpencil.org/
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548
about different areas. Although there are no real products being
physically produced, artists need to make all the elements in the de-
sign look as believable and compelling as possible for the general
public. Therefore, the four design areas within concept art sum-
marize the requirements for creating realistically designs applied
to the elements within the movie or game undergoing a production
process.
2.3 Character Design
The area inside Concept Art that concerns the creation of characters
is known as Character Design. It is through the Character Design
that physical and psychological characteristics are presented, giving
the character depth and making it connect with audience [14] [8].
In order to achieve a satisfactory result, a character designer needs
to do more than draw and paint a beautiful image.
According to Bryan Tillman [17] what makes a good character
design is the combination of story, narrative, archetypes, shapes,
silhouettes and aesthetics. This combination gives the character be-
ing created more than just a good look: this gives it life in order to
convince an audience and get their approval.
From the development process, character design is composed of
several stages connected to each other. Creating a character is the
same as create a living being with feelings, history, dreams, per-
sonality etc. Because of that, the artist has two different general
approaches to create a character. One is linked to the story and psy-
chological aspects of the character, while the other is focused on
the visual composition of the character. Seegmiller [14] refers to
the former approach as Storytelling while Tillman [17] refers to the
latter as Aesthetics. Both aspects are important to create a coherent
and consistent character once understanding how the character acts
and how it looks like, will facilitate the creation of several sketches
and possibilities [8] [7]. By doing so, the artist can produce faster
and more accurately than when they only focus on a single task.
Focusing only on the Storytelling approach in a product that needs
to be visual will not lead the artist further or faster, while focusing
only on Aesthetics will turn the character overly shallow.
2.4 Character Design Processes
Character Design is composed of different stages that facilitate the
efficient creation of characters. The process applied in this paper
requires a considerable amount of creativity from the artist and
that might lead to stressful situations that can prejudice the project.
Having an specific plan of how to work will not only increase the
productivity, it will also decrease the level of frustration [14]. It is
worthy to understand how stressful it can be for the artist when she
is working for a company or a client which impose hard deadlines
as well as various requirements and restrictions.
Seegmiller [14] presents a character design process composed
of five iterative steps: (1) Problem Identification, (2) Analysis and
Simplification of the Problem in which ideas are generated, (3)
Choose the Best Ideas, (4) Drawing of the Character, and (5) Eval-
uating the Results. Although these steps are logically correct and
consistent, the actual steps applied in the process may vary from
artist to artist and these may also change according to the project.
Seegmiller also states that following the 5 steps, even modified, is
almost certain that the design will be successful.
Bryan Tillman [17] describes Character Design as a combination
of different elements. These elements are the psychological and
physical aspects of the character and the story that revolves around
it. The author separates Character Design into Archetypes, Story,
Originality, Shapes and Forms, Aesthetics, and the Wow Factor.
Tillman also emphasizes how using references and thinking about
the target audience are important to create a good character design.
The steps proposed by Seegmiller comprise a work method,
while Tillman, in his turn, explores the conceptual part of the pro-
cess. Both approaches are of uttermost interest for practitioners as
these can lead to results in a more predictable fashion. However,
we advocate that there is room to improve those Character Design
processes. In short, we strive for a unified approach for Character
Design, referring to it as a process that combines appealing features
from both approaches presented by these authors.
3 PROPOSED CHARACTER DESIGN PROCESS
During the creation of a product, there are many stages of devel-
opment. It is during the first stage, when the concept of the whole
product is being created, that Concept Art takes place [15]. The vi-
sual designs of such product are obtained throughout Concept Art
and they affect directly all the other production stages.
It is important to understand that Character Design refers to an
idea instead of a style or aesthetic. Some artists use the cartoon art
style to demonstrate emotions more clearly in characters because
this specific style is based on exaggerating features and expressions
making them easier to be visually perceived. However, character
design is not bound to this art style. Moreover, an adequate Char-
acter Design process requires flexibility and has different stages or
methods that may vary from artist to artist according to the projects
requirements.
For instance, let’s examine character design applied to anima-
tions. As described in InformAnimation IP Handbook 2011 (p.109)
[18], the process of Character Design is divided into three stages:
Research and Development, Finalized Visual Design and Defining
the Performance. Each stage focus on what should be produced for
a specific part of the project. Furthermore, this process ends up be-
ing mechanized. If the reader is not careful enough, he or she might
not understand all mechanisms and processes comprising the inner
working of this process.
In order to present a method that works in different situations,
we took the 5 steps proposed by Seegmiller [14], and we expanded
them to be as inclusive and flexible as possible by also consider-
ing insights from the process proposed by Tillman [17]. For that
to come true, all processes that restrict and mold a game or movie
story need to be understood. Nonetheless, the Character Design
as we propose works with two different types of processes. Back-
ground Processes are restrictive processes, they define what course
the design should follow in order to accomplish a satisfactory re-
sult in accordance with the script or story previously defined. Fore-
ground Processes, in their turn, refer to the artists perspectives, their
work method and ability to work under restrictions.
Having that in mind, 6 steps were defined for the foreground
process or Character Design: (1) Identification and Analysis of the
problem, (2) Conceptual Research - textual references, (3) Defining
the Characters psychological aspects and (4) possible appearances
by means of Imagetic Research, (6) Sketching the Characters, (6)
Rendering the best sketches. It is expected that coherent and con-
sistent characters will come out after following these steps . As
for the background processes we have 6 elements relating to the
foreground steps: (A) Infrastructure, (B) Time, (C) Audience, (D)
Story, (E) Aesthetics, (F) Media. This is depicted by Figure 3.
3.1 Background Processes
Development of modern products involves different stages and a
handful of professionals. In products that involve the creation of a
story it is commonly required to design characters for that particular
product. A professional character designer usually works with a
team of professionals of different sectors of the company in order
to understand the needs of each sector [3] [9]. Unfortunately, this
kind of reality does not apply to every situation. When there is not
a proper communication among the development team, all people
involved might be in for a long and stressful project or it would be
a very short relationship [14].
Be it a personal project or a project in a company, creative artists
must understand that the project is not free from restraints. These
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Figure 3: The proposed character design process considers two
main aspects: Foreground processes that obey restrictions posed by
Background processes. This setup gives artists a solid work method
that helps fitting their artwork into a product.
restraints affect directly on the design of the character in order to
induce the artist to create a design that gracefully fits to the final
product. Nonetheless, these restrictions operate in the background
of any product development, hence the choice to classify them as
Background Processes.
Background and Foreground processes are intrinsically intercon-
nected since the first processes offer the base for the latter creat-
ing guidelines followed by the artists. Therefore, such character
design process strongly depends on the Background Processes be-
cause they mold what should enter or not on the final version of
the product. This avoids unnecessary development that drifts away
from the project’s goals.
In order to compose a good character whose design is coherent,
consistent and matches the purpose of a project, an artist must un-
derstand a number of different aspects of the project, in both physi-
cal and conceptual aspects. Physical aspects are related to the work
environment and technology limitation, while Conceptual aspects
relate to the abstract aspects that concern the product such as story,
audience, art style, etc. These elements will be referred as briefing.
Seegmiller [14] and Tillman [17] point several questions that an
artist should think about when coming up with a design. Although
both authors have a different approach, they point out relevant top-
ics for a Character Design in regards of the background processes.
The Briefing consists on the combination of a series of questions
envisioning the overall definition of the product being developed.
It takes in consideration the conceptual aspects divided into Story,
Audience and Aesthetics, described in the following manner.
3.1.1 Conceptual Aspects
Story. The story element provides vital information that gives
depth to the character and define its motivations. Throughout the
story is that the character gains more experience and discover valu-
able information that helps it on its goals. The element Story in-
volves not only the narrative but it also involves the scenario the
revolves the characters. Nonetheless, the element Story establishes
the characters motivations and profile provided by the narrative and
the characters visual aspects provided by the scenario. Deviate from
the story breaks the character cohesiveness within the project.
Audience. One important requirement for creating a character
is knowing to whom it will have to appeal [14]. The audience is
the public that consumes and support a certain type of product or
idea. However, the character designer does not need to appease
only the final public. The artist must design characters that satisfy
the Creative Directors, Writers, Lead Artists and whoever is leading
the project. This way, the element Audience relates not only to the
public but also the project’s producers.
Aesthetics. According to Tillman, the public looks for an ap-
pealing design. Aesthetics is the element that provide guidelines to
compose an appealing character design. Per definition, aesthetics is
associated with beauty, art and taste [17]. Therefore, it is translated
as the element inside the project that defines what art style should
be applied in the final design. Usually, this parameter is created by
Lead Concept Artists and the Art Directors, if the artist is working
for a company.
3.1.2 Physical Restraints
Infrastructure. Artists are deeply bound to their work environ-
ment. From the tools to the co-workers, every aspect of the ambient
the artist is inserted in counts. The technology used in the project
dictates until where the artist can go with complex designs. Not
all computers have enough RAM memory or video memory to sup-
port larger and detailed files. Also, Seegmiller [14] points out that
Character Designers work with 3D Modelers, Animators and Pro-
grammers, and these professionals work within limitations to make
the design presented by the Concept Artists appear in the final prod-
uct. Another element that still constrains the design and creativity is
the budget of the project. Its valid to remember that a professional
character designer does not work for free, and the company needs
to profit out of the product.
Time. Projects do not last forever, so the artist is bound to a
deadline. The time is defined by the scope of the project, the qual-
ity that is expected, and the budget. Time probably defines how
an artist will design a character, technique wise, more than other
constraints. In the industry, time is money. If the artist doesnt de-
liver the concept in time, it might cost a lot for the company and the
artists themselves.
Media. Products that make use of characters and storytelling
are usually a game, a movie, or a comic book or a product that
is related to one or more of them. Furthermore, these categories
utilize different media to host the final product. The element Media
is the parameter that defines the format in which the product will be
published. The actual design may change drastically depending on
the format.
3.2 Foreground Processes
Character Designers have different work methods to solve the same
problem. In the process of exchanging information that was in a
text or script to a graphic media, tons of ideas and sketches are
produced [2] [8]. The proposal of five steps by Seegmiller[14] for
creating a good character design assumes that work methods change
depending on the situation and the artist. Usually, artists that work
in the industry do not document their processes, and for this reason,
there are not many materials regarding this matter. Nonetheless,
the lack of proper documentation has proved to be a great barrier
for artists looking to have a better understanding of the Character
Design process.
Having that in mind, we propose a process that both modifies
the five steps proposed by Seegmiller and combines them with the
conceptual approach of Tillman, while focusing on the application
of the method instead of just explaining separated aspects of the
process. Takahashi and Andreo [15] present techniques that can be
used to create a character and different aspects that are related to
concept art and character design. However, actually, it is hard to
find proper material that gathers the different elements that com-
pose the Character Design and demonstrate or talk about how to
combine technique and concept.
Designing a character requires more than technique: it requires
learning. The process described on this paper offer a viewpoint
where technique and knowledge are combined in a cycle of learn-
ing experience. Through this cycle, artists can improve their profes-
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550
sional skills and the consistency and cohesiveness of their designs.
Using the five steps proposed by Seegmiller as a guideline, we di-
vided the process in six iterative steps: Identification and Analysis
of the problem, Conceptual Research - textual references, Defin-
ing the Characters psychological aspects and possible appearances,
Sketching the Characters, Rendering the best sketches.
3.2.1 Identification and Analysis of the problem
As the name suggests, the first stage consists on identifying and un-
derstanding a problem that corresponds to the requirements of the
character that the artist must understand in order to design it. It is
common that people rush headfirst into creating a design without
understanding the concept of it, and as result, the final design is
flawed and inconsistent [14]. Tillman [17] also states that, by creat-
ing a character without story or without knowing the basic require-
ments, the artist will have to go back and redesign it from scratch.
If this situation is applied in the context of the industry, time cannot
be wasted and such reckless behaviour would not be accepted.
Seegmiller segments this step into two different sub-steps, iden-
tifying and understanding the problem and analyzing the problem.
The former concerns with the general understanding of the ques-
tion at hands, while the latter concerns about further researching
and a breakdown of the elements in manageable pieces. Both steps
are undeniably fundamental for composing the bigger picture, the
project. On this paper, however, we decided to put both steps under
the same stage. Our objective is to describe a method instead of
giving an explanation.
To identify what the problem is and to further analyse it, the
artist needs to understand the conditions that are given to her. This
problem usually is the final objective that needs to be fulfilled. A
character creation must occur within certain parameters to influ-
ence a certain audience according to a certain art style. Therefore,
the artist must bear in mind that the real objective is to understand
and work within the limitations given by the project managers and
creative directors. It is in this stage where the artist becomes aware
of the background processes that will surround the project.
The character designer will analyse each topic and specification
given to him or her in order to get a better understanding what is
expected from his or her artwork. The artist must read what is be-
ing required by each element of the background processes, then the
artist will have a better understanding of the work environment, the
teammates, the budget, the deadlines of the project, the art style re-
quired, the story and specifications of the characters and the media
the character will be released. Based on that analysis, the artist will
develop an efficient and creative work method to construct a suit-
able character design. The creativity must be always pushed far,
especially with todays technology.
3.2.2 Conceptual Research - textual references
As soon as the artists finish planning their work method, they start
to research what they can about everything related to the character.
From simple texts on blogs to historical documents, every piece
of information that might give the artists any insight to design the
character is investigated. But most importantly, the artists need to
have focus. Nonetheless, character designers read the story devel-
oped by the writers once. Through the script is that the artists find
their way to research with more focus. Absorbing a great quantity
of information might not always be helpful.
The use of references to build a character is extremely impor-
tant [17]. References are a crucial aspect, and should not be taken
lightly, especially when these references are textual. Legends and
fables were created having a real story as basis, and the myths are
also a way to understand the reality [1]. During many centuries, sto-
ries were told and written, leaving the construction of the character
for the imagination of the audience. Now, thanks to diverse mech-
anisms that allow stories to be represented visually, the audience
does not have to play the role of character designer anymore [14].
Although, the audience have their own perception of the character,
so the artists must always take that into consideration. Moreover,
the story is still there, under the many layers of graphics and visual
effects, guiding the actions and events.
A written story still holds the keys to trigger our imagination.
This stimulus facilitate the exploration of different designs and pos-
sibilities. On the other hand, manuscripts and books also provide
to the artists some aspects of the real world and its artifacts that can
be used in the product. Using both aspects of the written media, a
character designer has basis and confidence enough to create a char-
acter that works within the limitations and that correlates with the
audience. A concept artist mainly work with concepts, therefore,
Character Designers must know how to transmit ideas through their
designs.
3.2.3 Defining a Character - psychological aspects and role
A character is a person. Even though this sentence might sound
strange, it is the simplest way to understand what a character is.
Characters possess unique characteristics and a story of their own,
with memories, accomplishments and regrets. Characters are com-
plex to design because they are similar to living sentient beings,
even though, they are designed to fulfill a role in a specific context.
At this stage, the characters personality is constructed and will
define the characters appearance. It is extremely important to point
out that, from this stage onwards, the constraints will vary accord-
ingly with the context and they will have a major role on each stage.
Characters are the personification of ideas which usually carry
out a message. These ideas manifests through a series of aspects
such as the character way of talking or how the character dresses
and how it behaves under certain circumstances. Tillman [17] refer
to these specific traits as archetypes. Archetypes are characteristics
which people can easily relate to and understand. Tillman presents
six types of archetypes: hero, shadow, fool, animus/anima, men-
tor, trickster. They represent fragments of human personality traits.
Using archetypes is highly recommended to construct the base of a
character design. However, a character might be more complex and
composed by more than only one archetype.
It is important to add human feelings and emotions to a character
in order to improve the credibility on the design. When developing
the psychological aspects of a character, the artist has to focus on
what is the role of that character in the product and within the sto-
ryline. At this point the artist have reached a connection between
the story, the media and the audience. The character must fulfill its
role in the story at the same that time it must appeal to the audience,
and it must be suitable for the media it is inserted on.
The element Story influences the character in two different ways.
One is through the story of the character itself, and the other one is
through the story of the world. A narrative involves the construc-
tion of a world or scenario where characters are inserted and inter-
act among themselves. These interactions are what build a character
personality, while the world defines the physical aspects of the char-
acter. Personality affects how the character behaves, its posture, its
relationships, its goals, its motivations etc. The world defines why
the character wears a given type of clothes, its body type, the phys-
ical qualities of the character in general.
The element audience, on the other hand, defines what art style
and tone the character should be. When an artist is working on a
project, whether it is a personal project, he or she will be creating a
product for a certain public. When an artist works for a company,
other professionals will be dealing with what the audience wants.
It is through an analysis of the audience that the tone of the story
is adjusted, and because of that, the tone of the character itself will
change.
The construction of a character’ psyche must also obey to the
rules of the media it will be published on. While in movies artists
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create full characters that can inspire people, characters that people
can relate to their ideas or story, in games we have three differ-
ent types that must help the gameplay and story [7]. Avatar is a
character usually presented in first-person that displays little to no
depth in order to not disrupt the idea that the player must assume
the role of filling the characters role. Actor is the denomination for
third person view characters, which presents enough information
to stand out as a character without disturbing the player. Finally,
Non-Playable Characters, require full character design if they have
an important role in the story.
Designing a characters mind is a difficult task in which it is nec-
essary to fulfill various requirements. Consequently, character de-
signers need to understand many subjects and research a lot before
coming up with a visual for the character. Also, it is important to
have in mind that this stage consumes time, nonetheless the artist
must manage well the time thats being spent in which stage.
3.2.4 Imagetic Research - Visual References
Artists usually tend to think in a graphical fashion. While having
ideas for the characters personality, artists usually visualize how
the characters would look like, what type of materials should be
used, how would be the silhouette of the character, among other
things. However, remembering every texture and pattern is really
hard. Left alone human and animal anatomies [17]. Artists actually
work within a time frame, so if they were to learn how to design-
ing certain material or muscle or if they were to design a material
without knowing it, artists would take more time than they should.
It would cost the company and the artist money. In order to reduce
time and conclude a work with good quality, artist use images for
reference.
Imagetic references are images that contain patterns, shapes, sil-
houettes, materials, constructs, pieces, anatomy references, and any
other type of graphic recording of a element that can be used for in-
spiration. Using imagetic references serve not only for reproducing
materials but they also stimulate the creativity of the artist. Some
people end up being used by the reference instead of using the ref-
erence. Also, some people believe that using reference is cheating
[17]. Both cases happens because people do not understand when
and how using a reference is welcome. References are a tool to help
the artist and they are never to be used as a guideline for the final
design. If the former happens, the artist will be just creating a copy
of an image.
On the other hand, a character possesses an anatomy that may
vary according to the species it belongs to. Moreover, a character
usually wears clothes and accessories, it might have scars, tattoos or
other marks over its body. Using references help the artist to design
the character faster. There are different ways to use references in a
character design or concept art, so most of those are for materials,
lighting and composition. Also, it is a valid method to use parts
of the reference images on the design to compose different parts of
it. The major problem to solve in this case regards time. In short,
as long as the final design is not a copy of an image, there is no
problem utilizing references freely.
3.2.5 Sketching the Character
The Sketching stage is what summarize the concept art. For a
reader, it is not a hard task to visualize and draw a character of
the book using only his or her imagination. Be as it may, draw-
ing a character is fairly easy. The tricky part lies on how good the
character was drew. The good aspect is actually how coherent and
consistent that design is. Even a professional character designer
needs to draw many sketches until she haves a few drawings good
enough to polish them and turn them into a final design.
Sketches consist of quick drawings commonly used to practice.
It is through sketches that artists can improve ability to transmit
ideas more clearly [11] [15]. Sketches help the artist to improve
their creative skills and to come closer of a solution. The many
drawings produced are tests in order to see how an idea turns out
when represented graphically. From analysing the sketches, artists
and creative directors can understand what works and what does
not.
Although sketches are similar to drafts, when applied onto the
context of the industry, sketches show a certain level of finishing. It
is important to have a clear design, where all elements are showing
up. Sketches save time and don not affect negatively the production
line. Hundreds of sketches are made during the development of a
typical game or movie in the industry, and each sketch represents an
idea that might or might not work in the game. That is the important
part of this stage: sketches allow the character designer to add ideas
and elements without worrying about constraints. Artist clearly still
do have restrictions on what she should put on, however the way the
artist decides to convey that ideas in sketches is totally up to her.
Character Design, as well Concept Art, is based on the produc-
tion of ideas. Therefore, learning how to sketch fast and detailed
enough is a skill necessary for a professional on the area. Sketches
must translate the principal characteristics established from the
story into a simple 2D drawing, composed by lines and simple shad-
ing. Most elements must be flat and the line work must show the
principal characteristics, such as main equipment, marks, clothing
etc. Also, the overall silhouette must pass the idea of who is the
character. Finding a strong and remarkable overall design is the ob-
jective of this stage. The drawings should be rough and yet clear
enough to be understood. Colors are not necessarily used in this
stage, although their use are not prohibited. Another helpful insight
for designing a character consists on writing, above the character,
its main characteristics that are being explored on the design.
3.2.6 Rendering the Character
At the end of the Sketch stage, the best sketches are selected to be
further polished in the Rendering stage. Render, as used in this pa-
per, refers to the action of depicting or representing an idea graphi-
cally. It is expected a good-quality depiction from the artist, there-
fore in this stage designers start to add details and color to the best
sketches.
Rendering stage is commonly confused with Illustration. Taka-
hashi e Andreo [15] argue that the essence of illustration is com-
municating a thought: illustrations are rendered images focused on
transmitting a message. Commonly, illustrations depict more than
only the character itself, because some background landscape and
stylized lighting is also displayed in a typical case. Promotional Art
is also usually confused with Concept Art. However, Promotional
Art are images created with the sole purpose of selling a product.
This type of art sometimes is made by polishing an illustration to a
real concept art image.
Not all images created on the rendering stage have proper tex-
turing and outstanding visuals. Concept Art is a process within the
industry. Artists do not have the luxury to finish every single im-
age because through the concept art they already passed the idea
in terms of their designs. Time is one of the critical constraints on
this stage. Due to this, images have to be produced quickly so the
other professionals can do their jobs and finish the product within
the schedule.
Character Designers’ works often will be applied to a product
that will not directly require the produced images. These images
are just a reference for other professionals use them to create the el-
ements present in the final version. For example, 3D Modelers need
the characters concepts in order to handcraft enthralling meshes for
the game. Consequently, modelers will need a design which can tell
them how is the character appearance overall, what equipment and
clothes the character wears, what are the materials of each prop,
among other technical aspects.
Rendering a character takes in consideration different techniques
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552
and the use of various elements such as color and lighting. The de-
signs must present a composition that shows balance and harmony.
Adding too much details will pollute the design and its probably go-
ing to confuse the audience, making them dislike the character. It is
important to leave some breathable areas within the design, so the
main interesting areas will pop up. Another thing to worry about
while creating a character design is the negative spaces and how
they work to make the character silhouette interesting. During all
process, the designer shall revise the characters guidelines (story,
audience, aesthetics) so there will be no inconsistencies within the
design.
The use of colors and light defines the volume and materials
throughout the design. Colors come from reflected light, therefore
they act as a delimitation for the materials and volumes present in
nature. Effective coloring will bring to light technical aspects such
as the opacity and reflectiveness of the material, the weight of the
equipment, the textures of each element. Moreover, a shading also
provides a feeling of who the character is. The color used to com-
pose the character also influences on how the audience will perceive
the character and its role in the story [8] [7] [17].
The constant use of reference solves most of the problems a char-
acter designer might encounter along its work. It is not necessary
to use references only as guide and try to render the character by
hand. Technology allow us to use tools for picking the colors, se-
lecting areas of images and using them in the character design, cre-
ate textures to cover big areas, among other possibilities. Adopting
tools that speed up the construction of the design is fundamental
for meeting deadlines. Character Designers are professionals that
work for companies in order to obtain money in exchange for cre-
ating outstanding characters. The cohesiveness and consistency of
the characters created will depend on how the artist follow the steps
proposed herein and apply the techniques.
3.3 Practical Considerations
After going through the proposed Character Designer process, the
artist should have strong, coherent and consistent designs that obey
restrictions. Usually, the characters concepts will be revised by the
creative directors and eventually reworked before receiving a final
approval. The designs will them move forward to next team of
professionals to be converted in a format suitable for application
into the final product. The concept art is the basis for the other
areas and if the designs are not satisfying enough, this could affect
the entire line of production.
4 STUDY CASE
Evaluating the validity of a creative process is a difficult task. Due
to the lack of an extensive academic documentation, obtaining an
evaluation method for character design processes may pose as a
matter of opinion. The process proposed by Seegmiller’s [14]
adopts Evaluating Results as the final step, but the evaluation turns
out to be performed according with the satisfaction of the client that
may vary depending on many factors. It was proposed to apply the
method into a product, and to evaluate results according with the
product’s specifications. In order to showcase how flexible the pro-
posed process can be, we decided to apply it in the development of
a Trading Card Game which utilize Brazilian myths as cards.
TCGs combine the collectible aspect of cards as physical objects
and strategy games [5]. The Base Ball Game, published in 1904 by
The Allegheny Card Co., is considered to be the first TCG. How-
ever, the genre only achieved success in 1993 with Magic: The
Gathering
R
published by Wizards of the Coast. The initial re-
sponse to the game was unexpectedly good, and the company de-
cided to continue its production. This accomplishment marked a
change in the hobby market since many players started to buy TCGs
instead of the popular statuettes used in RPG boards.
4.1 Prototype TCG
The Legendary Trinity TCG was created in order to demonstrate
the process of Character Design can be used in different medias
and genres. The proposed games theme is inspired by Brazilian
mythology and it has a more realistic and serious approach for card
illustrations. Through research about Brazilian folklore, valuable
information was gathered about the fantastic beings and the legends
origins.
Brazilian folklore is rich in stories of fantastic beings that ruled
the jungle and the dark corners of cities. Unfortunately, most of
these stories were lost as time passed by, remaining only the for-
eigner version of these myths or the child version of them, as ob-
served in the TV show Stio do Pica Pau Amarelo. Although this
show is, to a certain degree, responsible for preserving Brazilian
legends, it ended up popularizing a version of the legends that are
far from their original meanings. This observation supports both
the importance and the challenge behind testing the process pro-
posed in this paper by creating a TCG whose universe is inhabited
by characters from Brazilian myths.
4.2 Applying the Character Design process
The process proposed by this article, observed in Figure 3, separates
the Character Design into Background and Foreground processes.
The entire process was evaluated by a solo artist working in this
production. This peculiar experimental setup provided for a broader
and deeper observation about how the work flows in contrast to
larger and more uncontrolled teams.
4.2.1 Background Processes
As discussed, Background processes offer the guidelines for the
final design. Therefore, we defined the conceptual and physical
constraints applicable in the context of the prototype TCG. These
are listed below:
• Infrastructure: Illustrations must be designed digitally, us-
ing adequate software to produce high quality images.
• Time: The established time was the due date of the submis-
sion of this paper.
• Audience: The audience was identified as teenagers and
adults, comprising people that are at least 16 years old.
• Story: In a dystopian dying Earth, different factions struggle
to survive while fighting among themselves. With the dis-
covery of a portal that connects this world to another one with
vast natural resources, these factions start a war to decide who
will rule the new world. In this war, battles are fought by sum-
moning creatures of immense power.
• Aesthetics: The TCG follows a realistic art style similar to
Magic: The Gathering
R
.
• Media: Print media, i.e., trading cards.
4.2.2 Foreground Processes
After having the Background processes defined, we start to work on
the Foreground Processes, which corresponds to the character de-
sign itself. It is valid to note that the process is meant to be efficient
and to save time. Therefore, the steps are performed quicker and
the explanation about them are also shorter:
• Identification and Analysis of the problem: The problem in
this case is closely related to the media adopted for releasing
the product into. Trading cards are small pieces and the char-
acters must appear in a visible, clearly understandable way in
these the cards. Also, it is needed to create a visual that can
appeal to the public in order to promote the Brazilian mythol-
ogy.
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553
• Conceptual Research: Brazilian mythology was vast, full of
creatures of great power that protected nature. Unfortunately,
this mythology was oral with almost no written records. Due
to time and insertion of different cultures, most of the fan-
tastic creatures had their story distorted, changed. Luiz da
Camara Cascudo was one of the pioneers in deciding to cat-
alogue Brazilian myths. In his pioneer work Geografia dos
Mitos Brasileiros (1947), the author describes several myths
in an attempt to preserve the origin of those stories. We cre-
ated our characters inspired by information found on his cata-
logue and in his detailed description of the characters in those
legends. This will make the characters look more serious and
convincing.
• Defining Character’ psychological aspects: Characters’
psychological traits as depicted on cards need to portray their
importance for the game. Cards have different abilities and
strategies that are connected to features from characters they
display. Therefore, in a TCG, the characters themselves are
important to express the function they represent. Moreover,
the collectible aspect that the card possess allows the illus-
tration to aggregate value into the final product while an art-
work collection. Therefore, the chosen legends were based on
their popularity and abilities portrayed in the actual mythol-
ogy. Various entities like Saci, Tup
˜
a, Iara, Werewolf and Cu-
rupira were considered within this step.
• Imagetic Research: Since myths are depicted as sentient
creatures on the TCG, our research was focused on animals
that possess similar features and behaviors to the ones de-
scribed on the myths’ stories.
• Sketching the Characters: Sketches were developed in or-
der to portray the personality and and physical traits of the
inspiring characters in a readable way. Additionally, we tried
to preserve the earliest known aspects of these myths. This
can be observed in Figure 4.
• Rendering the Characters: As observed, the sketches best
fitting to the project needs were chosen to be polished. This
allowed them to become suitable for insertion into the TCG
cards, as shown in Figures 5 and 6.
4.3 Results and Discussion
The process helped to achieve eligible results. As observed in Fig-
ure 5, the Saci is a combination of furtive animals, such as monkey
and the tapera naevia. For being an alien deity, concepts of Tup
˜
a
are depicted as an unnatural being (Figure 4). The Curupira is fa-
mous for tricking hunters, therefore the chameleon was a perfect
match to this furtive creature in Figure 6.
Figure 4: Sketches for Iara, Tup
˜
a and Werewolf before filtering.
Figure 5: Final render of the Saci, as a sarcastical thief: this explains
the many accessories detailing this render.
The proposed process proved itself well-defined in the sense that
it allowed for developing characters that are effectively coherent
and consistent for application in the game. In fact, despite sub-
jective interpretations, the process led to the core building blocks
necessary to give shape for characters that are solid from many per-
spectives. Moreover, by following these steps essentially allows the
artist to estimate how far they are from obtaining the desired result
when considering specific constraints: such perception is pivotal
for keeping the production on schedule.
Sad to say, in crude, real-world scenarios, some Foreground pro-
cesses may be minimized or even bypassed by artists depending on
the situation. Products with extremely prohibitive deadlines, for ex-
ample, prejudice the Defining Character’ psychological aspects and
Imagetic Research steps. On the other hand, freelancers may ignore
some Background processes, such as Infrastructue due to their free-
dom to choose tools at their own will.
Finally, it was observed that some complementary tools might fit
into the process in order to further assist artists to keep their focus.
This, however, is a matter for future research we discuss in the next
section.
5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This paper described new design process crafted specifically for ob-
taining characters that are both consistent and coherent. This pro-
cess combines the strengths of two processes proposed by [14] and
[17]. By adopting the steps suggested in this investigation, artists
are endowed with a work method that provides means for obtain-
ing conceptually solid characters fitting to the application context.
In fact, most modern productions require large teams formed by
different profiles working together focusing on the same result.
The proposed process was empirically assessed throughout the
development of characters for a prototype TCG. Altough there was
a sole artist working on that product, this evaluation allowed to pin-
point important insights presented in this paper regarding the pro-
cess’ effectiveness. The process contributed for developing of a
eligible product in a more objective and predictable fashion.
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554
Figure 6: Final render for the Curupira riding a warthog as a method
for keep its track hidden from hunters.
It is worth observing the process presented herein is very de-
tailed. At first, some professionals in haste may avoid perform-
ing all the suggested steps. However, productions aiming for high-
quality characters may benefit from guidance found on both Back-
ground and Foreground processes.
Assessing the process in terms of multiple artists working in
teams and different products are left for future work. Other inves-
tigation of interest concerns how to insert this process into a wider
production pipeline. Developing tools for assisting the artists and
other stakeholders also poses as a promising challenge for further
studies.
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