| 3- Recognizability This means the ability of a character design to be recognized, among other characters inside the same work, and among other designs in general. Recognition in character design shouldn’t be something you have to stop and look more, it must be something instant. Recognition in anime is more difficult to achieve than in Western cartoons. Animes are usually limited to anatomically correct humans, and simple designs, without too much detail. Cartoons can afford to be more surreal in designs, thus making recognition something easier. However, this doesn’t mean in any way that Japanese designs cannot be different and recognizable. One thing many designers use is color. However, this is only effective for anime and visual novels, since most light novels and mangas use black-and-white illustrations. Also, using only color is not a good choice, except in case of twins or something. It can result in something like this:  Those two are from different works, but designed by the same person. I wouldn’t call Michiru’s design (the left one) bad, because of some reasons I’ll talk about later in this post. But their faces are identical, which makes the right design really weak, because she can easily be mistaken for Michiru with a different hair color. Other examples of bad recognizability are a lot of seinen protagonists designs. When the emphasis is put on the girls’ designs, the guys (including the protagonists) are usually left aside, and end up with a weak design.  I’ve read a lot of Oda Nobuna novels, but I’m sure I’d never recognize its protagonist if I saw his image somewhere, for example. I mean, there are lots of anime guys that are similar to this one. But a weak design in this case is not a bad thing per se. Maybe it is the designer’s intention, so it doesn’t draw too much attention to the guy, instead of the girls. Now, something very important to consider in character design is the silhouette. Remember when I said Michiru’s design wasn’t bad? Yeah, that’s because she has silhouette. At least, way more than the other girl. If you can instantly recognize a character just by looking at his silhouette, then his design is said to “read well”. The least they should do is tell characters apart in the same work.  Try not to guess who this one is! Something good silhouettes also can and should do is giving information about the character. Of course, most of the information will only be passed through surface details, but silhouettes can give basic ideas about the character.  Look at that picture. The silhouette is not successful in the sense of identifying who the character is instantly, but it gives an idea about the personality of the girl. See how her hair is messy, full of sharp strands, that are often used for boys. Look at the position of her arms. That is not a very common position for girls; in fact, it’s pretty boyish.  There’s also a second image, featuring the same girl. Compare her to the other girls. Notice how her shoulders are wider and manlier, and her shorts that are longer and looser than the other girls’. So, what kind of anime girl is she? Exactly, a tomboy. See how much a silhouette can tell us? To sum things up, a design with good recognizability is the one which can be identified instantly, whether it’s inside the work or in general. And the best way to do that is through silhouettes. 4- Uniqueness This is something similar to appeal but it’s not the same thing. However, in order to be unique, the design has to have appeal. This is more related to creativity and originality. This is what makes a character stand out among others, and makes people say: “Wow, that’s cool!” It can be anything: from a simple prop to a hairstyle. But it has to match the character, otherwise it won’t be effective. Some people have trouble trying to be ‘creative’, but most of the times, creativity and originality mean combining pre-existent elements in a way that was never done before, or simply adding some modifications to them. There isn’t much to say about here. A unique character design can easily be identified. Just ask yourself: is this design really awesome in a way that sets it apart from other designs of the same genre? If the answer is yes, then it succeeded as a unique design. So, here we finish the functions of character designs. The next posts will be about how the “information” part can be achieved, since the other functions are easier to be identified just by looking. |
starlessn1ghtDec 7, 2015 2:30 PM
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