Character Design Thread!

Leave your personality problems at the door, because this is all about the image!

Discuss, ask questions, post your own character designs.

Now, I know what you're thinking, AHR, stop enforcing your comic book problems on our novels!

Aha! Not so my wordy brethren! While you might not need to balance your clothing acts like I do, there is still much you need to figure out!

Take Harry Potter, where Harry is defined by that scar of his, he has his glasses, he's skinny, and he's got messy black hair, as well as green eyes. A simple description, yet it completely solidifies his image in popular culture! Even if the movies had not come out yet, you could easily draw Harry, Hermione and Ron, without color, and have no trouble figuring out who was who.

So even in text, looks on a character can be very important.

So, how do y'all go about it?

I am obviously a graphic novel junkie, so my job is harder. Cause as it turns out, jeans and a t-shirt are some of the most boring outfits to look at when everyone is wearing them.

edited 16th Jan '12 12:10:48 PM by MrAHR

I'm working on a shonen, but I hate those fancy yet impractical clothes characters wear in that genre. A zillion zippers, belts, pockets, and such.

Maybe they should go with jeans and shirts after all...

Usually I end up working with a lot of Iron Man/Cyrsis-style power armor, military outfits, etc.

I'm trying to figure out a way to make a jacket one of my characters wear stick out. I'm thinking of having the character patch it up with duck tape and draw attention to the wear and tear of it.

Well I've taken on a rather interesting experiment with one of my characters. In an attempt to avert Clothes Make the Legend, a superheroine uses her background as a would-be fashion designer to create a wardrobe of different outfits, the only elements tying them together being the colours (red and white) and her symbol (a stylised A).

Well, in my current project, there are twelve superheroes, all of whom work for various world governments, and back in the day when there was a brief point when the governments were working in concert, they had an international meeting, created the League of Nations (Wilson was the US President at the time), and got together with the resident ancient conspirator secret society (that's actually not evil this time) to design special armor for all the supers.

Of course, now the countries don't get along anymore, so it's amusing that all the supers are basically all wearing the same outfit, though as time goes on they diverge more and more in design...

That actually sounds pretty interesting. In what ways do these costumes diverge though? Is it just a question of the paint or decal work or are separate elements added to reflect the nation's ideals, like the American one wearing a cape?

One example I have, is for my main character, is that his eyes are always covered by hair, which gives it a good spin on the animé hair, without making it all super crazy.

I haven't finalized everything yet, but some have more armor, some have less. Some change what material it's made of. Some change where the magic amplifiers are, and some change what type of magical stone to use with it. These details are subject to change as I pound out the magic system though.

I don't think any of them wear capes, though. Neither of two American heroes, at least. This is a rather dark, gritty setting for that...

It's eccentric to see my female lead wearing an orange hoodie in the steam punk era and the gold rush era...But I cannot help doing so.

Beware! Schizo dressing that the shonen genre loves!

Hmm. How about sewing patches on the jacket?

edited 16th Jan '12 8:29:27 PM by YuriStrike

I've got my Big Bad Travis, a lean-ish, tallish sort of guy dresses in fancy, expensive suits, usually dark blue or grey, wears a red tie, and has cornsilk hair and green eyes. My Big Good Kali, is tall, has unkempt black hair that goes down to the crook of her back, and usually wears jeans, a sleeveless black shirt, and a red leather jacket.

Kali looks really cool. How do they fight?

edited 16th Jan '12 10:18:09 PM by YuriStrike

Both of them are pretty well-versed in just about every fighting style invented by man, but primarily their conflict is long distance. Kali trying to track down Travis and thwart his machinations, or deal with his intermediaries. In fact, they only actually meet face to face a couple times.

The last time they have an epic knife-fight in the middle of a burning city though

edited 16th Jan '12 10:39:22 PM by KSPAM

sounds pretty sweet! I have to admit though Kali instantly reminded me of Jane from Daria

Will Kali be using BF Gs to shoot down his minions? I love brainless top down shooters.

Nah, she usually just uses 9mm pistols.

Shounen isn't a genre.

Mmm...sexy.

It isn't? Well, my bad.

9mm users usually go akimbo.

I am usually, but not always, given something to work with. Still, it can change to a degree. I didn't like the uniforms they gave me to work with in Nanoha so I swiped a new one from in the setting.

Navy mage uniform begins with a plain black shirt and pants. The most distinctive part and the one people recognize is next, the long-sleeved, high-collared black longcoat with silver trim. The boots and cuffs appear armored; the metal plating is actually for show, thought it does have noticeable weight to it. Finally, over that goes a short black overjacket with silver trim. (I really have no idea how to describe it with better, it's more than shrug, but...).

Shoulder devices are selected at random for a team from a group of eight different possible ones and are purposely meaningless, a red herring should an enemy try to draw a general lesson on who to shoot first, but still enabling quick identification within a team.

The uniform is deliberately designed to intimidate and most characters think it does, though they've also usually developed a resistance to it from familiarity.

They're both basically supposed to be sex on legs, but Kali's the only one who takes advantage of it.

Also, dRoy, in case you were wondering, yes, the red leather jacket is indeed a Shout-Out.

edited 16th Jan '12 11:57:59 PM by KSPAM

@KSPAM - Really? Interesting, because as far as I know, it's usually the villain who does that.

I don't really know who you are referring to. There are many characters who wear red jacket.

The red jacket reminded me of Ryougi Shiki...

>:|

Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Truth be told, when I was first imaging Kali, I sorta used Shiki as a template. Coming up with faces from scratch is damn hard. When all was said and done, I decided to keep the jacket. That jacket goes with everything.

-slaps myself on the forehead- Oh, red jacket! Darn, I thought you were talking about red longcoat, I don't know why I read it that way! Urgh, shame on me!