I've been drawing every day for about 4 years now crazy I know right and after all these years I've decided that the number one funnest thing to draw is a character with top tier character design you can't change my mind and trust me after observing and drawing a lot of cool character designs throughout the years I've collected the three secrets to help you level up your character design and for the grand finale we'll combine everything we've learned to create a beautiful original character that looks like they'd be the coolest NPC in a new video game and speaking of video games I am so happy to say that square NX the Japanese video game publisher of visions of Mana a new action RPG game that's out now on Playstation Xbox Windows and steam is the sponsor of this video wooo which means we're going to get into some amazing video game character designs but for now secret number one let's go okay so let's start off with Silhouettes imagine you're at a really crowded event what is the one thing that makes a character instantly recognizable yes it is their silhouette think of it like their signature when you see a character silhouette you should immediately be able to tell who they are it's kind of what makes them stand out in a crowd like Cloud Stripe from Final Fantasy honestly I don't even play Final Fantasy but whenever I see him I immediately know it's cloud with an iconic hair and a massive sword and then when your strong silhouette is paired with a wellth thought out color palette you've got an amazing foundation so let's talk colors when you got a strong silhouette with a wellth thought out color palette ooh that is where the magic happens colors are kind of like the emotion of your design you know they're what set the mood tell a story and make the character feel more alive okay just think about it when I say red what comes to mind passion anger okay now what about blue probably something calm or maybe sad and then green maybe something like peace or growth nature Vibes right and then yellow maybe like pure happiness joy Sunshine so when you're picking your colors think about the vibe that you want your character to give off maybe if your character is more Fierce maybe some deep Reds or some darker Shades so first secret recap design with intention of creating a recognizable silhouette and pairing it with an efficient emotionally resonant color palette when you got those two things down you've got a memorable character Foundation that makes people want to know more of and speaking of more of you also want to know more about the world that your character lives in which is the next secret okay I know what you might be thinking what does World building have to do with character design well let me tell you a lot okay a lot okay think about it like this a well elaborated and thought Out World gives your character it's context history and just kind of reason for living that's so deep it's not just about the character themselves it's about where they come from you know what they've been through how that shapes who they are today so really broad example imagine a character living in a dystopian world where resources are very scarce this can help build their character design maybe their clothing is ripped you know they got messy hair they gear maybe they got some cool scars not just physically maybe emotionally too all of this is influenced by the world they live in it shapes their look their personality and how they interact with others so many things now I totally get it World building can feel like a really big task and again not everyone wants to design a huge entire universe before they start a character totally understandable that was me too but here's the thing you don't need to go all out even just having like the most basic idea like desert dystopia or Celestial cave can help guide your character design in a way that feels a little bit more intricate and intentional it gives you a foundation to build on it helps you make design choices that are a bit more consistent and meaning so second secret recap think about the world they live in it doesn't have to be super detailed even a simple concept can make a huge difference in how your character comes across and then we move on to our final secret are you ready you better be ready okay let's start with relatability all right think about your favorite characters what is it about them that really draws you [Music] in I'm sure it's not just their powers or their looks there is that special something right that just resonates with you on a deeper level it could be like a shared emotion a struggle dreams and goals that kind of mirror your own maybe they're relationships or insecurities you can see when a character feels more relatable they feel more real and they draw us into their stories and make us care about what happens to them you know we root for them or we feel their pain and we celebrate their victories because in a way we kind of like see ourselves in them so this third secret to build a great character design is to think about their back stories their goals their flaws what have they been through what are they striving for what's holding them back these are the things that make them human no matter what species or fantasy world they belong in because remember you know Perfection is boring it's their imperfections their quirks their struggles that make them memorable and a quick bonus that I just got out to talk about that is a cherry on top which is a cool name a character's name is very often their first impression and come on let's be real a good name can just make them 10 times cooler so now that we have secured the three secrets to a great character design let's see it in action I'll use visions of Mana characters world and story line as an example because it just perfectly illustrates all three points but don't worry here's a quick 10-second synopsis of the game story line so every four years chosen Ms in this case Hina and a selected Soul guard in this case Val go on a journey to the Mana tree which is the source of life and energy to rejuvenate Mana the game features literally stunning Landscapes mythical monsters amazing characters and designs of course and Sleek gameplay with beautifully rendered elemental powers and as Val and Hina progress on their Quest they meet new allies oh my gosh look more amazing beautiful character designs and explore their vast stunning World hey yeah remember how we talked about World building right here so secret number one silhouette and color palette we can use Morley here as a very good example look at that even if we just see his silhouette with you know the distinct long sword the flowing robe the hair style the ears you can pretty much just instantly recognize him and then the color palette you know the Royal blues and the purples compliment each other but then also make him stand out and look at julle the Lush greens the bright pops of red you know make him look more light Lively literally in love with his color palette and then secret number two World building so when you play visions of Mana you'll journey through literally stunning enchanting locations and so much more to discover but you can see that their world is full of unique towns Enchanted Companions and people all of which add layers to the characters and then there's the Elemental Magic which is abilities like riding winds or stopping time that aren't just cool features that allow you to explore new places and solve puzzles but are part of what makes the world feel more alive these Elemental abilities make the character feel like they are truly a part of this vibrant interconnected World take Val for example a soul guard whose Warrior inspired appearance reflects his duty to protect the sacred Al and he's from the fire Village and his hair you know looks quite like a fire flame if you ask me and lastly secret number three relatability and cool names I'm not going to go too much into detail for this cuz I don't want to spoil anything but you can look at each character and kind of question why go on this journey how does their past reflect how they act now how do their combat Powers relate to their personality or what do the interactions with their companions say about who they are as a character and then bonus cool name Pina Alma fire I don't know that just sounds so cool Camina literally such a cool name and such a cool design too like what and even though you don't have to have played the previous Mana games to play this one a lot of their previous Mana franchise characters are back again and they have cool names as well like Lil Cactus how memorable is that and look at the silhouette too 10 out of 10 and then we got the Majestic looking flamy I don't know I just think they have cool names all right beautiful now that we have fully comprehended the three secrets to good character design let us put everything together and design our own beautiful character that looks like they'd be the coolest NPC in the Mana Universe okay so now I'm working on my quick sketch I wanted to do something with a green and brown color palette because I really like those colors and I think it would go well with their world because they have something called Elemental vessel abilities which gives any of the five playable characters the ability of elemental powers so there's eight Elemental vessels that the players can experiment with for their characters in and out of battle in the demo you have access to two Elemental vessels and experience two different classes during gameplay and this is important because different classes unlock different stats weapon types and unique moves and abilities based on their corresponding Elemental which means I have to think of a very cool unique weapon type that my character can wield so because I want to use brown and green I think a good Elemental vessel that I can use to inspire my character is the vessel of Earth so I'm going to make an earth Elemental vessel inspired character maybe like The Keeper of the earth I don't know but again I should make it clear this is not an official character of the game so because Elemental vessels allow you to use unique moves and abilities in battle I want that to be reflected in my character so I gave her this cool Earth inspired scepter it's still a work in progress so uh thank you for your patience one thing that I like about Elemental vessels is that it will unlock a unique class for each character which allows you to access different weapons and unique class strikes so hopefully this scepter will act as kind of like the core Foundation of my NPC also just because I shared these three secrets with you does not mean I am a pro character designer by any means so if you're like uh this scepter does not really show an earth character trust me I I just tried my best okay but also by the way I feel like I should give her like an official name maybe like my cool unofficial Persona could be called like viora Keeper of the earth descendant of the ram Lord all right so this is the really rough sketch that I have going on right now I'm definitely going to add a lot more detail to her clothing and the scepter when I do the proper line art but because I'm doing an unofficial original character in the Mana Universe I want to kind of include some of the similar shapes that they use so my character actually looks like it's part of their universe so in this case we have Hina and Julie here and I really like these shapes that she has going on in her dress the vines on her tights are also really nice maybe I want to include that somewhere in my character I love the trees and the flowers growing on him it just kind of looks like he is part of nature I'll definitely include some of the shapes and forms in my own character so it looks like I am part of the Mana Universe the two things that I really want to make stand out for my character is the scepter and the ram inspired aspect why a ram that is a good question so a ram symbolizes leadership strength and I feel like as a keeper of the earth you know those would be some nice qualities to have but also we're going to get a little bit deep here I'm also wearing loose clothing right to show the relatability that I'm a chill Keeper of the earth that kind of juxtaposes the ram I think when you think of a ram you're like oh so powerful so much strength but then the loose clothing is like oh no but she's also chill so there's like you know that kind of oxymoron I'm like a mysterious character I might I'm I'm probably thinking too much into this but it sounded cool in my head you you let me know if it came across in my character right so we have the basic structure down of my character you can see the ram I didn't draw the scepter yet so it's still on the other layer but I think she's pretty cute she's coming together also yes I am not drawing the hands right now cuz I just I know it's going to ruin the painting so I'm going to leave that for the last part and again with the more specific details like the leaves on the clothing the scepter some extra added details I'm going to leave that for the rendering stage but now we are going to put in some flat colors we're going to put in some greens some Browns really hammer in that Elemental Earth Keeper Vibes all right now that we have finished the flat colors I'm going to go in and start rendering by the way if you're curious all my supplies are listed here this is what I use basically every single time time and for this painting as well you can find more in the description but for now let's start rendering my favorite stage okay hello I think this is a great place to put my secret message if you don't know I put secret messages in all my videos so if you're hearing this you are very special I think this time if you are hearing the secret message let me know in the comments if you could pick any element as a superpower what would you pick so you could pick fire water electricity Earth ice what else is there wind I don't know those types of elements what would you pick for a power I picked Earth here and honestly I think Earth would be pretty helpful in some situations so I'm going to stick with Earth so I think you can see why rendering is literally my favorite stage this is just when you add all the little fun stuff and now I'm thinking if I should add this like moss on her horns and this is a stamp set from the gibl nature set again I'll put that in the description but yeah from the time lapse you can see I just impromptu candidly added the leaves cuz I don't know I just thought it would add like a cool effect and I think I like it so I might keep it and again to kind of juxtapose the strength of the r we added some nice flowers and a very soft Smiley happy face and the softness kind of comes from the glossy jelly set you can see here very smooth and I'm using the same brush for the entire thing besides the stamps just for consistency I think it just makes everything look more cohesive but yeah my favorite part is definitely rendering the face and the hair but now we got to do the outfit I'm not a huge fan of rendering fabric so you know let's just see how it goes hello this is viora in editing mode look at me just like coloring in that fabric it's it's hard it's very hard yeah I brought Hina at the top right just so I can get some inspiration for some shapes and forms and you know what I'm proud of is the scepter that I'm going to draw in like 3 seconds I did that freehand like I wasn't looking at anything it was completely on the spot thinking and then it just looked okay so I kept with it there's a deeper meaning to it so I wonder if anyone's going to catch it all right and I oh I think we are finished with our original character wait oh my gosh I L I forgot to do the hand hold on [Music] all right now we are done and I did an impromptu little cowbell kind of playing on the ram aspect anyways now we are done our cool NPC character wasn't that fun that was so fun I think we can check off silhouette and color palette it looks pretty awesome to me not going to lie World building we definitely took inspiration from the world of nature animals the elemental vessels so yes relatability and cool name check check and check viora Keeper of the earth I don't know that just sounds so cool right so not only do you now know the three secrets to good character design but you also saw it an action in visions of mana and we designed a cute NPC together with those three secrets in mind so remember to check out visions of Mana in the description as well as any of the art tools that I've used are also there as well and that's all for today all right bye