Other Design Methods

As mentioned before, the method just described isn’t the only one available for designing a character. A lot of artists, over time, create their own methods and techniques. The following list provides some other options you might try.

Use a very simple 3D model made of spheres, cubes, or cylinders to quickly explore the silhouette’s basic shape and proportions. This allows you to see how the character will look in 3D.

Use random brushes in a painting program when exploring shapes. This will likely give you some unexpected results and let you discover cool things that you would otherwise have missed when working with pencil and paper.

Use vector imaging software like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape to test silhouettes. This is similar to the simple 3D-model method, but in 2D. What’s cool about this method is that you can scale and rotate parts of the body very easily to try new things.

Use the Skin modifier in Blender for character prototyping. You can look for information on how to use the Skin modifier: basically, you draw a character’s skeleton with vertices and edges, and the Skin modifier gives it thickness and a solid mesh in which you can also control the thickness of each part. It’s intended to be used to create base meshes for sculpting, but it is possible to use it to quickly test shapes for character creation.

Use image compositing to pick parts of different photos or drawings and combine them to build your character’s silhouette.