Character Requirements

While creativity is one of the most crucial keys in animation (and art in general), I have been wondering; do you-the animators and designers-form your characters around your actual in-game avatars and classes, or just go from scratch in the simulators? I've been trying to come up with characters to work on in the future, but I'm not sure how to actually form their personalities and abilities.

To me, my character was mostly a mash-up of a bunch of others. For instance, my name, Shulkle (also the name of my character), originated from Shulk, a video game character, and a Pokémon known as Shuckle. It was a neat pun, so I went with this. Little after getting a base of what I want him to do, I started expanding from simple Monado Arts from Shulk's game, to Persona-like elemental changes, into maining a weapon that's isn't directly off the game my character was based on. So to answer your question, neither. I formed up my character by mixing in traits that made sense and how I've wanted to envision him to be. Several traits from random games that I adore are what helped me create my character.

Hi! Welcome to the forums! You should totally introduce yourself in the Introduction thread ^-^ Like, tell us a bit about yourself and why you're here & whatnot~

Similarly to Shulkle, I also created my character based on multiple characters I've seen in like anime and other games in addition to myself as a person. Mostly because I want my character to be my Maple replica. But you can decide what kind of characters you want to make, it doesn't have to reflect who you are! Aquila, for example, has multiple unique characters, which you can find here.

What kind of characters do you want to create? Do you envision a story for them (sometimes that helps)? What would you want to do with your characters? I think once you know how to utilize your characters, you can start from how you want to design them and mold their personalities/backstories/etc. There are a lot of YouTube video essays on how to make OCs and I refer to this site to improve my characters sometimes. It also helps to write down some ideas you have that revolve around your character(s). :3

Good luck! :DD

hmm, I don't really know. I originally based it off of myself for one char then just started making what looked cool and was convenient to sprite. and then I got into custom chars, and that of its own is a cluster fuck... also I'm not creative.

I feel a lot of 'original characters' are an extension of the creator. If you read through the character biography subsection, you can probably connect the character's dislikes and likes to that of the person who made the character. On the other hand, there are characters who represent a personality that the creator probably strives to be like, or a persona that they'd like to have.

The above may not apply to everyone, but for me, my character is based off my real life interests. Being a science junkie myself, I included details that are science-fictional because I find that it's something I could be creative with while not coming off as completely nonsensical. In turn, doing research for particular explanations further advances my interest in the field of science since I would be looking into topics, such as metamaterials and chemical retrosynthesis.

Like the link that Tracey posted, there are a lot of tips that help create characters that appeal to others - one of the biggest tips being "how to bring your character to life". And if you're worried about being "original" or being "creative", don't be. A lot of ideas are derivative of some other idea if you look hard enough, but it's the presentation of ideas that make them stand out and "unique".

[IMG]http://[URL]http://i.imgur.com/0HAI4Oq.png[/IMG]
"what's the coolest design sai made and how can i bribe lewis, paul, and taki to make it better"

i'll be honest, i tend to not like characters that are straight from bannedstory, but that's probably something alot of people can't manage or do well - usually becasue in the MM community you either 1. wont be remembered cause you'll just do some shitty collab part bashing something up or 2. change it a a month because you can and all the resources are at your disposal.
with that in mind, i just had some thoughts i wanted to throw out there.
obviously, it's definitely not character design but more of character.
sure you'll have let's say for derek,
his character has literally 0 noteworthy things, but what do you remember the most? the character or his fuckin KFC meme?
sure it's his KFC memes and then everything comes together.
you'll have someone like auramaster - youll probably remember him cause he's black and got dreads but also cause he's basically cemented the fucking combo combo combo combo combo street fighter shit into your mind, but with that said you'll know him as 'the street fighter character'

with these in mind there are some eeeeeeeeh i want to say exceptions but it's all mostly animation detailing and quality
you'll have Aquila with somewhat of a cohesive storyline with recurring characters and character traits that are well held and strongly communicated within her animations
Zack with kinda getting a story as well as bright orange hair - so have bright hair

TL;DR it's not about the character, it's about the character's traits, abilities and then how you communicate them within an animation.
but yeah, appearance probably helps too.

but to answer your question
try to keep it unique, please PLEASE PLEASE don't make it a 14 yr old orphan....... with a scar left by his parents killers........ looking for vengance on the worl.......... but also loves hanging out with his closest friends..........sasuk and saukra...................... with the POWER OF THE TWEL FOX TAILS!!!!!!!

I think what I would like to see if you're gonna follow my guidance is to construct a character, try to have it unique in appearance, but if not that's fine. It's definitely all about how you portray it within your animations.

Most importantly, just to no attachment to yourself at all in contrast to what everyone here has said.

I personally tried (and somewhat failed) to base dar and lit on aspects of myself. And because of that I didn't really make them into their own characters until a while after i made them. so on that front, I would say avoid basing a character off of yourself unless you find it comfortable and easy to work with. But that aside, I've got some general tips for you.

You want to make a unique character, but what should make them unique doesn't have to be how they look or act. And to clear up a very common misconception about having a unique character, is that unique does not equal original or never done before. Main reason why is because, let's face it, a lot of these ideas have been thought up and done before. What makes a character unique is basically how they are presented like lynus said above.

Some basic ways you could go about building your character are :
Just throw together a character design and build their personality and powers around what the design says about them,
Think up a power and then design their looks and personality around that,
or just figure out what their like and design their looks and powers around that.
And to make things more interesting, maybe you could switch out a power or personality trait with one that contrasts a bit to give the character a design twist.

But please for the love of god, don't go thinking that you have to give them a tragic backstory or some shit to make them a good character. In fact, I suggest you try to add as little extra stuff to their core story as possible, and just stick with what's necessary to their design. Once you have that, then you can add a few little fun details here and there.

Btw, these are all suggestions, so don't take them as defined ways to do things. In fact, I would say that you should try to have a little fun when designing your characters as well.

Overall, just don't take what all of us say to heart right away, and maybe pick and choose what you find works.

well for me my character is a mix for other character just like shulke and tracey did his personality base of another characters from games anime and novels i think the idea to create the character is find a refenres point and from there make the character his personality powers,etc well a least from my point of view