In real life, if I am looking to wear an outfit I’m not going to wear a bright colorful shirt, bright colorful pants, bright colorful jacket, that would clash and your eye wouldn’t know where to look first or where to rest. So I would want something with with a key piece, a nice bright colored shirt with a striking design and then the rest of the outfit would support it, same thing with the accessories, maybe a nice necklace to lead the eye to the shirt, but then no crazy big earrings. So when designing a character I try and remember I need something to catch the eyes or have an overall idea, and then have detailed areas and areas of rest. Usually the top half of the character is detail heavy because that’s where people would pay attention to most, so the legs have a bit more breathing room. I’ll also have little details that go throughout the design to tie things together, buttons on the chest? Awesome, adding them to the boots, and the gloves and belt.

While designing I actually sit around thinking about how I am going to model the design, does it have puffy big sleeves? Not a fan of weird edge loops in the shoulder area, design better be worth it if it does. Do I want her halves to be symmetrical or mostly symmetrical? What type of limitations do I want for her? Maybe symmetrical except in the face, hair, chest, and a few other areas that will make her feel asymmetrical without having to be fully, which will allow me to have more texture room and still be creative. Sometimes I like the first or the second idea I draw, but I know if I do a few more sketches I’ll like something more and I’ll be better. So I tend to do 6-10 ideas and then pick one or pick two and redraw the two into one.

Process of Creating Game Characters