Course oriented towards aspiring animators

In December 2015 and January 2016, animator Syūichi Iseki ( Kill la Kill , Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet , The Mystic Archives of Dantalian ) taught an online course on character design. That course is now available for purchase.

The course is divided into four parts. Part 1 is an introduction and discusses the differences between character design for animators (the focus of the course) and character design for illustrators. It also provides some basic information on animation. Iseki designs an original character in Part 2, elaborates on the "minimum knowledge necessary" to design a character, and explains how to get your design approved by a client. Part 3 delves deeper into character design, going over basic expressions and providing tips on how to work with animation staff. Part 4 provides further tips on working with animation staff while focusing on poses and constructing scenes with the character. Parts 1 through 3 all end with homework assignments and Parts 2 through 4 include Iseki's answers to questions submitted by the students.







The course uses Palmie's mascot as a reference.

Although Iseki won't be able to give you personal advice or answer your questions because it's a video recording, those with a good understanding of Japanese can buy the course for 12,000 yen (or $102) here. The course is provided by Palmie, an online illustration education website which also provides courses on particular aspects of drawing like hands, hair, eyes, coloring, and wrinkles.







Samples of the characters designed by the course's students

[Via Kai-You]