How do you design your ocs? (Discussion)

Posted 5 years, 1 month ago (Edited 5 years, 1 month ago) by 007

How do you guys design your characters? Feel free to share your ocs and experiences!


The reason I’m asking is because I’m trying to find a better way to dsesign my ocs, I want to make them more complex (design wise of course) but I’m not really sure how to start...? Like Corvus for example, i really like him as a character, but I’m considering making him a more complex outfit. I figured this could also be helpful for others in a similar situation too! 

This is mainly for humans/humanoids, but anthros are cool too!

Edit: posted in character haha

shikyoriipaa

henlo ok so whenever i design an oc and want to redo their outfit, i sorta think of what their background is? like,,,what sort of climate would they have lived in, what cultures and clothing styles would fit in with that location that i'm thinking of. For example, Helio my bard for dnd, I based him off of a desert climate background so i researched a lot of middle eastern/Armenian/Arabic clothing types bc they all had similar styles or bright colors that i wanted to use. n then after figuring out "ok what would make more sense,,,tight clothing or layers to protect from the desert sun?" so i went with a mix of both to think of how practical it is 

like this was his original outfit which,,,was kinda bland and was like "this makes no sense why would you have no clothing covering up skin to protect yourself from the sun" so then i redesigned it, researched the diff. cultures and colors/styles that people wear (both men's and women's fashion, but primarily women's fashion) and came up with another super fast sketch to think of what it'd be like,, then i just redrew over it with the notes i had made and used it that way! don't restrict yourself on things, try out diff mini sketches to see what will be a good outfit that reflects their personality (also known as: depending on their personality, the colors can be changed too,,like helio is bright n happy sunshine, so i wanted reds/oranges/yellows and i kept the brown as sorta a neutral tone between it to help balance it out!)


idk if this helps much but this is the process i do for stuff! 

pajuxi

Like anything, the best way to get better at outfits/character designs is to study and practice!! I think its always a good idea to build up a visual library of references for anything you maybe drawing a lot- and when it comes to clothing its easiest to maybe pick 1 or 2 general "styles" like modern street fashion or desert fantasy to focus on and understand the mechanics of- then other clothing styles will become easier to dissect and understand too!! 

Heres a random little chunk from my fashion visual library where I add anything that has some kinda detail that sticks out to me whether it be colors, patterns, layering, construction or even things as small as a funky zipper! its nice to have a big visual reference when you are stumped too- its always good to have some solid inspiration lying around!! 

and finally, with your visual references i think its really important to never just outright copy an outfit or only use 1 outfit as a reference- its both a bad way to learn and will make for less creative designs. When i'm using references for a design (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't because i'm fairly confident in my design skills nowadays!) i always use at least 5-6 different inspiration images to mix/match/ add my own creative flair to! /o/


from there, when it comes to designing individual characters, shikyoriipaa makes a great point about making outfits designed for the environment they are in!! Other things i personally design around can be things like shared motifs (in this case, rope accessories, stitches and diamond details) a theme (kiss/lips) or even a single accessory or hairstyle! (I really wanted to do the belt and just built a design around it)


end notes: sorry this post is so long LAUGHS and honestly the more you experiment and practice the more fun you will have!! good luck!! 

TheStrayCat

(I'm not here for the thread bc I have nothing to say that hasn't been said already, but my partner has an eyebrow slit in real life and seeing it referred to as "used to be trendy" just made me laugh)

Carry on!

Sadismancer

I just... throw in things I really like if it's a main OC. Secondaries etc I just pick things I rather like. Google outfits etc etc.

ghostfiish

It differs for me from character to character on how I design them, but I gotta echo the good advice that others have already given as a lot of it is stuff I've made use of as well!

To add, while complexity is nice, I usually like to repeat general shapes throughout a design to keep things simpler to draw and remember... like if I wanna use this one type of triangle shape, to repeat that a lot in different parts of an outfit, and in different sizes. Or at least I try to remember to do that, in theory! That way when you add details it'll be stuff that 'goes' according to the rest of the design, if that makes sense? Also try to limit colors to a small number if you can to make the design easier to look at when you're adding details... Again, it's all to help make stuff look like it belongs there. If you're still stumped on things to add it can also be fun to add visual references to/puns of things like what the character's name means or sounds like (and it's up to you on how obvious or subtle you wanna go here), if you already have a name in mind; often for me the name comes at the end though lol

AlleycatIrony

i usually design my characters based on dreams (eg, ginger looks exactly how he appeared in a dream of mine), objects (eg, laklyn's horns are based on a ball point pen lid), or i simply mix and match traits i think are neat (eg, kovit having shark fins/tail, goat/demon legs, and horns)

outfit wise tho? yeah, i'm terrible at designing outfits so lately w/ redesigns i've taken to just googling fashion and picking outfits that i think my character would wear - and i found collecting them, aesthetics, physical looks, and personality also help me get an idea for how i wanna design a character! even if i make the pinterest boards after i make a character, they heavily influence how i draw them :0
an example of what i mean pinterest board wise would be jae's board here i suppose? pinterest helps me a lot when putting together characters not only in design, but in personality and interests/hobbies ect as well, it's p handy