Character Creation for Animation: Shapes, Color, and Expression

Creating a unique character design full of personality demands practice, imagination and—ideally—an experienced teacher in the field to show you the ropes. Illustrator and storyboard artist Laura Ewing has mastered the process of character design for animation. She most recently worked on Madrid 2120 as a storyboard artist, which received this year’s Goya award for best short animation.

In this course, Laura shares the secrets and methodology that has led to her success as a storyboard illustrator. Use Adobe Photoshop to build your character, learn how to draw emotive expressions and striking poses, and create a professional turnaround of your character to add to your portfolio.

What will you learn in this online course?

Get to know Laura, her passion for animation, and her vast experience in the field. She shares some of her favorite artists and animations that inspire her work.

Start off by learning how to prepare and research before creating your character. Develop a brief and see what makes a good brief to facilitate your illustration process. Then, create a mood board of all the elements you need to start visualizing your character.

Next, it’s time to get creative! Work on the basic shapes, looking at how your character’s personality influences the shapes and lines you choose, and work on refining its structure with Laura’s guidance. Bring life to your character by working on expression lines, body language, and facial expressions.

See the best way to present your character, adding color, lights, and shadows. Create your character’s main poses and its turnaround, used for 3D modeling.

Laura finishes the course by giving her professional tips and advice on how to crack the animation world. See how to grow your followers on social media, where to find job opportunities, the ideal way to pitch your project, and more.

What is this course’s project?

Create a character design based on your own brief and time in history, working on dynamic poses and a character turnaround, ready to present to an animation studio.

Who is this online course for?

This course is for illustrators of all levels who want to polish their character designs in the context of animation.

Requirements and materials

You will need basic illustration skills and notions of how to draw the anatomy of a character.

As for materials, you will need a computer with Adobe Photoshop or another digital illustration software that allows you to work in layers.