Struggling to Design Characters 🤔

[IndieVictory]

Hi everyone,

I’m diving into a creative project and could really use some advice or fresh perspectives. I need to design unique, distinct stylized characters that are likable and possibly popular. The main character will serve as a sort of avatar for myself—not necessarily resembling me physically, but representing the things I love in the world. It could also function as a mascot.

Here’s where I’m stuck: I’ve been procrastinating, overthinking, and escaping into binge-watching shows instead of making progress. The problem is, I don’t have a clear vision. While there are so many inspiring characters out there, the sheer number is overwhelming, and searching for examples feels endless. I’m running out of time because the ultimate goal of this project is to animate this character, but I can’t even get past the design stage.

When I say I have no vision, I mean I can’t seem to come up with something new or distinct. I can easily tell when I like a character created by someone else, but when I try to create my own, my creativity feels nonexistent. I end up feeling stuck and frustrated.

I can’t keep killing time anymore—I need to get past this step. But at the same time, I can’t just move forward with something I don’t like or feel passionate about.

To make it even more challenging, I don’t even know what kind of creature it should be. Should it be humanoid? Should it be an anthropomorphic animal? I’m really unsure which direction to take, and that uncertainty is holding me back even more.

For context, I love simple, minimalistic, and expressive characters—not overly detailed or realistic styles. Anime-style characters and highly detailed designs aren’t my thing. Here are some examples of characters I admire:

• Gumby, Barbapapa, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Garfield
• Characters from The Amazing World of Gumball
• Muppets and Sesame Street characters
• Tweety, Sylvester the Cat
• Ryan and Apeach (Kakao)
• Pusheen
• SavannahXYZ and Doodley (YouTubers)

As you can see, I’m drawn to simple and expressive designs, but they’re so diverse that I’m struggling to narrow down what I want. I want something basic and non-cliché, yet distinct and unique.

Does anyone have tips for breaking through creative blocks or finding inspiration without feeling overwhelmed? How do you even decide what kind of being your character should be? I’d love any guidance you can offer.

Thanks so much!

[joseph]

@IndieVictory

To make it even more challenging, I don’t even know what kind of creature it should be. Should it be humanoid? Should it be an anthropomorphic animal? I’m really unsure which direction to take, and that uncertainty is holding me back even more.

This I don’t fully understand- you’re putting the cart ahead of the horse here. How can you design a character when you don’t know what that character is? I mean, what is this creative project? Why do you need to “design unique, distinct stylized characters that are likable”? What does “unique, distinct, and likable” even mean? Who is this project for? Is it an animation? A game? A coloring book?

You are in no place to start designing characters, you need to know what this project is and why this project is first. If it’s an animation or movie, you need a script. If it’s a game, you need game design documentation. No matter what, you need a good creative bible with a lot more information than what you currently have. Stop thinking about character design and start writing- write down what you are doing, why you are doing it. Write about your world, your plot. What are the rules? What are the stakes? What’s the point of all this?

As you flesh out your world, you’ll start to understand what kind of characters make sense there and what don’t. Write that down too. Keep writing until you know exactly what you are creating, and then you’ll have all the information you need to know exactly how to design the characters

[joseph]

To say that in slightly less words- I think we as 3D people often forget the order of creativity, especially when it comes to self-contained unique creative projects like this. You don’t start by making assets. It’s very common for us 3ders to start making cool stuff and think “oh I’ll fit all this together into something awesome”, but that’s just not how it works. If you are making things that need to be connected, you need to know exactly how and why they are connected long before you start drawing, modeling, animating, or anything else.

[IndieVictory]

Thank you, @joseph. I want to create cozy, calming, and soothing animations without any talking—kind of like ASMR videos, but engaging and not boring. Later on, I’d probably try to expand from that and maybe even turn it into a game!

[stray]

Well, art is an iterative process.
I doubt any of the designs listed above started the way they are looking now.
I also doubt they all were made with an explicit purpose of being “creative” and “unique” - they are an expression of the artist refined over time.

Start doodling, let your hand make some early decisions. See what you’re comfortable with, what kind of lines you like to see, what combination of shapes you find appealing. What feels like your signature.

When I was a kid, my avatar was always gravitating to a set of constant features: skeletal build, white shirt with red vest, spiky hair, short black ovals for eyes. Over different attempts the “design” just naturally fell into it. It wasn’t really a design - it just felt like me at the time.

[julperado]

@IndieVictory

I want to create cozy, calming, and soothing animations without any talking—kind of like ASMR videos, but engaging and not boring.

Try to imagine that you’re the client, and you’re going to hire a character designer to do this. Do you think that’s a clear enough brief for that person to start working?
If you cannot explain what you want clearly and in a couple of sentences at least, it will be close to impossible to come up with even an idea of what to design.

What kind of character do you imagine would better encapsulate that feeling/mood you want? Would it be cute and fuzzy animals? Could it be cartoony/chibi like humans? Could it be simple characters made out of geometric shapes?

Maybe you need to work on having a clearer idea first, before jumping into designing anything.

[joseph]

@IndieVictory

want to create cozy, calming, and soothing animations without any talking—kind of like ASMR videos, but engaging and not boring.

Let me rephrase- and I promise I’m not making fun of you here- “I want to learn to make furniture. I want to make cool furniture that looks nice and is useful in a house.” Ok. What am I supposed to say to that? What kind of furniture? What’s your budget? What design styles do you like? What room? What house style? What materials and skills do you want to use?

A creative brief cannot be summed up in one sentence. What you have is not a creative brief, it’s the beginning of an idea. Make it a full idea by writing stuff down. Here’s what to do- go write 2000 words about the first video you’re going to make. 500 of those words have to be about “cozy and calming” animation

[Anabran]

@IndieVictory

I want to create cozy, calming, and soothing animations without any talking—kind of like ASMR videos, but engaging and not boring. Later on, I’d probably try to expand from that and maybe even turn it into a game!

I must ask; what is a your actual current level of experience with organic Character modeling, rigging, keyframe animation and game coding?
Do you have any past work online we can view.

[thetony20]

This may or may not help, but I went through much the same issue, tho it was as much my drawing ability as well. Combine that with trying to take shortcuts, like diving right in to 3D modelling, with little more then an idea in my head, rather then some proper character designs (which in turn is first defined by a story idea/character profile, etc).
In other words, trust and follow the process, the first software you need isn’t a 3D app or even a 2D drawing app, it’s a word processor (or even just notepad).
Anyway, here’s my starting video:

Character Design for the Beginner Artist

[Richard_Culver]

It’s hard to advise without much information about you.

But it could be simply you have not designed a character before?

If you have, and for some reason you are sick here, then the best advice is to look back at what you did before that was successful in creating a character.

What was the process then?

What seemed to work?

Have you done any previous creative work that was successful?

What did you do then?

In general I would say it sounds like this is more like a first time out as far as characters go.

If that’s the case you are shooting too high.

You should be simply focusing on designing any character. Just design, design and design again.

You could start out by copying your favorite characters.

Until you design a lot and until you can actually replicate comfortably existing designs, you are shooting too high.

Just start designing characters. Any character.

Each artist has to find their way. It will take years to find your voice.

Finding something unique can only eventually happen if you just start.

Don’t set the bar too high or you will never give yourself any satisfaction.

[NeilJamesFrarey]

@IndieVictory

I want something basic and non-cliché, yet distinct and unique.

Angularity rounded yet plump robotic android, perhaps regrettably so.

With textually furry or perhaps rubbery slick? Yet still menacing if the flex strength need be.

Disproportionately large expressive yet sensitive eyes and brows?

Plushy and a bad ass Robotic Android, each loved junk food … had a super hero child?

With a cape or full length cloak??

And perhaps a touch clumsy?

A Clumsy Plushy Bad Ass Super Hero Android … that loves junk food!!

[Kogomat]

Hey.
Many great suggestions here. I’ll add a few meta points that helped me, and keep it minimaly brief:

1. paper and pencil
   For what ever reason, outlining what i wanted became much more effective when I put it on a physical medium.

2. start randomly
   If you’re already running out of time it could be useful to just start doodling, sketching. Working on something brings more ideas out of you naturally. See point 1, because doodling digitaly didn’t have the same effect for me!

[IndieVictory]

@stray

Start doodling, let your hand make some early decisions. See what you’re comfortable with, what kind of lines you like to see, what combination of shapes you find appealing. What feels like your signature.

I’ve always been pretty good at drawing cars, objects, and perspectives, but I haven’t done much drawing of humans, animals, or portraits. Do you think I should go through a quick resource on anatomy or drawing? If so, do you have any recommendations?

@stray

It wasn’t really a design

What do you consider a ‘design’ and what doesn’t count as one?

@julperado

What kind of character do you imagine would better encapsulate that feeling/mood you want? Would it be cute and fuzzy animals? Could it be cartoony/chibi like humans? Could it be simple characters made out of geometric shapes?

I know these kinds of questions, but the real struggle is coming up with answers. Even when I listen to music, I sometimes wonder how artists decided on a particular melody or rhythm when there are endless combinations. How do they know this one fits the lyrics best? I also wonder if they ever regret their choices later—like if, in the future, they come up with a better idea for arranging one of their past works. The same thing applies here with character design. Every type has its pros and cons, and most of the time, you can’t just combine all the pros into one.

@joseph

“I want to learn to make furniture. I want to make cool furniture that looks nice and is useful in a house.” Ok. What am I supposed to say to that? What kind of furniture? What’s your budget? What design styles do you like? What room? What house style? What materials and skills do you want to use?

Good questions. In real life, I’d answer those by looking through furniture catalogs or browsing online, then choosing something while knowing there’s always the option to replace it later. But designing what I have in mind feels way harder than buying furniture!

@Anabran

I must ask; what is a your actual current level of experience with organic Character modeling, rigging, keyframe animation and game coding?

Not much, just the basics. My computer at the time is really slow at rendering, so I decided to practice and learn as I animate my final character design.

@Richard_Culver

But it could be simply you have not designed a character before?

True.

@Richard_Culver

Have you done any previous creative work that was successful?

What did you do then?

No, I haven’t. I’ve always had a thing for art and used to draw cars and objects that amazed everyone—they thought I had taken art classes, but I never did. I ended up in STEM fields, got burnt out, and now I’m trying to reconnect with my love for art.

[stray]

@IndieVictory

Do you think I should go through a quick resource on anatomy or drawing?

Do you want to? Do you even feel like going into these subjects?

And I’m asking this seriously, because (unless you’re aspiring to work with other people on their projects) there’s no inherent need to do or learn anything in particular.
One should always try to broaden their horizons and stuff, but might as well focus on things that you actually enjoy learning first.

@IndieVictory

What do you consider a ‘design’ and what doesn’t count as one?

Design is about being intentional about your choices - like answering all those questions about who this character is, or making lines convey the mood or colors attract attention.
Simply doodling random sketches, on the other hand, may be something like letting your mind wander until it stumbles upon its reflection.

@IndieVictory

How do they know this one fits the lyrics best? I also wonder if they ever regret their choices later—like if, in the future, they come up with a better idea for arranging one of their past works.

Iterative process.
You can see how works evolve over time, how designs shift during long comic/manga runs or remakes of movies/games improve upon older weak/unexplored points.
People don’t (normally) wake up one day with a perfect idea in mind. They continuously put in the work, through trial, error and experience that comes with this process.

[joseph]

You missed the important part of what I said:

@joseph

Here’s what to do- go write 2000 words about the first video you’re going to make. 500 of those words have to be about “cozy and calming” animation

[Richard_Culver]

For me, I can say I have reinvented myself a time or two over the years.

There is only one way I know how.

That is to start at the beginning.

For characters I spent months studying anatomy and months learning to model characters from the basics of anatomy etc.

If your plan is to design more simple characters it is still helpful to start from the basics

One thing I have never done successfully is to put my creative needs ahead of the basics.

So if you are kind of stuck, it is probably because you are aiming to high.

Being it back down to the basics. Instead of even starting with design, first practice drawing basics and anatomy basics and copying existing designs and trying to understand what makes them work, etc.

So many resources today. Find a YouTube channel that teaches the basics of drawing then one on the next levels.

Modeling is another area you will have to start with the basics on.

Then rigging and animating and…

You have an adventure ahead.

It took me a while. But I started with pretty much nothing and taught myself.

That’s my approach anyway!

[MarcoPolo (Mark)]

I’ve started to use Leonardo AI with text prompts to generate possible characters. It’s great for character ideas Try it, you get 150 tokens every day.

[Okidoki]

If someone is learning something new i think it is a bad idea to rely on AI. This is like relying on “references” made by other “artists” who are also learning it right now (or have published these first steps and someone found that). That are no references sometimes but bad examples and something someone learned wrong and made use of very long… is very tough to forget and difficult to improve.

Also the formost ability someone has to evolve to stand out as some character designer is visualisation of their own creativity because if not then they aren’t designing anything but rely on ideas of others.

<sarcasm>
Maybe this is the reason for all this creepy in-human characters some people make.
And one can look at a human character for free… but you need this very expensive equipment called “mirror”.
</sarcasm>

[oo_1942 (Kim)]

I think the best way to organize and shape thoughts is paper and pencil.
It could be a text or a sketch, but…
Software is a tool for expressing what is organized.

[IndieVictory]

I’ve tried doodling and sketching my favorite characters, but I still can’t come up with anything. I can’t even find the words to describe what I want because there are so many possible combinations I’d like. It’s like trying to imagine your dream partner—you can’t just list the perfect mix of features because there isn’t just one ideal combination.

The only thing I know for sure is the types of characters I like and their features and proportions. But every idea I come up with feels cliché, unoriginal, or lacking in aesthetic appeal. I know I might be setting my expectations too high, but I need something that feels right. I’m desperate to at least create a starting point I can build on.

Even when I try to write things down, I get completely stuck. Should it be humanoid or an anthropomorphic animal? What kind of clothes should it wear? How should the eyes or head look? It’s like a problem in combinatorics—too many options to process. Is there anything, like a creative catalyst or “artistic steroids,” that could speed up this process?