Character design

Excerpts from an article on https://dreamfarmstudios.com/blog/shape-language-in-character-design/

 In 1946, Solomon Asch wrote a paper on how shape language and the physical aspects of a character affect the emotional aspect of a character:

 "Body shape has a tremendous impact on the overall impression of the character. If you ever looked at a cartoon character and though they seemed confident but didn’t know why, you probably were not aware of the character’s shape language!"

Shape psychology is widely practiced in Disney and other famous animation studios, but the effect of shape is not confined to the movie industry. A lot of marketing agencies and animation studios utilize the power of shape language to design well-structured characters that are key to brand awareness and lead generation. 

David Colman, an Emmy winning character planner found in his studies that:

Body language and overall posture of the character has more weight of emotion compared to facial expressions (eyes, eyebrows, lips and so on)

Colam also says Communicating a personality through body language ,and the silhouette is far more potent than only showing emotion through facial expression. That’s why we usually tend to draw the body first and then add more details with the face.

There are 3 types of shapes that are usually used in the mainstream design:

Organic shapes: think about all the free-flowing and non-symmetrical shapes in nature; clouds, planets, earth, they’re all randomly formed and we call them organic.

Abstract shapes: when you combine the two other types of shapes without any specific goal or structure, you got yourself an abstract shape.

Geometric shapes: these are all the shapes that you learned to draw as a kid like squares, rectangular, and circles. They are often symmetrical and structured shapes with sharp edges.

You probably have seen some chubby faces and wondered: “Isn’t that cute?” Well, there’s a reason for that. Circles and ovals are mostly used for friendly and outgoing faces. You can experiment with putting circular shapes in different parts of a character’s body, clothes, and hair to show the same warm feeling.

Have you ever thought about the reason why square-faced people look more confident and inflexible? That’s because square-like shapes relate to straight vertical and horizontal lines that communicate strength, stability and confidence. Squares can both be large and daunting or comforting and clumsy. They often depict steadfast characters who are dependable and are commonly used for superheroes.

And finally, the evil shape! Triangles are the most dynamic of the three shapes we have mentioned so far. Bad guys and villains are often based upon dominant triangular concepts, as they appear malicious, sinister and communicate with the most aggression. It is the circle’s most opposing shape and often used for antagonists.