How do you bring out your characters?

[Mattgo210]

I recently got a bad review about my comic (not that I was expecting a good one) that reaffirmed many of the things I plan to work on about the comic itself and the site. But the one thing that the reviewer said was bad was that the characters were dull and boring.

Thus I ask how do you bring out your characters in your comic? How do you prevent a character from becoming dull and adding to the strip?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[Soap Soaperson]

Physically: Try to make them stand out. If you see the characters in black sillhouette, and you can make them out strictly by their outlines, you're on the right track.

In personality: Unlike with physical designs, this is harder, and I'm as much a learner of this than the next person. I wouldn't want to give you rotten advice, so I'll just read what people have to say.

[Blahsville!]

Some of our main character's are based on people we actually know, so that helps. Of course, certain traits are exagerated to comic effect.

[K-Dawg]

I was actually thinking about this a while ago. I came to the realization that each of my main characters are how I act.

Angry is the pissed off side of me, that doesn't take crap from nobody.
Ton is the naive and very gullible side of me.
Happy is the kid inside me.
Aphrodite is my conceit I guess.

It makes it easier for me to write for each character by putting myself in their situation, and seeing how that emotion would play out.

[Ferguson]

Physically the characters do look quite similar. One way to seperate them would be to draw each guy differently. They seem to have the same features except for hair and shirt. The other way would be to add colour, but that is usually a lot more work. The hat on the one guy helps, maybe something as simple as giving someone a pair of glasses.

As far as characters go, it would have been easier as a reader if they were introduced one at a time but you can't change that now. Just try to develop each guy's different personality or background as you go along.

Don't get discouraged by the bad review, the comic seems good.

[Cortland]

My answer: draw them over and over and over again until they start breaking out of their own molds. This is the only reason I'm doing a weekdaily strip: the best way to develop characters is through brute force. Pushing yourself to create new stories and situations forces you to view your characters in new lights, try new things, create all-new characters for a few gags and then scrap others when they no longer fit. Trial by fire, my friend!

[Dalis]

Yarg bad luck about the review. That's always an eye opener, but it depends on the person and how they take it. Although in my opinion is that your taking it well and asking for others for how to possiably improve.

In anycase, I believe introducing characters one by one is a good idea as well. If it's a small cast, focus on the first 2-3 characters first, then bring in the others. If you need to, do an outline on the characters and try to "color" their personalities that way.
Art wise, yes repeating the character over and over is a good way to practice in breaking the mold some what. However shifting an art style is a bit harder to do than say. At least in my case since my male characters look abit too similiar and I'm trying to break that myself.

Personality is one of the main things I'd like to focus on, an outline such as hobbies, interests, likes, dislikes, habits, pet peeves, etc. Basing them off certain parts of your personality also helps, or maybe that of your friends, but if you keep an outline, it can help keep track of characters to stay in character, so they don't accidently become like another of the character's in the cast.

Best of luck to you though, your comic's not bad in my opinion, but that's because I like to keep my brain scatter brained and it's hard for e to diss a person's work.

[BOMC]

Well, anyone who reads my comic knows I should be the last one to give out advice on this topic; my characters look pretty much the same 'cept for hair and clothes, and are basically there to serve as tools for my humour.

BUT

I'm gonna give out advice anyways!

There are two good ways I have found to make interesting characters:

1) Start with a stereotype, and develop from there. Perhaps start with your everyday computer nerd, then just add and take away some characteristics. Or make up a back story for him, as those tend to bring out characters

2) What do you want your character to go through? Perhaps figure out their actions first, then think "what kind of person would do all these things?"

But the most important thing is to start off simply, with a few characteristics for each character, so they are easily identifiable to the audience and easily differentiated from the other characters. Then, just slowly develop them from there until they are complex, well-rounded and compelling.

[KathleenJ]

Physically: Try to make them stand out. If you see the characters in black sillhouette, and you can make them out strictly by their outlines, you're on the right track.

This is an excellent rule of thumb. Someone mentioned this on the commentary on one of the Futurama DVDs...it was the reason why Fry's hair was designed with the pointies in the front.

Another good rule: If you shaved all your characters bald and put them in identical robes, would you be able to tell the apart?

[Alaina]

If you can write dialogue for your characters and then read it later and know who's speaking based on what they're talking about, how they speak, etc. then that's a good way of starting off.

[Dutch!]

We had a similar thing pointed out when we started a few months ago. The two boys in School Spirit were apparently hard to tell apart. Sure, all the kids in the comic have big ears, that's just how I draw 'em, but we honestly thought there was enough difference in their hair and height to make it easy. To fix that, I eventually started shading the characters more, which meant that Cody's hair became darker (as it always had been in the few colour strips) and Casper's remained pale.

As for personality, that just comes slowly with each strip. The last one I finished is number 70, and the story (if that's what we can call it) has only just reached the third day. But hopefully our readers will feel they know some of our characters well already, even though some have only been in half a dozen strips so far.

I heard someone say that character was the hole they left in the world if they were gone.

[McDuffies]

I said the most on two places:

http://mcduffies.keenspace.com/tutorcharacter.html

http://hownottorunacomic.keenspace.com/d/19940506.html

Another good rule: If you shaved all your characters bald and put them in identical robes, would you be able to tell the apart?

I noticed it's actually something like two schools of caricatural comics:
One where caricaturisation of the body goes in same direction for every character, so they all have similar anatomy of the face (such as in "College roomies from hell") and one where caricaturisation goes different for almost every character, so differences are bigger (such as in "General protection fault"). In first case, all characters are designed at once, in other, every one is designed separately. I don't think either is neccessarily bad.

[Eps]

WHEN I FIRST BEGAN READING YOUR COMIC I NOTICED THAT IT'S ALL IN CAPS! Capital letters usally mean shouting on the internet. Since your charaters are ... well ... um ... a little stiff, and you do have alot to write, why not try some basic writting tricks. Basic grammer, caps for yelling, bold for important, sound effects, um ... well that's a start. I'm not saying give a everbody a differnt font or write in gothic.

As for them being so stiff, or cardboard cuts, try to include at least one action sceen per issue. Action doesn't mean a drive by, though that might help, it just means movement. Scracthing a head, stroking a chin, giving the finger, anything to give varity.

[Vorticus]

Drawing the characters differently is a good start.
I do characterization by exaggeration. Generally I try to make the characters as different from all the others as possible. Since you've already got your characters out there, let me reiterate what BOMC said. Start with a stereotype and either add to it or take away from it. The first step to getting the characters separate for the readers is getting them separate in your own head.

[Derenge]

It's not exactly uncommon for a comic to be in all caps, in fact many of the print ones I've seen are. I like having both options but it's nothing to out of the ordinary to pick all caps.

[RPin]

Another good rule: If you shaved all your characters bald and put them in identical robes, would you be able to tell the apart?

I certainly wouldn't. But then, I think hair and clothing are THE most important parts about character design.

Try switching between styles and see what else you can stick besides hair and clothing.

[Fullcircle]

Not to self plug... but I have a page up dedicated to character design. /(^v^)\

http://fullcircle.keenspace.com/charact ... opment.htm

So pretty much any and all advice I have on the topic is in there... almost. I need to finish a few more sections, but I hope you find what's there helpful

~SR

[Mattgo210]

Wow, thank you all for your advice. I hope to make good use of it. And also thanks for the words of encouragement especially! I know doing a webcomic is a long process for one to find their groove and its nice to know that some people do appreciate the small steps a starting artist is making.

But a question about the all caps dialogue...Is it that uncommon to have all caps? I thought it was more of the norm than the minority.

Thanks again and any more advice by anyone else would be just as great.

[Luprand]

The all caps thing depends on the font. Personally, I enjoy the comic font I use right now because while all the letters are in capital form, there's still a size difference (which tames my inner grammarian).

Some fonts do better than others at conveying a normal tone of voice with capital-form letters. Try a few of them out and see what you can do.

--Sij

[Joel Fagin]

Firstly, sit down and describe them in text. Let it be fluid and add things as they occurr to you. It works best if it's a doodle. And, since it's a doodle, sometimes it helps to start with the facts and history and then just see where it takes you.

Daniel Phermous is an electronic technician on the colony ship Noah, one of the two shifts of maintenance personnel who are regularly awakened to keep the ship going. He is a distinctly average person. An intelligent problem solver with moments of inspiration, but simply doing a job.

Always remember that the specific situation may affect the character. A teenager away from home for the first time would act very much like a teenager away from home for the first time - no matter what the actual normal personality might be.

It's usefull have a seperate personality for when the character breaks down. This is the default personality that arises when emotional stress (fear, anger, etc) gets too great and they snap. Your classic hero archtype, for example, would simply become more determined. Hudson from Aliens did his whole "Game over, man!" freak out.

Daniel's second "under stress" personality is the more interesting and the one he will be operating on for most of the story. He's out of his league and frightened not only of being involved with whats happening but also being so far out of his comfort zone and being relied on nonetheless. He will not turn from what needs doing - it never even occurrs to him - but he's an everyman in a military situation. He has no weapons training, for example and will miss nearly every time with his rifle. His solutions are idea-orientated and are largely to do with his technician background.

Most importantly, Daniel embodies the human tendancy to, when pushed, to push back (a theme of the story). The manipulation of the Earthmen makes Daniel all the more determined to win through and the psychological manipulation and taunting of Daniel backfires when Daniel turns the truth, encapsulated in vicious and mocking comtempt back on his captor.

- Joel Fagin