Here's Why Your Characters Look Stiff: A Two-Step Solution

Hey Everyone!

A very common issue artists face is that, after spending endless hours working on a character, it may look high-quality in the render but still lack life. In today's post, we will tackle two fundamental visual aspects of a character's gesture to address that lifeless and common problem.

This article will be divided into two categories: one tip about concept and one about execution. I know many of you will focus on the execution, which is related to technique, but keep in mind that good technical execution has a great concept behind it. Therefore, I suggest investing time in reading each category carefully.

Concept - The Psychology Behind the Character

The character design exploration often involves a series of different steps. These steps serve as a background on which the visual identity of the character rests. Today, we will talk about one key yet simple feature a character must have: its traits!

When creating a character, you need to keep it simple and clear. Although we as individuals are not one-dimensional, for the sake of entertainment mediums like games and novels, it's easier for the audience to remember characters that are simple in principle. And by 'simple,' I mean having clear and straightforward motivation. Here's a useful idea:

Based on the Big Five traits in psychology, you can categorize your characters focusing on one of these traits:

- Openness to Experience: This trait involves imagination, insight, and a wide range of interests.

- Conscientiousness: This refers to how organized, responsible, and dependable an individual is.

- Extraversion: This trait includes qualities like outgoingness, high energy, and emotional expressiveness.

- Agreeableness: This involves qualities like compassion, cooperativeness, and being good-natured.

- Neuroticism: This trait involves emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, and irritability.

Why is this important? Because once each character has its own trait, you can approach Gesture (facial expression, body language), and even the situation in which you present your character more clearly and relatable. For example:

Instead of a standard pose or gesture, you can design a neurotic character reacting to a specific situation. You still can draw them full-body showing off some key aspects of the design, but if it's personality you want, you need to write down a few characteristics of your character for them to be "real".

If you pay attention, many of the traits or ideas I create are not new. What is different is the combinations of those ideas. So next time you create a character, keep in mind you're cooking a new dessert, and the ingredients can be different: character motivations, simple topic-inspired (food, animal, tool), a fashion trend, something supernatural, etc. Just make sure they connect in some way to bring a nice result.

Technique - Don't Put the Hands Down

There are many techniques that can enhance the gesture of your character, but today I want to share a very simple yet useful tip:

Don't put the hands down. I know, I know, hands are one of the toughest things to draw. But, as odd as it may seem, along with facial expressions, hands are one of the most powerful visual tricks for representing your character in the midst of a situation or action. If you want to boost the composition, consider having the character hold something, be in the middle of a call, make a drawing, touch another character, or touch a part of their own body.

Go and check my portfolio, and you'll see that most of the characters are holding something or touching something else. This very simple and small trick adds so much more life than just a standard hands down pose. 

I'll be working on a post about how to draw hands later next week, so we can delve deeper into this point. In the meantime, check out the process video to see how I subtly put this trick into practice.

Conclusion
Gesture is a combination of many aspects, but if you have a clear idea of what the character's motivation is and you create using their hands in connection with their purpose, you'll have two strong aspects to bring life to your characters! Try some and share it in our Discord; I can't wait to see your progress.

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