Archive: 16 posts

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Hey all u happy gadders out there just wondering if anyone might have the time to give me some pointers on how to make characters for my levels as it certainly isnt something im good at, Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

2010-02-19 09:19:00 Author: ghostrider135 Posts: 259

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Umm.. I'm not that good either, but what I do is read books, play video games, etc. The characters there can give you inspiration

2010-02-19 10:00:00 Author: Jazve Posts: 341

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This is something that would be useful, but I have a feeling it's going to be very tough for those people who are awesome at making characters to actually convey the techniques they use in a manner that us n00bs can get our heads around. It's an artistic skill that's very hard to put into words and there are such a variety of styles out there that it's hard to pin down anything in particular as "this is how to make characters". All I can say to you ghostrider is that stickers are your friend - if you've never done it before, carry out a sticker dissection of some really great characters, the first time is a real eye opener! Obviously, if someone awesome wants to have a stab at doing a character masterclass, it's certainly something I'd like to see as well!

2010-02-19 10:09:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

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right, i can help u here! pick apart the story level characters, like the King. take of stickers and decorations and see how they're put on. break the characters apart by dissolving or crushing parts to see how they work. you don't always have to use a sticker for a specific thing. a beard sticker can make great hair and a mellow sun sticker can make a good skin colour. decorations can make a character feel more 3D. use when appropriate. for example, stick a rope decoration into a sailor character's hands to liven it up. if you want quite a comical character, exaggerate parts of it - give it a big head, big jaw, tiny arms etc. making a character move can really bring it to life, even if it's just making an arm move. play with connectors like string and springs to make things move differently to pistons and winches. you can use the speed setting on a sensor switch to make a character move faster as sackboy approaches. it gives the character a lively feel. it's good to make a character interactive, like when the character is grabbed, it says something or makes a noise. a nice little trick is to have coloured magic mouthes. it's no good having a blue character with a skin coloured mouth. you can't colour them with stickers but on the story characters they're coloured. hover over a coloured magic mouth with your popit cursor and copy it with L3. ta da! stick it wherever you want! experiment with ideas and try new things to see what works well. i hope this helped! enjoy making a good character!

2010-02-19 10:19:00 Author: trip090 Posts: 1562

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thanks guys thats given me some food for thought,i dont normally read books but thats somethin ill consider doing as i like the idea, and about the stickers and decorations thanks for the heads up i use them quite alot in the levels that i do publish just not characters as yet lol

2010-02-19 10:30:00 Author: ghostrider135 Posts: 259

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I'd like to see this, too. And fast, because I'm on a deadline. I can share what I did so far, though. I was doing faces, so I flipped through some comics to get a face with the expression I was going for. You could use google images, but it didn't yield anything useful for me. Then I built the face in front view, with parts overlaying in a different layer, no glue, so I could easily move or change them. I used rubber for smooth, rounded parts, like eyes, and cardboard for the more delicate parts, as rubber messes those up. Finally, I moved the face in front of a large rectangle, stickered in the right skin tone, and took a picture. It's useful to keep the skin rectangle around, as sometimes it's tricky to replicate the exact same colour later. An additional advantage of loose layers is that you can easily copy the whole thing, replace the mouth and move the eyebrowes a bit, to create a whole new expression. Now for the bodies...

2010-02-19 11:51:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284

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not really a character but i like that idea alot i may just have to go try that out

2010-02-19 12:44:00 Author: ghostrider135 Posts: 259

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a nice little trick is to have coloured magic mouthes. it's no good having a blue character with a skin coloured mouth. you can't colour them with stickers but on the story characters they're coloured. hover over a coloured magic mouth with your popit cursor and copy it with L3. ta da! stick it wherever you want! Thanks for this, even after hours of painstaking trial and error I still never managed to find this out!

2010-02-19 13:52:00 Author: Holguin86 Posts: 875

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Anyone on PSP: Check out my level, Character Tutorial to see how to create really good characters in the style of AceCreator.

2010-02-19 14:49:00 Author: Voltergeist Posts: 1702

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Hmm, well, Before you start its a good idea to make things really big so your small mistakes matter less, and its just easier overall to make details when your making stuff big, then scale it down later. I always start by making the head first. I find that the eyes can make the difference between a character and a good one.Experiment a lot, try making eyelids and such, but a common rule of thumb (for me) is to always have the face on thin layer glued to the head, not inside it. I think it looks better like that. Things like the nose and lips arent exactly needed, a nose just might not look good for a character, or un needed. Lips or mouth can be replaced by things like a jaw, of course this makes your character look cartoony. For things like hats or when connecting the head to body, i think its better to copy your head and put it slightly in the body rather than glue it on, makes it llook more natural. As somebody said before, stickers are very neccessary when making characters, from dirt smears on your hobo to such small details as a small black gradient sticker on each edge of your characters eyelids. That one detail might not make a difference, but when you put all of those small details and put them together, it makes the character as a whole look much better. Hope i helped, sorry for any grammar mistakes and my bad paragraph structure All this is for human characters of course, im not as good with animals and stuff. Edit- use dissolve its best for characters.

2010-02-20 00:01:00 Author: Jrange378 Posts: 573

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wow i must say thats alot of info to take in all at once haha but very thorugh i shall try that when i go on and make a character for my cc10 later lol, also i dont have a psp yet hense trying 2 win 1 lol, but if u could make a character tutorial on ps3 then im sure many people would be truly greatful i for 1 would love to see it

2010-02-20 08:28:00 Author: ghostrider135 Posts: 259

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There is only 1 real rule when it comes to designing characters: Make your own rules! With most of my universe of characters i've designed, most of them follow a style rule, but feel free to break your own rules!

2010-02-20 11:57:00 Author: Matimoo Posts: 1027

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ghost you dont need to make characters thats what you have me for. But seriously when I make a character i give it personality, the more real your character feels to people the better.

2010-02-20 13:21:00 Author: robotiod Posts: 2662

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There is only 1 real rule when it comes to designing characters: Make your own rules! With most of my universe of characters i've designed, most of them follow a style rule, but feel free to break your own rules!, yep rules are there to be broken haha ill bear that in mind though thanks , and as 4 u robotiod my little logic and character creating pixie lol u still need 2 give me pointers though man i cant keep coming 2 u all the time, u should consider making a character creation tutoral level or something dude loads of people would benifit from it

2010-02-20 14:47:00 Author: ghostrider135 Posts: 259

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Adding to Jrange378's tips, if you use a lot of logic on your character and you find yourself sticking connectors to your dissolve in stead of where they're supposed to go, blue wood makes a good alternative.

2010-02-20 17:17:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284

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i doubt ill use much logic on them as i run 2 robotiod if i need logic doin haha, but will bear that in mind

2010-02-20 18:18:00 Author: ghostrider135 Posts: 259

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