Character Design (Independent Study)

Introduction

My official goal for a dream job when I finish college is to work in Video Games. Due to this, I chose to create an Independent Study class that would greatly cater to this goal and my interests. Due to Drake University not offering a class similar to this (or any illustration classes), I developed my own, which I hope will prove effecting for both learning and my portfolio.

This class will serve to teach myself on how great character design is achieved, how to not create character(s) for a video game or for the self that are too 'Mary-Sue or Gary-Stu'. It is essentially a teaching method on how to create great, well rounded characters both visually and in the personality/background department.

A great portion of the class will be used for researching other popular video game characters and their designers -- how that character came to be, why the designer chose to make the character they way they turned out to be, what influenced the designer. All of these things and more I'll be exploring in my Independent Study, as to better grasp what influenced these amazing characters and the designers who created them.

This class will not only be an exploration into research, but also in practice. I plan to create a world and three characters that would inhabit the world. More characters may make their way into the project if time permits, but I have a minimum of 3 required.

The class will also dabble in the media of digital painting -- painted environments & characters. This again is a teaching method to push myself in something I am not very familiar with/proficient in. The class will serve as a great learning method for myself and for my end goals after I graduate.

With this class, my hope is that I will learn a great deal more about what it takes to create characters and worlds that are unique and interesting. I also feel that the skill of digital painting would be a great one to develop considering my goal of working for a video game company.

In addition to this class, I am planning on tailoring projects in other classes towards my own characters and my video game end goal. An example: Paintings of my own character(s), ideas, scenery, worlds, surrealism; paintings of things that I could use in my portfolio in the case of a video game job. I am hesitant to say 'video game design' since that brings thoughts of coding, but what I am aiming for is essentially video game art.

The whole class should be a productive learning experience for myself and for anyone who follows along in my process. I plan to document what I achieve each day on this blog, requiring a single post of found research, sketches, ideas and progress for each following day.

I hope to learn and grow from this experience I've designed for myself in multiple ways in terms of technique and understanding. Here's to a productive and important last year at Drake!

Emily Hohn