Character designs: THE SUBJECTIVITY THREAD :'D

[Kosheh]

I'm sorry, but before I continue

As an advocate and drawer of toons

This is probably the silliest start to a sentence I've ever seen on VGR. I mean the rest of the sentence makes perfect sense, but I had no idea how to respond to this post for at least ten minutes

As an advocate and drawer of toons, I'd have to say all they really need is some basic clothes that define their personality, and an accessory.  Toons themselves don't even need a full attire really, just some gloves or something, and then the rest falls on their personality.

When they first showed Yooka Laylee for example, THAT felt too basic because he didn't even have gloves or some kind of accessory, like an ascot or backpack.  Just as long as they have SOMETHING on top of their birthday suit, that's good enough.

This...is debatable. Expecting your character's popularity to fully rest on their personality isn't enough. Maybe on Deviantart, but when it comes to character design - and it's ESPECIALLY crucial when it comes to "toon characters" (which I'm just gonna assume are zany, anthropomorphic characters with three-head-high proportions) the big defining aspect of those characters is their silhouette. [I had a feeling you were trying to state this, so we're probably on the same page here]


Like odds are a lot of you probably recognize these characters.

Of course you did. Like, instantly. That's because their silhouettes are so extremely unique that it's impossible not to (and one of these is in their birthday suit!) The point is to have a universally recognizable character when you're playing a videogame or watching a movie or TV show. Yooka-Laylee works because of their silhouette being so unique. Some pants would be nice for decency, but the character design is admittedly alright (though he DOES resemble a Sega character as-is)

It's kinda one of the things that I didn't really like about Digimon's character designs - but I think that's why they gave them bike helmets and cowboy hats, to add an extra little trademark to that character. However, the Digimon designs are OK and fine by this design philosophy (and of course, the focus is on the monsters, not the kids)

Too little variation and too "flat" of character silhouettes and you'll end up with something like this. :/

However, it DOES work inversely, too. You can "smother" your character design by putting too many accessories on them. It's actually one of the reasons I really, REALLY dislike Klonoa's design: I feel like they took the silhouette design philosophy way too seriously and ended up just over-cluttering the character with accessories as to not be one of gaming's most unoriginal characters and Totally Not Namco's Most Desperate Attempt To Make A Mascot Platformer In The History of the World. The result is a silhouette that can only be read as an absolute clusterfuck and that's probably why he's such a niche character.

To be 100% honest, I really liked the proposed NA redesign for Klonoa (it's the one on the right side of the last image Jazz used) because it actually classed him apart from other anthro characters like Sonic or Crash Bandicoot, and gave him those hilariously huge ears that stood out.




Also, is it just me or do a lot of video games and children's programming just plain try to avoid using anthro characters at this point for some odd reason (maybe some odd stigma? Did Conker's Bad Fur Day literally kill off any and all chances of anthro characters or something, for the same reason you don't see mascot characters on cigarette packs?)