About
Have a story with characters you want to bring to life? Learn how to develop designs for your characters whether you're working in comics, graphic novels, animation, or concept art for live-action film or television.
Over the course of six weeks, you'll learn everything regarding character development and design from shape language to costume design. You'll gain tools to help develop relatable, authentic, and complex visual characters that will resonate with your audiences.
Each session will have a lecture component, class activities, and options for homework. Homework is ALWAYS optional, but highly encouraged to get the most out of the class. There will sometimes be multiple homework activities to choose from (doing all of it is not expected).
We'll review work from homework assignments that people want to share or discuss. Sharing is optional.
Details
- Some experience with drawing and sketching in general is helpful. We'll cover very basic figure drawing in some of the sessions.
- Session 1: Introduction and "what makes a good character?"
- Session 2: Shapes and visual character design basics.
- Session 3: Cartooning the face.
- Session 4: Costuming.
- Session 5: Pose, action, and movements.
- Session 6: Community showcase event: Bring your friends and family to enjoy all of the hard work you put into this course as well as snacks and refreshments. This is a celebration of the work you’ve created and all students are welcome to showcase anything they created during the course, with an emphasis on the final projects.
Project
You'll build the skills to develop detailed character pages of a pitch deck for a show, graphic novel, comic, or film. The final project will include a short pitch deck, along with several character design exercises to build a character portfolio.
Class Policies
Ages 14 and up are welcome.
