Your characters are your storytellers. They’re the one person who should always be able to tell the tale when you’re done. You can think of them as the lens through which you view your story. Their opinions and ideas are the clues that help you piece your narrative together.
As such, you want to make sure you have strong characters who have their own personalities and insights that match their roles in your story. If you’re stuck for ideas, follow these six steps to brainstorm some fantastic characters for your story.
Color Principles
When you’re thinking about your character’s colors, you have to look at the big picture. You don’t want your character to be characterized by a color that doesn’t fit with the rest of the story. As such, one of your first steps is going to be figuring out what colors are already in play in your story so you know what colors to avoid. Once you know what colors to avoid,
you can then look at what colors are already present and see if any of them could be repurposed or expanded upon. If a color is already present in your narrative but you have an idea for a different way to use or expand it, then it’s a good fit for your character’s colors. In addition to thinking about the big picture, you also have to think about the small details.
When you’re thinking about a character’s color, you want to make sure they don’t end up being the character’s primary color. That said, you can also think about how other colors can help solidify and accentuate the character’s colors. For example,
a character who is primarily blue could have some visuals that reference the ocean or sea as a way to solidify that character’s blue color. Similarly, you can think of using other colors as accents to help solidify the character’s colors.
Create Strong Characters
The strongest characters in stories are those who have their own personalities and insights that resonate with the viewer and help the story move along. You want to avoid creating archetypes and instead create characters with their own unique traits that set them apart from other characters. In addition to thinking about the big picture, you also want to think about the small details.
Some of the most fun and engaging characters are the ones who have unique visual cues and body language that help solidify their personality traits. For example, you can look at a character who is in a constant rush and have visuals that show the character rushing,
looking rushed, and having a cluttered workspace that reflects the hurried pace. While there are exceptions, generally speaking, you want to avoid having the character stand still for too long as that can be off-putting.
Use Visual Proximity
When thinking about using visual cues to solidify a character’s colors, you want to also think about using visual proximity. Visual proximity is the idea that two things that are close to each other will likely be related. For example, if you have visuals that show a character being in a hurry, it’s likely that those same visuals will also show the character working on a project related to being in a hurry.
Similarly, if you have visuals that show a character rushing around, it’s likely those same visuals will show items in the character’s workspace that reflect the character rushing around. You don’t necessarily have to have visuals for every visual cue you have for a character’s colors, but you should have some visuals for each one that helps solidify their colors.
Avoid Repetition
One of the easiest ways to make your characters seem one-dimensional is to have them say the same things over and over again. For example, if you have a character who says they love storytelling, they probably say it a lot without actually giving the viewer reasons to believe it. On the other hand, if you have a character who says they love storytelling and you give them
a reason to believe it—by using visuals that show them telling stories—then their love for storytelling begins to come across as genuine. Similarly, if you have a character who says they love to sail and you show them sailing in a boat, it’s likely they’ll say they love sailing without actually having a love for sailing.
Visual Delay
One way to make your characters feel real is to have them react in a way that feels natural. One way to do this is to have a character delay their response. This can be done through visuals or through implied dialogue that doesn’t come out immediately. For example, if you have a character who is in a hurry and you have visuals that show them rushing around,
it’s likely that the same character will wait for a reply from another character before responding to the viewer. You don’t have to have the character wait for an entire minute or even a few seconds, but you should have the character wait for a response before responding to the viewer.
Conclusion
When you’re creating your characters, you want to make sure they have their own personalities and visual cues that help solidify the character’s colors. In addition to this, you also want to make sure you avoid having your characters say the same things over and over again.
In addition to these steps to create strong characters, you can also think about how your characters would react to different situations that could help solidify their personalities. Check Out This The Ultimate Guide To Learn How to Draw Storyboards